A night at work...

June 5, 2012
8:40 pm overcast, rain showers, still daylight
Great night shift so far! Loading from an 850 on dyke 3 in a 785 dumping to a D11 on the 2x. Short haul + long load time = time to compose blogs! I've been planning and conniving for a week. I'm so excited to welcome my friends and followers to my new project.
My blogs composed at work are all hand written and drawn out in my sketchbook. Then i thumb tap them into my iphone on my way home :p
Looks like i can atlast justify purchasing the new ipad! With lots of memory. And 3g! I'll have to add the links and photos once i sit down to the dino laptop. Also this will get me sketching more. No photos from work but the odd drawing can't hurt...
On days off I'll be able to real time blog and create videos. Here is the rest of my night shift diary of a haul truck operator. Enjoy and come back often!
Playlist 80's on 8: def leppard, John Mellencamp, George Micheal, Hall & Oates, Madonna, Love Shack and Janet Jackson
Coffee: Keurig Donut House
Dinner: Tandoori chicken thighs and mixed vegetables(zucchini, peppers, mushrooms, prosciutto/salami, asparagus and eggplant, Ideal Protein orange drink (it does NOT taste like Tang! btw)

10 pm
Playlist Outlaw Country: Kelly Hogan live in studio!
Snack: IP peanut butter bar (I can't live without them)
Coffee: VIA Caramel Iced coffee

12:34 am is it full moon?
Playlist Outlaw Country:
"Come on up to the house" Willie Nelson
"the Weary Kind" Ryan Bingham
"Taneytown" Steve Earle
There's a loaded 797 packing the lift advancing over the lift I'm loading out. The dozer is pushing a new lift to replace the slop waste the 850 hoe is removing. This is the dyke 3 shell. There is a Komatsu loading out slop windrows from the core of dyke 3. There is a sand chimney between the shell and the core.
I add mango/peach MIO to my water. Get a little bored of plain water you know...

1:54 am
Playlist The Bridge
Steely Dan

Loading at 302 Komatsu chasing windrows
Sunset still visible on northern horizon
Orange moon to the south
Snack: veggie stew, water MIO

5:15 am
Playlist The Spectrum
The Travelling Willburys "the end of the line" not joking!
Finished hauling 20 loads from dyke 3, got sent out to fort hills for a load of sand in case it rains

5:35 shift change!
Playlist Outlaw Country
"Hang On" Alabama Shakes

Wonderful January (i'm not referring to the tempurature!)

It is January and there are exciting things happening this month that I am very excited to blog about:

Decadent Pink

January 29th, 2011 10 am - 10 pm

Suncor Community Leisure Center at Mac Donald Island

Decadent Pink is: "A day to Honour, Empower, Encourage, Pamper & Inspire the Women of Our Community!"

This is an interactive day filled with inspiration and education, spa services, photography sessions and boutique shopping. A fashion show, silent auction and cafe lounge will also be offered.

Pottery Verve is participating as a vendor in the boutique shopping for the entire day. We are making lovely new pottery for this event, and look forward to meeting many new people in the community.

More information is available at:

www.decadentpink.com

780-792-8113

decadentpink@hotmail.com

MacDonald Island Community Art Gallery

The Wood Buffalo Artists Forum and MacDonald Island Park is celebrating the grand opening of the first community art gallery in Wood Buffalo.

Thursday January 27, 2011

Second Level Concourse

Suncor Community Leisure Centre

MacDonald Island Park

C E L E B R A T I O N January 27th to February 16, 2011

"Our Opening exhibition, Celebration, features visual art in various media by over 50 regional artists. The exhibit will also feature a special work loaned to the gallery by Suncor Energy Inc. This painting by internationally renowned Fort McMurray artist Fred MacDonald, was commissioned by Suncor Energy to celebrate the first tailings pond reclaimed in the region."

I have sort of finished an ongoing (9 or 10 years???) painting. It is entitled "Late July 2010). This painting has an ongoing history in that it began as an image of Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" painted using imagery mimicking Takashi Murakami's sculpture. That painting evolved over the time I attended White Mountain Academy. Once I started my own studio, I rebelliously gessoed over Venus (and all her pseudo-anime glamour) and painted a giant orange abstract hibiscus flower. I boldly used low grade craft paint! I covered the sides of the structure with Ralph Lauren paint in brown (reusing paint after I installed DIY wainscotting in the bathroom in my apartment above Tribal Voices.) That particular version landed in the care of Erin Socall for a few years when I left for Alberta in '06. She returned that painting to me (dammit!) some time last year. It was as ugly as the day it left! Despite being in a flood, she did take very good care of it. That structure was my first big one and I feel obligated to honour the Herstory it represents.

Here is a blurry photo, as taken with my Blackberry, from last night when I dropped it off at the gallery:

The photo does not do the painting any justice and I do know better. I promise to take my camera and tripod and photograph it properly when time allows.

Have a great January, to spite the cold. Hot chocolate, hot mocha, hot apple cider, hot toddies, hot homemade soups, hot homemade breads, hot dreams, think hot!!

Paying it Forward

So many times the production process is to find the right size, shape and surface treatment for an object, then deliver it to a mysterious audience to be rewarded financially. A very dear friend suggested an alternative production process by posting to her Facebook a "Pay it Forward" process. In recognizing the potential for sharing with and rewarding others I got on board with her idea. Very shortly afterward I found several of the friends I consider to be artists also agreed to the "Pay it Forward" plan.

Five dear friends are going to be receiving handmade gifts from me during the year 2011. What a lovely and inspiring way to walk into my studio to begin my production process this year. I am looking forward to the reward of their reaction to the gift I select for them!

1-1-11 firsts of the new year

This is the introductory blog for 2011 from Pottery Verve. The artist is hereby pledging to blog regularly for the entire year, there are so many exciting events that happen around the studio, the neighbourhood and the city.

Today we had our first coffee of the new year, our first outdoor fire in the firepit, reorganized the glaze studio and then relaxed in the pottery studio with a blazing fire in the fireplace and a couple of great movies.

Tomorrow we will be running a test kiln with exciting new glaze prospects!

off in the distance...

before i sat to purposefully type a blog i had many things to say......

the pottery studio is all ready to go in our new place. it feels like my studio, and tomorrow i am moving the computer, coffee carafe, and knitting projects to the table in there. i know the potting will come back to me any day now and i want to be ready when it does.

for a little while today i worked on knitting socks for my mom. i can't post the pic just yet, she doesn't know. let's just say i am obsessed with cables. i have ordered yarn for a xxl sweater for my handsome fellow, and a matching sweater for my handsome dog. i still have a sweater to knit for my daughter, leg warmers and slippers for other beautiful young ladies in my family, some warm cozies for another sweet young fellow i hug and smooch, and there is yarn set aside for lovely winter set for myself. i obsessed about finding a holder for my wip dpn projects. it took all day to find what i was looking for. as soon as i figure out how to attach stuff i will.

speaking of winter, riggs and i made it outside for a quick walk towards the ravine today. it was still -15 so we didn't make it far. we'll make it further with each day. we have to catch the sun.

fyi:
haul truck is my J O B, art and pottery are my passion and career, knitting and cooking are my hobbies. sometimes the lines blur. like right now it would seem knitting is my passion. i think thats what flavours life. many favourites.

orb earrings and pendant

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New studio

....this blog may self destruct....

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A new insomnia buster. Blogging. The tiniest studio ever is busy, and there are about 40 pendants waiting to be fired, wired and worn. Photos to follow!