Pocosin Arts Residency

I'm on the second week of my the residency here at Pocosin Arts in Columbia NC. I've spent much of my time here working on the studio, fixing wheels, hooking up kilns and advising them on what the need and how to lay out the studio. The  Pocosin Arts center was flooded back in 2011 from hurricane Irene with two feet of water in building..... So far I've fixed four of the ten wheels and sent four motors off to be rebuilt, I think they will be fine too. I was so surprised that the water didn't do more damage, I had to clean the contacts on the motors and all the electronic parts and that got most of them working.  When we get the motors back from the repair shop I'll know how many they will need to replace.
 If you haven't figured it out yet I really like taking things apart and figuring out how they work. I have ever since I was I kid it's that inquisitive nature in me that lead to be a potter, the technical side of ceramics, glaze formulation, clay formulation, building and firing kilns, and all the equipment that needs to be kept up and running. There is so much more to ceramics then just moulding things out of clay. I't also was what lead me to design and build my own studio and house from start to finnish.

            Here I am hard at work taking apart pottery wheels.....gee I hope 

I can get them all back together.... Just kidding!

Now Im trying to concentrate on some of my work... I'm working on some new tile designs and casting molds for them. Some will be architectural and others will be with a technique called Cuenca. Cuenca is a Spanish name for pressing a mould into  clay to create a raised outline of the design with hollows between. These hollows were known as ‘cuenca’, which means ‘bowls’ in Spanish. The hollows will later be filled with colored glazes.

I'm also hoping to work on some paintings, it's something sort of new for me. I did a few last year and really loved the whole process. It was quite freeing being completely concerned with a two dimensional surface. I'm painting with acrylic on canvas and using many of the designs I apply to much of my ceramic work.