le sigh

I have been super busy trying to get everything together for the end of this week.  in an attempt to refire my functional ware to a slightly higher temperature to get it a little more vitrified, i came into the kiln room to discover that the kiln was no longer on, as well as 2 other kilns.  i checked and flipped the fuse back to the on position, but it was still too hot to open.  so this morning, i was finally able to open it only to see the pots had semi collapsed and turned almost black.  there are no longer bubbles in the glaze, but the idea of it being usable is no longer valid.  It's actually kind of interesting.  i'm not really upset, but i'm not really happy either.  there's no real feeling of serendipity.  i think i'm more irritated than anything.  at least i'll save $ on shipping, seeing as i'll only be sending back a plate and a pitcher.  sad face.  i have such awful luck with firing.  on the plus side, at least i have pictures documenting what they looked like before the final firing.  i was joking with some of the girls about possibly displaying it anyway and giving them different titles like, "the last supper" and "burnt toast".  they have a nice sculptural feel, even more so than before.  it's too late to make more, so i'm not going to get upset about it, just find a way to embrace it. 

thanksgiving in denmark

Me and Marvin!

It's 3:21am here, i just came back from working in the studio and am now in my jammies enjoying a cup of well deserved tea.  it was a very busy day today.  i woke up a little late, so i had no time to go into the studio until around 10pm.  i spent all day cooking thanksgiving dinner with marianna, meaghan and wenda.  I knew we were getting a turkey, but when i looked out on the back patio this morning, there was a white bag with turkey legs sticking out.  The turkey came, minus its head and feathers.  it still had everything else.  there wasn't really anyone else in the kitchen involved in cooking but meaghan and me.  meaghan didn't seem like she was okay with it, so i googled how to gut a turkey, suited up and went in for the kill.  i spent about an hour with that turkey spread eagle in a pan.  I decided to name it after it was cleaned up.  He was called, Marvin.  I figured after an hour like that, we should be on a first name basis.  He was delicious about 5 hours later, and we all gave thanks to poor Marvin before we cut his 7 kilo delicious self into pieces. 

Marvin!  NOOOOOO!

spread it on!  U-S-A!  U-S-A!

green bean casserole on the left, scalloped potatoes on the right.  extra stuffing in between. 

The dinner itself was amazing.  Marianna made bread and from scratch pumpkin pies, Wenda made from scratch cranberry sauce, Meaghan and I collaborated on some from scratch stuffing with cran raisins pine nuts and some wine, I made a from scratch green bean casserole and scalloped potatoes, and Meaghan watched over and took care of Marvin and made a squash dish and some apple pies and prepared peas.  Erna also made a yummy salad that had grapes, apples, sour cream and whipped cream.  the whole thing was sooo yummy.  It was awesome to show everyone what an american thanksgiving is like.  Everyone was amazed at how much food there was.

After dinner was over, i wondered into the studio to get my glaze on.  i was there from about 10 till 40 minutes ago.  it's been a very long day, but an extremely awesome one at that.

Skol!

marvin!  NOOOO!!!

work and thanksgiving

sculpture i'm working on

     I finished the top of the piece i'm working on.  I've been noticing that i get really tired when i work on it for more than 4 hours at a time.  by the time i stop working and look around at everyone else in the studio, i just don't feel the energy or the focus to properly communicate.  it's like i'm too focused for way too long.  I'm still waiting for this kiln i fired to cool off enough to open it.  it's a huge tease to have it say 200, since it's in centigrade and not fahrenheit.  it's stalled out around 150 for a few hours now and i'm getting impatient.  I have to reload it tomorrow for a glaze firing and i still have to put black slip on the ware and glaze it.

the whole house has this nice bacon scent going on.  Liz's boyfriend Henning is preparing us a nice Danish christmas meal.  It's duck with prunes, pork, caramelized potatoes, boiled potatoes, gravy, red cabbage, and almond pudding with cherry sauce for desert.  it smells great.  The other american girls thought it'd be fun to make thanksgiving food tomorrow.  We're expecting a 7 kilo turkey to arrive at some point in the day.  I looked up how to make green bean casserole without having cambells soup, a recipe for scalloped potatoes, and a recipe for stuffing.  It's going to be a busy day.  i'm going to have to stay up and get all my glazing done tonight.

A photographer is supposed to show up later in the week to photograph the work we have, green or fired.  i'm hoping to have my sculptural piece ready by then, at least ready to fire.  yesterday was the 3 week marker.  3 more weeks here in lovely denmark.



skol!

it's been a while

After many nights of randomly getting together in the kitchen and having late night cheese and wine binges, we finally proposed an official wine and cheese night.  We all brought a cheese, some wine, and some crackers.  We had invited Donato to dinner since he has been bringing us fruit.  he showed up yesterday around lunch with a bunch of boxes of pre sliced melon (which went well with cheese/wine night).  There were all sorts of cheeses: goat cheese, brie, gorganzola, gouda with chilis, incredibly smelly cheese-- it was a smorgasbord.  We started off a little early around 8:00, and it went until late in the night. I really want to do this again back in the states, even if it's just 2 cheeses, a bottle of wine and one friend.  It's an adventure in taste and good conversation.

I went to the second hand store again to see if they got anything new and because they're having a half-off christmas sale.  I scored myself another plate for my collection of kitchen plates.  This one is all black and has the latin title of skaelskor on it.  i looked up what it said, and after a little sleuthing, i've come to the conclusion that it's commemorating the unification of skaelskor as a town under queen agnes.  It's made by the same person that made this other plate i got a week ago that commemorates the 25th anniversary of a union here in skaelskor.  i'd say i've landed some pretty sweet souvenirs considering there's not really anywhere around here to buy such things.  I'm pumped about having danish plates for the kitchen wall.  So far, I have Chile, Seoul, Panama, Nicaragua, Paris, Turkey, Greece, bunches of Italian plates from a few regions, and now Denmark.  My kitchen is slowly becoming a tour of the world.        

 

"S. Civitatis: Schelveschore"

I also found and purchased a set of 12 tea spoons (tiny little spoons, not measuring spoons) with a checkered pattern on their handles.  I've wanted a set of these since i first saw them in Italy.  I really liked the design, and the price was right.  Most of the stuff in the thrift stores here is insanely cheap. 

I've been working a lot recently, thus the lack of bloggery.  I'm starting to get to the top of my sculpture.  I'm hoping that i'll get it sealed off tomorrow so I can let it set up and build the bottom the next day and get to the detail work.  I'm planning on high firing it in oxidation in hopes that it will be easier on the clay and prevent cracking and slumping.  I've already gotten my test of the earthenware bisqued and it's in the test kiln right now with some clear glaze on half of it.  I brushed on and sponged off black slip on half of the tile to see if it will add more depth to the color of the clay when fired to temp.  I decided to go with the matte clear glaze as well--it's shiny enough to appeal to my inner raccoon and dull enough to keep me from going insane looking at it.  I have a general idea on how i want to glaze the earthenware, but no solid plan as of yet.  i'm going to make the final decision when the test comes out.  I had to have Anna help me program the kiln because the controller was entirely in Danish and i had never even seen or used a controller like it.

I'm loading my first bisque with a few other people tomorrow.  hopefully that kiln won't be so hard to figure out.  I keep getting confused by the temperatures because i'm not used to working in Celsius.  At least cones are universal, haha.       

Day two of attempting to make sculpture from thrown parts.  I smashed everything i made today and decided that the stoneware reclaim was not accommodating my needs.  i'm going to have to take back the 2 bags i got today.  it was REALLY groggy...  my hands are now very smooth from throwing with it.  I saved this weird thing i made because it was too interesting to throw out.  perhaps i'll fire it and leave it as a vase here--it's not worth bringing home with me.  I got really frustrated to the point where i just had to stop and leave the studio.  i didn't want to make a bad vibe for everyone else.  I went back to the house, showered, laid down for a half hour, got up and made myself a 3-egg omelet, ate half a bar of chocolate, and decided to go back to the studio and clean my space and all of my tools off.  I got a bag of royal copenhagen porcelain and threw a large and lumpy cylinder with it.  it's been over a year since i've thrown porcelain.  i missed the buttery quality of it, how it likes to move...  sigh--i missed it.  i have an idea for tomorrow on a different approach to working.  i may have to make some sort of temporary armature, but i think it will work.   i have an idea of what i want in my head, i just really hated the stoneware clay.  I couldn't carve it at all due to the high amount of grog in it.  i've always kind of hated this type of stoneware.  it's what i learned to throw with, but it's not something that makes me feel nostalgic.  i've always had better results with other types of clay (with the type of work that i make).  maybe at some point i'll learn to love it, but i am not having any second thoughts about rejecting it while i'm here. 

I was very angry and frustrated earlier.  as i was walking back to the house, i thought about the other times when i felt this way while working and remembered that those are the times when i finally had a break through.  i just have to keep pushing on and good things will happen.  Tom Muir came to do a workshop for the metals department at SIUE while i was there and talked about the frustration his students have when learning how to do things or when they're having trouble with their projects.  his response to this was to say that it's just a piece of metal-- you're better than it, so why let it make you angry?  Clay is the same way.  I can do this, i just have to retrain my mind.  After a point, I would get tired of throwing pots all the time.  Learning how to use the wheel for sculptural purposes would probably inform my way of working with pots as well.  I know that all of the hand building i've done in the last year certainly has.  I can't expect to learn Danish in a day, and i can't expect to automatically know how i'm going to do this in one either.  I have a good feeling about the days to come.

Other happier mentions for the day:
We had a really good curry dinner tonight, courtesy of the lovely Wenda and majestic Marianna.  Chicken curry, vegetable curry, home made naan, and basmati rice.  We had a movie tonight as well: The last days of Anne Frank.  It's actually quite interesting watching a movie about the holocaust while in europe.  there's a detachment from it that I have due to my being raised in the states.  It's entirely different.  Liv was telling us about how her grandparents nearly lost everything that they had because they were part of the resistance against the nazis.  It feels like a direct contrast to how people in the states hardly ever mention pearl harbor anymore.  It makes me feel very disconnected to our own history.

It's never a good idea to leave a giant bar of dark chocolate within reach of your laptop.  thought i'd mention that.

the nightlife of skaelskor...

I was invited by Liz and her local boyfriend, Henning, to go out for his birthday last night.  We went to the Hit Club, which was in the basement of an old municipal building.  i don't understand why, but the skaelskor night spots love to be well lit.  it's like hanging out in your parents' basement, you can see everyone and everything and there's no mystery.  Besides that, most of the people in the bars look like they're either 15 or in their 40's.  i suspect a lot of the people closer to my age must have left to go to copenhagen long ago.  It's so off putting to be in such a well lit place when you're used to bars being loud, dark places.

I ended up meeting an Irish guy from Derry, named Connor, and we talked about politics and religion and generally chewed the fat.  Him and the group he was with are here in Denmark for 3 weeks as a part of a college project.  they actually played as a band for the bar (they're music students).  He gave me a bracelet made of stones that had little lacquered-on pictures of the virgin mary, then later he gave me his other bracelet, which was a rubber "1Life" bracelet, like the live-strong bracelet things back in the states.  I asked him about the bracelet with mary, because he just randomly put it on my wrist.  he said it brought him comfort, so i tried to give it back, but he said he didn't need it anymore.  he was a lot of fun to talk to.  It was interesting to hear his interpretation of the protestant-catholic war and how he felt about it.

Today, i cleaned my bathroom and the room i'm staying in--swept and mopped the floors, opened the windows to let the fresh air in.  it was a very nice day, cold but a tolerable kind of cold.  I figured i'd go ahead and get it done before meaghan comes back.  it'll be a nice surprise for her.

I helped make dinner again last night.  My partner, Anna, made lentil soup and home made buns, and i made a huge pot of cabbage.  It was great that we had so much food, because our guest artist Richard Launder showed up a few weeks early.  We all signed up for meeting times to discuss our work with him.  I've never had such an amazing talk with a visiting artist before.  He was so insightful and would glean so much from listening to me talk.  He understood what i was talking about, and just had a million different suggestions about all of it.  They weren't suggestions like, "i think your work could be better if you changed how this looked", but more like he listened to my complaints about working and started suggesting alternate methods of how to get what i want.  I didn't have to feel like i was ashamed of using my personal vocabulary when talking about my work-- he understood and actually enjoyed it.  As of tomorrow, i'm going to get another type of clay, and start throwing pieces to create sculpture with.  I hadn't really considered it as an option because the other times i had done it, it just looked crappy.  Talking with Richard reminded me that it was because i was still stuck thinking like a potter, and that i need to think about the wheel as a sculptural tool, not a tool to make finished pieces.  I had the same issues to get around when i first started making handbuilt sculptures--i kept making flat bottoms, but since i had to keep working in that vain, i figured out a solution to get 3d forms.  I just have to wrap my mind around the idea of making individual components to create a whole composition.

We also talked about art destruction theory by gustav metzger, which apparently is the root of people smashing guitars on stage.  Apparently, Pete Townshend was in a class in college with Metzger as his teacher, thus why he smashed his guitar on stage.  i was completely unaware of the theory. 

Dinner tonight is wild hare.  I've never had it before, and it was great watching Melina carve up the hares.  They still had their tails!  a few pieces of shot fell out while she was carving the second hare, so i'm going to have to be easy about chewing it to avoid breaking a tooth.  It smells awesome, and has been cooking all day.  She soaked it in milk over night, i'm assuming to help ease the gamey taste.

until next time.

UPDATE:  I found one vertebrae and one buck-shot pellet tonight during dinner (which was amazingly tasty), and Richard had his lecture tonight, which was amazing as well.  besides ceramics, he does gorilla performance art as well as recorded performance art. 

copenhagen!

sooo tastey

We went to copenhagen today.  Woke up at 7, left the house at 8, stood on the bus for half hour, stood the whole time we were on the train, about an hour and 10 minutes, then walked/bussed/metro'd all around the town.  We started out taking the bus from central station to a district where there were many galleries/work shops and stopped first to get coffee.  I got an americano, no milk or sugar added and was able to drink it straight-- it was absolutely amazing.  The coffee had a nice natural sweetness, and was hardly bitter.  I think i liked it better than italian americanos.  We went around the block, and traveled around the edge of the next block where we looked at steen ipsen's workshop through a window.  absolutely awesome work.

We stopped at a small indian restaurant for lunch where i got some Lamb spinach (i'm pretty sure it's lamb saag), and that was quite tasty.  It was pretty different from the saag back in the states.  it was basically the same thing, but had more spice to it, a nice amount of heat and a richer flavor.

signage for christiania rules

after lunch, we hopped the bus to another part of town to see the ann linnemann's gallery and louis hindsgavl's exhibition at gallery christoffer.  After, we hopped another bus, caught the metro, then walked 15 minutes to Christiania.  That is an interesting place.  it used to be a military camp until the 70's, when it was squatted on by hippies.  Now it's practically a free state.  there were signs everywhere saying "no pictures".  i took a picture.  the sign on the left tells why, haha.  there were people on either side of the walk way selling hash in the open on tables.  the houses ranged from scant shacks to cute little cottages.  we stopped at a nice cafe and got some chai to warm up, then went to a bar called "nemo world".  It featured beer made with hemp blossoms instead of hops, as well as aquariums right over the ladies room stalls.  you could look up and watch gold fish swimming around.  it was a pretty nice bar, but there were no actual doors for the entryway, so there was a terrible draft.

fishies!

After the bar, we tried a restaurant in christiania, but it was full, so we caught a bus to center city and had some vietnamese cuisine.  i got rice noodles and spring rolls.  yummm.  we walked to the train station afterward.  at that point our group went from 10 to 5.  we got our tickets for the train and started the long trip home--once again standing the whole time.  the train got held up for 10 minutes because there was another train on the tracks ahead, so the conductor called in a taxi cab for us, compliments of him, since we were going to miss the last bus to skaelskor.  it was nice to sit in the taxi the rest of the way home, all warm and toasty like.  it was a really fun day.  i hope we go back again to see more. 

skol!

Central station at night.

Awesome day!

I woke up late--around 11.  I figured the rest of the day i'd be grouchy, but it was actually quite nice.  We had our studio cleanup at noon. i had to reach into the drain and unclog it. But that weirdness melted away when i found out that it was time to take pictures for the exhibition poster.  we had talked about it yesterday, and all agreed that we'd paint our faces with porcelain slip.  The poster is going to have all of our pictures lined up next to each other with white slipped faces. 

we went out back of the studio with a tripod, camera, slip bucket and a white shirt.  It was awesome.  i crouched down, scooped up a hand full of slip and put it all over my face and in my hair.  It was all warm, which was nice because it was pretty cold out.  i'd recommend doing it at least once, it was just an amazing experience.  We were all in amazement of how the slip made us all look completely different.

Dinner tonight was awesome.  We all got to meet Liz's boyfriend, and then he cooked for us!  He made multiple chickens in the oven with vegetables, a gravy, accordion potatoes, and roasted vegetables on the side.  I'm starting to feel spoiled--meat, 2 days in a row.  I'm moving up in the world. 


I also finished a plate and 2 oil bottles today.  It's been a nice day today.  Tomorrow is copenhagen.  This country-side denmark refugee is goin to tha big city. 

 

meat!

new hat! 

Got a lot of work done the last couple days.  Made up some sketches last night for things to do today.  i designed some pouring bottles for oil and a plate.  About mid day, after i threw the bottles and the plate, i got a little gloomy and wanted to get out of the studio.  I wondered into town and stopped at the second hand stores to see if there was anything worth while.  Ended up getting a shirt ($12) and a hat ($5).  Then i went over to the super bruggsen and bought a 4-pack of guinness and a bottle of brew dog's 77 lager.  If you haven't tried the 77 lager, i'd recommend it.  it's realllllly good! 

I felt a lot better after my trip to town, so i went back into the studio and got to work again.  I took pictures of the stuff i've made in the last couple days.  My greenware shelf is starting to fill up.  As usual, I've posted the pics to my picasa account.  I didn't finish the bottles yet, and the plate is still just a plate.  Tomorrow i'm going to pull the handles for the bottles and hand build some spouts, then try out my plate idea.  i want to trim the plate, then try to stretch it out a little to make it uneven/more interesting, then alter the rim.  i'm not entirely sure it's going to work out.  i won't know till i try. 

it's starting to get crowded!

We have to clean the studio floor tomorrow because we can't do it on friday due to the copenhagen outing.  then at some point, we have to take pictures for our exhibition poster.  we've all agreed to put white slip on our faces.  I kind of want to just dip my face in the slip, as well as a little of my hair, and then smear a line of earthenware under one eye.  hopefully it will be a warmer day tomorrow.  I was really expecting it to be freezing here, but the weather is actual quite mild.  it's almost like the oregon coast.

 We had an artist lecture last night with Nina Horn, which was pretty awesome.  She showed us a lot of slides of her huge pieces that she fires by wrapping them with fiberfax and making the piece into its own kiln.  pretty cool stuff.  She builds a firebox, then builds the piece on top of it with pieces of paper separating the sections, wraps the whole thing in fiberfax, and fires it.  once it's hit temperature, her assistant actually takes off the fiberfax and she throws sawdust and sometimes salt at it.  her pictures were amazing.  She was also a big part in getting gulderagaard started.  Very nice woman.

a large pitcher i made yesterday

We had meat for dinner tonight, a rare treat.  It's been mostly vegetables.  Maria, a Danish network resident made a roast beef from a french recipe and some sauce for it as well as a salad with red beans and rice, and home made bread that tasted like rye bread.  it was awesome.     Any time anyone asked what Maria was making for dinner, the answer was just "meat".  

another day in lovely denmark

Been working hard today.  busted out a large pitcher, 2 steins, and a large coffee cup.  they're all slipped and cleaned up inside.  I'm going to make and put handles on after dinner, and maybe throw some more stuff for tomorrow. I've been amassing a bit so far.  trying to get a grasp on how to make this faster, but i think that just doing it more will help.  i've already gotten a bit faster since i started the motif.

I tried to do laundry today.  apparently the setting on the washing machine was switched to what i can only assume was "really hot and a long time".  I noticed that my socks were a dingy color, then i noticed that a lot of it was that way...  then i found a bra that i thought was someone else's.  nope.  it was mine.  the fabric came unglued, and the bright peach color had turned completely purple.  that's about $25 down the drain.  sad faces all around.  I melted the inside of a bra when i was trying to dry it with a hair dryer in Italy, so I figure this is the start of a long tradition of loosing a bra every time i visit a foreign country.  Luckily, i went to the grocery store earlier and bought a thing of guinness.  I will at least be able to mourn my brassiere properly.  Skol!

Work and play

A jolly time

I had a wonderful time last night!  It was Sventer's (svet-er) last dinner with us before he left, and he bought a lot of wine for dinner.  Through the night, we drank, and after dinner, Sventer brought out his guitar, and we all sang along to songs-- traditional native songs, james taylor, and many others.  we were all up till one, and it was a fantastic time!  It was a wonderful dinner, and just a wonderful time all around.  I slept in an extra hour today because of it.

here's a video I took of some singing.  I think it sounded better in person than in the recording...  haha

I worked a good part of the day.  I had to destroy the sculpture i was working on because the clay was cracking terribly.  I would be working, then see daylight through the side of it, and they were long vertical cracks...  I decided to use the clay i have to throw pots, something i haven't done in a long time, and I've been having a marvelous time with it.  I've been making pieces with what i think of as smoke plumes on the sides of them.  I'm trying to relax my throwing style a little more and just have fun with it.  It's been pretty fun so far.  I can get stoneware on monday and start a new sculpture.  

a large bowl i'm working on

It was Liv's (the Norwegian resident) turn to cook tonight.  She mostly stayed in the studio while her boyfriend cooked dinner with Marianna (a Danish network resident).  It was a fantastic meal.  He made Spaghetti Carbonara, a wonderful plate of roasted seasonal vegetables with coconut milk, brussel sprouts, and Marianna made a salad.  It was very quiet at dinner, as Sventer was gone and 5 other people went to Copenhagen to a concert.  I get my room to myself since my room mate was one of them.

Cups!

After dinner, it was my turn to help clean up and do dishes along with Jessica (another american resident from woodstock, NY).  We talked for a bit and thought it would be fun to go into town and check out cafe skaelskor, the local bar.  We recruited Erna (an Icelandic Network resident) to go along, but only after we all went and worked till around 10pm .

Cafe Skaelskor is a very small and very well lit bar.  Their juke box features a lot of "hits of (insert decade here).  apparently haddaway was insanely popular here...   they also seem to love dolly parton and CCR.  No one really talked to us for the first hour, then one person began talking to us and that opened the flood gates...  In the middle of talking to this danish woman named Sally, I was called over by this towny Danish man and asked if i was scottish.  I had purchased a really cute skirt at the Red cross second hand store, and he thought it was a kilt and I was dressed like a scottish person.  It was an odd question, but then it got stranger because he asked me another question--even more off than the first one.  He said,"Uh, do you wear your scottish garb in the traditional scottish way??"  lol, It was funny, because i think he thought he was being very clever, but I already knew that traditional scottish kilt wearing doesn't include things like underwear... So yeah, I basically was asked by a bar regular if I had no underwear on.  He was very amazed that I was american and that i was there.  any time he brought it up (he brought it up a lot) he had to punctuate it by not just saying "the states", but saying "the fucking states".  Strangely enough, apparently the Danish people know what snail trails are...  go figure...

I didn't really talk to Henny (the kilt questioner) much after that... i was informed later by Erna that in the northern countries, the size of a man's chain is supposed to indicate his sexual prowess or masculinity.  Henny had on a very large silver chain.  I guess bar crawlers are the same in most countries after all, haha.

same cups, different view. 

I was lucky to have another local start talking to me at that point.  Lars was a pretty cool person.  We talked about Amon Amarth, Metallica, lars frederiksen and the bastards (coincidentally a half Danish person), the marx brothers, laurel and hardy, old movies in general and cultural stuff.  By far the highlight of the local people so far.  While i was talking to him, the goofy but nice guy that walked me to the main house the first night i was here showed up and kept trying to talk to me.  Lars is convinced he fits the profile of a serial killer.  Funny enough, everyone who had to talk to him that were native Danish also had a hell of a time trying to understand him.  He does know enough english to string together the words, "Tracy, you make me crazy".  Funny since I haven't really said much to him at all.  He was caterwauling down the street while we were walking back home.  I didn't know what he was singing, but he was screaming something, then he'd get louder and scream "tracy!" as part of it.  I was being serenaded, haha.  It was a fun time.  

I have to make dinner with Wenda (UK Network resident) tomorrow.  I went to the grocery store earlier today, and the whole trip took 2 hours because i had a hell of a time finding a particular kind of cheese.  I think I spent a whole hour staring at cheese packages trying to figure out if it was a relative of what i wanted.  I never figured it out, so wenda and I just decided to buy this large block of cheese that was called "Thor" and had a celtic knot on it, as well as a picture of thor.  Bad ass cooking demands bad ass cheese, and no one, except odin, is as bad ass as thor!  I ended up having a headache, and we were all joking around about how staring at cheese gives me headaches.  I never had too much of a problem with the packaging of food in Italy, because a lot of the words are pretty close to what they are in english, but here, it's every man for himself.  I bought a thing of lunch meat yesterday and didn't know what it was, and so i asked a danish resident what it is--I bought a lunch meat made of cow tongue.  It's pretty good.  she told me that it's what a lot of kids get sent to school with for lunch here.  I guess it's sort of like the Danish equivalent of bologna, except it's way better quality and actually tastes pretty good.

Went into the town today!

I have a little time before dinner, so I thought i'd get to blogging.  Today was one of those "it's pretty awesome, but there was shit" days.  I discovered that the brick clay i'm using just does not like to be hand built.  I got this huge vertical crack on my piece right after lunch.  It seems to be pretty temperamental about how wet/dry it is.  you can't use strait water on it, as it wants to immediately start cracking.  I've already bought a lot of it, but I don't think i'm going to return it.  I threw 2 cups with it last night, and they survived all day today, so i think i may use the rest of this earthenware to make pots with.  I haven't really been able to make pottery in a year, other than a set as a christmas present for a friend.  I don't think of it as a distraction, as i do have some time in between adding coils  to the sculpture.  It's more productive.  I really like the cups I made though.  I pushed out little nodules from the inside, then tried pushing back in from the outside to get more depth.  the result looks a lot like a smoke plume.  i'm fairly certain i could get a more clear image/meaning out of this technique.  I want to try to marry my sculptural concepts with my pottery, so muscle tissue and other such things are probably going to find their way onto/into these pots.  It's actually pretty exciting for me.  I really missed throwing. 

My beer cooler- the vindue

After lunch today, I went into town to run some errands.  I went grocery shopping, and picked up some food stuffs, as well as 2 boxes of tea (strawberry and lemongrass and a variety pack with earl grey, british morning breakfast tea, and 2 others).  I've been drinking a lot of tea since i've been here, which is funny because i normally don't like it and don't partake in it.  I decided though that with every adventure, one must learn new things and bring them home with them--drinking tea being one of those things.  I'm not regretting it so far.  it's actually quite nice to sit with a hot cup of tea when it's so chilly out.  I also bought some more lunch meat.  I have no clue what it is.  I think it may somehow be fish...  I'll find out tomorrow! 
 
While i was perusing the beverage isle, I happened to spot a 4-pack of Guiness tall cans at a wonderful price!  It came up to $4, so I went ahead and purchased myself some.  I pulled one off the pack when I got home and put it in between the windows in my room to chill it.  I just checked on it a little while ago, and it's feeling ripe.  I'll probably have it with dinner, as we're having a cabbage dish.  fitting. 

The view down the main strip

I worked in the studio a little more after I came back, and went back into town with my room mate.  We stopped at a pharmacy, and she showed me the second hand stores off the main strip.  I didn't find anything in the first store, but i ended up buying a really awesome skirt and cute yellow sweater at the second one.  The thrift stores here actually have really nice clothes for really cheap.  It's surprising what you find. 

Darkness and the fog

this won't stay clean for long...

We had the official group orientation and tour today.  I am the new inhabitant of an awesome 2 table space with a sink conveniently located adjacent to it.  I bought some clay today, and I’m pretty excited about it.  I decided to use earthenware, and the earthenware they have here is local clay which they use to make bricks.  It’s a little different than what I’ve worked with before.  It seems very plastic, but likes to get "cracky" when you put water on it.  I tested it for shortness, but it passed.  I’m a little confused, but have decided to keep with it anyway.  I’ll just make some slip and use that instead of straight water.  It's nice brown clay that fires more red with higher temperature, and looks a lot like a nice chocolate icing.  I want to learn while I’m here, so what better way than by using the local clay and learning a new way of working?  I'm excited about it. 

Our side of the studio

I walked into the main part of town by myself today, without a map, and actually got to where i wanted to go without getting lost.  Not too bad for only going into that part of town once.  I went to the store to get myself a coca cola.  I should have picked up some chocolate while i was there.  There are whole isles of chocolate in the stores here, and all native brands.  There is also a lot of liquorice.  The Danish apparently also love their licorice.  I tried to eat a liquorice piece shaped like a key offered to me by Kimye.  I thought it was good at first, kind of creamy...  then it all went terribly wrong when i went ahead and really started chewing it.  it was like all the things i find horrible about American liquorice all came together to form a posse in my mouth bent on destroying all future possibilities of trying anymore Danish liquorice.  I'm going to "man-up" and try a different flavor at some point.  I wouldn't want to deny myself something I may like. 

this is 4pm. 

I had been noticing that it has been getting darker earlier every day that I've been here.  It got dark at 6pm the first day i was here.  The day before yesterday, it was dark around 5:30, and today it got dark at 4.  My roommate Heren was telling me that it's going to get darker sooner every day until sometime in mid-December.  I'm wondering how early it will get dark by then. 

It was a nice sunny day earlier, but the fog has started to move back in.  There’s a nice mist in the air.  It’s to the point where the fog is so thick that it sounds like it's raining when you go outside, but it's really just the moisture dripping off the trees and into the dead leaves on the ground.  It actually feels like it's raining when you walk underneath some of them.  It's a frequent dripping.  It's all very strange.  It actually reminds me a lot of the Oregon coast, and makes me feel a little nostalgic.

The group is supposed to make an excursion out to Copenhagen soon.  I'm pretty excited about that.  We're going to some museums.  They said it's a tradition to go on Fridays.  I think i can live with that. 

I finally signed up to make dinner for the group.  I'm doing it on Sunday, and I'm going to attempt to make gnocchi for the first time.  I’m going to boil the potatoes the night before to save some time.  Wenda has partnered up with me for that night, and she'll be making something Italian as well.  Party!  I've really been enjoying these shared dinners.  So much good food, and always so different.  There are people here who can just make bread without looking at a cook book or using a measuring cup.  It's awesome!  Tonight we had potato and beet soup, salad, pasta salad and home made bread.  I'd never really eaten beets, other than on the side of a salad on a rare occasion.  I think I've had them more in the last 4 days than I have in my whole life.  For the record, that magenta colored soup was amazingly good.  

Travel trouble

I had totally forgotten to talk about the actual trip here.  everything started off well.  got to the airport on time, flight left as scheduled, AND i got to sit in the very front seat and had amazing amounts of leg room!  but, as the plain got closer to newark, there were tons of clouds, and i noticed that we were late.  It was then that they made the announcement that the weather had come 5 hours early, and that we weren't going to be able to land there, and that we were going to be landing in Cleveland, Ohio.  I had been the victim of a Nor' Easter storm.  We went to cleveland, and since i was the first to get off, i was one of the first to talk to customer service.  At first, the lady was telling me that i could stay the night, take a plain from the airport to Franfort Germany, then to somewhere else, and then to Copenhagen.  No.  haha.  No no no.  So i asked her if there were any flights out of chicago.  lucky me, there were.  after hanging out for an hour at the desk, she was finally able to secure me with a ticket to chicago and a seat on the next plain to copenhagen-- i just had to wait 6 hours in O'hare.  Not a huge deal.  I hung out in the international terminal for a long time.  For about 2 hours, i sat at a gate where all the people were going to Abu Dhabi, so I kept getting that Garfield song stuck in my head.  The actual flight wasn't too bad at all.  I got a warm meal and some seriously needed sleep.  Navigating the airport at copenhagen wasn't too bad either.  i couldn't figure out how to use the pay phone there, as it had no clearly marked price on it, so i didn't call ahead to tell them i was coming.  I was able to exchange my money fairly quickly after i got my luggage as they had a place to do it next to the baggage claim.  They have everything in the airport marked in english as well as Danish, so getting around wasn't a big deal. A lot of the people here speak english fairly well, or know just enough to help you. 

train station at copenhagen airport

Buying a train/bus ticket wasn't so bad either.  The station is directly attached to the airport.  I had to wait a little over a half hour to catch the train.  While i was waiting, i met my first Danish person, who was wearing an old school metallica sweat shirt.  he tried to ask me which train was coming up, and i couldn't tell him, then he said he had tickets to see metallica a long time ago, missed it and cried for a week.  he was very serious about his metallica. 

the train ride was a little over an hour long, and when i made it to my stop, i missed my bus.  I couldn't read all the signage because the letters were too small.  it drove off right when i realized it was what i needed.  So, i had to wait almost an hour for the next one, and met a funny surrealist artist while i was waiting.  he was carrying an empty picture frame, and had to hang it off a part of the bus stop so that his hands were free to eat his food.  he was very friendly, but he didn't seem to speak english.  i found out later that he does speak english, but not very well. 

slagelse bus station/train station

A 20 minute bus drive later, i arrived at the skaelskor bus station, and it was very dark outside, and very cold.  there was no one around, and the bus driver did not know the way to where i needed to go.  i got very lucky that one of the locals that got off the bus with me took pity and tried to lead me part of the way.  he really couldn't speak english very well, but we tried to talk.  he ended up drawing me a map since he didn't know the words to direct me.  it was when i was following his map that i ran into the artist man again, and he started to speak english and walked me the whole rest of the way to the main building.  i'm sure my grandma and dad would be horrified to know that i entrusted my life to total strangers, but it was fun.  Strangely enough, it seems like strangers here are actually people and not like the strangers of the US.  People here use old school baby buggies and leave them outside of stores (with the baby in them) while they do their shopping, and when they come back, the baby is still there!  gasp!


I was sooo happy to be in a warm place when i finally got here...  And there was the smell of food wafting around the house.  they settled me into my room, and offered me dinner.  i showered to get the travel off of me, and sat down with the group and had a wonderful dinner.  I felt so homeless the entire day, bouncing between states and airports, living off of $8 sandwiches and $2.50 pepsis.  it was just a total relief to be able to be warm, where i needed to be and safe.  The erotic window treatments were a total plus too. 

Another off day

Since the majority of people showed up last night, today has been made into a day where we are free to run around the town and explore.  I went around and took pictures of the grounds today.  It's the first day i've been here when it's been sunny.  the last two have been foggy and wet.  I may be going into town to check out the second hand stores if someone will go with me.  I need a warmer/longer sweater for around the house.

My bedroom window treatments

So far, this has been a wonderful experience.  I share a room with an american girl, Megan, and a Korean girl, Hyerin.  All of the people are very nice.  Besides the aforementioned, there are people from japan, sweeden/holland, ice land, denmark, russia and britain.   there've been extra people here as well, here to use the soda kiln. 

The town is very small, but it's pretty nice.  there are 4 grocery stores, a bunch of thrift stores, and the wonderful bakery i mentioned  in my last post.  My room is nice.  it's the only room to have a bathroom directly attached to it.  apparently, there's a def artist who lives in it at least 6 months out of the year, and most of his art tends to be erotic.  he left these wonderful panels pinned to the windows.

The town name Skaelskor, apparently translates out to "dandruff crazy".  fun facts!

denmark

I apparently arrived one day early.  no one was upset about it.  i have a comfy bed in a nice room i share with two other girls.  the window treatments are tacked up pieces of paper with fantastical erotic drawings on them.  the grounds are beautiful.  the whole place used to be an apple orchard.  the gallery is inside of the old barn.  the studios are inside of the old stables.  the grounds are part of a park for the whole town.  today i went to a bakery and had a strange tasty treat that i can only describe as a fudge-praline filled chocolate burrito.  it was really heavy, and tasted very good.  it kind of looked like a chocolate egg roll.  I also went to the grocery store and did some shopping.  Vegetables and other good things to eat for breakfast.  had to play guess and check with the cheese and the lunch meat.  They have given the residents each a shelf in the closet for dry goods and a basket to place in the refrigerator for our cold food stuffs.  We are responsible for breakfast and lunch and then each of us has to cook once a week (or however it works with the amount of people) for the whole house for dinner.

We had a large dinner tonight of spaghetti and salad with bread.  it was very good.  There was a nice crumble and a cake for desert.  We watched bridesmaids last night, and tonight after dinner, we watched the nightmare before christmas.  It's been a very long day, and i'm pretty tired.  The girls have told me about a couple second hand shops here, and i kinda want to go see if i can find a nice comfy sweater.  the one's i've brought aren't good enough, haha.  nah, but really, i want one that covers my butt while i sit around the house at night.   it gets chilly in here.  It's been moist outside and partially drizzly.  There's mud everywhere.  we have to change our shoes into house slippers when we come in from outside.  i went and got a really cheap pair when i was out shopping today.  i couldn't stand how filthy my socks were getting from walking around the house.  I ended up sweeping the room i'm staying in, the kitchen, and the hallway/entryway area.  i've never seen dust like the dust that came up from that floor-- like the dust from the interior chambers of egyptian tombs.  I really like these house slippers though. the bottoms of them are filthy already.

i guess tomorrow is business time-- ordering stuff, getting studio space assigned, etc.  I'm going to bed now.  i'll amend this later and add pictures or something.


pictures of the whole trip can be viewed on my picasa  account, or if you're a friend on facebook, i've been loading them on there as well.

And now for something completely different

Mowgli doesn't want me to leave

It's 1am, and i'm about to head to bed.  Going to get up around 6 to get ready for the insanely long trip i'm about to make.  It took me all day to pack.  As of right now, my suitcase weighs 44 pounds.  tomorrow i'll have to reweigh it again after i put all my toiletries in it.  50 pounds or bust.  I'm pretty sure my back pack is going to weigh a ton as well...  It has 3 sketch books, a folder, a novel, a travel guide, and soon, my lap top and charging cord. 

This whole thing seems entirely surreal.  I can remember going to my first NCECA in Pittsburg and looking around at all the tables.  Project Network was one that I visited with, and drooled over.  that was over 3 years ago.  I would have never imagined in a million years that I would get the chance to participate in this.  Young, naive, and hopeful-- I've come a long way.  It never fails to amaze me how things just tie together.  I don't believe in religion, but sometimes it seems like there is a such thing as fate. 

HELLO FIRENZE!!!  TAKE IT!

This will be my second trip to Europe this year.  I went to Italy in June for 2 weeks.  That was definitely amazing.  The only laundry facility i had was a holiday inn bathroom sink and a hair dryer (which i accidentally melted a bra with, haha).  The hair dryer only went so far, so in the morning, the scene on the left is the result.  I'm sure my uncle loved having to see that.  Luckily, there are laundry facilities where i'm going, and time to do laundry.  It will be an interesting time to compare to the Italy trip, as the Italy trip was planned to the 9's and everything was scheduled.  There was hardly enough time to totally take in some of the places we stopped at.  The longest we stayed anywhere was in Venice, which was about 4 days.  This trip to Denmark will have me staying in the same place the whole time and making day trips to museums and local studios.  Everything's going to be all right.  Until next time.  Cheers.

Final Countdown

Implements of Artstruction

Today was super busy.  Woke up early and immediately started digging through the storage unit for my tools and equipment for the trip.  Since i had to dig through all of my boxes within the last month due to the lost passport debacle, I was able to find everything fairly quickly. 

I got everything cleaned off and remarked.  I couldn't help giggling about how it all looked when i laid it out for the picture.  My tools look like that of a dentist or a psychopath.  I had an odd experience while i was rinsing everything off.  I guess it's been so long since i've touched wet sloppy clay, that i started smiling uncontrollably when i felt it on my hands.  Sort of like that fun feeling you get when you put on a pair of roller skates or hop on a bike after it's been forever.  Silly stuff like that always gets me giddy.
 
I decided that I wasn't done with my slide presentation after all, and made a trip out to SIUE to take some pictures of the studio.  I ran into a few old friends and got to see some of my profs.  It was pretty fun.  lots of smiles and hugs.  It made me all wispy.  There are so many new people, but it seems like the conversational topics are still as colorful as they were when i was there... Still lewd, still crude.  I think I left a footprint. 

I wasn't there for very long, but I got to spend about 10 minutes talking with Paul Dresang about the trip and life in general.  We talked a little about what he's been up to, and he showed me the barbed wire he's been working on for his sofa piece.  It was really nice seeing him again.  Although, I noticed that he took down the bumper magnet i put on his storage cabinet ("Real Men love jesus").  I'm guessing that with all the renovation/construction going on that most of the fun little quirks that make up the studio character had to be put away.  I'd heard that OSHA came through and dropped the hammer on the department as well.  No more cool whip or cottage cheese glaze containers in that studio! 

I finally finished the slide presentation, for real this time, and have been working on my list of things i need to remember to bring.  I have also been looking up the basic info i'll need for while i'm over there.  I was relieved to find out that the trip from the airport in Copenhagen to Skaelskor is only going to be $23, and includes a 2 hour journey involving a train, a bus, and my legs.  Not too shabby.  It's going to be pretty awesome, because my flight gets in around 6am, I'll get to Skaelskor hopefully by 10, and have some time to unwind and explore the grounds and the town, and possibly make some awesome new acquaintances. 

Tomorrow will probably be spent shopping for some last minute stuff, packing, printing out copies of things i will probably need, going over/refining sketches, and arguing with my dad that his power converter can't handle the load of a hair iron. 


 Turns out, internet is a whopping $4.68/week, so keeping this going is looking pretty darn feasible. 

"No cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer."