Monday, December 16

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

I did some work with Wonder and Dandy outside, and even though it was about -16 C I didn't feel terribly cold. If you're moving it's okay. There wasn't any wind.

Wonder is still very silly about staying with me at Liberty in the big pasture, even though there is nothing to run from, and nothing really to run "to".

Dandy is doing well with staying with me in the big pasture, and seems to enjoy our little walks together. He leaves sometimes, but less and less often.

I'm glad I was able to work with them today, and give Wonder some time with Dandy and time to run around, since I haven't been able to do so the last couple of days.

I got up early-ish for me, so I had time to do it today.

Then I went to pottery, and I glazed some pieces that came back from bisque firing. I hope they turn out.

I also trimmed and put a handle on a hopeful mug.

It was nice to see the other potters, and we all wished each other "Merry Christmas" since a lot of them will be busy over the holidays, and I probably won't see them until after the New Year.

After pottery I went to Peavey Mart and picked up a salt block and some suet for the birds.

Then I went to Winner's, got things for myself that I had spotted a few weeks ago but chose to "pace myself" about getting them. One of the items was ten dollars cheaper.

I found a very cute little stuffed dog for the woman with many health challenges. It's not terribly expensive, but very cute, and I hope she likes it. I wanted to get her something since I've been interacting with her for over a year now during her lesson times. It seems appropriate.

I found a sweater for my Sweetie, though getting him clothes is a bit of a crapshoot. He doesn't need much, and he did get sweaters last Christmas. I don't know what to get him that he doesn't just buy for himself.

Then I got groceries, and I am very grateful to be able to buy them, and the physical ability to do so. I did pick up a big bag of Reese's Pieces, also for Christmas for my Sweetie. He loves them, but rarely buys them.

Then I came home, and it was almost bed time for my Sweetie, so we filled each other in our day.

He had his office party today, I had donated a pair of mugs I made and he bought some hot chocolate to go with them, and the gift was well-received. He said people seemed happy with the buns and cookies he brought.

Comments

[cf2princessawnw]

I think it's wonderful about the a little stuffed dog you thought for that lady, that the other thing you wanted was $10 cheaper (!!!), and that you donated you're awesome mugs and he was able to bring hot chocolate together. Even if it was in a small way I'm glad you were able to work together like that in a way that your strength compliment so clearly. Anyway all of that made me smile. Glad you had that.

[gottawonder]

I was very happy to find the little dog stuffie. This young woman in many ways is more like a teenager, due to her health challenges. I find it difficult to communicate with her because I don't know sign language, and I'm not sure what she likes. I asked her mom, who said she likes stuffies. I didn't want to spend a ton of money because then I would be giving her an gift without her knowing I would be doing so, and that would be awkward if it were lavish.

I felt okay donated a pair of mugs because we do have lots of pottery I made just sitting in boxes. I have given a lot to family over the years, and I'm happy with donating it for something like an office party gift.

Yes, I'm glad we worked together on this idea. MOST OF THE TIME my husband and I work together just fine and make a great team. That is normal for us.

[cf2princessawnw]

💖

[ratunderpaper]

Handmade mugs are quite a gift!

[gottawonder]

I hope they are appreciated.

I have lots of pottery stored in boxes, I could never hope to use or display it all.

We do use our mugs and bowls, but in the last couple of years I have really gotten into making vases, and I kept a lot of them because they've been very pretty, but maybe it's time for those to start finding new homes too.

They are not as easy to give away as mugs and bowls because they're not as useful to people.

[ratunderpaper]

I'm sure the thought of an Etsy shop has come up before, but perhaps it would be a good cottage industry for you.

[gottawonder]

I'm really not that worried about selling them. The moment you start thinking about a market, it changes how you make things; you start thinking about what sells, not what you want to make.

I AM trying to focus on making things that I want to make, and to put a little more effort into making them, vs. volume.

[ratunderpaper]

Disagree - you make what you want, and if it sells, it sells. That's true of artwork as well. Not all of us want to be the next Thomas Kinkade, har har.

[gottawonder]

Ah, Thomas....shudder.

[ratunderpaper]

"But he makes people feel good, and he sells."

I can't be bothered arguing with viewpoints like this.

[gottawonder]

There's lots of room for cheesy sentimental stuff, and I don't care if people like his work.

I've got no real beef against him, but I don't think of his work as great art, just commercial art.

It tells me a lot about a person if I go into their home and they have a ton of stuff like that everywhere. Mostly not to expect much from them intellectually. They might still be nice people, though.

I personally find myself burning with rage the moment I see his work, and I have to fight the urge to destroy it if I see something like a mug or a puzzle with an image of his on it, but other than that I'm indifferent.

Same with Anne Geddes. I have HAD IT with her work.

[ratunderpaper]

If you like art, you're not going to like its schlocky parody, which is the stuff Thomas Kinkade painted, apparently spurred on by his Godly beliefs. I looked on Amazon, where the purchaser of one of his calendars wrote:

"Calendar pitchers are beautiful every year as well as a useful calendar to see each day."

This is probably the typical Kinkade fan.

There are loads of decent commercial artists. He was not decent.

[gottawonder]

Am I making too broad a generalization to say that I've noticed that a lot of religious people are into....sentimental art? Things that are pleasant and kind of quaint and non-threatening?

There are people out there who don't want their ideas challenged or their horizons broadened. They want to feel safe.

I can forgive people who haven't had a lot of exposure to art, since you can't underestimate the power of growing up in a stagnant backwater (even with the internet), but some folks like to just hide inside an imaginary cottage in their mind.

I always find it very amusing that people often say things like "people don't paint real art anymore, like Monet. That is classical painting at it's finest". Not realizing that Monet was extremely controversial in his time. Considered trash by the actual classical painters.

It would be awful if civilization collapsed, and all that future cultures could find were mugs with Thomas Kinkade images on them.

[ratunderpaper]

Some of the pious have been vocal about embracing twee mall art, possibly because it has, in one way or another, inoffensive Christian undertones. The worldliness of the world of art is not going to be taught in homeschool - that's another thing to consider.

I wonder what they'd think of Singer-Sargent's Madame X, a wonderful painting that nearly destroyed his career?

[gottawonder]

I knew some young adults many years ago, when all of us were in our early 20's.

Some of them lived a life of deliberate naivety, avoiding anything that seemed sensual or sexual, whether it was mainstream music or movies with sexual content, and I would imagine that art would be part of that intentional cloistering.

I don't know why that ends up leading to liking BAD art, as there is a lot of fantastic art out there with low sex content, but maybe it's just part of a desire to be child like and unsophisticated?

I mean, some (not all) religious people try not to develop critical thinking skills at all, as if that were a virtue. They think that there's a kind of purity in not studying culture.

I mean, even the Group of Seven had a complicated history, the idea of their painting as a way to solidify the identity of a new nation is complicated, because this WASN'T a new nation, it is a very old nation that "new people" stole and relabeled as Canada.

So, if you study art, you have to confront things like that. I mean, Toulouse Lautrec made some very amazing art, BUT he more or less lived among and painted prostitutes. To enjoy any of his art, you'd have to confront that part of his life, and that it was part of the nightlife of Paris.

Emily Carr was a lesbian. Frieda Khalo's art was VERY SEXUAL and her works about the torture of her damaged body are uncomfortable to confront, and her own love life was complicated and immoral to some.

Many artists are atheist and that is often part of what they paint about, is their exploration of life beyond religion, or alternate spirituality.

I got to see some of the paintings by a controversial artist by the name of Kent Monkman, and his work is astonishing, but very uncomfortable. There's nudity, there's exploration of his two-spirit nature, he criticizes Christianity and colonialism.

His work is WONDERFUL and ALIVE, but there are a lot of people who find it very uncomfortable, amoral, transgressive.

Too many complicated, uncomfortable ideas, too many uncomfortable paintings, too many things that make you question your point of view. Even if they don't question Christianity, they make you reconsider your thoughts about a lot of topics, and I would say that some people don't like to have their views challenged.

A lot of Christians want to believe that colonialism was a good thing and saved a lot of souls. There are people out there who still think that slavery wasn't all bad, because it eventually brought God to those heathens.

Beyond that, it's just being forced to think past their own world view on a lot of different topics, and it's uncomfortable.

That kind of fits the people I think of as Conservatives, people who have a lot of fear inside, a lot of closed topics, a lack of willingness to explore uncomfortable things to come to a greater understanding. I don't know a lot of conservative people who really love art in general, but they probably love Thomas Kinkade.

[ratunderpaper]

I just wrote my NaNoWriMo loosely based on the Group of Seven. They were not particularly noble about forging a new and distinct nation; they were a few exceptionally wealthy fellows who had confidence in their artwork and the means to establish it. One of them was not wealthy, but was, shall we say, sponsored by the others.

They built a fabulous studio in Rosedale Valley (near here) that allowed them to paint as happily as they wanted when they weren't travelling up north - as close as it gets to the good life, it appears.

[gottawonder]

Interesting. They more or less promoted themselves into the role of "brave new Canada"?