Updates

Ahhh, classes are finally over. With summer classes being every day of the week the work load is pretty amazing with little or no time to do my own work. I now get a two week break to do as much relaxing as I can and try and get some sculpture made. I have two ghost ships in the works in the school shop right now (it has AC!) but my work has been punctuated by many other little tasks that have come up and need to be taken care off. So I get a few hours and then I have to run off, come back for an hour and then I am off again. Oh well at least I am getting something done. I would really like to get some metal work done , but with the 100+ heat indexes we have been having I am simply not going out to work in the shop.

I finally got my contract for the North Carolina show and after studying the images and layout of the space I think I have come up with a good idea for the installation. I am excited! Physical help will be minimal so I am thinking about something that does not have a lot of hanging from the ceiling involved. I will probably do a wave effect; boats coming off the floor, in a tightly knit grouping that waves up onto the wall and back down again and so on and so forth. Of course their will be houses in their as well, of course.

In the fall my teaching schedule goes back to two killer studio days a week, Tuesday and Thursday all day with Wednesday being my office day. Friday many times ends up as a meeting day. I have a lot of work to do this fall, the early part devoted to this big installation in North Carolina and the later part of the winter and early spring devoted to the show in Florida. And somewhere in there will be the museum commission for up in Jackson. Whew! I am tired just thinking about it. It was interesting when I was talking to my students about my job and was explaining to them about how making work and having exhibitions was actually part of my job and that if I did not keep up with it I could lose my position. Most people don't understand that. They think that us faculty members have some cush life, teaching a few classes, making some "fun" art. Most people have no idea of the pressure we are under to perform, so to speak. Luckily I love what I do, even if the pressure is substantial, my love of my work and making that work outweighs all the negatives.

Here is a PR image from the Majestic National exhibition, you can see my work on the bases in the background.