Here is the turtle and the two pots I did last Friday. 
I sit next to Mike and I really like the gorilla he is making.I'm so glad I pulled the finger out and started this class. It was just what I needed.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
SCHOOL
Here is the turtle and the two pots I did last Friday. I sit next to Mike and I really like the gorilla he is making.I'm so glad I pulled the finger out and started this class. It was just what I needed.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
COLOR PENCILS
I'm very happy with my life at the moment with ceramics class, drum class and painting the days are pleasantly varied without being stressfull.This picture was inspired by a small sketch af a corner of a Tibetan thanka that I once made, but it evolved into something very different.
Monday, February 25, 2008
TURTLEMANIA
I have been to ceramics class a couple of times more and I really like it. Our current asignment is to make an animal. I chose a turtle and had the rough form finished in today's class. This is the picture I'm working from; next class I'll take pictures of my sculpture to show you.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
NEW COLORS
I could not resist this box of pastels that was on sale for only $9:
Here is my first drawing with pastel:
Here is my first drawing with pastel:
Saturday, February 23, 2008
OIL PASTEL
"A peep at a parallel universe" was painted in 2000 and I like it better today than I did then.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
2nd DAY IN SCHOOL
I wasn’t that happy about the second school day. I guess it was my own fault because I had lunch in the sun and chatted with Liz, the assistant.
The assignment was to make a teapot with a theme, but I missed out about the teapot because I was late, and my team decided for Outer Space as theme and they decided on a design and I just sat there like a brute beast. Julian was the one who had the idea and the design and he more or less did the whole thing, and when I saw the other teams’ teapots, I thought ours looked like it was made for a doll’s house. I had made a small extra UFO and a moon that both didn’t have anything to do with the teapot but looked more like two cookies.
Well, see for yourself:
The teacher says “OK!” after every sentence, or is it “OK?” These OK’s are still rattling round in my head, OK!
Clean your tools, OK!
Here is clean-up after class:
On the home front, Eric, at his studies and Leela at her computer:
The assignment was to make a teapot with a theme, but I missed out about the teapot because I was late, and my team decided for Outer Space as theme and they decided on a design and I just sat there like a brute beast. Julian was the one who had the idea and the design and he more or less did the whole thing, and when I saw the other teams’ teapots, I thought ours looked like it was made for a doll’s house. I had made a small extra UFO and a moon that both didn’t have anything to do with the teapot but looked more like two cookies.
Well, see for yourself:
The teacher says “OK!” after every sentence, or is it “OK?” These OK’s are still rattling round in my head, OK!
Clean your tools, OK!
Here is clean-up after class:
On the home front, Eric, at his studies and Leela at her computer:
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
FIRST DAY BACK IN SCHOOL
Monday was the first day of the spring semester and I took my first ceramics class. It was a clear and warm day in Santa Cruz, the air was balmy and fresh and I left early to find parking, not knowing how much trafic there might be; I don’t want to be rushed.
There were thousand of young and younger people everywhere around the college. I was a bit nervous, but it also felt good to be there and be starting a new adventure. I find my class room and settle in; first there is one boy, while the rest is girls, then, just before class begins, a whole groupe of boys arrive. The one who was there first is a lanky latino guy with a long horsey face, but not bad looking. His black eyes are bright and lively and a catch them checking me out a couple of times.
We each get a lump of clay and have to sculpt a bird in flight. At the same time the teacher talks endlessly – more than an hour straight – and in great detail about what is expected of us.
“Expectations is the partner of disappointment,” she writes on the blackboard. (I hope we will not disappoint her).
She warns us: we mustn’t think we can just take the class without attending and doing the work! And cellphones, they must be turned off, OK! They disturb other people, OK! You are no longer present here when you talk to someone who is in another place. So, turn them off, OK!
I concentrate on my bird. For some reason I have the impression that it has to come flying towards the one who looks at it like it’s half out of the wall. It’s looking ackward but I don’t know how to do it differenly, so I push on without listening too much to the stream of rules and their reasons.
My neighbor is a beautiful dark haired girl. She shows me a strange little lumpy figure that makes me feel less bad about my own, but when it’s finished it reminds me of the golden Pre-colombian frogs that I saw in the museeum in Costa Rica; its primitive strength have a childish charm.
After an hour and a half we put all of our works together on a table and the result is an impressive variety of forms and ideas. Then we are dismissed and I go and get a woucher for clay and a toolkit.
It looks like it’s going to be fun.
There were thousand of young and younger people everywhere around the college. I was a bit nervous, but it also felt good to be there and be starting a new adventure. I find my class room and settle in; first there is one boy, while the rest is girls, then, just before class begins, a whole groupe of boys arrive. The one who was there first is a lanky latino guy with a long horsey face, but not bad looking. His black eyes are bright and lively and a catch them checking me out a couple of times.
We each get a lump of clay and have to sculpt a bird in flight. At the same time the teacher talks endlessly – more than an hour straight – and in great detail about what is expected of us.
“Expectations is the partner of disappointment,” she writes on the blackboard. (I hope we will not disappoint her).
She warns us: we mustn’t think we can just take the class without attending and doing the work! And cellphones, they must be turned off, OK! They disturb other people, OK! You are no longer present here when you talk to someone who is in another place. So, turn them off, OK!
I concentrate on my bird. For some reason I have the impression that it has to come flying towards the one who looks at it like it’s half out of the wall. It’s looking ackward but I don’t know how to do it differenly, so I push on without listening too much to the stream of rules and their reasons.
My neighbor is a beautiful dark haired girl. She shows me a strange little lumpy figure that makes me feel less bad about my own, but when it’s finished it reminds me of the golden Pre-colombian frogs that I saw in the museeum in Costa Rica; its primitive strength have a childish charm.
After an hour and a half we put all of our works together on a table and the result is an impressive variety of forms and ideas. Then we are dismissed and I go and get a woucher for clay and a toolkit.
It looks like it’s going to be fun.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
LOSAR
Losar is the Tibetan New Year, same as the Chinese, and I went to Vajrapani Retreat Center’s celebration today. They had prepared a fabulous lunch:
Chotak was there on one of his first outings from the hospital. He looked years older but otherwise he was unchanged. When we got to the telling of stories from the early days with Lama Yeshe, Chotak got going, mostly telling stories about himself. Fantastic things always happens to him, like in Kopan he saw a huge bird, a garuda or a phoenix, I guess. And in Solo Khumbu, when he meditated, a jeti (bigfoot) came to him in his cave and he chased it away with a mudra (ritual gesture) and a power word. Many times he has been on the edge between life and death, usually brought there by his wild living, and every time he miraculously bounces back. It isn’t longer ago than last October since he was apparently braindead in a respirator, and there is still a part of his skull on ice, waiting to be put back on.
Chotak was there on one of his first outings from the hospital. He looked years older but otherwise he was unchanged. When we got to the telling of stories from the early days with Lama Yeshe, Chotak got going, mostly telling stories about himself. Fantastic things always happens to him, like in Kopan he saw a huge bird, a garuda or a phoenix, I guess. And in Solo Khumbu, when he meditated, a jeti (bigfoot) came to him in his cave and he chased it away with a mudra (ritual gesture) and a power word. Many times he has been on the edge between life and death, usually brought there by his wild living, and every time he miraculously bounces back. It isn’t longer ago than last October since he was apparently braindead in a respirator, and there is still a part of his skull on ice, waiting to be put back on.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
TWO YEARS
A few days ago my other blog was eradicated, gone!
A good teaching in detachment!
The circumstances were puzzling: a couple of hours after I discovered that the blog was gone I tried to access it again and a Japanese blogger had taken my URL, which guaranteed him more than 5000 hits per day - the first few days at least.
This coincided with the two years anniversary of this blog.
I have somewhat neglected it lately, but I will try to concentrate on it now.
Here is my latest painting in oilpastel.
A good teaching in detachment!
The circumstances were puzzling: a couple of hours after I discovered that the blog was gone I tried to access it again and a Japanese blogger had taken my URL, which guaranteed him more than 5000 hits per day - the first few days at least.
This coincided with the two years anniversary of this blog.
I have somewhat neglected it lately, but I will try to concentrate on it now.
Here is my latest painting in oilpastel.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Friday, February 01, 2008
COSTA RICA
So, I have been slow at posting because I was traveling - two weeks in Costa Rica visiting with Fut, a friend from the good old sixties, and his wife Cruzita. Fut is a gourmet cook, and with this coming so soon after Christmas I am seriously in need of dieting! Here are some pictures from the trip:
My best butterfly picture.
Volcáno Poás
A pre-Colombian golden frog
Three boys at the market
Lake Arenal
Leaving Costa Rica
Hwy 152 - just before landing in San Jose, CA
My best butterfly picture.
Volcáno Poás
A pre-Colombian golden frog
Three boys at the market
Lake Arenal
Leaving Costa Rica
Hwy 152 - just before landing in San Jose, CA
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