I have done nothing but eat this holiday season.

Every year around this time, because it is the end of the year and I am usually laying around consuming all kinds of candy and coffee, I tend to become interested in other forms of art. One year it was water color, another year it was chair making, then there was box making, sewing, etc etc. This year its ceramics that has my head turned. I was flipping through Shannon's book called, 500 Teapots, and its all I can do to keep from going down to High Water Clay and picking up some stuff to make me into a great ceramic artist. Rather than that, I decided to go to Lowes where I picked up some wood to make a stretcher for a six foot pianting. I am finished with my commissions and I don't have a show lined up until July, so starting tomorrow I am going to delve into a new piece that has been brewing.

I posted a cute picture of baby Jordan my new niece.

My work is inspired by:
quilts,scratches,marks,paintings,mortality,spirituality,absurdity,beauty,intellegence,mystery,
nature,bugs,birds,the south,mountains,rockers,death,artifacts,museums,
color,history, science,Annie Dillard,other artists,math,coffee,paint, and fear of being bored.

Horn Hats. It Turned out well after much fighting. The piece became to complicated early on, I had to bring it back to its simple self. I struggled with the center space for a long while. The hat had a nice shape but took over the whole painting. I needed to pull the thing back and put it in its place by simplifying the shape and color. A number of the blocks got away from me for a bit. In the end I learned that I am working toward multiples of simplified forms that together create a complex tapestry. If one part becomes over-worked it can throw the whole off.

I turned off my comment bar, I like hearing from you, I just found myself checking for comments to often. This is not a popularity contest. Now I am just writing, and you can read if you like. email me raarontucker@yahoo.com, or you can comment on Shannon's side.

There is a certain shade of red that I am not supposed to be using in these commissioned works. It is proving to be a real pain. The first painting turned out way too cold so I added a shade of “red” that I thought was a different red. Shannon came home from work and informed me that it was absolutely “the” red. Not only was it the red, but the same red was on the second piece as well. I am beginning to think that it doesn’t matter what red I use… any red is going to turn out to be “the” red. I bet that I could put down 15 different shades of red and they all would read as the same forbidden shade. This is a real handicap.

Micah Sherrill came to the house-warming party last night. That's his painting there at Shannon's left. We were able to talk a little art before the other guests arrived. After everyone went home he stuck around for a bit to shoot the breeze. It is always refreshing to talk painting with Micah because we are at similar stages in our careers, and have known one another since we were kids. Our approach to painting is very different, but we can appreciate each others direction. We spent about six months collaborating on some paintings about three years ago. I think that we both took pieces of that collaboration and used it to fuel what we are making today. Collaboration is such a useful tool to move your work into new directions.

I just found out today that five miles up the road the powers that be are building a Super Duper Wal-Mart. We just moved out here into the country and already the invasion has begun. My neighbors, Denver and Lucille, grew up in the house behind ours. They remember when our road was unpaved and they had to get water from the well up the cow path, when only 15 houses were within a 20 mi radius. Is there anywhere to go these days where the big nothing will not follow and swallow up every tree and grass path available? Lets let the city be the city and the country be the country.