Italy and Art!

Lately, I have been exploring more of my art oriented side, trying to figure out what it is that intrigues me about the arts, specifically ceramics, and what role they may play in my life. As always, I am restless and have found the best way for me to learn is through traveling and exposing myself to new techniques and practices. The great thing is many craft schools offer workstudy arrangements that make it possible for one to spend an extended amount of time in a creative environment in exchange for labor. I spent January and February at the John C. Campbell Folkschool in North Carolina. There, I took more clay, weaving and mountain dulcimer building. After time in the woods and office America, it was refreshing to live in a community of people organized around the arts and the continuance of traditional craft. The sheer variety and quality of what was produced each week blew my mind even as I learned new skills and pushed my ceramics. Having spent over a year and half in the USA, it was time for some international travel which meant taking an assistant position at La Meridiana, a ceramics center in Certaldo, Italy. After a week visiting family in Scandinavia, I arrived at La Meridiana on the 4th of April and the next day students arrived for the first workshop of the season. The assistants’ job is basically to make sure the studio is clean, find things the instructor needs, mix glazes and slips, prepare coffee breaks and serve lunch. This sounds like a lot to do but spread out over the course of the day, it really just means being on call all the time. So Far, I have attended 4 workshops: Earthenware and Slips taught by Richard Phethean Porcelain and Bucchero taught by Victor Greenaway Translucent and Colored Porcelain taught by Curtis Benzle Naked Raku taught by Wally Asselberghs and Sue Morse From Where I Live

Some of My Work

Outside of work, I have explored a few of the towns in Tuscany and take daily walks through vineyards and olive groves. All over Tuscany are small medieval hill towns that date back to the Etruscans. Their hilltop position with large walls helped in their defense against the other hill towns. A few weeks ago, I followed along on a field trip to San Gimignano and Volterra. San Gimignano is famous for its towers which in its day were a sign of wealth and power. Claudia, our director, gave us a tour of one of the great churches and we wandered the city and looked out over the surrounding landscape. Then we headed to Volterra which is home to one of the first and most important Etruscan museums. Both of these cities have beautiful old architecture and narrow streets that wind this way and that. They also both have captured the tourism market in a way that Certaldo has not. There is a historical hill town that looks out over the modern town of Certaldo but it feels empty with its restaurants and gourmet food shops lacking tourists. However, living at a ceramics center in a non-touristy town definitely makes one aware of the natural beauty of the place and its buildings without feeling compelled to appreciate what someone else has decided is the most spectacular.

Leaving

Yesterday I left the Adirondacks. Summer is over. The leaves have changed and fallen. It has become wet and chilly. So I will share with you one of my last adventures in the North Country.



Sometimes, I find that I spend a long time in one place only to find something of great beauty right before the end. Last weekend, I and two of the backcountry stewards decided to set out on what we planned as a day hike up and over Algonquin and Iroquois, two of the 46 highpeaks. Algonquin is the second highest peak in the state of New York and Iroquois stands right behind it. After making a swing by Marcy Dam which had been torn apart by hurricane Irene and the lake above it left a mud field, we set out up Algonquin. The ascent is a steep one as one gains over 3,000 feet in elevation in about 3 miles, with each mile steeper than the last. Although we had a clear day, a week of cold and rain had left behind a layer of ice that diminished the choices for footholds on the rocky last mile. As expected, the view from the top was spectacular as one could see Mt. Marcy, Whiteface, several other highpeaks and down into Avalanche Pass. After lunch and some photos, we continued on to Iroquois which provided that solitary mountain top experience that one seeks. With only one other visitor, we felt like we had reached some far off place rarely touched by man. In addition to seeing what we could see before, we could see Algonquin and Wallface, the largest cliff in the whole park.



With the plan of stopping by the interior outpost for some hot tea, we headed down the backside of the mountain. This trail is a another step one the winds its way back and forth over rushing mountain stream. The interior outpost is a place for those working for the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to spend the night when they need to be in the backcountry, a command center in emergencies and a base for the caretaker who looks after trails and campers in that area. A fire in the late 1990’s took the old outpost down and under the flusher economy of that era, they were able to rebuild a beautiful log cabin in the Swedish Coping logs style and with a wood stove and most of the modern amenities. At one of the backcountry steward’s suggestion we decided to spend the night. Luckily for us, there were extra blankets, mattresses and food since we had not planned on staying out for that night. In the end, one more steward and a ranger joined us for the night. So I ended up spending the night in one of the most beautiful placed in New York talking late into the night about adventures that had been had in the woods that were my home and playing cards.



The next morning we hiked out, circling Lake Colden and then walking through Avalanche Pass. This hike took us through a deep valley with cliffs rising from both sides and over a trail that at times hung from these walls. We could look up at Algonquin and Mt. Marcy to see where we had been on previous days. It was Saturday of Columbus Day weekend and people were streaming into the park so we felt a little smug from having stayed at the cabin and to be leaving ahead of them all.

Some of my work projects...

Some photos of the places I've been living up here.

Trees

Recently, I’ve gotten to know trees a lot better. Growing up, I always revered them and considered myself a bit of a tree-hugger. After a week of chainsaw training, I was put on a project to fell, buck and peel 30 cedars that for a lean-to. Felling a tree, when it goes smoothly, can be a powerful experience as with a few cuts you hear a creak and then a thud as the tree falls to the ground. It feels like everything shakes as the surrounding trees readjust to their increased space. Then comes the delicate part. Trees are like bodies, they have arms or ribs and an inside and outside. Limbing and peeling a tree is like undressing or butchering a tree until you have the vulnerable white inside revealed. With freshly cut trees there is a layer of water between the bark and wood that makes it so that you can just pull off the bark in long pieces with your hand-it felt like how I imagine surgery feels like. The few axe marks left from the initial opening of the bark leave white scars on the wood and creases in the bark leave iodine yellow scars. As the week wore on, the ground became muddier and the woods slowly filled with sunlight from the missing crowns. It was weird feeling, I began to realize that there are similarities between trees and us but my job was still to take them down and drag them out.

Skillz

I’m almost done with training so here is what I´ve done. This week I’ll complete my chainsaw training and then starts the real work.
Skillz gained/Trainings Received:
Food packing
Wilderness Advanced First Aid with CPR
Boulder moving skillz
Crosscut Saw cutting
Bog bridge building
House Leveling
Trail routing
Paper work skillz

I'm in the Adirondacks

Let me start with saying the Adirondacks are beautiful. There are lakes and streams and lakes everywhere and woods are primarily spruces, pines, cedars and various birches. As for wildlife, we have mosquitoes, black flies (the ones that make you bleed), no seeums and today I saw a few toads and a little snake. We live at the William C. Whitney headquarters which is an old logging headquarters in a few houses right near the water. We also have a main house which is where we do most of our cooking and have meetings. There are 20 of us interns, 10 boys and 10 girls from all over the country (Hawaii, California, Atlanta and several from Chicago).

So far we have been in orientation which means a lot of talking about rules, regulations and safety. However, we camped out Thursday and Friday nights and went over leave no trace tactics and camping skills…lighting the stoves, pumping water, pooping in holes etc.

Today, nine of us went for a hike up Mt. Adams which took us wading across a stream, across a pond and up the steepest trail I have ever hiked. There were lots of rocks scrambles and places where the trail was more a gully than a trail. At the top was a tall fire lookout that gave us a panoramic view of mountains and lakes for as far as we could see. It was spectacular. Afterwards we went a little further down the road to a ghost town which actually had one house where Teddy Roosevelt had lived.