space cowgirl by karin eda sanborn

when it comes to the studio, i thoroughly enjoy having no idea what is going to happen next.
in my opinion...courting this unknown state intentionally explains, at least in part, my fascination with improvisation.

a problem occurs, however, when perpetual experimentation is the only method at work. i find the lack of discipline and depth frustrating. the good stuff happens on the other side of a challenge that tests my potential.

my creative life is at a no-going-backwards stage. it feels like the place somewhere between a writer's block and walking on a tightrope off the edge of a cliff. to address this dilemma i decided to pretend to build a portfolio and commit to any topic, but only one. i satisfied the uncontrolled variable [experimentation] part of the equation by not allowing myself to select the subject...that is what a friend is for. the discipline part is now in my hands.

the work has begun making itself. my favorite 'sketching' tool is a camera.
previews are below...little is not small.

Presence Project #4 by Andrea Zimon

      Maelstrom

This piece started out as ‘whirlwind’ but another antonym of whirlwind is maelstrom. This project presents wind, storm, energy, and destruction with slab coils. It became ‘maelstrom’ when it broke after the bisque stage. I rebuilt by ‘gluing’ it with glaze It also adds a final stage presence by noting wind with slab coils and cut holes to represent airy movement. The curled coils represent storm. The destruction of presence is what happened after the bisque stage. It notes the presence of calm after the storm as starts to picks up the pieces of what is left. 

I used a form to build a bowl in the middle which I put holes in to let light and 'air' through. The glaze produced a thinner coverage than I had hoped for. As with all these projects, they were an exploration, a continual testing of what I can do with stoneware and glaze. Not my best or favorite piece, but a step closer to becoming a better ceramicist. 

Looking downward view.

Bottom view. You can see the holey bowl support.

chewables by karin eda sanborn

are dietary supplements popular in your morning routine?
if so, how much time is given to our molecular friends A, C, E, D, and the B's as they tumble down the esophagus?

daily tai chi martial arts practice replaced my vitamins.
why?
going to the store, sitting in traffic, for a habit that was not my idea in the first place seemed misplaced at best. i certainly have never been able to really measure the effects promised by those chewable Flinstones.

with today's post i'm not suggesting a revolution against your own personal health code whatsoever. vitamin C and Linus Pauling were BFFs. my interest relates to studying personal daily rituals to find which quantities and elements balance, just as a chemist works to balance a chemical equation.

choosing and claiming 5-10 minutes of time as my own has cascaded to making other decisions that have each been directly proportional to moving toward a metric of getting sick less often. other perks included but were not limited to increased flexibility, time for dance movement without dance rules, and finally, noticing and/or choosing the environment i practice in
...dark, light, yin, yang, the empty middle of possibilities.

notice

iPhone journal after morning practice

July 1, 2018