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Whew! NCECA was great but we sure are all tuckered out..

Got some great ideas from lectures and panel presentations. Especially the demo with Deborah Schwartzkopf and Brian Kakas and the Emerging Artist talks Saturday morning.
Cant wait to get back into the studio to experiment with some new forms and surfaces!

Meagan

The 30-Minute Challenge

The Challenge, should you choose to accept it – set a timer for 30 minutes and GET TO WORK!

Focus. Forget Facebook. Ignore email. Avoid the dishes and laundry. You will be surprised just how much you can get done when you get to doin’ it!

This is how my days go. Cooper (aka our 5-month old Cat-Nap-King) is content to sleep for 30 minutes 3-5 times a day. I used to think that a 30-minute blurp of time was hardly worth going out to the studio. Now, not-so-much. Those 1800 seconds are precious, precious time!

So, give it a try. Maybe you have kids and have experienced the child enforced 30-minute Challenge first hand. Or maybe you just need that extra little boost to get things going.

I’d love to hear about what you were able to accomplish in half an hour.

Is your timer going?

Meagan

Traveling - teaching and taking workshops

Well, I'm off in the morning for another travel adventure. Next week I'm teaching a glass/clay workshop at Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, TN and then the following week I'm taking a mixed media class with Michael Sherrill at Penland in NC. It's going to be an exciting couple weeks!

Michael Sherrill

Where does the time go??! I had hoped to get a few more things done in between coming home from the Clay Studio of Missoula and taking off again. Oh well, my pregnant belly is forcing me to slow down my usually quick pace. Guess it's preparing me for the BIG changes that are coming in about 9 weeks or so!

Cheers!
Meagan

Upcoming Posts

Getting settled back into life in Florida after my month-long adventure in Montana.

As soon as I'm caught up a bit I plan to post...

• a residency recap and reflections
• the results of my functional pottery adventures
• photos of the great ceramic work I bought/traded for
• plaster mixing guidelines

Looking forward to teaching a private workshop in my studio tomorrow. Today is dedicated to unpacking, cleaning up and additional prep.

More to come!
Meagan

Currents: Contemporary Ceramics - Opening Reception

Currents: Contemporary Ceramics

January 11-29, 2010

Focus Gallery
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL

Juried by Linda Arbuckle and John Byrd

TONIGHT - Opening Reception on Friday, January 15, from 7pm-9pm

New Work - "Urban Escape"

Wanted to post a few quick picks of some recent work.

Urban Escape, 38" x 38" x 1 1/2", earthenware, glass, steel, fiber

Thanks for checking in on the progress! The ceramics post-baccalaureate program at the University of Florida has been great! Final critiques are this week. I hope to post few words of reflection as well as pics of our final projects by next Friday.

Cheers!
Meagan
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New Work - City gardening and pocket parks

Thought I post a few quick images of some new work. This piece was inspired by Pocket Parks - or community gardens that are planted on vacant lots within large cities where space for parks can be hard to come by.
Each 'box' or 'building' is 6 x 6" square and between 1 - 2" high. They are all mounted on a steel background that has been treated with a copper heat patina to give it that cool, moss-green color and texture.
Here are a few details...


the garden...

I got some helpful feedback on this piece during our recent critique, and I'm already excited about the changes I'll make in the next one.

That's it for now. Thanks for checking in!

Best,
Meagan
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Daily Art Muse

My work was featured yesterday on Daily Art Muse. Thank you Susan for the unexpected and wonderful write-up!

"Daily Art Muse is an online space where artists find snippets of daily inspiration to keep their creativity flowing." Author and polymer clay artist, Susan Lomoto, writes three or four times each day (Mon-Fri) on art that "tickles my muse and stirs my imagination."

Hop on over and check it out!

Cheers!
Meagan

Coming Soon (I promise) - A two part series on what I've learned about art marketing and self promotion. Stay tuned...

American Style Article

Looking for a fun, inspiration read? Check out the April 2009 American Style. Inside you'll find the article "Crafting a Dream House" showcasing the HandMade House, a joint effort by HandMade in America and Biltmore Farms to build a custom home that includes more than 100 artists.

I had the privileged of being a part of this project last fall, and was excited to see an image of my work was printed along with the article!

Release, Earthenware, 40" x 78" x 2", 2008. On view now at the Ocala Civic Theatre.

There's also an interesting article on the woodblock prints of Ilse Buchert Nesbitt and some amazing work in polymer clay.

Happy Reading!
Meagan
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What is a True Artist?

Came across this quote while researching/sketching ideas for a new body of work...

"The artisan who has patience in his craft, insight, subtlety, the qualities deriving from intense observation of and delight in the things he depicts, that man is a true artist."

-Eugene Grasset, May 1896

Enjoy!
Meagan
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Taking the week "off" to...

... paint the outside of our house. Not exactly vacation, but we've been wanting to get this done for some time now. I'm also hoping this will help me take a step back from studio work and give me time for sketching and reflection. Since there's never a dull moment around here, we've also been working on a another DIY home renovation. We removed a section of kitchen cabinets and cut a doorway so that we'll have an interior access to the laundry room. Hope you enjoy your week - whether your working, renovating or relaxing. See you soon.

Best,
Meagan
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Today's Glaze Kiln

Hi! Wanted to post a picture real quick of some of the work I unloaded today. Overall, I'm happy with the results. This color palette is definitely brighter than what I've work with in the past, so I think it will take some time to really study the surfaces and decide which I like and how to move forward. Gotta run. I'm going with Nigel and Cheyenne to UF in Gainesville to go the H.O.T. Clay opening "Currents: A Contemporary Look at Florida Ceramics."

Hope you have a great weekend!
Meagan
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Quick Update - First Glaze firing of 2009

After a marathon 10 hour day in the studio, I finished glazing enough work to fill and fire the kiln. It wasn't a tight load, but full nonetheless.

I decided that I only wanted to glaze about 1/3 of the bisqued work I just unloaded so that I could really see my new glazes in action. This way if I end up hating a glaze/glaze combination I won't have ruined all the work I just spent the last 2 weeks making. Or if I find that a certain glaze is working great, I can apply that more often. (And of course I couldn't resist the urge to sneak in a few more glaze test tiles.)

[Ware Cart full of bisqued ceramics awaiting glaze application. ]

Well, that's it for tonight. I'm pretty exhausted, so it's time to go relax before heading off to bed.

Stay tuned for photos of today's firing results!
Meagan
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Artist Interview

Hi Everyone,

Painter, web guru, and fellow artist blogger, Constance Humphries, has started a monthly interview series intended to highlight the life and art of contemporary artists. Constance was nice enough to ask me to be her first interviewee! How did I get started in art? What are my influences? What inspires me when things get tough? How do you balance art with business? It's all posted today on her blog, so please check it out when you get a moment.

Constance Humphries, "Step like a giant"
2008, oil on canvas

Happy Friday,
Meagan
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Happy Holidays!

Well, not exactly clay, but I'm enjoying myself none the less. Hope everyone has a Happy Holiday! I'm signing off until next year. See you in 2009!

Cheers!

Meagan
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Weekend Fun

WARNING: The following post would be considered "surface blogging" according to the art marketing advice of Alyson Stanfiend in her recent newsletter on ArtBizCoach.com.
And I agree. So, if you are looking to read something deep, thought provoking, earth shattering, or otherwise, please check back later. This is not the post for you. I simply wanted to take a minute to appreciate the simple things in life. And how it is important for me to find a balance between my art career, my art making, and my life outside of art.


How was your weekend? I had what I like to think of as a well balanced weekend of fun.

Watched some football- We had amazing seats (4th row, 5o yardline!) for the LSU vs Florida Game. Too bad the game wasn't amazing too. It's tough being a Tiger fan in Gator country. Especially when the score was 51-21. ouch! Sunday Ben made a double batch of his Famous Oatmeal Cookies and I baked a couple loaves of sourdough bread.
We had homemade veggie soup/chili and an bottle of organic wine for dinner. Yum!
And I worked in the studio too. I'd go in for 1-2 hour intervals (while my bread was rising) and grind the groove into the pendants I've been shaping. This groove helps the wire stay in place when they are wrapped. Then I cleaned them up, and fired the kiln again last night.
Today I hope to clean up the mess from the tile saw and grinder, unload the kiln, sort the pendants by price, start wire wrapping, fire a kiln with slumped glass, and finish up some other odds and ends in the studio. I've decided that I just need to set aside a "computer day" to focus on my new artist statement and get my ETSY shop up and running.

So, I guess I should get to work. Hope you're having a great Monday!

Cheers,
Meagan
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Friends, Flowers and Fall

Ben and I had a great visit with Nigel, Cheyenne, and Chris Picket (he's up at UF working on his MFA) Friday night! It was awesome to be able to laugh, eat, drink and talk clay and "art stuff" with other artists. I often feel artistically isolated in the area where we're living. Which I suppose was one of the main factors for starting this blog.

Nigel and Cheyenne also brought us a couple of their tumblers. Aren't they great! Wish I was able to get a better picture. The carvings, and subtleties from the firing don't show up very well here.
I once had someone tell me that life is a balance of 3 things: Who you're with. What you're doing. And Where you are. If you can ever get all 3 of those to be in perfect alignment, then you must be living right! I feel like I've got the who and what, the where will come with time I suppose. What about you? Do you think this theory is true?

So, in an effort to enjoy the Where more, I have discovered a love for gardening. Ben and I spent Sunday afternoon working in the yard. We finally got a few azaleas and some ornamental grasses to start planting around the studio. Thought I'd share a few pictures...



And the sky was beautiful last night! It is starting to look a feel a bit more like fall. (Well, fall by Florida's standards anyway.) Thanks for dropping by to check in on what's going on here. Hope you had an enjoyable weekend, however you chose to spend it.

Cheers,
Meagan
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Just a little Hello

Thought I'd stop in for a quick hello.

Today I'm going to start work on another batch of "minis" for the November Studio Stroll. I've got another 3-week run of travel coming up in October, so I need to have the majority of my work for my fall shows finished within the next 2 weeks. So, with the firing schedule I set out for myself, Friday is my last day for greenware.

I also hope to finish up my online ETSY shop soon. Still in the process of determining my policies, etc.

There's always something to do isn't there. So, off to work for me.

Best,
Meagan
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