The Monday Period: Pages 1-4 #garfield #imsorryjon

After reloading and restarting the wood firing, it went super smooth. We wrapped it up in 48 hours, with cone 11’s everywhere in kiln. I woke up for my shift on Tuesday to find an unexpected 3” of snow on everything!

So… the wood firing’s been spicy. A giant refired pot exploded at 700f, hour 10 during the firing. The crew heard it go. We peaked, and shards of pot were *everywhere*. We had no real option. We shut it down and unloaded the work. Any pot fired with a shard in it would be ruined.

Starting off the morning by lighting the Cloud kiln for its 8th firing. We loaded it up yesterday, with the help of a full crew!

I managed to get all my sculptures safely packed into the truck for their ride to the kiln! It took me two hours in the drizzle. Time for a nap before I pack my clothes and food.

I’ve been dealing with a cough for 8 weeks. The doc said everything is fine - my throat is just reacting to being sore (due to coughing) by trigging the need to cough. The cure? To just stop coughing for a bit.

I’ve bisqued half my beasts for the firing, about to start the other half going. My studio is running out of space!

It bums me out that there isn't more Paleolithic rock art of cave hyenas, especially considering they were all over the place. So I made some myself.

Had a night in, finished a giant sculpture, and took a nice bath. One week until my last bisque firing before the wood firing!

I’ve spending the last 5 minutes doing the ceramic equivalent of staring at a full closet and bemoaning that I have nothing to wear. None of these 15 bags of clay in front of me are exactly right!

Pogo was a critical part of my childhood, despite the fact that even as an adult it’s impenetrable without wikipedia open.

René Magritte, “The Ladder of Fire” (1939), oil on canvas.

I was letting myself get way too stressed, then I looked out my studio window and spotted the world’s largest carrot, forgotten for months.

Paul Bunyan sez FUCK ICE.

Another beast ready for the bisque kiln! It’s a bit more than three weeks before my wood firing. It’s the final stretch! I still have a lot I want to sculpt between now and then.

"Do you know where I can look up Frungal's Extractor?" The magic school librarian sighed. "That grimoire is locked away." "Why?" "That spell extracts your anxieties and fears and turns them into a creature." "Yes! To slay!" "In theory. In practice, nobody can slay the new pet they created."

Post a game you remember playing that nobody else remembers.

I did finish up my first sculpture of 2026. Some times I can only help things by bringing joy to folks. So have a squish of beasts!

I’ve spent most of the day avoiding brainstorming what to sculpt next. Bellyaching, running errands, actually filing my nails. I finally put pencil to paper, and immediately came up with a banger of an idea that’s going to be a HUGE pain in the butt to sculpt. Great. Thanks, brain?

living in a world where the only two jobs are “gambling” and “murder” isn’t nearly as cool as Cowboy Bebop made it out to be

Last repost: I remember the first time we stumbled on this combo air museum/ water park (!?) in rural Oregon. It’s in the middle of a bunch of agricultural fields and vineyards. A giant building, with a 747 on top, with a waterside coming out of the 747. It’s even got the Spruce Goose!

i was just reading a thread about local museums, someone was wondering why the evergreen aviation museum in middle-of-nowhere oregon is so good? and that's how i'm just now learning that evergreen airlines 1975-2013 out of mcminville was essentially a CIA front en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergre...

Did a study for my first sculpture of the year. Here we goooo!

I went bog swimming in Estonia in 2024, and haven’t shut up about it since. They’re just so magical.

Let’s make 2026 the year of the bog. The world’s most unique and interesting plants, clean water, cooler climate. Bogs deserve our thanks, care, and deep respect. Please join me and love a bog today.

This 20 years ago: My then (and now) producer Mike Danforth and I were talking about “The Golden Compass,” and I wondered what my daemon would be. He said, “A small hairless dog that wishes it was Ira Glass’ daemon.”

I’ve been learning stick shift. I’ve started getting a pretty nice handle on it, but I’m always vibrating from adrenaline by the time I exit the car. Like, legit shaky from a 5 min drive back from the coffee shop.

When I moved back to the PNW 20 years ago, my mom sent me with all of her old hiking books. She figured they’d still be useful. Not so much.

I rinsed the honey bottle with hot water this morning to pour the last drops into my morning tea. I then spent a few sleepy moments worrying that our fridge compressor was dying before realizing the sound was coming from the bottle.

speaking as and artist or writer or whatever, research (verb) is more important than research (noun)

Angelenos: Mint Chip is about 6 months old and still looking for a home! He's a perfect boy who adores laps, attention, and other cats so much. Adopt him through Santé D'or! www.santedor.org

Pssst. I’m gonna try and do a shop launch this week. Probably Thursday at 8am pst. There’ll be beasts!

I finally had enough down time to photograph “ghost forest”, my big sculpture from my October firing. The results were just spectacular!

Thought I was going to be a potter, but I just wasn’t that good at functional ware

Enabling friends to play with new mediums is the best.

Firing the cloud kiln again!

Guess who has two thumbs, and set their bisque kiln to preheat for 12 minutes instead of 12 hours! That’s me!!

*Auroras everywhere* Meanwhile in Seattle:

This little baby, Mint Chip, is the last of our foster kittens to be adopted. If you know anyone in the LA who needs an absolute sweetie who adores laps, blankets, and other cats, they should get in touch with www.santedor.org

I cleaned up my studio, since I’m done with dark clay for a second. Thought it might be fun to share my tools. The first photo is 20 years of goodies. The second photo are the ones I actually use.

I made a new big buddie with an egg. Hopefully *this one* makes it through the bisque!

These are both absolutely gorgeous sculptures.

One of the smaller pieces that's still available is "Safely Furled." www.circusposterus.com/product-cate...

Last reposts: I’ve been able to accomplish so much of what I’ve done as an artist thanks to having a supportive partner with a well paying job. We had absurd luck after college, finding careers we both loved. His paid enough to support mine, which took years before it was even making a profit.

There is no shame having a safety net, that’s wonderful to have and I wish everyone had it but not everyone does. I have a bee in my bonnet with the race to the bottom this convo creates where it’s a who gets paid the least party when I need it to inspire demands for higher pay

If you’re a working artist talking to other creatives I’m begging you to not hide this. I have a parter who makes more and I don’t hide that and try to be as open as I can especially one on one. It’s cruel to not be honest with your fellow artist and give them any kind of false hope or fear

On Monday at 5pm Pacific, the remaining work from my show will become available online through Stranger Factory. I'll share more of the pieces in the meantime-- like this one, titled "Afraid Not."

In addition to prepping for a wood firing in two weeks, I did a bronze pour yesterday! Dang. Things get real pretty when they’re hot.

Just worked up my courage to talk to the neighbor who snapped up the street tree logs I’d been promised. It worked out fine! He’s promised me his madrona tree when he gets it taken down!