Happy Samhain / Halloween!

And in closing for the evening . . .

Happy Samhain / Halloween!


"Halloween, related to ancient festivals of the dead, is a time when we can give special thought to our departed loved ones, keeping their memories alive, and to our near and distant ancestors, sustaining our feelings of continuity." ~ Paul Harrison


http://naturalpantheist.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/celebrating-samhain




Hope everyone had a wonderful evening.

Spirit cat

Sage kitty has been chasing ghost Smokey kitty all night (Sage hardly ever plays, only used to play with Smokey), up and down stairs and down the hall, and all the other animals are fast asleep. Makes me cry happy tears to know Momo is still around in spirit.

Cleanse And Rejuvenate, Open The Veil

I just did an energized sage smudge cleansing and spirit welcoming ritual for Samhain, with my rain bell talismans and spirit stick. It smells of smoked sage, sweet grass and herbs now, with a crisp autumn breeze blowing in through the open windows.  This is my zen.

Halloween Lights Show

Sharing the Halloween Lights Show from Edwards Landing, because it is just neat.

Aaaannd...  Gangnam Style!

Must keep arting

Finished posting my handmade pottery for sale on Etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LeopardWolf


Will upload the rest to DevArt over the next day or so. Juggling several art projects in progress right now, have things to ship, and more stuff to make. Ugh deadlines!

Need to finish processing video from Can Do Canines graduation and post all that good stuff.

Need to go work at the studio to finish a few greenware clay pieces, but that'll probably wait until tomorrow after the workforce thing I have to go to.

Hurricane Sandy

After dealing with Hurricane Katrina, I am thankful we no longer live in Long Island. The area we used to live in NY is flooded. It's hard to see images of these places I know in NY and NJ, with all the storm damage and flooding. My thoughts and prays go out to our family, and my friends and their families who are still on the East Coast. Stay safe out there.

Special days

Today: Bob Ross's birthday, and Ember and I's assistance dog graduation with Can Do Canines. How cool is that? Exhausted now. More later.

Halloween Awareness With Kids

Sharing in hopes of spreading awareness. :)

"In a few days, a lot of creatures will visit your door. Be open minded. The child who is grabbing more than one piece of candy might have poor fine motor skills. The child who takes forever to pick out one piece of candy might have motor planning issues. The child who does not say "trick or treat" or "thank you" might be painfully shy, non-verbal, or selectively mute. If you cannot understand their words, they may struggle with developmental apraxia of speech. They are thankful in their hearts and minds. The child who looks disappointed when he sees your bowl might have a life-threatening allergy. The child who isn't wearing a costume at all might have SPD or autism. Be kind, be patient, smile, pretend you understand. It's everyone's Halloween. Make a parent feel good by making a big deal of their special child."

Stormy Weather, Windchimes, Clay Happy, Frog Happy

Was awakened before dawn this morning by thunder and flashes of lightning. Lulled back to sleep by the pattering rain. Been enjoying it all day and evening since. Really need to get some new windchimes (the ones I have had for years finally broke). I am missing hearing them dance in the wind.

Random happy - All of my glazed pieces survived! They turned out amazing! Will share pictures later. Probably all but two will be for sale.

Another random happy - There was a tiny tiny ( inch or less ) frog by our door tonight. I think it was a spring peeper, or some other species of uber tiny frog.

Off to inventory stuff, gather a few items for charity benefits, and do a little reading before bed.

Quick update

Been busy the past few days with more art things. Plan to try and get pictures and post some things on Etsy later. Werewolf chronicle went a lot better this week, as far as productivity and progression of the scene was concerned. Now it's time to finish creating backups of data, duplicate on each of my external drives just in case, and format this beast of a Franken-comp-u-tor, and upgrade the OS.  Praying it goes off without a hitch.

F-disk, format, reinstall, do-dah, do-dah.

Leonidas, you're where?

So, we totally had a Leonidas moment tonight.

I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and suddenly Mike appears in the doorway . . .wearing a bed comforter like a cloak, wielding a swiffer wand like a sword in one hand, and a pillow like a shield in the other.

He got his gameface on and proclaimed: "THIS IS SPAAARTAAAA!!!"

I was laughing so hard it hurt.  He escaped before I could get a picture.  ::Shakes first::

I haz a LOLcatz.

Raven wanted to help make dinner.

Raven antics

Raven cat has a strange fascination with water. I am constantly having to fish cat toys ( and sometimes other random objects ) out of the dog water bowl after she deliberately drops them in.

Zumbrota Iron Pour 2012 - Videos

Here are the videos of the iron pour event.


This is a full length recording of the 2012 Zumbrota Iron Pour event.

A shorter compilation of various footage filmed during the 2012 Zumbrota Iron Pour event.

A compilation of various footage of Savage Aural Hotbed playing during the 2012 Zumbrota Iron Pour event.

Enjoy!

Zumbrota Iron Pour 2012 - Photography

Recently the ancient art of metal casting came to Zumbrota, Minnesota and the sparks went flying!



Setup for the evening events and getting molds ready.

Here is an image of some of the recycled metal that was smashed and used.

Foundry artists from KRL Metals rolled into town with their fiery furnace. They began prep-work to melt the iron, which was salvaged from radiators that once heated the historic state theater. Later in the evening that iron was poured over various types of carved and casted molds designed by local participants, producing custom designed iron-cast artworks and enabling these individuals to take home a piece of the historic state theater and local art history.

"You feel like a giant baked potato in those suits. . ."
— Kelly Ludeking

My camera accidentally switched modes when I took this one. It was so strange, I couldn't help but keep it.

The firey festiveties were complimented by the spectacular industrial flavored music of Savage Aural Hotbed, who creates their compelling sound using conventional and "found object" percussion instruments, bass guitar, electronically modified horns and vocals, and power tools. With up to four people drumming, they provide visual, as well as aural excitement with their high energy rhythms, flailing arms, and flying sparks.

" . . . the sound of steel and rust, oil drums and hubcaps, screeches, sparks, grinders and gears finding new fury and energy . . .
It's also fun, it makes you smile to see a man make music with an electric saw . . ."
— Scott Simon, National Public Radio


The precise, percussive sound of Savage Aural Hotbed is inspired by many influences, most notably Japanese Taiko drumming, and the cutting-edge (sometimes literally, they use saws and grinders on stage) innovation of Industrial. Other influences include diverse styles such as modern minimalist, and many ethnic styles.

Food and drinks were provided by Bridget's Cafe and the Covered Bridge Restaurant.

A shot of the front of Crossings.

It was a lot of fun, and my iron-cast design turned out amazing.

Me working on my design.

It went from looking like this after I carved it . . .

To looking like this!

Special Thanks To:


The Zumbrota Area Arts Council

http://zaac.org



Crossings At Carnegie

http://www.crossingsatcarnegie.com




Kelly Ludeking And His Team Of Foundry Artists From KRL Metals

http://www.krlmetals.com



Savage Aural Hotbed

http://www.savageauralhotbed.com




Bridget's Cafe & Covered Bridge Restaurant




Video will be posted next!

Busy me is busy

I have been soooooo busy over the last week, between dog training geekery, processing the video and images from the iron pour and pictures from clay studio, doing art stuff for upcoming shows and holiday sales, writing needed content for different things, researching and reading on other stuff, juggling job search crap and workforce shoving mandatory stuff at me, oi vey!

Not enough time in the day.  Or the night. Or any of the hours between.

My poor thumb and index finger on my right hand have been split open for over a week now in different places. When the weather changes this time of year this happens to my hands and feet because it is so dry here, and no amount of lotion or moisturizers I use seem to help ( possibly a side effect of my other medical stuff ). Constantly using my hands for art stuff, especially the wet clay stuff has been rather painful. I have tried doctoring it up with bandages and pain relief Neosporin since the tears are so tender, but they just keep splitting open. Since liquid bandage does nothing and wears off too easy,  as a last resort I am going to clean them out real good with disinfectant, and then superglue the damned things and see how long that lasts.

Wish we had a fireplace to snuggle in front of with some coffee or cocoa, listen to the soft crackles as the smokey scent drifts, mind drifting watching the dancing flames and glowing embers. I guess I'll just have to settle for a candle.  The cooler weather is finally coming back, and it feels sooooooo goood, since I overheat so easily these days, stupid broken body.  I think I am one of the only people left in Minnesota still running around in shorts.  The wind here makes it feels so much colder than it actually is.

The video from the iron pour came out better than I expected. I kept one version full length, only editing out very minor things ( like people obliviously standing right in front of me and the video recorder, or the one instance where someone ran into me, Ember *and* the tripod and nearly sent everything crashing to the ground - thank Gaia my reflexes were good that night ).

Full length still turned out to be about 50mins long. So I took that and made a condensed version that is about 12mins long, showing the highlights of the evening. I also made a separate video of some footage I got of the band playing throughout the evening and closer to the end of the event, before I ran out of tape.

I plan to post these videos and pictures of the iron pour, and pictures of clay stuff sometime tomorrow.

Want To Be More Focused? Look At Pictures Of Cute Baby Animals

Some interesting research has come to light that indicates that looking at pictures of baby animals could actually improve your concentration and focus.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/09/29/want-to-be-more-focused-look-at-pictures-of-cute-baby-animals


So next time your boss catches you looking at those cute pictures, just tell them you are trying to improve your productivity, and share the link!

Art And Dog Geekery

Had an exciting end of the week, with more overflow of awesome going into the weekend.  Thursday was pottery class, and our attempts to save my dried out mishaps by rewetting seems to have worked! At least it worked well enough that I was able to somewhat trim and shape and not utterly destroy the pots.  Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that they survive the bisk fire without cracking, and then I can glaze and finish them off.

Saturday was amazingly fun because it was the day of the Zumbrota Iron Pour and live concert offered by Savage Aural Hotbed to compliment the blazing festivities. I got to design a sand cast of my logo, and later in the evening it was among many that had molten iron poured upon it. The metal came from recycled parts from the old city theater building. How awesome is that, to have a part of art history to call my very own?  I go to pick up the finished piece tomorrow.

I have a ton of pictures from the fun art stuff and some video to process, and hope to have stuff posted over the next few days.

Sunday I spent almost the entire day getting my dog geekery on. I audited several different classes held by an amazing local trainer who I plan to apprentice under.  I am so overjoyed with this opportunity, I'm afraid I may have reached levels of blathering idiocy at points. It's just *so wonderful* to discuss psychological, behavioral animal stuff with someone and not have their eyes glaze over. Thanks again Sara!

Also played a fun new game. It involved a slinky. It was confirmed that I make a good animal and can be clicker trained. Also, slinky.