Sunday 6/5/22
On Sundays I reflect. The last few weeks I have been too tired and too burnt out to get to my blog.
I didn’t drink alcohol this week. I had a few beers the weekend before at our first local Vail Comedy Festival. Overall I find myself not drinking a lot more than I find myself drinking and it’s better that way. It has been a long and slow transition from when I was younger and drank every day.
I’ve been spending a lot more time blowing glass lately. I am almost through my small list of commissions. I thought I would be done yesterday, but in the middle of making a custom pair one of my pieces cracked in a moment during the process that did not leave me options to save it. We will see if I can come up with a creative way to save it today once I can asses it cold and out of the kiln. I already began prep for a replacement last night, and will plan to get that finished today so that I can put all of my energy into the upcoming Vail Cup Collectors Club Mug Mania Summer Show. I’ll speak more about that soon.
I’m slowly getting back into my morning yoga routine with the hopes that I will soon get the gym back into my morning routine as well. When I do yoga, I disappear.
My smoothie game is still strong. They call me the smoothie king. It has been rare for me to miss a morning smoothie this year.
I have a pile of books that I want to read. Many of them I have started and some I have even gotten more than half way. There are very few books that I have finished completely as an adult. Recently I got a library card (for free) and downloaded an app called Libby. I am anti-Amazon (and most corporate entities to the extent that I can be) so when I tried to download Audible and learned they were owned by Amazon I backed out of the deal. Fucking Greedheads. Now I can listen to books for free through the Libby app. The selection is limited of course and some books I want to listen to have a waitlist but I have almost finished listening to the book “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell which was been fascinating. I really enjoyed “Outliers” by the same author, which I read during quarantine after it was gifted to me by a lady friend at the time.
The first audio book I listened to was “The Joke’s Over” by Ralph Steadman. I heard Ralph’s descriptions from Owl Farm at Woody Creek as I drove over Independence Pass to Aspen over Memorial Day Weekend. This legendary route from Minturn to Aspen via Leadville opens every year the same holiday weekend and I try to make the journey as many times as I can in a summer. I explored a new exhibition of film on display at the Aspen Art Museum that will require at least a few more visits to digest.
That same weekend we hosted the first annual Vail Comedy Festival which completely sold out! My partner Seth and I have been supporting a monthly comedy show in Vail put on by Mark Masters. Mark’s brainchild came to life recently in a full weekend festival and it couldn’t have been a bigger success! I enjoyed myself along with some local friends in addition to a college friend who has recently moved to Boulder with her partner and they decided to come up to see my studio and check out the comedy shows.
In the six or so years that I have been living in the Vail Valley, I have been putting my efforts into any community project relating to the arts that was presented to me. I tried blowing glass and vending at the Minturn Market the first summer that I got into my studio and the following summer. I took initiative years ago to try to create a Minturn Creative Arts District with access to state funding, only to be met by red tape and bureaucracy. There is an effort to bring back to life a program called Summer Vail, a major arts workshop that took place in the 1970’s which I have put countless hours into revitalizing. To my great frustration, despite some existing infrastructure including a prolific dance festival and the symphony orchestra visiting Vail every summer this is definitely not an arts destination or a place with a strong arts community. Of all the projects that I have gotten behind here and put my energy into, the Vail Comedy Festival seems to be one that will continue to thrive and I am thrilled to be a part of it. Multiple comedians told me that they could not believe this was the first time we have had the festival because of how well things went. Congratulations to Mark Masters on a huge success!
Did I miss Spring Cleaning? My room is a mess that I have been slowly chipping away at for the last few weeks. I just counted 11 pairs of shoes on the floor and there are at least 30 sweaters and 5 pairs of sweats (both pants and shorts) taking up my entire couch. What else is new?
I have been working on collaborating with friends on mugs for my upcoming show June 25. I have more prep in the drawer for some on deck, and at least one special guest artist coming through the studio this week. Speaking of prep and the drawer, I finally made my dream a reality! Recently I obtained a used baking rack on the local classifieds for a steal of a deal. Marta and I spent the week cleaning and transferring all of my raw color glass and prep from the drawers it was piled into on to the racks. We have almost finished sorting everything into a color coated dream rack and for everyone who has been asking or responded to my Instagram story: yes we got the plastic cover to keep dust out!
I’m sure there is a lot more to share here but I need to get to the studio to run Sunday Specials and work on remaking the last part of my commission in order to put all my obligations to rest and focus my entire energy on the upcoming mug show. If you have had your eyes on anything in inventory please reach out and let’s make a deal. I have some cups from Jake C on the way and a few other big things happening so I need to find some homes for cups to free up the funds needed to keep things rolling.
As always I appreciate your support and thanks for tuning in!
BB
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