arts & crafts show

Don't get your hopes up, no pictures. I went today to the Old Depot organization's arts & crafts show (whatever the exact name is, I forgot) here in Black Mountain, NC.

It was great weather, hot and sunny, but not too hot. And I personally liked the fact that the crowd wasn't too heavy. The artists probably did not. I mainly browsed the pottery, and the many water-colorists. There were jewelers in abundance, and a few house/yard type crafts. The work was everything from good to expert...and prices were pretty accurate. There were also some really low prices, probably geared for the economy.

Silk scarves, hand painted, just $12. Raku vases, gorgeous fire-licked colors, just $15.

And the watercolors were super, mainly because I'm a closet watercolorist. I'll never come out, because I can't do what those artists can. So I really admire the brilliant colors, the control on one hand, and the looseness of the flowing paint on the other.

I'm kind of in the dumps. First David Caradine died this week. I didn't know I cared, until I noticed myself moping around about it. I did love Kung Fu (mainly on re-runs for years).

And I'm still getting over the shock of Dr. Tiller's murder, which Starhawk put in proper perspective to me as an act of terrorism toward all women...saying the same old mantra "your bodies do not belong to you (in spite of the law) and those doctors who offer you a choice will be killed, which also translates as a threat to all you women." I am so tired of women's civil rights not counting in this culture (in any culture?)

Add to that a plane crash in the Atlantic, and I just feel so sad.

Why? People are on the news having many different horrible things happen all the time. Today I loved Sally Beth Shore, our minister, saying that she looks at Happynews.com to find a sunny side to things.

I think it's partly that I'm judging my own art harshly today. I kind of have an idea, (inspiration?) but when I look at what I've already made, I don't feel inspired to move into the next step. What I've already made is a lot of hodge podge. Trying out so many different things, it makes my head spin. Different styles too. And when a piece is finished, and I live with it for a while, I usually decide it's not as good as it should be. There are a few goddesses which I enjoy having around. And a few mugs, bowls, platters, vases, etc. I'm so glad I've made them.

OK, now I'll quit while I'm ahead. And I'll let the goddess in her many manifestations take care of women's issues for now...and perhaps after I have some pizza I'll be more satisfied.

B

a rose is a rose...

I joined the many people enjoying the roses at the WNC Arboretum on Sat. These came out pretty nice, with colors that only the camera saw. They didn't look quite so surreal when I was looking at them!

I really don't know what happened with the background turning blue like that, but it sure makes the yellow rose look good, I think.

I have a pot of Hens & Chickens that a friend gave me...so it was nice to see all these varieties.

Bonzai!

New friend!

Mt. Mitchell day trip

There were some pretty wild (?) flowers alongside the road, but not many places I could stop to take pictures. I skipped all the "scenic overlooks" last Friday.

It had been raining for at least 3 days and finally we had some sunshine, though there were still clouds hanging around. I wish I'd had a chance to capture some of this water to bring home, but just after taking this pic, I saw a sign saying I was now in the Asheville watershed, and couldn't legally even stop beside the road any more.

That was ok, as it was a nice steady drive and I finally figured out how to have the side windows both down and take pics through them, or in this case, hold the camera out the window over the top of the car, and hope it wouldn't be too cock-eyed crazy...because the cloud was so neat right over the field between me and the next mountain crest. I did have a bumble bee who flew right in the window once, landing in my hair...so I stopped pretty fast, pulled to the side of the road, opened the door right after the car that had been behind me passed by, and shook her outside. We were both in shock, you'd better believe it...since she'd falled down inside my glasses next to my eye when I opened the door. She and the glasses fell out on the pavement...then she recovered and took off. I said, see, aren't you glad I've been so good to all your fellows this spring while they ate nectar from my azaleas and cherry blossoms!

I started out going to Craggy Gardens, but it was pretty dull, no flowers yet, and no view to speak of because of clouds. So I just kept going (thanking heavens the road was no longer barricaded) to Mt. Mitchell. Here's the first tunnel on the way.

And here's the actual construction that was still active where there had been a landslide a couple of years ago. The Parkway had been closed in this stretch ever since I moved here in 2007. So I was estatic to have a chance to drive straight up from Swannanoa. 36 miles got me there!

My trusty little Toyota.

This is looking back down the path that leads up to the lookout platform on top of Mt. Mitchell. Believe me I was out of breath and stopped for lots of picture taking while dealing with oxygen deprivation up there (for me anyway).

I thought of Tim Perry, who is about to hike the Mountains to Sea Trail...and thought this must be a place he'd be passing by ...the highest actually...as it was right off the path going up to the observation platform.

So was this little trail. I think it's the one I went down last year which has a little spring. I'll have to go back and check it out!

The final leg of the path was pretty steep... pant pant pant...

And of course the poor Fraiser Firs are all dying back from algelid (or however it's spelled).

Not sure which lake or reservoir is depicted from on the platform...but there sure were lots of valleys and mountains to see.

And a nice little map of the state with each direction given. There are also 4 completely mapped panoramas with details of each mountain and town you can see...but they are really more fun when you're actually up there...so I'll let you go see them yourself.

This is the profile of the platform...

and here's the ramp that leads you up to it.

The next highest peak is right next door to Mt. Mitchell.

And of course I had to prove I actually got there!

Further down the road, I was able to see the Burnett Reservoir, which holds my drinking water. The recent rains have meant we are now at a normal level for this year, but the previous years drought means we still have a deficit.

This was rain water pouring down the mountain.

I finally painted one of my slab flower pots...it's full of lovely herbs. It's also full of lovely memories of my visit to my son while he was at Penland.

I'm so glad to have this blog to share my pictures with you...and to save them for myself also!

more details on our German venus

Once again I can't cut and paste into this site...argh. I gues that means to quote another article or blog, I have to retype it, or do the link thing...which I haven't learned how to do yet.

So my correction to the details of the latest oldest venus figure is...
there's a ring at the top, rather than just a missing head. She never had a head...or at least her body has a ring as it was found, so she was hanging in some way...perhaps a pendant.

Second correction is that she was made of ivory, not stone. I missed that in reading the original details.

Comment: this is exciting, that ancient goddesses are eliciting comments from others also!

The latest Venus...

is only a bit over 2.4" high. Since she's missing her head, that might have made her around 3" originally. Stone. Carved with other stones and bones and antlers!



Forgot to give you that detail when I gave you the picture.




And I found several pottery goddesses in my research! No pictures, so I'll be pushing my own creativity to come up with her image.



In Sumeria, Mami (also known as Amadubad, Aruru, Ma, Mah, Mama, Ninmah and Nindum) is the potter creatrix, using clay to form 7 male and 7 female figures, which then are given life. As Babylonia took power over Sumeria, her name was changed to Aruru the Great...but the story was the same. And through the many recorded cuneiform stories, (on clay tablets) her name became Ishtar, Inanna, Ninhursag, and Mammitu.


Originally all pottery belonged to women. "The art of pottery is a feminine invention; the original potter was a woman. Among all primitive peoples the ceramic art is found in the hands of women, and only under the influence of advanced culture does it become a man's occupation" (Briffault "The Mothers" 1927.)



Native Americans of the Southwest US had Clay Woman and Clay Man...mainly as part of a creation story. They are kachinas of Spider Woman's parents, and wear masks with white faces and red eyes. This is a dance/pantomime which the kachinas act out, where Old Man is dancing with a stick while Old Woman is making a pot...and so on. The story moves into the clay figures that represent every kind of animal...thus creating the actual ones. Clay figures are taken to be the seed from which the real objects grow.



The use of pottery for functions in the home are the places where she, the goddess of pots, must have resided. When sculptures have another purpose, they represent something else besides what you see...which means symbols were being used. For the archaeological finds, they go with lost stories.


Who was our goddess of pottery though? There doesn't seem to be any reference to that womanly deity who first made the wonder of clay become stone. It's just another thing that archaeologists may have skipped over, but eventually we will find the first pots...after all, they've found the early spear points. And of course I'm a potter, not an archaeologist, so there may be the "first/earliest pot" already. Once again, I'm sure willing to learn.



And oh, how fickle she (the goddess of pottery) was. For any of you who have had a beautiful pot fail, your hope that is dashed by it splitting, exploding, or just drooping into uselessness...think of all the failed pots that our foremothers had to deal with. No wonder there would have emerged a deity who might be asked to give the creations her blessings.

Who's the goddess of pottery?

This wonderful carved stone form is 35000 years old, just announced in AP last week as the oldest human figure found. Guess the goddess culture is affirmed...though of course there are lots of folks saying it's just a fertility figure. Sure, and a lot more.

I've been thinking, a woman once took a blob of clay, formed it into some shape or another, and left it in the coals of her cooking fire...perhaps she dropped it. And later found it had fired into stone hardness.

Well, it probably took lots of experiments, and of course it must have been either given great hoopla for someone doing something experimental...or perhaps the culture booed it and she had to do it in secret. Who knows. And who cares.

But making pottery was certainly one of the major efforts that helped us become a civilization (if that's what we call it). Storage and cooking jars...ability to keep water, wine, beer, etc.

And at some wonderful point, the pottery wheel was invented.

OK, we sure don't know whether a woman or a man did any of this. I imagine our cave woman was making a coil or a pinch pot, and turning it round and round, and a watching young man (or woman) got the idea to put a plate together with a stick which became a wheel where the pot turned. Which interestingly also happened in the Americas by the indigenous peoples, who never turned the pottery wheel on its side to create transportation on wheels, like the cultures which evolved from the Middle East did.

At any rate...if goddesses (and gods, little "G") are best known for the wonders of the natural world, and some of those which were man or woman made...it stands to my reasoning that a goddess of pottery should exist.

So I'll look through some of my mythology and goddess books, which encompass many of the cultures which had a diety who was given credit for, or at least was in charge of, special skills. Bridget, for instance, is known for smithcraft, poetry and healing.

Now I do know where goddesses do exist today with potters. There are few wood or gas kilns fired without little creatures bedecking the tops that are kiln gods and goddesses, put there for successful firings. These little dieties are asked to watch over the process of earth turning into stone in intentional shapes...and I'm not sure how many of the little goddesses and gods ever get fired themselves. They probably do, because older kilns often have a dozen of them perched on top. Well, that was once the case. I don't know this is a fact, because I've only seen about a dozen kilns in my limited travels. How about you? Do you know?

I'll let you know who may be the pottery goddess later this week. I just finished forming Bridget, and have Inana waiting to be made. She needs to definitely have some Cuneiform writing around her skirt, since her name comes to us thanks to writing in clay!

goddesses and flowers

The dogwood blossoms were beautiful a couple of weeks ago...

I don't know what kind of tree this is...but it was so bountiful it made me smile.

An experimental glaze came out with great motling in dark green. I'm going to use it again! Vase is about 6" tall.

This mama vessel has front and backsides...rather Rubenesque you might say, or well endowed by another expression. I choose to call it "the goddess of not-a-size-1"

The glaze is a gift from my friend Karen's explorations...clear under nutmeg, and a bit of Matt Bronze Green around the top. (about 9" tall)

One of the male potters called this a belly pot...mmm.

About 7 inches tall, a small vase with accents in red. Thanks, Maureen, for showing me the fun of Amber with Matt Bronze Green over it!

This little violet pot is now sitting on my patio with an herb growing in it...

Peonies...

The first to finally burst out of the pod-buds of Peonies.

The mountains are strung with spring greenery, Rhododendrons bursting out all over as Azaleas drop their delicate but garish blossoms. What is with this fuscia color here in Apalachia?