"I cleaned the bathtub for you"...DRAGONS and a very puzzling day....

(new dragon pottery by Gary Rith)
Alright, really, I got bored yesterday with the routine, and decided to clean the john. Like the bathtub. I clean the whole house except for a couple of small things the wife likes to do, such as the tub. Observation a) cleaning a bathtub is about the most boring task on earth and b) I swear it looks the same as before I started. Anyway, I boast to the wife later "I cleaned the tub for you!" and she is like
"what, no kite flying? NO BIKING?" and I am puzzled. Does she think all I do is fly a kite, ride a bike and make teapots and dragons? I say this and she smiles knowingly and tells me "just seems unusual that this week you did something NOT fun".

Its true. My life is all about the fun. Golly I am blessed, eh?

OK, but Simon comes over. He had seen the dragons in process last week and was like "gimme one with floppy ears!" then he comes over and buys TWO. I am like "Simon, what is it with the DRAGONS? Its puzzling, seems like anything else I do" and Simon is like "you make a lot of cool things, but there is something about these....". Later that day I bump into Paul as I walk down the street and Paul is like "I am gonna need one of those dragons" and I am like "what is it with those dragons? That first bunch is nearly sold out Paul!" and he is like "man, I didn't know I needed a reservation!".
I didn't either, it IS puzzling. Just about all of these are sold---Alita comes over today for one, Jill needs 2, and at least one other is spoken for, and the original, of course, goes to the old college friend who first mentioned the idea.

I s'pose I should make more...

out with a BANG!

Cornell University Ceramics is due to close thanks to a variety of idiotic reasons. But we have a final sale of pots next week, and my work was chosen for the poster. looks rather nice, eh?
I was thinking my facebook profile picture, which I thought was funny, was probably being misinterpreted by the humorless masses---I mean, I am scowling irritably and striking out at the camera. SO, i thought I should take a productive and illustrative photo of self for FB, and I liked the teapot I was working on this morning, therefore the pic below....

"old gassy dog on the couch, a haiku by Gary Rith" TRUE STORY!

(sketch by Gary Rith)
Well, this story has a couple of origins. One, you know, Buster is old, and I was sitting with him yesterday at his back end, and well.....
TWO, Benji and Knight and Kasey are doing this handwritten blog post thing. My own effort in that direction had to involve 1) the typewriter 2) a silly sketch and 3) a haiku, because life is always more fun in haiku form.

OK, below. The other night I am helping the wife with her huge piles of crapola, and in a box she finds the little brown box, below left, from her grandmother's bureau. I am rowing away...yes, rowing in the studio, practicing in case I ever get a chance to row an actual BOAT....and I am staring at that thing for several minutes, admiring how the base is petal-like. And I am like "I can do that!" so I made the teapot there....


You probably need something like this sugar bowl, for sale now at my etsy gallery....

its Thursday evening: are you ready for HIGH FIVE FRIDAY?

Me and my buddy Christi are ready for High Five Friday, are YOU? 0/\0

doesn't get any better than this...

(punk bunny tee designed by kasey the badass...)

HOLY CATS I love spring. The hot sun, the blue sky and fluffy clouds, and wicked strong winds today, and you can see how I spent my lunch hour---the wife gave me this kite for Easter, I love her so.....

overrun by rebel soldiers...

I guess I was reading recently about the start of the Civil War 150 years ago, and it always irritates me that some people these days might insist it was about so-called state's rights when it was really as simple as slavery. War is a horrible task, and that was an esp. brutal war, but freeing the slaves was important. I hate it when I see the Confederate flag on a bumper here in New York *--what an ignorant and hateful statement. (*the hills out there might as well be Alabama, the way some rural folks are)

ANYWAY, I mention this because I dreamt I was a Union Captain defending a farm in a town, beset by thousands of rebel soldiers. At nightfall, I am the only Union soldier left, which they do not know. In an utterly vivid and real night, I take stock of the dead around me, and the thousands across the field with their cannon aimed at me, and I realize, when they fire the first shot of the morning, that there is not going to be any mercy if I am found to be the last survivor of this position, so I slip out the back and begin to make my way back to the larger Union position...utterly terrifying. Even a war and battle you consider just also seems like a useless waste of human potential and emotion. The town is quiet and I safely move through the darkness and awake...


SO, I make another car. This one may be the cutest of all of them so far, BUT it needed a repair and then I am trying make it roll for real and it did NOT work very well. I think I need to simplify my thinking for awhile, make non-rolling cars.
I made that skull below and Aprillyn just JUMPED on it...you wonder sometimes if you can ever make enough skull stuff?

(new pottery by Gary Rith)

BEtween storms Tuesday.....Christi comes over....

(new pottery by Gary Rith)


My best pal Christi comes over Tuesday to talk art and gossip about YOU. Actually, she is holding some of her illustrations there....and basically, Tuesday started out, you had on your winter coat and gloves, it gets up to 85, then huge rain storms in between...later the wife got this pic of our first of the season triumphant beer-on-the deck...gosh, you wait all winter for that.....BTW, you will notice Christi's bright green toenails---gals sure do get to have fun with the colors don't they? There are days I wish I had bright green toenails too....
FINALLY--the kiln was moody and wonky yesterday but seems to have fired the dragons pretty well...moreo n that later!

when April was like March....

Late yesterday afternoon I had been glazing dragons etc and was bored with the house and so I was like, to the beagle,
"Penny, let's get OUT" and she is always up for that and so we went to our favorite place, the Cornell Plantations, hundreds of acres of forests, trees, gardens. There is one, ONLY ONE trash can in all those hundreds of acres and Penny pooped next to it, bless her little heart, so I could use my bag and play catch and release and not carry the dang thing all around :)
We have a very very late spring this year. I mean, it was snowing this time last week, and it gets warmer today, but its been a very cold season, really....



(new pottery by Gary Rith)

I love another.....

Wicked busy Easter weekend, you know? There was a nice dose of blessed sunshine between rain storms Saturday, and we were driving back from down Cayuga Lake and went into Long Point state park...just a gorgeous day and SCHWEET playground. Holy cats there is some awesome equipment at the state parks these days....
we were returning from Aurora Art and Design Center Gallery where I restocked shelves with wicked nice pots Saturday...Jacci just emailed me from there to say already a boatload sold and they need more....and finally, early Easter morning my pal at the radio station Armin announces
"a shoutout to my favorite listeners in Etna, Gary and Maude" which the wife thought was a schweet Easter gift...along with the gold ring I gave her...I love Easter....and then I got this message on a used mountain bike I was interested in. I was second in line for it, number one did not show, so the young dude was like
"c'mon over!" and I was like "lemme get the check book!". SO, you see my new orange GT bike. YESYESyes I have my old red diamondback since 1993 which I still love (but yes, I am bighearted enough to love another bike too!), but I wanted another for me and the wife to share. Her black bike is such an antique it has a leather seat, like, 1962 maybe, so we usually keep that close to home....anyway, the orange bike is a little worn and banged up, natch, but there is a spare tire, the price was wicked good---they sell new from 400-1200 bucks and I got this cheap---and the thing weighs less than my beagle and operates sooooooooo beautifully. I have never been on such a fast, slick bike, whatta TREAT! I rode it twice yesterday. In the rain. The wife rode it once too......

FLASHback!

Speaking of flashbacks, a sister sends us this photo of me and the wife in '93. It is easy to tell its '93 because I have the shortest haircut of my life. We had gotten clippers at Woolworths and the wife wanted to read the instructions but I was like "go nuts girl!" and she did. We have been going to the barber ever since.
Anyway, yesterday I was like "I still wear those jeans and that shirt!" and the wife is like "I still wear those chinos and that jacket!" so I was like "photo time!"
Me and the wife are each the same size we have been since 8th grade...

Here is my Easter card. SICK!

Judy, Judith.....

Judy tells me only one person is allowed to keep calling her Judy, ME, she left that name behind long ago....I have never been able to think of her as Judith, you know? So grown up sounding! But she is grown up. Maybe I am not. I like these 2 pics---above is my very oldest pal Judy the other day visiting us, lower is the 2 of us back in 1986. As I say in the posts below, she has been my pal since 1983 through thick and thin, and now she has brought her son to visit us and Cornell. Liam is the dude below, awesome young fellow I have known all his life. He has mad skillz and talents, but I think that he is more likely to go into chemical engineering than art.....




Me and the wife wish you a Happy Easter :)

Judy, Liam and me...

So like I say in the post below, Judy is one of my very oldest pals, going back to when I was 17, and her son Liam is now...17. She was my best friend in college with Alex and Denis. We all lived in the same hallway as freshman and been friends since. We lived very close to Judy's family for over 20 years up until 5 years ago when we moved west and they moved east. I first saw baby Liam when he was -7 months, and the next time when he was +2 months old. Liam is a VERY smart and polite and friendly guy from a smart family. He is thinking, God help me, chemical engineering, he is in a big high school and just a spot or 2 down from valedictorian. So, he was here looking at Cornell. Amazing how kids grow up, blows you away how much they change in 5, or even 17 years.

I have more pics for later, but I took them to Buttermilk Falls (little falls here) and Taughannock Falls (tall falls here plus playground). For the record, Taughannock has the coolest playground for adults on EARTH....

Penny = long board enthusiast....

Liam here comes to visit from Maine with his mom, my oldest pal Judy. Judy and I got into a lot of trouble back in the day...and she was pointing out the scar she has on her face from when I was pushing her in a shopping cart down a hill and it resulted in one of those head over heels accidents which causes scars that you shake your head over 25-30 years later....
OK, anyway, more on all that later, but so Judy brings her older child Liam over to interview at Cornell. You are kinda like 'how did that happen?'. We all lived near each other until a few years ago when Judy moved east and we moved west, but before that we saw all saw each other nearly every week, and Liam was a little squirt...now nearly six feet tall, and smart, and much better behaved than his mom and I were...he brought his long board....
more on all the fun later!