In Arizona it’s not very common to have residential areas, shops and restaurants tightly intermingled. There are clearly defined blocks of houses, and once you drive out of the housing areas you enter a clearly defined shopping center area. 

I live a block from the university, and shops, living areas, and restaurants are fairly well mixed. There’s a small art gallery attached to a laundry mat a couple blocks north of my house; a Mexican taco shop is a five minute walk south. My bank is about a mile away, but I usually walk there.

I like to pretend that I live in a European city because I can walk or bike to get whatever I need, and the buildings in my neighborhood were built in the 1930-40s so they are all brick or cinderblock. 

The building in the photo is across the street from where I live. It has been closed up for as long as I’ve lived in Tucson, but I hope that it opens soon.

Here are some photos from the glaze room. The glaze room is a covered area that’s outdoors, adjacent to the ceramics studio. Large shelves that store old, crusty containers of glazes line the perimeter of the area, and bins of finely ground minerals are stored underneath the stainless steel glazing table.

All of the pieces of my project are bisque fired (the first firing) now, so I’m starting to glaze them. The project is almost done! I’m glazing the cogs with a glaze that should come out looking copper-esque, but those won’t be fired until the end of next week. 

In ceramics, our current assignment is called “Function/non-function.” We must build two of the same item, but one must work and the other must be dysfunctional. 

You’ll have to wait to see the finished project to understand what I’m making, but today I built the bases and part of the handles. There is a bisque firing on Monday, so I need to have all of the pieces ready.

See more photos here.

Every Friday I have a three-hour block of time that I schedule, in ink, in my calendar for personal art time. Even though I am drained of creativity on Fridays, I still feel that it’s important to create things that won’t be graded or critiqued. I usually do something mindless, making something that I couldn’t write an artist’s statement about even if I thought about if for a week.

In front of my house, next to the sidewalk, is a mesquite tree. Mesquite trees have thorns that grow to several inches long, and they have branches that grow out (not up). These trees are perfectly suited to impale an unsuspecting passerby in the eye. I made a happy tree out of my mesquite tree. I trimmed its branches back, tied its branches up, and added fluttering, positive messages.

Many people pass by the tree every day on their way to and from school (I live a block away from the university). A couple people have stopped to read a message. I kind of feel like they’re animals at a zoo, because I manipulated a lot of the situation and then I sit on my front porch and eat oatmeal and watch them, but I’m glad they have happy messages instead of thorns in their face.

Happy Tree Recipe
2 sheets of paper (two different colors)
1 plastic bag
1 hole punch
1 pen
1 tree

1. Cut two-inch wide strips from your paper, until you have no more paper left.
2. Fold strips in half length-wise.
3. Stick one strip of paper inside of another—kind of like a book.
4. Punch a hole near the fold of the papers.
5. Cut strips about 10″ long from the plastic bag.
6. Thread one strip of plastic through one message-book. Repeat until all paper is used.
7. Write happy, cheery messages or friendly-looking doodles on the inside of the paper.
8. Hang messages on tree. 

Mary, a friend from Wyoming, visited Tucson a couple weekends back. She had never been to Tucson before, so we went to Fourth Ave., naturally.

Bookstop, an eclectic used bookstore, recently moved locations to Fourth Ave. I fell in love and I wish that I owned everything in that store. And by everything I mean the pinewood bookshelves, 1950s industrial furniture, 100+ year-old cash register, and the yellow-tinged books.