Sunday, November 29, 2015

The Talented Mr.Tyrrell

The one and only Al Tyrrell.

We’re big fans of Al Tyrrell’s stoneware. The Dixon, NM potter creates functional ceramics that are simple, earthy and feather light. Al’s cups are the only ones I use for my morning coffee. I have one for every day of the week, maybe more. Every year during the Dixon Studio Tour we visit his studio so we can add to our stash of Tyrrell pottery and to buy Christmas gifts for friends. It’s a true fall tradition.

From previous visits I knew Al had studied in Northern Arizona University’s noted ceramics program but didn’t know until this visit that he dropped out of NAU to work with Rose Naranjo in Taos and to apprentice with Willard Spence.That's when his current studio became available. He took the leap and some forty years later continues to throw his marvelous cups, bowls, plates, pitchers and colanders. Love the stuff.

 
Potsherds adorning a corrugated roof to ward aways birds.


Lustrous Tyrell pitchers on the seconds shelf.


The aforementioned pitchers in toned black and white. Which do you favor?

Sunday, November 22, 2015

It's Still Life



When I boarded the D train back in 2002 I was heading to Chamonix with my buddy Ian Cruickshank for a ski safari This tale has nothing whatsoever to with skiing but my $8,000 purchase of my Canon 1Ds was prompted by the trip. Surely this camera among cameras would make me a better skier. Either that or I'm confusing my sports.

Upon returning to the states, my first attempt at developing a photographic theme was one I called Studies and Abstractions. They were essentially still lifes, objects photographed close up and that I saw as little design projects. Then, as now, designing the image was the thing. And doing it in the viewfinder was the heart of the craft, no cropping. What I see is what I get.

Maybe ten years ago I took an advanced Photoshop class from John Paul Caponigro who informed me that still life was my milieu and that I was, shall we say, lacking in the landscape department. As you might predict I found recognition as a landscape photographer.

Anyway last week's post of the lowly wire took me back to the lady I came I with, the still life. 

This may last awhile, years even.



Stay tuned.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Rudimentary, my dear Watson.

This elegant number comes from my Sketches of Winter series.

There aren’t many things more basic and unartful than the thin strands of metal we call wire. The functional material keeps critters out, binds things together and hangs our art from walls. In itself it’s the essence of unimportance. Straight, bent or barbed the stuff is all around us yet pretty much unnoticed, till it is.

Resting on the sand of the the Topaz Internment Camp near Delta , Utah this coil of rusted wire bears testament to a tragedy.

This wire is part of a larger motif, that of fences, gates and corrals. It's an iconic western theme if ever there was one.

These twists of wire reside on a fence at Rancho de las Golondrinas southwest of Santa Fe.

Some enterprising soul stapled these mattress coils to the side of a building in Rinconada. This was featured in the Singular Image issue of  Black and White magazine back in 2010.
Some of these may appear familiar. They're not exactly new but haven't been presented a series so what the heck. We'll call it Straight, Bent or Barbed.

Sunday, November 08, 2015

Back to San Antone

As I was finishing breakfast on Tuesday the phone rang. It was an Alamosa, Colorado number that I didn’t recognize at first. When I answered it was Andrew Abeyta telling me that the sheep were on the way to San Antonio Mountain from Mogote at that very moment. He said “They’ll be there by noon. The trailer will be on the west side of 285 and on the north side of San Antone.” I tossed it around for about three seconds and said, “I’ll be there.”

I threw together a cheese, salami and apple lunch, poured myself a roadie of coffee and set off, figuring an hour to get there. As I headed north on 285 and came abreast of the mountain I began looking for signs of Andrew, Victor and the sheep. Just across from Victor’s usual site between two hills on the Taos Plateau I saw a shimmering object that I thought was trailer, but no sheep. I proceeded to the Colorado border and still no sheep. I went back to find the trailer and this time found a rutted path to the shoulder of Mount San Antonio, took it toward the mountain and found Andrew setting up the trailer for Cuba.



I parked the Pilot out of the picture and walked to the trailer. He greeted me and predicted, “Cuba should be coming over the hill anytime.” I followed him over the rise and we scanned the horizon for the herder and sheep. After five minutes or so Andrew exclaimed. “There he is. He’s wearing an orange hat.” And, indeed, a single figure and 365 wooly bulges spread across the llano.



The figures came closer and closer as Cuba trailed the sheep around the hill below us. Andrew brought a trough and filled it with salt. “The sheep will really want this after walking eight miles.” The moment they arrived they attacked the salt then wandered down to the pond below for refreshment. Andrew told me, “In the winter they don’t drink much. Maybe every two days. Besides they eat snow. When it’s hot they need a lot of water. Having water already here saves a lot of money. Otherwise I have to bring it every day.”


While the sheep drank their fill, Andrew and Cuba went about setting up the propane generator and connecting electrical to the campo before driving down to the pond so Cuba could be sure every sheep was accounted for.





Sunday, November 01, 2015

Ocate

I first heard of Ocate during a one person show in Fort Collins back in 2010. Quite by chance the noted equine photographer Tony Stromberg was having an opening the same night. It was a drizzly April evening with very little action so I found myself wandering back and forth between my show and Tony’s. He did the same. In a snippet of conversation Tony described the horse sanctuary that he managed and spoke in spiritual terms about the rescued horses and life lessons they had taught him. He told me that his operation was in Ocate, New Mexico, a place somewhere between nowhere and oblivion. He said he had to drive to Mora for a tank of gas and to Las Vegas to find a real store. It sounded grim but it's lilting moniker stuck with me.

Last Saturday after we picked up a couple of Peggy’s paintings from the Kennedy Museum at New Mexico Highlands University we took the great circle route back to Taos through, you guessed it, Ocate. Being a man of the plains, figuratively speaking, the grasslands through which we drove were a tonic and the epic New Mexico sky enveloped us as only it can.




Wowzer! That's a sky.