Tomorrow evening is the Opening Reception for a new exhibit in the Lillstreet Gallery Annex on the second floor. It’s a collection of Lillstreet ceramic artists who make soda-fired work. I have a large “constellation” of wall pieces in the show. The textured wall pillows make a fun installation grouping full of textures, surfaces & shadows.

Stop by tomorrow evening between 6:00-8:00pm for the Opening Reception. Second floor of Lillstreet Art Center just a few doors down from my studio. 4401 North Ravenswood, Chicago, IL 60640 on the corner of Montrose & Ravenswood.

The goal for today was to “finish” building all of their chess pieces so that we can paint them with underglaze tomorrow. Most of the kids made it. A couple of them need to finish a couple more tomorrow morning. Deadline’s approaching… so tomorrow’s going to be a BUSY day!!!

This morning was very quiet & still.
A little earlier start allowed me to go a little further before the bike path started to get “crowded” with a sudden influx of runners. I must admit I’ve been a little pampered by having the lakefront bike trail mostly to myself in the early morning hours.

It’s been a productive week so far at Summer Camp. My kids are each busy building a full chess set out of terra cotta clay. They’ve each developed their own themes and are building it piece by piece. But camp is not just clay… it’s also about cleaning and every other part of the process!

And for my camps, there are three simple rules…

Summer Camp Rule #1 : “Have fun.”
And it definitely looks like they are. You can see it on their faces, and in their work!

Summer Camp Rule #2 : “Your fun is not more important than anyone else’s fun.”
So there’s no teasing, nicknaming, bullying, acting up or anything else.

Score… slip… repeat.
Hopefully they’ve all learned some good handbuilding skills.
They’ll find out soon enough what happens as they dry if they have NOT scored & slipped!!!

They also needed to start painting their chess boards. Each chess board is 24″x 24″… which means each piece sits on a checkered section that is 3″ square.

Like I said… camp is not just about MAKING things, but also the other steps of the process. A tough lesson is reclaiming their dried clay. I keep telling them to watch out so their clay doesn’t dry too fast. To keep it covered with plastic and spray it once and awhile with water.  However, some of them don’t hear that warning… and we end up with some dry chunks of clay. So they then get to “volunteer” to pulverize the dry clay so we can reclaim it into useful slip. A little hard work might reinforce the lesson of “preserving” their wet usable clay.

At the end of the day, we clean up our class room. They kids are great about scraping & scrubbing the tables, sweeping the floor, cleaning all of their tools and making the room cleaner than it was when they came in for the morning.

Throughout the day, I also get to “enforce” my favorite of the rules…
Summer Camp Rule #3 : “Whatever mess you make, YOU will be cleaning up.”
So when there’s a mess on the floor by the sinks, the kids “volunteer” to be the ones to clean it up. They know the rules… and it’s all part of the process!

Beautiful colors early on this morning. Dark & dusky. We’re off to a good start…

And then the clouds started to warm up with a bit more morning sun… a beautiful glow.

And then the golden brightness came through the clouds. Beautiful colors in the sky with incredible reflections in the water. A sure sign that the sun was not far behind.

The sun finally made it through when I was near Montrose Beach. The beautiful colors were reflected nicely in a “little puddle” of trapped water on the beach.

We drove home from Peoria in the late afternoon hours. We were hoping to make good time and quite possibly enjoy a beautiful sunset along the way. About halfway home, the sky took a turn and huge clouds swooped in. Dark, impending clouds… and you could see where the storm was dropping huge amounts of rain. And the cloud was headed our way.

As the cloud passed over us, the sky got suddenly dark & gloomy. But also made for an incredible sunset. Almost looked more like a forest fire than a sunset?!

And here’s Cousin Kim enjoying the sunset, with that fiery orange glow on her face,
and trying to get that “perfect” stormy sunset photo!

Soon enough the clouds to ur right were being taken over by the large storm cloud.
It was pretty cool to watch them “mix it up”… blue skies, white clouds & dark storm clouds!

But then soon enough, almost as quick as it blew in, the storm cloud moved on…
and we were treated to a “second” beautiful sunset!!!

While visiting Peoria for the weekend, our plans were changed slightly due to the heavy rains that came through this morning. We decided to do some sightseeing in the Peoria area. Which took us to the Giant Burr Oak tree.

And with the build-up and posted “pedigree” that this tree has…
I was excited & relieved that the tree did not disappoint. The giant burr oak tree is very large with beautifully dark glossy leaves. The oversized branches are growing every which way. Some of the larger ones are drooping so low that they are actually resting on the ground… or even better, propped up by constructed tripods.

Here you can see the constructed tripods propping up a branch…

And here you can see my Cousin Kim and my very first art fair friends Gerry & Rosene.
The master gardeners and longtime friends!!!

With such a beautiful garden… it always seemed like the perfect place for one of my soda-fired totem poles. It has been neatly tucked into their garden for a few years now. I love seeing it every time I go down for a visit. Quite the honor to be “featured” in their award-winning garden!!!

As you go down the terraces, and turn a few corners, the path begins to reveal the totem pole.

Perched on the side of the slope, surrounded by ferns & hosts.

My friends Gerry & Rosene not only have a wonderful garden… but they also have some wonderful collections. And, we have very similar tastes. When we’re together at a flea market it’s a race to see who can sang that cool piece of rust the fastest!!! Luckily there’s always plenty of rust to go around!!! Well here’s one of their collections hanging on a long arbor with climbing hydrangea plants. Beautiful.