One Day in the Life of .ekwc Kiln Room

The kiln room is buzzing with activity, heat rising into the three-story space, warming most of the building. We’ve taken to eating dinner outside, as the kitchen is stifling hot.

Thinking and taking time to be quite and still when stacking a kiln is essential. Ly creates a culture of stillness and slow attention to detail that I hope to hold always. She is a wealth of information and potential solutions to the multitude approaches seen daily or yearly in the center.

Ly and Bart survey the scene and strategy for transferring his large mural pieces. He’s made these in an open studio zone on the first floor on large canvas. The idea was to transfer these to the kiln stack – leaving the canvas to burn. Yet, when he worked with the clay englobe – he’s gotten it on the canvas, preventing successful firing without damaging the kiln shelves.

Pieka and Madekia are stacking the biggest kiln. Since the top shelves are far out of reach, Ly styles an ingenious cherry picker from a huge plastic bucket, long nylon straps and the hand forklift. Creative solutions abound as we each solve the delicate task of maneuvering dry clay pieces not yet fired.

Yoko’s kilns are stacked and unstacked in succession so one can hardly track the details of how many pieces she’ll have for the final installation. Our final presentations occur on the same evening, at opposite ends of the building.

Remembering the Details:

Our photo shoot went well. Cox, our photographer has an excellent eye for detail and composition. We complete the photos in the morning, manage to unstack the kilns and participate in others progress at the center.

RE-Entry into Life OutSide .ekwc:

Home to sort details and start up life after the cloistered existence in Den Bosch. No longer are my days focused on a single unifying journey. As I retrace the week leading out from the last blog entry to our final presentation, packing and departure from the combined ekwc residency I recognize how many thoughts and experiences I’ve gained. Time shifted somehow during the combined residency, and I hope to look out from these new lens ground during my thirteen-week commitment.

Among the diverse self directed work I’ll start seeds for the following action: final presentation for the Lighton Grant, re-model my garage for ceramics completing the transition from ID consultant, help Rachael with her TIC unit, commit to Thesis Prep course at AAU, move my mother into an Alzheimer unit in New Jersey, enjoy friends, explore the city’s offerings, etc.

August 30, 2007

August 30, 2007
@ 30,000 Continenal flight 1702
returning home from placing my mother in an Alzheimer Unit

Cultural re-integration confronts me as I arrive in San Francisco, change out Euros for green dollars of the same size, color and net worth. Never one to translate either millimeters or Euro, I’ll re-enter life in the tree lined, hills, cloudless skies and wooden structures where I inhabit a Victorian built in 1892, full of my possessions.

Almost three weeks have passed since I landed at SFO. I traveled in a daze on one hour of sleep, searching for my flight information only based on a confirmation number.

I arrived at the gate with two liters of wine and one half liter of Jeneve. Shocked as the attendant placed these into the refuse bin. Where had I been? What was I thinking? Since the Jeneve was in a special ceramic bottle featuring a photo of the bridge at the corner of Zuid Willemsvaart, I returned and fished it out of the trash, emptying the contents over other’s absent mindedness.

Gathering steam and process

Full day of kiln stacking – two – arrangements for photography and obtaining additional pieces of metal to assemble the piece tomorrow. We’re preparing for a photo shoot on Friday morning. Guess somewhere we’ll fit in unloading the kilns – as we have a portrait shoot and a product shot completed.

July 30th August 1st - Post Published

Went to open Microsoft Word and hesitated to write a blog entry. But reconsidered, as I realize there are zillions of cultural, artistic germs and details, I will in short order forget.

The photos I take almost daily will remind me – but writing works to keep memory alive. Emails with close friends and family keep the connections open. I sent Leslie –a textile designer an invitation for an open – being held July 31st; and never noticed it was for a NYC gallery.

Informal Discussions are Fertilizer:

Hela (her folding bicycle is 40 years old and called a gazelle) came into our studio, a new part time assistant – on Tuesday to inquire about our work. She stayed the better part of an hour – exchanging conversation. We talk of art – then arrived at the question – What is art? Close to the question I shared in Amsterdam at the gallery Binnen – What is beauty?

I remain committed to defining what I call universal concepts. Yet, I discover along the journey each individual frames concepts biased on their personal lenses.

Talked about luminosity with Jacob – after his participant chat. I wrote/sketched two pages of notes I hope use as stimuli for future explorations. When discussing the chat with Sarah later, she observes Jacob is a blend of inventor, artist and designer.

teaching Bart

We sat down at 8:40 and www.blogspot.com is in Dutch - Had to go to my computer.