Brian Brock...raised by robots

Brian Brock is a friend of mine....a musician...composer...writer of curious tales...
I love his clean, carbonated mind...
where it goes...and how he sees.
He's a very special favorite of mine.

He sent me his Raised By Robots (work in progress) CD to listen to....
I listen to it often...
when people ask what it's like...
I find myself telling them...that for me.....
it falls somewhere between Peter and the Wolf and Kandinski's paintings.

Brian played today at the General Store...
tomorrow he will play at BobFest.
Brian and Lea, whose artings I also just love...
moved out west...
but, he's here this weekend....and I'll be in the audience again tomorrow.

Clear flux copper color surprize

(I'm posting this to help illustrate a question I'm asking)

I'm short on time...
but I wanted to show you what I was talking about...
I just put it on the scanner...
not the best picture,
but I think you can see what was going on...
it's a champleve piece...(not sure about that spelling..)
but instead of filling in the etched out spaces like I was supposed to...
(learning and just forgot)
I just dusted the whole piece with clear flux enamel..unleaded...

Will this kind of metalic/irridescent greens-blues-reds happen each time?So, lucky I was...
I added some extra flux in the "flames" ...fluxless in the first firing...
it did not darken like the others did, but turned a great red, perfect for "flames"...
When fired several times more, the other pieces
did nothing but get darker and darker...no additional flux added...
yes, there were colors that looked like they were deep inside...
but, very hard to see without bright light.

I'm wanting to get this again...
is this something that normally happens, or can one encourage it?
I don't care if the colors happen in unpredictable places...I can work with that...
but, I'm really interested in this now...

Pitch Bowl

It was difficult...
hated to stop...
but, I brought my pitch bowl into the house

in order pack off to Haystack Mountain School of Crafts...
where I will meet up with it and my tools
in order to take the class taught by Kirsten Skiles.
Marcia Lewis, of ChasingMetal.com told me I'm going to learn a lot from her.
(she says "Hi" Kirsten!)
I guess I could keep figuring it out myself....
but, taking this class will speed things up for me...
answer lots of questions...
and who knows what all.

I'm leaving this one in the pitch
because I want to know if there are tools I can learn to make
that will do some things I can't do right now...
so it's coming with me.

It is an odd feeling, though, sending my tools off to "camp"....
but, I'll be busy...
there's a woodcut to work on...
another to start...
a painting to complete...
a couple drawings to finish....
I'll still be arting.

Waiting Room

Booger WAS at the Dentist...
I suppose my relationship with him is a bit over the line...
(the tech's last words to me as they walked down the hall
were something about
"if there are any serious complications, which happen at times.....")
eeuw...
but, Booger is special...

he was WeberGrill's newsletter, the GrillOutTimes official star
developing quite a following...
even getting fan mail...

he is the dog who was gone 40 days and 40 nights to return on Tony's birthday.....
part one of the tale I'll finish sooner or later in woodblock form...

he died on the operating table the next year when they took his gall bladder out...
but, tough little dog that he is, decided not to leave just yet...
so, he's into his 3rd life...

He IS the embodyment of the Small Dog of Power...

Strong, brave and handsome....in PERSON!

So this is what took my mind off "complications"....