New Products!

Hot off the kiln! Our friend Ann Kozeliski had commissioned more cups for her dad to drink scotch from so here they are! These yunomi (Japanese-style tall tea cups) are made of porcelain clay and covered with a dark brown and clear glaze. We have titled this series Chocolate-Covered Creme. Also, Mark's mom had seen the Laughing Bunny/Singing Frog bowl previously on our blog and she is now purchasing it for her collection. Mark will send it off to her soon. The bowl is also porcelain and the outside is covered with a commercial celadon-green glaze. Thanks for your support!

Laughing Bunny Plaque

Kent Griffin came by today to pick up his commission--a laughing bunny plaque. Because of his commission, Mark had to find an effective way to dry the tile. He tried out a technique that was suggested to him by fellow clay artist Brian Bachman. Since clay tiles tend to warp while drying, Brian had recommended to Mark to place the flat tile between two pieces of drywall or sheetrock. This method took longer to dry the tile but not once did the tile warp! Way to go Brian! And many thanks to Kent for your support!

Cats Galore!

Last night, Dr Viki D Thompson-Wylder and her husband, Tom, of Tallahassee made a studio visit to select from a plethora of sumi-e cat paintings. Viki said

When I look at these cats, I can feel the energy. You have captured all that in a few strokes--the lightness, the energy, the litheness. You caught the contentedness of them as creatures.

Viki had commissioned Mark to do a cat painting in December 2005. After Mark made numerous sketches, Viki chose about 20 different images. Then Mark used them as a springboard to create final paintings. He said

It was a pretty quick process compared to clay. Even though it took 6 months, it remained a spontaneous process. I really liked that about it.

During the visit, Viki also commissioned a porcelain soap dish. Although Viki and Tom originally only commissioned one cat painting, they were so pleased with the many choices that they finally chose two paintings. Many thanks to Viki and Tom for your support!

Sold!

Good news! Jane Simpson, the gallery director at Colquitt County Arts Center, notified us that Mark has sold 5 pieces in the Essential Nature exhibit! He sold the following items:

Uncle Andy the Rainmaker (armadillo)

Rivet Turtle

Swamp Life bottle

Blue Heron bottle

2-Horse platter

Thank you everyone for your support!

Return to Tallahassee

We stopped by Ana and Ron's house on our way back to Tallahassee. While Mark was helping Ron to dismantle his extremely heavy TV from its ceiling rack, Ana was cooking a fine breakfast again! She made 2 stuffed puff pastries--one with spinach and onions and one with cheese and tomatoes. She also made mashed potatoes, yogurt topped with strawberries and blackberries and iced coffee. Yum! After that, we drove back to Tallahassee in about 7 hours. Traffic was heavy on I-75 especially. Where were all these people going?!

Grooooovy Fabric

Yesterday, Ana, mom and I went fabric shopping for Gigi's bedroom. I am going to make some curtains. When I looked at the end of the bolt for pricing info, it turned out that the name of the fabric was Angelina Carnival (check out Ana's blog for photo of the fabric: www.thegigster.blogspot.com)! How appropriate since Ana and Ron will name their adopted child Angelina (Gigi for short).
Afterwards, we had lunch at Pei Wei, an Asian Fusion kind of eatery.
Mark was out at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (http://loxahatchee.fws.gov) by himself yesterday, observing what's left of the wildlife in SE Florida. The constant development down here must be crowding the wildlife into one place. Everytime I visit my family, I am just amazed and appalled by the development down here. How can this area continue to support the population and development boom?! When we passed by Congress Ave and Boynton Beach Blvd yesterday, the entire Motorola complex and cow pasture next to it have been razed flat, ready for more development. Not one native tree is saved. It is just a flat land of sand. This is happening everywhere down here, especially going west, past Rt 441. Watch out, N Florida! This kind of mentality is moving north to the panhandle already!

Gourmet Dog Food

It's been a quiet morning so far. While dad was watching the World Cup on Univision, a Spanish-language TV station (Ecuador vs Germany), mom was cooking rice and strips of chicken breast for Fefe and Taffi. What gourmet dog food for the dogs! After we arrived at Ana and Ron's, mom immediately fed the rice to the dogs (mixed with their dried dog food). Ana was finishing up her grout renewal in Gigi's bedroom. I checked out Gigi's closet. The kid already has plenty of clothing and other items! Mark went out to Loxahatchee again today by himself. We'll meet up with Jessica later at 5pm for a movie and dinner.

LeMoyne Summer Session 6/26--8/31

Time to sign up for Mark's clay classes at LeMoyne! He's offering 5 courses:
Monday 1:15--3:15pm Handbuilding
Monday 7--9pm Beginning Wheel-throwing
Tuesday 7--9pm Beginning/Intermediate Wheel-throwing
Wednesday 7--9pm Intermediate/Advance Wheel-throwing
Thursday 7--9pm Wheel-throwing + Handbuilding
No classes during 7/17--7/28 due to our vacation

Dinner at Ana and Ron's

For dinner, Ana made 2 wonderful home-cooked pizzas. One was topped with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, onions, shiitake mushrooms and pecorino romano cheese. The other one had artichokes, tomatoes, onions, red peppers and gorgonzola cheese. We also had appetizers of turkey sausage and roasted portobella mushrooms. For dessert, we had dee-licious home-made tiramisu! Jessica also brought over a French silk pie.

Happy Father's Day

We all went out to dim sum at Hong Kong City restaurant for Father's Day. We had lots of great food--dumplings, noodles, jelly fish, roast duck.

Afterwards, we went over to Maxim Bakery to pick up some goodies. We were served by young Timmy who looked to be a 2nd grader and could barely see over the tall counter.

As for the World Cup, Brazil played Australia and scored 2 goals.

5 Days with Family in SE Florida

Here we are in Delray Beach, visiting family! Our drive was about 7 hours. Luckily there was no major traffic jam except at the toll plaza north of Orlando. Ron and Ana are wearing matching Brazil soccer jerseys. As usual, mom cooked delicious Chinese food. Ana also made a blueberry pie.

Voila New Forms!

Remember the straight cylinders that Mark made yesterday? Well, here they are altered! That's a lesson that Mark wants to teach to his advance students--to be able to create a base form consistently and then be able to alter them to a specific form. He finished these last night around midnight.

New Forms!

Mark has started a new project! He is using a traditional method (throwing a base form repeatedly) to create new forms. Here is what he has to say:

I'm trying to modify production methods to explore more variety of forms. This will allow me to re-introduce an element of play that's often squelched by having to reproduce the same form over and over again.

Whirling Dervish Carrots

Mark has created some new porcelain pottery. He's just finished decorating the items today. For the first time in Turtle Hill history, funny bunny is together with singing frog! Also, Mark was tired of depicting normal carrots so he made them into whirling dervishes (that was probably influenced by a video we recently watched--a Jackie Chan's movie that was filmed in Istanbul).

Essential Nature May 4--June 30, 2006

There's still time to view the show at Colquitt County Arts Center in Moultire, GA! If you go on a weekend, you'll need to call ahead to make an appointment: 229-985-1922. Otherwise, the Center is open during the weekdays.

Heaven and Earth Series

Recently, Chuck Corbett celebrated his birthday. So his wife, Terri, presented to him Mark's Heaven and Earth enclosed bowl. Now they are the happy owners of Mark's all three major pieces in the series! In fact, they are the only people in the whole world who have this series in their collection. Here is what Chuck has to say:

When I look at the pieces in the Heaven and Earth series, I feel a sense of the wholeness of the universe, and at the same time a sense of the mystery of life.

Thanks for your support!

Summer Annual Exhibit June 9--July 7, 2006

Mark is currently exhibiting this painting in the Artists' League Summer Annual show at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts. This one is called The Poetry of Trees. Another painting in the exhibit is called Life's Cycle. It depicts the life cycle of a frog. Mark has been incorporating poetry into his artwork.
Today we received an article about the Essential Nature exhibit in the Moultrie Observer that was published on May 28, 2006. It's an almost full-page spread in the Accent section! The article includes 6 images and about 2 columns of text. The show is up until 6/30/06. Many thanks to Lesa Moser for sending us the article!