California

For the holidays I flew to California and back in time. The weather reversed to how I remember it was 3 months ago and the places and people go back even further for me. My how I miss everyone already!

A Little Bird Told Me We'd Be Happy

A song by Evelyn Knight.

Download it.

Love it.

Everything is gonna turn out swell.

Celeste Potter

Celeste designed this album cover for the band An Horse from Australia

She illustrated this video for Dodge.

See her website for more

I adore Illustrator

Why? Because it lets me do things like this!

Happy Birthday, Avery!

Be still my beating heart

I fell in to a burning ring of fire

The iron pour is an annual and public event produced by the Metals Department of MassArt. It's held outside in the courtyard between four of our classroom buildings, where students melt and pour the iron into molds.

Head of the Charles

My city was taken over by giant water bugs last weekend.

Art Nouveau Jewelry Exhibit at the MFA

Currently on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Designed by Charles Desrosiers sometime between 1898-1901. Note the light coming through the petals... it's translucent/backless enamel called plique à jour!



This necklace reminds me of pea pods. The pearls are ones that formed on the wall of the ouster shell.

Juan's Song

One of the amazing benefits of my job at MassArt is having immediate access to exhibits like the "Speaker Project", which is installed in one of the galleries on campus. It is a giant sculpture/speaker created by Chicago based artist Juan Angel Perez using all found objects collected on the streets of his city and mine. The band Goli began the month of performances given from inside the piece.

Dear Mr Craig, you really are the best man.

I took her home on the subway.

New York Fashion Week

I LOVE OSCAR DE LA RENTA

Thanks to you, Mr Craig and your list.

Wise Blood

So, on Sunday afternoon this woman who was wearing white polyester pleated pants and who reminded me distinctly of my Aunt Rosie (my Grandmother's sister), leaned over me and said, "okay honey, I have to call it quits. The blood is coming too slowly, we'll never get a whole bag out of you."

That's when I started to cry.

In the middle of the gym. On my back. Staring up at the two rubber bouncy-balls that had gotten caught in the rafters and pipes. One was red and the other one blue.

Part of it was the pain (I still have a bruise), but most of it was the disappointment. I knew what was expected of me. I knew what the finger prick and the invasive questions and the waiting in line was all about. And it was clear that I was not performing up to par. Aunt Rosie explained that sometimes the vein triggers something in the heart and in order to protect itself, it will clot up and stop the blood flow.

How often it seems I've been on the table of a relationship, squeezing my fist and praying for the blood to flow, only to have to pull out the needle. Am I really saving myself from something bad or are my perceptions of safety skewed? Can I turn off this instinct somehow? Or maybe I should stop asking that question and let the vein be. If it clots, it clots. It is what it is.

Etsy!

I have officially started uploading items for sale on my Etsy account!



Okay so there's not much up there yet, but I've got to start somewhere, right?

Anti-gravity

Have you ever had a dream or vision you felt to be so impossible, or at least so unlikely, that you put it aside and indignantly named it "Someday?" You get used to the thump of the longing and eventually you loose consciousness of it. It blends in with your own heartbeat and you can't hear it anymore. 

I just feel so obscenely lucky that so many of my hopes have been realized recently. I'm standing on the other side of a door that was suddenly unlocked and I'm in shock. This is a view I haven't seen in awhile, looking back across the threshold of what felt like an enormous risk, so forgive me if I have to stand here until I can believe that it's real! 

For instance,

-I just moved back to a city I suspect I'll never tire of exploring

-I just bought my dream computer (I've been without since the move, which is why I haven't been posting) which means I will be able to do even more with my art

-I get paid to support young artists in a fairly unlimited capacity while I take classes towards my MFA for free

-I watched the fireworks exploding over the very site that independence was actually declared from

-The video I posted here... a spontaneous concert on a porch down the street. By nightfall there were more musicians crammed up there than there were of us audience members who stopped and listened, as I did, on my way home!

So I guess it goes to show... there are times when the wings you've gotten accustomed to seeing sitting quietly up on the shelf reveal their capacity for flight. Occasionally, the laws of physics don't apply. Occasionally, gravity let's up.

So I chose the name "Red Clay Wings" for a couple reasons, mostly because I love paradoxes. And I'm definitely partial to any that concern dirt and sky, ground and flight, the physical and non-physical.

I was also drawn to this name because it speaks about the malfunction of purpose. Wings are made to push down on air, allowing their owners to see from a removed place, freeing them from the bounds of their own weight. Most days, it feels like my wings are the weight. And they are crumbly and broken like red clay earth.