Peacocks and Crows

I wanted to make another murder of crows box, one that would also be a rattle. So this one is without a drawer. The drawers are complicated though I feel I am getting better at them. Because they are clay they don't slide well unless they fit perfectly. A lot of times in the kiln the clay will shift a little and so the drawers don't fit the way they should. This is very frustrating and causes me to throw tantrums and screaming fits when they come out of the kiln. It was nice not to have to worry with a drawer.















And here is the revival of the peacocks. A friend of mine asked for some peacock pieces so I revived the little devils in all their finery. I am trying to change the image a little by making myself try to get the feel of feathers in the carving. We will see if I can manage that challenge.






























And here is a little painting I started last week.
Lots of work to be done here.

Oh My! It's Fall Again...

It's Fall. And so beautiful now that we have moved to the new house. Don't get me wrong. Fall was beautiful at the old house. But the new house has really old trees and quite a bit of land. The trees rustle and quietly speak the whole day through. The crows are loud and rascally reminding me of their presence. I am a happy girl. I love sweaters and gloves and all things winter. I wear jeans and boots with relish. Collecting warm sweaters from Goodwill is a hobby. And now that Hubby doesn't wash my sweaters anymore, I can actually fit in them from year to year.

Leanne's Crazy Caesar Dressing

Not for the feint of heart nor for anyone who plans to be kissed after dinner

Leanne's crazy Caesar dressing serves 4-6
2 large egg yolks
1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons of lime juice
6-8 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of chipotle mustard (dijon will do in a pickle)
2 teaspoons of worcestershire sauce
1 palm full of really good parmesaen sp?cheese chopped. (don't scrimp on the cheese...it really does make a difference)
blend in processor or blender until garlic and cheese are smooth.

This is one of my husband's favorite things so I thought I would share with anyone who is a garlic lover like us.
It really is just a basic Caesar dressing with extra garlic and pepper. I also substitute lime juice instead of lemon for an extra punch. You can use lemon and it works just as well. And for those lucky people out there who have your own chickens this is a great recipe to use up some eggs.
ENJOY!

More from the Bird Queen

This is a platter that I have been making over and over trying to get the exact image that I want.
It is getting very close. After I figure out the image in clay then I think I will try the image in color and also as a lino print. This is the opening line for the Bird Queen story I have been writing. My sweet and talented niece Queen Crafty Girl
(you can't tell I am a proud Aunt can you?) has been writing her own story about the Bird Queen that is AMAZING...much better than mine I'm afraid.

The first line of the story if you can't see clearly, "Once when the sky grew black with feathers, the Bird Queen was born under the old crow tree."






















And here are some bird girls in their finery with feathers flying from their hair.




Robyn over at Art Propelled
did a blog post about crows that I thought was amazing and funny. Crows are a great inspiration for many artists and she highlights some beautiful and some creepy sculptures.

Pictures from the show

This pottery is made by LT Hoisington, A wonderful potter in Greensboro, NC. He went to UNC-G for his masters in art and now teaches at City Arts in Greensboro. If you can take a class by him he is an exceptional teacher. And it goes without saying his work is amazing.


























This next potter is Charlie Teft. He teaches ceramics at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. I don't know his background but he is also an amazing potter. I love his birds and rabbits and his soft subtle glazes.


















And here is my crazy booth. I need to find a way that it is not so jumbled looking.
I am working on my set up. Any suggestions are welcomed with appreciation.

I got tagged

by my most wonderful and talented niece Miss Queen Crafty Girl herself. Visit this amazing girl here Queen Crafty Girl. The plan is to tell 7 quirky and weird facts about yourself and to tag other bloggers to do the same.
Here goes.

1. I love and adore crows and all things to do and love about crows. I love them to obsession, to distraction and revel in the sight of them cawing in the trees.
2. Birds distract me in the middle of conversations.
3. Color can change my mood dramatically. Bright yellow-orange seems to be the color that makes my soul happy.
4. I dance with Ellen when no one can see me. (If you click this link you can see a great horned owl fly onto Ellen's head)
5. I read about 3 to 4 novels a week.
6. I am slowly slowly writing a novel...
7. My favorite body part is feet.

Okay now I tag
Undaunted an amazing painter and ceramicist
Blackburn Arts glass artist extraordinaire
reefbayview stain glass master
haphazard knitter master knitter and maker of all things socks

The Start of a New Painting

Mom and Dad came over to paint yesterday. They both had images that they wanted to paint but I was struggling with ideas. Then the bird girls popped in my head and this is what came out. It is just the start but I am inspired to keep going. Sometimes the paintings I start with Mom and Dad never get finished. I think this one is a keeper.

There is one thing bothering me. The dark sap green of the skirt. I think it may need to be lighter and maybe a different green altogether.

Brave and Proud Mama

Here is Miss Chickweed our youngest dog. Most mama's wouldn't let their dogs anywhere near their pots especially in the green state. But all though our dogs don't fetch or roll over, they are extremely careful with my work. We have never had an accident with my pots. Not once. (although, we did have an issue with a bigger piece that I bought from a friend.) That was the only time in our 8 years of having dogs. I am a proud mama (knocking on wood as I write).

October Craziness.

October Craziness....This whole month I have had back to back shows. Sometimes 2 shows in one weekend. This weekend I will be at the Pottery Festival at the Curb Market in Greensboro. The Pottery Festival is on Sunday the 19th and starts at 11:00 and ends at 5:00.
This is my one of my most favorite shows of the year because I get to see all the wonderful potters in our area. We are so lucky to live only an hour from Sea Grove...a pottery haven in the south known nationally and I imagine internationally as well . It houses the Owen pottery family as well as the Cole's and many, many, more famous potter families.
We also live about 3 hours from Asheville and Penland where art abounds. Many of these wonderful artists come to the pottery festival. Despite the fact that I spend way too much money, it is such a fun day for me.
I will take pictures of my favorite potters (if they will allow it) and post them here with my many purchases.
My fingers are itching to add to my collection.

Art Stock Studio Tour.

Every year the local artists in and around Greensboro, NC have a studio tour. This year is the 11th year we have all been pooling resources for advertising and opening up our studios to the public. I am so excited to be able to open my new studio this year for the first time. Will (wonderful wonderful husband) and Jon( friend and faithful handy man) have worked so hard to get the gallery space and working studio ready. It is beautiful and truly a blessing. As an artist, I am used to working wherever I can. I never imagined I would have a studio built with my specifications. And a such a beautiful studio at that. All I can say is I am a lucky lucky woman....
Come on out and help us celebrate the opening of Stealing Crow Farm's (we named our new house) art studio.
I will be joined by Lisa Skeen: potter extraordinaire, Diane Owens: the most fabulous jewelry designer from Cali, and Melissa Blackburn: glass fusing wonder.
Come help us christen the new space!

Stealing Crow Show at Urban Artware

This month I am the featured artist at Urban Artware in downtown Winston Salem. Because of the season I decided to do a crow show. I wanted it to be super creepy and dark, but as the show got closer, I simply ran out of time. The image I had for this show was sooooo different than what actually was created that I was very disappointed in myself for not working harder and letting the show creep up on me. I do have a calendar. It would be helpful if I would use it.

Besides not having the show meet my vision for it, I will say that I am proud of the work. I just wanted it to be more cohesive. I think I needed a couple more months for the work to come together. Individually, the pieces stand on their own...at least I hope they do.

Here are some of the pieces in the show.

This first piece is a crow head box. The front crow head is the handle for a drawer that slides out to reveal a crow inside.
































There are thirteen crow rattles hanging on the wall.

















And here is the bird King and his bird girls. Above them are lino cuts printed on paper and on clay. I have been working on clay lino cuts for awhile. They are hit and miss at times. But I think these turned out nice. I love laminating the paper prints because they don't have to be framed and that eases the cost for the customer.







And these last little fellows happen to be my favorites. They are little crow box rattles and I love holding them. Each contain a little secret that no one can see on the inside of the unopenable box.

Art In the YArd!

We are having our 3rd annual Art in the Yard this Saturday.
Please come and enjoy all the festivities. Last year was a blast and we are all so excited to see everyone!
Featured Artists:
Christina Brown: whimsical ceramic designs to use and to hang and beautiful beaded jewelry
Paige Cox: restructured and recycled vintage clothing, felted dolls, fabric jewelry
Dena Paige: fun and deliciously funky jewelry. Love love love it!
Courtney Pope:
and me, Leanne Pizio: ceramic sculptures, functional but funky pottery, clay rattles

Hope to see some of ya'll there!

I have been honored...

by an award!
Can you believe it? My very first one.
The wonderfully talented Robyn from the blog Art Propelled tagged me. You should take a look at her AMAZING carvings. they are intricate, delicate and interestingly private and intimate. Inspiring work!
Now to share this awesome award...
Here are the rules:
1) Choose 7 favorite blogs and…
2) Put the logo on your blog
3) Link the person you received your award from
4) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
5) Put links of those blogs on yours.
6) Leave a message on the blogs of the ones you’ve nominated.


Here are my favorites:

Jafabrit: A woman who knows no end to creativity. She inspires me with every post and will make you happy when you visit her blog. Not to mention her wicked painting skills.

Haphazard Knitter: Denise is a wonder with knitting needles and crochet hooks as well. Watch her make delicious knitted and crocheted works to die for.

Ysolda:Designer of kickin knitting patterns. Not to mention she includes some wonderful recipes and beautiful pictures of her treks all over Europe and abroad.

Shoe Daydreams: Now for a high fashion and super fun excursion from mundane life, take a look at this blog about the top shoes and designers of the season.

Dirty Footprints: Visit Connie for her whimsical paintings, cute environmentally green bags, and spiritual teachings. A wonderful place to explore not only art but yoga and meditation as well.

Rediscovering Art : Undaunted aka Linda is a creative woman reworking her way into the art world with great speed and excitement. I love to see her posts of her new works in paint and in pencil.

...failed painter: I lurk here often to look at some amazing works of art and inspired writings as well. Love this blog.

Sweet Pixels : this blog is written by an artist in Alaska making some wonderfully different and organically inspired paintings. She also features writings on her life in Alaska, gardening, riding bikes, you name it...

Queen Crafty Girl : I know I was only supposed to do 7 blogs but I can't forget my amazing niece who I think may be the next Picasso. She is quite talented and of course I am super proud of her.


I hope ya'll enjoy these wonderful blogs.

The Most Wonderful Homecomming!

My beautiful friend Janet had a wonderful blessing this week.

Two years ago her husband and her raised a baby blue jay named Blue. Blue was such a bright spot in their lives and I got a chance to hear so many cute stories about little Blue. Once he got older they let him be outside but he would fly down to them and eat from bowls on their porch. One day Blue was gone and Janet and Eric thought that a hawk had taken Blue. They were simply devastated.

And then...This!!!!
Eric was outside the other day and down flew Blue to his shoulder. And then to Janet's beautiful head. Is this not the most serene and uplifting picture that you have ever seen? I want to do a painting of it I am so inspired by her expression.

In honor of Fall and Halloween!

Here are some of the latest pieces gearing up for the scarry time of year. I have quite a few shows coming up and wanted some Halloween pieces to celebrate the season. This is a monsters in my head box. I made one of these at the workshop with Lana Wilson and Margaret Bohles after their great
instruction.




























And then of course, a black cat bowl for all the candy to be given out.










A couple of years ago when I was waiting tables, at the beginning of the night when times were slow, I would draw these dead bunny cartoons for me and the staff. Usually the dead bunnies would be killing off our most hated customers, the ones who just for no reason were so mean. It really was all in good fun and it did relieve some tension.
Well these are the bunnies but they are very much alive and kicking. I'm not sure where they are going as of yet but I think they may be up to some mischief.
And then I saw this Jaffa Rabbit
and I was in love! Mean bunnies unite. What are their evil minds thinking?

Some pictures of the show...

Here are a couple of pictures of the show at the Marshall Gallery in Greensboro, NC. In the first one, my bunnies and a pink rooster are hanging out under some really cool paintings. The second picture is of 3 paintings that I did a little while ago. My favorite one is the middle one titled " give me bird" and it has been a favorite companion in the studio for a couple of years.
I miss having it around.

Crazy New Colors

Here are some crazy new colors for the upcoming Whimsical Show at the Marshall Gallery in Greensboro, NC.
Love Love Love the Chartreuse glaze....thank you Margaret Bohles for sharing the Showstopper Glaze.
















This pink is a La Guna store bought to use for my new niece's pink rabbits for her pink room. But I like it so much I will probably use it on some of the pieces for the show.


































A group of rabbits.













And the finished Crazy Monster in my Head sculpture. I don't know how I feel about the super shininess of this glaze. It seems to be distracting in spots. I wonder if it wouldn't have been more successful in the matte turquoise. But alas, I took a risk and there is no changing it now.

New Studio and a new rooster

I think I mentioned before that we moved. We moved into the cutest log cabin ever made. It is absolutely the most wonderful piece of land.....like out of Hansel and Gretel with diamond glass windows and wooden walls and floors. It came with an old shed that Will calls the barn. That is my new studio that he has been working so hard to fix up for me. These pictures are of my actual working studio. I just painted the crows on the floor today. I think they look pretty snappy!





















And here is the latest rooster. No feet? Yes...I had an accident with the last one when I loaded the kiln and knocked a leg off. I decided that they were too much trouble and too fragile to be sensible.

Back Again

We were off to upstate NY where my hubby's family has a lake house on Lake Ontario. Oh!!! what a vacation. Sun, waves, body surfing, family parties and just plain old relaxation!
11 days of good food and trashy novels! What more could you ask for?
While I was there I did spend a little time working on my soon to be born niece's goodies. Some baby booties and a toddler's jacket. Here they are.


I will say that the sweater is a little bit difficult. These Make It Yourself books were written in the 70's and the patterns are not as well constructed as newer patterns. This sweater is made from the top down with lace weight cotton. I fear that the way the sleeves are made there will be bunching at the underarms, though in the picture it looks snug enough. I have now read the pattern a couple of times and think I can work it out....we will see if my crochet skills are up to snuff.


The baby booties were a pattern found on ravelry! Thank you Miss Mouse for signing me up!