More for Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts

I was able to get more contact info for the Pi Beta Phi Grand Council. Please, please, write to all of them and voice you opinion regarding the potential sale of the land that houses Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts!

Grand President – Emily Russell Tarr GP1@pibetaphi.org or emilyt@windstream.net
Grand Vice President Collegians – Susan Kingsley Robinson GVPC@pibetaphi.org
Grand Vice President Alumnae – Mary Loy Tatum GVPA@pibetaphi.org
Grand Vice President Communications – Karen Shelton Chevalier
GVPCom@pibetaphi.org, (703) 280-1307 (fax)
Grand Vice President Finance – Karen Consalus Price, GVPF@pibetaphi.org
Grand Vice President Membership – Luellen Clymo Smith GVPM@pibetaphi.org
Grand Vice President Programming – Linda Noel Ibsen GVPProg@pibetaphi.org or Lnibsen@aol.com

Save Arrowmont!!

The Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, specifically the seven person Grand Council, has started negotiations to sell and develop the land on which Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts current leases in Gatlinburg, TN. Pi Beta Phi has owned and used this property for education since 1912 and it has been home to the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts since 1968. This sale would have an incredible impact on the School.

There is talk of the developers wanting to use the property to build new condos and an indoor water park. However there is a lot of information that is not known at this point and even more unconfirmed speculation. This news became public today as a front page article in the local paper.

Please check here to read the fraternity's statement that is the main article on their homepage:

Arrowmont posted an official statement on their website today as well. Read here.

The email address of Pi Phi Grand President, Emily Tarr is GP1@pibetaphi.org. I have been unable to find a mailing address. If you could make the time, please email Mrs. Tarr this week to voice your opinion regarding the potential sale of this property. The board will be meeting again on Friday.

Additional news links:

News: Knox News

News: Knox News

News: Z-wire

Thank you so much! We need to show our support for Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

Sincerely,
Meagan

Glazing New Work

I love glazing! To me it's exciting and relaxing on so many levels. My work is low-fire earthenware, electric fired to glaze cone 04. Most of my glazes are heavily textured and made to crawl and crackle. I love texture! I fired these pieces yesterday, and they're in the kiln cooling now. I'm anxious to unload, see the results, and then again.

Once my work is bisque fired, I go through everything and plan out which glazes I'll use before I even pick up a brush. It sometimes reminds me of the paint-by-number, but this seems to be the most efficient way for me to switch between so many glazes. And besides, this way lets me relax and zone out because the color decisions are already made. I find it almost meditative.

I also decided that I needed to re-test all of my glazes. I have 50+ yogurt containers of mixed glazes - some of which were stored outside and unused for over a year. When I went to move them into my studio, some of the containers with this one particular glaze in it looked like this.....

I don't even know exactly what this is clinging to the outside of the containers!?! Do you? But it didn't look good, and I have my doubts as to whether these glazes will fire the way they once did. But I'm hoping to take a Glaze Chemistry workshop with John Britt this fall, so that I'll be able to do more problem solving when glazes don't work as planned.

[Glaze test tiles ready for firing.]

I also wanted to share a quote that I heard today on one of the World Cafe podcasts that I was able to download yesterday. The interview/quote is referring to Sam Phillips, and it struck me so I thought I'd pass it along.

"She succeeds beautifully by doing nothing more than being the best possible version of herself."

Have a great weekend!
Meagan

My Music is Back! Yay!

Thank you Brian and Ang! Your advice, suggestions, and links seem to have done the trick! I have recovered my "eaten" music files and changed a few settings so I can now download podcasts. Thank you! I'm off the the studio now - iPod in hand!

Grateful and loving Blogging,
Meagan

Help Needed with i-Tunes!!

Please Help!!

My i-Tunes has been doing strange things. My files seem to be disappearing!?! Well, they show up in the play list, but when I click on them it says the file cannot be found. This has happened to over 1/2 of my library. Which is days worth of re-downloading CDs! Ugh!

Did this happen when I downloaded an updated version? Does anyone know how to recover the music files w/o re-downloading them? Does my computer have some music-eating virus? If I reload the CDs, how can I keep this from happening again?

I also don't seem to be able to download the free NPR podcasts. Or any free podcasts for that mattter. I can find the subscribe button, but it isn't highlighted and won't let me click on it.

Any thoughts or advice!?!?

Musicless,
Meagan

The CEO and Janitor

[I have this art business cartoon posted in my studio]

Like many artists I know, I tend to do everything myself. Maybe it's a control thing. Maybe it's a budget thing. But when people sing the praises of the "easy" life of being self-employed vs. a traditional 9-5, I jokingly explain to them how I am both the CEO and Janitor of my business. I make the big decisions (with the help of my amazingly supportive husband), and I sweep the floors (also with the help of my amazingly supportive husband).

This can be both a blessing and a curse. Some days I absolutely love working for myself!! Some days I'm so frustrated and overwhelmed, I'm ready to throw in the towel. I've been alternating between the two quite frequently lately.

After 18 months of planning and construction, I have the new fantastic studio! But I feel like I have 18 months of artwork ideas, internet marketing needs, gallery research, studio organizing, ware-cart building, portfolio photo projects, PR packets, etc that I need to "catch up" on. And I don't always know where to start, or how I'm going to be able to do it without employing a crew of 100s! One day, though, I will be able to hire a staff to take care of the tasks I find the least enjoyable.

My latest business task has been to tackle the online world of internet marketing. This is all extremely new to me. Even blogging. I had been wondering how to increase my web traffic when I read a post by Emily Murphy about Site Engine Optimization. If you don't follow Emily's posts, I highly recommend them. She has a wealth of helpful information.

It does help to know that other artists have similar feelings. I had a fantastic conversation with my good friend and fabulous potter, Joy Tanner this morning about these very topics. What about you? How do you balance all the tasks of being a working artist? I'd love to hear any advice you have on time management!

Thanks!
Meagan

A Change in Timing

Up until about 2 weeks ago, I had a 6' table set up outside for making my clay work. I could loosely cover the pieces with plastic at night and come back the next day and they would still be at that lovely leather hard stage. I could then re-work and refine the forms, and leave them completely uncovered for a few days and they would slowly dry out. All of this, thanks to the Florida humidity!

[Six of the Eight clay forms for The HandMade House.]

Well... things are a bit different in my new studio. I'm finding that I'm stumbling a bit trying to learn the dry time for clay in there. There's no AC still (so I'm still sweating through the heat) but we've added a dehumidifier to help protect my equipment. There's a small fan I can keep going to help with air circulation too. So, the clay is drying out much, much quicker than I was used to!

Overall, I think this change will be a good thing once I've learned how to manage it. And it's a small price to pay to be able to work in such a beautiful studio.

What about you? Has a change of setting ever effected your work technique?

Still Learning,
Meagan