have a peaceful Easter....

I had the idea, as a beagle owner in spring might, to make this Easter card.  You have the innocent and sweet bunny on the front....


..and then you open the card to see a beagle at the end of her leash going bananas to get at the bunny....
Happy Easter :)

PEEPs!

I mentioned to you last week, I had seen an ewer in the paper...pretty thing!  So I thought I would try to make some...ewer being a pouring bottle for soy sauce, olive oil, vinegar, that sort of thing.  Here is the tasty fired result, I added corks to the top.  Thanks for looking!  Happy Saturday!


(pottery by Gary Rith)

ZEN VS BAROQUE: musings on MY WORK!

I realized something this week.  I work in 2 entirely different directions.  I needed to write a description of my background and work, and in doing so said blahblahblah I like to make experimental and inventive and fun items with characters on them BUT I also like to make items inspired by my original training in classical Japanese and east Asian forms and designs.

So, from my post title, what does Baroque mean?  I think:  fancy, decorated, full of flourishes and fun, STUFF ADDED ON:
The Baroque (US /bəˈroʊk/ or UK /bəˈrɒk/) is a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance and music. The style began around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe.^[1]


And what do I mean by ZEN then? To me it means integrated, whole, simple, cohesive:
There is a Japanese idea of Wabi-sabi related to Zen and design and wiki tells us:

simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.

So, keep that in mind as you follow my thinking here:
I was reading a book this week by Somerset Maugham called UP AT THE VILLA (wonderful:  buy it and read it and read it again then plan to get the movie when you can) which has THIS Baroque Italian garden (painted by Maxfield Parrish) on the cover.

I LOVE this sort of thing, the statues all over, little doodads here and there....esp. embodied in a Baroque ceramic item like below...which is WAY over the top, but makes my point, doesn't it? The painted scenery, the dog on top of the knob, the curlicues

SO, when you see my work, elephant on a pedestal or a sugar bowl with a doggy and little curlicues, You can SEE how much I love ADDING decorative details and going nuts...like this:

(pottery by Gary Rith)

But then I was thinking how sometimes in buildings or other designs you see all these added bits, and sometimes it fails to hold together as a single piece.  I have to be careful of that myself, not add all this crap to something so that it is ruined or looks stupid.  If you ADD decorative items, you want them to suit the design as a whole.

Which brings me to a whole different side of myself, as I say, the part that comes from my original training in Japanese styles.  In that case, you may be thinking of how the item is simple and natural, gentle and swooping curves and surface, what you might call PLEASING TO THE EYE.

Which of course I hope you see in my work here.

(pottery by Gary Rith)
SO, as I explained in my personal description of my own work, I get up in the morning and let my imagination take me where it wants to go.  I have a very restless imagination and work style, and have a very hard time with repetition and feel lucky to be able to indulge my different creative moods :)
(looking at the list for today, btw, looks like a dose of Japanese such as these for the morning followed by a helping of Baroque after lunch...I am not kidding:  I plan the day, but also constantly feel fresh and very interested in the possibilities clay holds!)

dog day afternoon OR going to the dogs....

You are all going to think that this is a blog about....dogs! But on other days you probably think this is a blog about...cooking! Or pots! Such is the diversity of my life, happily shared with YOU.

The last 2 days I have NOT done any pottery at all.... a variety of meetings and taking care of 3 household's dogs kept me busy and holy CATS I slept great!  Another 10 + miles Wednesday....anyway, that was just those 2 days, a perfect storm of dogs.  You asked yesterday to see pics of me walking the 2 big fluffy golden doodles, Yogi and his visiting older brother Fargo.  We worked out our routine and it was SO easy to just walk down the road.  You can see they are pretty interested in the neighbor's chickens...although the 2 of them are so good they just look.
My cute little beagle would have wanted to shred the chickens.  (she loves people though!)
I just love Fargo and especially Yogi.  I have never met such a well behaved and sweet young puppy like Yogi.  You would not be surprised to know Yogi's family is probably the nicest and most kindly anywhere, right?

Speaking of my cute little beagle, she is STILL a star when we visit the senior center on Wednesdays...
I am always so proud of her and how outgoing and fun she is!  Have an awesome day!

 

Yogi and Fargo...

You know I am a professional potter and...dog walker, right?
You havn't heard much about sweet little Yogi the puppy lately have you?
WELL Yogi is about 7 months old now (and enormous, this is him kissing me here) and his family had his older brother Fargo visiting this month.  Fargo is about a year older and HOLY SH!T he is huge and strong and full of energy.  They really like each other a lot, and you can see that Yogi is the most immensely calm and well behaved puppy to ever walk the earth.  Fargo is a BIG CLOWN.

The family told me they just go outside and wrestle with each other until they are exhausted.
I did not find that was the case.
I found that Fargo wanted me to be his pal and, well, spread the MUD along with the abundant JOY.
I have walked 4 large dogs at once and figured what would be easiest would be to give up on the backyard wrestling and simply get the leashes on them and hike up the road.
I am like, 125 pounds, a scrawny little person.  Each of them is like, 125 pounds* and STRONG.
But we had awesome walkies...people HONKED as we went down the road.
I think those 2 are enough though, it would be funny to add my own little beagle and walk the 3 of them but....2 is good enough :)
I have a pedometer on at all times.
Yesterday my own dog got her usual 4 walks.  I run at least 2 miles every day.  Yogi and Fargo got 3 walks. AND I walked another client dog that you know, Nook, the fuzzy white dog.
I had over 22,000 steps on the pedometer yesterday...which is ten + miles I think....
*I don't know what they weigh, actually.  A LOT.  Plus they are FUZZY GOLDEN DOODLES and their fur makes them look even bigger....

Time Warp Tuesday: You want TIES with that?

First:  the wife was laughing at yesterday's post so much she was CRYING.  It was, as you will recall, about HER, and had to do with peanut butter and...well, go down and have a look!

You know Jen runs Time Warp Tuesday, right?  A chance to look back at your old photos?

I was talking with Adam last week and he mentions tie clips.  "You don't use tie clips much in your business" and I am like
"I used to teach at a prep school.  It was jacket and tie ALL THE TIME even for teaching pottery".  I taught English skills, coached cross country and track and ran the yearbook, lived in the dorm and tried to keep teens from ____ and yes, taught pottery.  This was in the 90s before cell phones or computers everywhere, a good thing to try, but a lot of work even if it was charming like living in DEAD POETS SOCIETY.  This is from two different yearbooks, I am the dude in the 'stache:


In other news, we had the Chinese noodle dish I talked about last week AGAIN....3 times in one week!  I made it with coconut rice yesterday.  Do you know coconut rice?  SO easy so awesome!

--Cook 1.5 cups of rice as you normally would, except use a 14-15 oz can or coconut milk + add a 1/4 cup of water instead of just water.    That is it!
You can top it with toasted coconut, mix it in, whatever.  What I did instead of the toasted coconut was as it boils and simmers I diced and added one cup broccoli and a bell pepper and some curry powder.
It is SO thick and tasty, a great compliment to noodles!

Gary explains MEN AND women and some persnickity differences....

We have had a change around here.  I volunteered to take over a few of the wife's housekeeping duties, which will be explained here, and adds to what I do now, which includes the daily cooking and sweeping and cat litter patrol, scrubbing the terlet and vacuuming.  I will now do her dusting and some other things, saying "I will do them, but that does not mean I will do them well". THAT is the crux of the matter!

The wife is very careful about details. She is a bookkeeper after all, and if a button is missing on an old sweater?  Or  a small tear?  She will go out to buy a button and sew on a patch before donating it to the Salvation Army.  I myself as a guy would never even NOTICE missing buttons or a tear. Plus, of course, Sally's is getting it for free, right?  But she is virtuous about it, with an eye for detail.
The other day the wife is like "I cleaned all the crumbs out of the microwave!" with that triumphant wifely tone...which goes hand in hand with that tone of "maybe you should clean crumbs out of the microwave sometimes yerself!".  I am no dummy though, so I open the 'wave and to my masculine eyes it looks the SAME as it always does, but I enthuse "WOW! Amazing!".  One of those white lies men need to practice...

That is why we have changed her weekly household tasks.  The poor woman is a professional bookkeeper...and she is also MY bookkeeper.  Obviously people who notice crumbs in the microwave are good with numbers.  Her new weekly thing is now labeled SPECIAL PROJECTS.  So she does our books and...whatever catches her eye*.... like yesterday?  Scrubbing the dials on the stovetop with a q-tip.  That one had never occured to me either, and naturally I was like "WOW! Amazing!" *(I suspect special projects will probably include, some weeks, following her husband around and redoing the sh!tty job he did on the dusting and vacuuming)

But today the difference between men and women seemed especially clear.  The wife tells me with that triumphant tone "I stirred the peanut butter!", and you will recall that this tone has an element of "how come you never stir the peanut butter?".
I go through 2 jars of Wegman's organic chunky every week.  I did NOT know you were supposed to...stir it?  I thought you put it on things and ate it.
She continues "you know how its runny on top and thick on the bottom?" and I think to myself "well, it always spreads easily when it is a new jar but at the bottom is like old gorilla glue" and I thought it was just the way life was!  Full of surprises!
I fake her out with "How clever!  Stirring the peanut butter!" and she is like "it seperates, the oil stays on top and needs to be stirred down" and I am thinking "it does? Do they teach this in school and I was out that day?" but I fake her out again by saying "Wow! Amazing!" and I buy some time with "Hey, your hair sure is curly today!".  Just don't get her started on the subject of TP and whether it hangs toward the wall or....gosh, just so long as it is there when you need it does it have to be aerodynamically placed?  Anyway....


In other news, speaking of wives and marital cooperation, we made avocado quesadillas last night!  GOOD golly that is yummy... basically, take any filling you like, and this time we did salsa, avocado and roasted potato, fold a bit into the middle of a tortilla NOT TOO FULL and fold it like an envelope, adding a bit of cheese (we use vegan cheese) to each fold, so that when you fry it in a pan it will melt and hold together into those cute little packages you see on my plate...about the tastiest thing on earth!
Note the wife's CURLY HAIR....
I also had an aging zuccini....I make so much zuccini bread when they are ripe in summer, but soooo good anytime....
have a great Monday!

you do kinda wonder who these midnight spammers are...

I check comments in the morning and who are all these people leaving random comments trying to get all of us to buy viagra???  People are paid to sit there and check for blogs and leave comments like that?  I guess so....and if you live in China or Russia, its probably better work than digging ditches or flippin' burgers....
Check out some recent frog pots and have a GREAT SUNDAY!


(new pottery by Gary Rith)

therapy dog EXPLAINED

I was interviewed by the newspaper yesterday.  Well, they talked to ME because my dog Penny cannot talk.  We shall see what comes of it....I think the article would come out in a week or so.
The reporter is covering therapy dogs around Cornell and Ithaca....and PENNY specifically, if you can believe it!

 They have a zillion good pictures to use.  Here is what I told them:

A year ago my vet Dr. Jeanne Baines of Home Veterinary Care was visiting, and she has known Penny several years, and while she was giving Penny shots and other yearly pokes and prods said "Oh my goodness, Penny is so friendly, she should become a Cornell Companion and go to Longview as a therapy dog!".  The Dr. was noticing that despite the pain and indignity involved in a yearly exam, Penny was unbelieveably happy to see the Dr. and having a great time.  Penny is so friendly and outgoing, she loves the vet! She loves everybody.

I am good friends with Kerry Barnes, the community relations representative at Longview, and arranged visits there right away.  We had no idea what we might be doing, but the friendly recreation department there helped us get rolling.  I am a shy person, but Penny loves everybody and so from the beginning I have followed her. There are folks with apartments at Longview, and we start there, saying hello to anyone we come across.  She is listed on the daily activity board, when we are coming, and some people come to the lounge to see her.  Then we go down to see some of the folks who need more help with daily living.  I pick Penny up into laps when somebody is in a wheelchair, or hold her up to people who may have a walker.  She just rolls around and acts friendly.  People are so nice to us, Longview has got to be the most friendly place on Earth!

We were accepted as Cornell Companions in the fall and went through training.  As part of that, this spring we start visiting hospice.  There is a lot of training for me, as mandated by law, before we are able to visit there every week.  But Penny made her first visit there last week and was comfortable and having fun, so we will begin in April.

1.  Please tell me about Penny's background/training/how long you have had her and your connection with Cornell Companions/please tell me about yourself

Penny was around age 2 and had evidently just given birth to puppies back in 2007 when I was a volunteer at Tompkins County SPCA.  There were maybe 15 pit bulls or rottweilers or other big dogs back in the cages and the director said "this dog is special, she is living in my office" and opened the door and Penny came out and crawled into my lap and kissed me.  I adopted her during my training at the SPCA!  She was so sweet.  Nobody ever found her puppies, she was healthy but it did not seem like she was abused or neglected, so it was suspected that as a beagle, maybe she had caught a scent and RUN hundreds of miles...and gotten lost.

I myself am a full-time artist and have a flexible schedule.  That is how I am able to easily schedule volunteer visits.  I portray Penny in much of my work. Examples of my work are easily viewed at www.garyrith.com 

2.  Was it your intention to take Penny along on visits as a "therapy dog" from the very beginning, and if so, why, and if not, how did the idea come about?  How did the visits to Longview get started?

Please see above.

3.  Please tell me what you have seen first-hand as Penny visits with senior community members (maybe a good story that comes to your mind)
 

There is sometimes a person at Longview who does not like dogs, and I am careful to be polite and only talk to people who want to talk to us.  99 percent of people are glad to see her, she jumps into their lap or comes up to them to be rubbed.  There is one person we see every week, an elderly woman who does not seem to be able to speak.  I know who she is and make sure we find her.  I hold Penny up to her lap, and her whole face lights up with happiness!  She pats and rubs Penny like she has never seen such a wonderful thing before in her life.  That certainly makes your day, and Penny is just happy to see her everytime.  There is also another person we see every week whose memory may not be very reliable plus they have lost some of their vision, and she is also delighted to have Penny to rub.  Penny has a soft coat and big ears, and people enjoytouching her.

4.  Please tell me how you got involved in taking Penny to Hospicare and when that will start, and does Penny need special training for that situation?

See above in part.

Hospice requires for ME about 20 hours training, a physical and various shots.  All Penny has to do is show up and do her friendly thing.

As a Cornell Companion dog we have many options for visiting sites, such as Cornell Law School or other events at the library and so on.  HOWEVER, Penny does not like most other dogs.  Hospice works for us because a)  I can go to Longview then drive the short distance to hospice right after, visiting 2 places in one afternoon and b)  hospice only has one dog visit at a time.  Penny loves people but does not like most other dogs.

5.  Do you have other pets or just Penny, and what breed is Penny, and what is her age?

Penny is a 7 year old pure bred 13 inch beagle.  We have a large grey tiger named Spike who is her best friend, and she has some other dogs she likes here and there.  She has to get used to other dogs before she likes them, although she is A + with humans:  from baby to elderly she is the most kindly friend a human could meet.  According to Dr. Baines, our vet who also has a beagle, this is typical of beagles:  they are the friendliest to humans, but don't always like other dogs.
 

(new mugs by Gary Rith)

here in my car....

A rolling car cup.  I don't know if I will make one again for awhile..it took forever!  It has steel axles, otherwise all wheel thrown clay parts....it rolls, maybe not too well, but, you know :) ....

(rolling car cup by Gary Rith)
You will recall I mentioned I had dreamt a mug shape.  I made them in black, and the wife is like "make them blue and green!" and I did!  Seen here and available at my etsy shoppe! have a great weekend!

you will be forgiven if....

The wife and I see the ewer or are they urns? In the paper last week and we are both like OOOOH!
So, I set out to make my own version....spent all morning fiddling around, good GOLLY I like them.  Would hold soy sauce or oil or vinegar, with a cork on top!

we are on the board at Longview!

You know I love mama-baby sculptures.  Dig this PIG! With a piglet.  Or as customers always joke when they see me do this:  pig in a
blanket!

pottery by Gary Rith

You will be forgiven if you think there are many many pictures of me and Penny at the senior center where she is a therapy dog....I found out that there may be a newspaper article featuring us....we shall see!  She is such a little sweetie isn't she?

the last day of.....

WINTER.  Sure.  15 degrees and snowing out there now, and all week.  Yesterday midday it stopped long enough for all the snow to melt, sunny and warm, crazy March....not at all unusual, but, well, you do start to wish it would really and truly get warm!

I have a favorite winter hat.  It is my only winter baseball cap--because in winter, by its very nature, it is usually too COLD to wear a baseball cap, and I usually have a woolen hat AND hood.  But on winter days that are mild, this is my favorite!  You will be unsurprised to see that it has a dog playing in snow on it.
That thing goes into the CLOSET TODAY dangit, winter BEGONE!  Of course, there are what, 9? 12? baseball caps I wear in warmer weather....

This is the NWS graphic for Ithaca, no joke!

TODAY

Chance
Snow

High: 36 °F

TONIGHT

Chance
Snow

Low: 15 °F

THURSDAY

Chance
Snow

High: 31 °F

THURSDAY
NIGHT

Snow
Likely

Low: 23 °F

FRIDAY

Chance
Snow

High: 36 °F

In other news, Janet asks "I need a shark bowl for Ralphy, and could you make a shiba coffee cone filter and all???" Pottery by Gary Rith.

Time warp Tuesday: DEATH of an old friend....

You know Jen runs time warp Tuesday, right?  A chance to share old pics?  I have a different take this week.  A new pic, but a very verrrrrry old toaster....which caught fire and died yesterday.  My fire extinguisher was close to hand, but yanking the plug out of the wall did it.  Maybe it was just a VERY BRIGHT shortout that looked like flames?  No matter. It was over in less than a second, but never take cooking or appliances or anything for granted, right?  Be careful out there!

ANYWAY.  I have had this toaster 25 years!  It has served me well, and I thought it would be fun to trace its history with me, and it way predates my married life.
I bought it in Marshall Fields in Chicago in 1988 because it had a new innovation, a wide slot so you could toast bagels or bread!
At that time I was a graduate student in special education at University of Illinois, Chicago, and Marshall Fields had just redone the store, with a FINE new kitchen section in the basement.  I lived on North Broadway, a couple blocks from Lake Michigan.
It moved with me a couple blocks south, to Carmen St in 1990, then in 1991 we moved to Briar St near Wrigley Field...and me and the wife and toaster and my bachelor cat got together soon thereafter!  What a great little family...and there was, usefully, a tremendous bagel joint around the corner that I loved.
The toaster and I...and my cat Sammy....moved down to the wife's apartment in 1992 when we got married.  I had graduated with my masters by then and had taught since 1990 at Lighthouse for the Blind, which was quite near the wife's apartment, which was in Little Italy, surrounded by University of Illinois Chicago.  We looked out the window and had a million dollar view of the Sears Tower...a good 2 bedroom apartment for 350 a month!
We got into sourdough.  There were 2 Boudin sourdough bakeries in Chicago's Loop   and we would get these big and beautiful rounds.  My toaster turned out ideal, again, because it was not only wide for bagels, but could take really Looooooong slices too.  We added Petey the dog to the family.
The toaster and the rest of our little family moved to Massachusetts to teach in 1994.
Our village was so utterly small...but it had a liquor store and....bagel shop!  We got the day old bagels and kept that toaster busy, which remained true when we moved to New Hampshire in 1997.  By 1999 we had 3 dogs and 2 cats, same wife and SAME TOASTER.
There was a great bagel joint in Concord, NH...and again, we would fill our freezer with day old bagels and keep the toaster busy every day.
Fast forward to 2006....the toaster is dirty and OLD and full of crumbs, but finds a nice place to hang out on the counter here in Ithaca.
We are down to one cat and one dog...same wife, SAME TOASTER.
I do not buy bagels much, instead as you might notice I bake all kinds of things.  BUT, for example, with its dying breath, as it were, the toaster was ideal for toasting BIG and THICK slices of Irish soda bread...which I am about to have for breakfast...cold :(

In other news, I had a dream 2 weeks ago, and this black mug was in it.  Carved base, wide handle.  I woke up and tried to make it.  First is on the left, 3rd on the right....got it right the third time! (a friend saw them Saturday and asked how they differed, they look the same, and I said "the third one is a little taller and a little narrower at the base, more like the one I dreamt--potters have a DAMN good eye for sizing things up, like, maybe also carpenters etc)  I LOVE this mug...I added to the review I went to yesterday and plan to keep it (after all, it was in my dream!).  The first 2 make a nice pair, for sale now with other groovy items at my etsy gallery!