Okay, so many of you might know that I am possibly the least political person ever!
I don’t get involved. I don’t participate. I don’t care. Sure, everyone says I should.
But it’s my choice to live in my own “ignorant bliss.”

So tonight when the final Presidential Debate was on every channel on TV,
I was determined to find something else to watch in the studio while I was working.
So my evening’s “debate” turned out to be Sharks vs. Jets. So much more fun!!!

This year, at ART DETOUR, we all decided it would be funny of we all did a challenge.
If we all made something with a theme. Something to push us to think outside the box.
So we all decided to “Put A Bird On It.” So each of decided to make a piece with a bird on it.
Pretty obvious, huh?! But why a bird?… click here to watch the video clip!

So I made three different pieces, each with a bird on it. I just wanted to make sure that
I would end up with at least one good one to take with for the challenge. And I took the
challenge quite literally. I made a piece as I normally would… then I put a bird on it!!!

This one “flew the coop” to one of Amy’s Northwoods friends…

This one came home with me… but will “migrate” to the Holiday Home Show!!!

This third one was part of the ART DETOUR Silent Auction. Each of the artists put their
challenge piece in a special tent for customers to bid on them. A portion of the proceeds
went to the Northwoods Wildlife Center. This piece “flew” all the way to Morton, Illinois
to the lucky high bidder!!!

And it’s time to snatch up a bunch of my favorites… GOURDS!!!
Love their colors, their textures and the whimsical twists, turns & animated postures!!!
So much better than their over-rated counterpart the pumpkin! I already had a great
assortment from”art In The Barn.” But you can always have more, right???

Yesterday, at the end of the Apple Cider Century, we rode past a pumpkin farm with tons
of cool gourds. And I found possibly the cutest gourd ever!!! So tiny… it fit perfectly with
a few more in the pocket on the back of my biking jersey!

After a very short overnight “nap,” I was back to the studio quite early
this morning to get my kiln started. It’s a ful day of firing… which sort of
makes me “trapped” here at Lillstreet all day. It’s a perfect chance to get
caught up on things – like cleaning my studio! It is such a mess from the
past couple days of glazing. It needs some serious help.

So here’s my “inspiration ” for the day…
Wouldn’t it be nice in if my studio looked a little more like this?!

By now you may have seen some of the totem poles my Summer Campers have made.
I’ve posted pictures here on the blog, and have received some great compliments.
Thank you all so much. But my latest excitement is seeing that my camp project has
inspired another teacher to do the same with her kids… way over on the “other side
of the Pond.” It’s pretty darn cool to see that my totem poles, and my little blog have
made it all the way to London AND inspired another group of kids to make their own
totem pole! Here’s an excerpt from the e-mail I received from Abby, the teacher.
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Hello Gary,
We spoke a while back and you gave me a lot of good advice on how to go about
constructing a ceramic totem pole with my students in the UK. We finished the project
in July and I just back to the States a couple of weeks ago. 

Okay, so I’m not the best with math. Never have been.
Don’t really see the use for most of what they tried to teach us in school.
Trigonometry. Math with letters? Statistics. Analytics. etc…
But finally, there’s a pie chart I can understand… and REALLY relate to!!!

What’s missing is the part of the chart about the SECOND pie I’m also going to eat!!!
This pie chart might have come in handy on my recent biking vacation?!