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Here are a few of the unfired heads I’ve made for my new piece. Its coming along okay. I’ve used almost all of the clay I have in my studio. These heads are big and heavy and will take forever to dry. But with this rainless, snowless weather, they should dry more quickly than the heads I made last winter.

Not that it hasn’t gotten cold. These mallards landed on the frozen part of the pond, slid a few yards, and then quickly walked to the unfrozen part. If you look carefully, you can see the two hens at the back are walking on the ice. Today, we had the first wood duck pair of the year. I hope they will nest as successfully this year as they did last.


The sculpture Mark Oldland made with me is holding up well. I really enjoy seeing it in all the seasons. This morning the ceramic balls had some sun glinting on them through the mist rising off the cold ground. Even though I like these sunny days, I’m hoping February will have some wet storms.

I was very surprised to see this pileated woodpecker eating hawthorn berries. He was very acrobatic in his pursuit. Usually, they are whacking their heads on rotten wood looking for insects. These birds are quite large, about crow size. It’s very impressive to see them upside down, grasping tiny branches.

George, the old cat, is sitting next to a new piece I’ve just begun. She is unperturbed that she is taking up the space I had prepared for the head on the right. This piece is complicated, has many parts, and will probably take me a few months to finish.

The cat and dog show at the Skinner Howard Gallery ends January 7th. Nothing new that’s definite on the horizon.
That’s it for this year. Let’s all take a deep breath and hope for the best in this coming election year.

The October rains have let the leaves hold longer than usual, making fall more colorful this year. Cherries along the creek are turning gold and orange. The big leaf maples are bright yellow. We hiked along the new “Tribute Trail” near town last weekend.

This is a newly placed bridge across Deer Creek so hikers can go on a short loop on the other side. There is a lot of old mining evidence along the Nevada City side of the trail, and there are some signs explaining historical aspects of the area. You can park in town to go on this relatively easy hike.

The annual Cat and Dog Show at the Skinner/Howard Gallery is coming up next month. I’m working on some very small masks for that and will also be showing a few of the birdhouses I made. Below is Dark Hound Birdhouse. I plan to test one next spring to see if birds will actually nest in them.

Two hooded mergansers were on the pond this morning, but mostly mallards have been visiting. I hope the buffleheads come back this year.

I spent three days traveling between Nevada City and Roseville to attend a Richard Notkin workshop at the Blue Line Gallery. I learned how to mix the perfect plaster. I learned that unlike Mr. Notkin, I am not a perfectionist. I learned that succeeding in the art world is a mixture of luck and perseverance. Actually, I already knew those last two.

The Altar Show is going on right now through November 6 every day 12pm-8pm. Above is a photo of the Bear River High School altar in progress, before the opening on October 29th, at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. Below is the finished altar. They used black lights, which really enhanced the cut paper artwork.

If you can’t get to see it, here is a very selective virtual tour. The altars are best viewed in person, and some are impossible to represent in photographs, but here are a few.






Above is the totem I did earlier this year incorporated into my altar in the dark room of the three rooms of altar installations. There are about fifty altars all together. The Blue Line “Spirits” show ends this week. Richard Notkin, a well-known ceramic artist, will be holding workshops and keeping a studio at the Blue Line for most of November. Kate and I went to see Clayton Bailey’s show at the Crocker. It is very amusing. We got an autographed catalog for Kate to add to her signed artist book collection. She said Manuel Neri and his wife cut in front of her in the book-signing line. We don’t have Neri’s autograph yet. They probably have a book on him in the gift shop at the Crocker. She missed an opportunity. The Sacramento Center for Contemporary Arts will hold its benefit auction later this month. It is in Old Town Sacramento this year. All these places have Facebook pages, unlike myself, so go take a look.

Yes, ripe tomatoes finally. Just in time for the frost. What a short, short season we had this year. But the late spring and mild summer made it possible to have flowers all summer long. And now the maples are showing color and the tourists will arrive in town and stand underneath the liquidambars and elms and maples and paint and photograph, or just stare up into them. I’m glad people still like trees.

Above is the official governor’s portrait of Jerry Brown for his previous reign. I intend to provide the next portrait. Since he’s the only person to serve twice, as the youngest and the oldest governor of California, he should get to be three-dimensional in the new portrait. Or at least high relief. So, to that end, I have made a new official governor’s portrait in ceramic and mixed media. It is quite a lot smaller than the painting. Only 4×2 feet, so they can tuck it away in some hallway somewhere. Oh, I know that there is no chance in hell. What-ever. When has that ever stopped me?

This piece was quite a challenge, but I think I achieved a good likeness.


It’s Jerry Brown, but it is also Diogenes. Or it’s Diogenes and it’s also Jerry Brown. He’s holding his lantern looking for an honest man. At the capital in Sacramento? Good luck. The piece is way better in person. I hope to be able to get it into some public collection somewhere.
Don’t forget to visit the Altar Show at the Nevada County Fairgrounds opening October 29th, check out the schedule at thealtarshow.org. Always worth seeing. Also, Western Nevada County Open Studios this weekend and the next. My studio is only open this weekend (October 8 and 9). There are 68 artists showing work, so there is plenty to choose from.

This piece “Reading Hamlet” will be one of three of my skeleton-themed pieces in an October show at the Blue Line Gallery in Roseville. The show is titled “Spirits” and will be in the member gallery. The two artists in the main gallery looked very interesting, so I think it will be worth a trip to see it. Go to Blue Line Gallery for more information, though they don’t seem to put up information very far in advance and haven’t had anything about member shows on their website lately. They are also holding a fundraiser called “Lottery for the Arts” on October 8th, where you buy a ticket for $150 and get a chance to choose from over one hundred pieces of art when your number is called. My daughter Liza got a very nice painting at the Lottery in 2009.
Also in October, the annual Western Nevada County Open Studios takes place for two consecutive weekends. My studio will be open for the first weekend only, October 8-9. There is a preview exhibit of all the artists at the Grass Valley Center of the Arts, which opens with a reception on Thursday, October 6th.

I’m very nearly done with my new piece. I hope to have it on display for the studio tour. More on that later.
The foxes are yipping and howling at night. The raccoons are growling and eating snails and making all the deck rails filthy. Still no otters this year. They ate everything in the pond, so maybe they’ll wait another year to come back.

My brother Guy got second place at the county fair. I think he was happy about it. Last year, he didn’t get a ribbon and he said he wouldn’t do it this year, but he changed his mind. It’s hard to continue showing, or even making your art without validation.

Above is another cat portrait. This time it is an acrylic on canvas, 8×8″ painting of my mother’s crazy Japanese Bobtail cat named Ichi. She wanted a painting of him for her birthday. I’m becoming a pet portrait painter by default. I’ve also been working on a new large clay piece which I hope to have finished by the end of September. It is not a pet.

We finally replaced the wooden step in front of my studio with a concrete one. The yellow jackets living under it were none too pleased to be evicted. I used peppermint oil and dishwashing soap to dissuade them, but there are still a bunch flying around. No one has gotten stung, though.

This young wood duck still hangs out on the pond, but everyone else has pretty much moved on except for the occasional visit.

I brought the mask above and one other to the Gray Goose, a shop in downtown Nevada City. They were kind enough to ask to show some of my work. This store has very interesting things in it, and I’m happy to have my work there.

We have had some young wood ducks hanging out on the pond. This is very unusual. They seem less afraid of people than the typical wood duck. I would guess this one is a male, judging from the coloring on his neck.

It is once again time for the local fair. I took my brother to drop off his work there. He hopes he’ll get a ribbon, but his artwork tends to be a little challenging. I don’t think they have a category for disabled artists, so he’s in competition with everyone else. He said, “Tell me if I’m a winner.” We’ll see.

Finally, the last wood duck babies have hatched and jumped out of the nest box. There were eleven eggs, and all but one hatched. The remaining one appeared unfertilized. Now, I don’t have to worry that she wasted an entire month sitting on the eggs for no reason. Whew.

This is the finished skeleton for my sister Claire. It has her running shoes, her baritone sax, a cat, and some board games. All her favorite things. The skeleton jumped off the couch during the raku firing and had to be re-positioned and epoxied. Bad skeleton.

I just finished this painting of my sister’s beloved Jack kitty. He died recently, and she wanted a portrait of him for her son. It is acrylic on canvas, 8″x8.” I like to paint, but it’s really hard when you don’t do it very often. It’s probably really hard, anyway, but I feel like I have to re-learn what the paint can do each time. I used a lot of transparent medium in the acrylic to give it a more oil paint look. I hope it makes it back to Florida okay. Now, time to play with clay again!

Finally, it has warmed up and I’ve been trying to keep up with all the plant growth. A lot of people around here weed-eat and mow down everything, but when you do that wildflowers and native grasses can’t reseed and flowers like this purple late-blooming brodiaea get wiped out. It takes a lot of time and attention to make the landscape look natural and varied.

This wood duck had nine ducklings and when she left a few days ago, there were still six. That’s pretty good for a duck. Normally, the wood ducks leave a day or so after emerging from the nest box, but this one stuck around for several weeks. It was very amusing to watch the ducklings grow and buzz around the pond. The other wood duck’s babies should emerge early next week. Very late nesting for wood ducks on our pond. That will be three different sets of wood duck clutches in a single season. A record.

I have been working in the studio a little bit. The winter was so long and relentless, I want to be outside as much as possible. This skeleton has since been bisqued, but still needs a glaze firing. I plan to do raku, and the skeletons have a mind of their own, moving about in the kiln, so I’m never too sure how it will all end up.