God bless us, everyone!

I wanted to send something special to my parents that they could open on Christmas morning. So the day before, Aaron and I made this video. We sent them an email that said they needed to check their email Christmas morning for Santa's surprise.
We hardly had time to practice and know it's not perfect, but the true meaning of Christmas is there: a big present and lots of bows!

connect

I love to analyze the energy/spirit people bring into my life. Each person provides a different atmosphere, phenomenologically speaking.

the greatest dad.

This weekend I reflected a lot on how wonderful my family is. I spent a lot of time with family as I stayed with Vanese's kids while she was at the hospital. I don't think I have given enough praise to my father and I would like to dedicate a paragraph or two to him...right now.
My dad is one of the best men I know. He was a wonderful father who took care of us in so many ways. He was always willing to tickle us, play creative games (like the rhino, CHARGE!!!), throw us around in the swimming pool, go camping, take us to the beach or to grandma's, and in general be there for us.
He is so generous with his time, talents and finances. He is willing to help anyone and has a sincere love for ALL people around him. Almost every night of my childhood Dad would come home and we would pray and eat together. He would ask us about our day and tell us funny stories about his. He always had a good joke to share and we would laugh together and then read scriptures. He would hug us and kiss us and carry us to bed if we fell asleep in the living room. (Sometimes we would pretend we were asleep so he would have to carry us anyway--we loved that.)
Some early mornings before seminary he would make us breakfast and share thoughts for the day. During my brother's last year of high school, in the morning he would read books to him out loud that would prepare him for a mission as my brother walked around the house getting ready for school.
He wanted to prepare us for life. He wanted to give us all the necessary knowledge we would need to be good citizens, people and saints. He truly taught us how to be happy and helpful in a world full of negativity and hate. My dad is honest, trust-worthy, smart, lively, positive, energetic, happy, unique, sincere, humble and vociferous.
He taught us how to garden, how to weed, how to work, how to play, how to eat healthy, how to practice, how to dance and how to gain a testimony and live the gospel.
He showed us how to be thankful and appreciate the bounteous beauty around us. So many nights and mornings he would pull us out of the house to see the sunrise or sunset. He would hike us up mountains so we could be on "top of the world" and lead us down canyons, through rivers and forest to show us his love for nature and all of God's creations.
You good-looking bear, don't you ever die. :)

oh so vogue

Tonight I drove into las vegas. I will always love descending into the valley at night. Here's a cell phone image of the scene:


I called up my sister to tell her I was on my way and she said my nieces were so excited to see me. They were telling her all the cool things we do together and how much fun we have. They told her we go to the park and play outside and do art, etc etc. But the 4 year old said that what makes me the best is because I am a good dresser. The 6 year old agreed that I am a really good dresser. I'm glad I could impress those girls.

let it snow.

we will just build castles.



love twin shadow.

Y O Y O Y O Y

seems like guys these days just want a fan club, not a help meet.

back in black

i love halloween.
here i am as a viking from denmark...give it up, because it's all holla's eve!

Svenske Sveske

The month of October has been different from the previous two I have spent here at Guldagergaard. I am finally getting the chance to learn Danish because the house is full of Danes! Before there was only one Danish speaker, so she rarely spoke Danish, but now they speak together all the time and I am getting more and more used to the language. I made my first good Danish joke this week when they taught me that "prune" was a term of endearment, like "pumpkin" in English. I remembered that Swedish sounded kind of like prune and thought it would be funny if you had a Swedish boyfriend to call him your "Svenske Sveske" (plus another arist came this past week, Gustaf from Sweden, so we call him that sometimes...)
Karen Lise said it gave me one gold star and that she hopes I can earn more gold stars with more good jokes in Danish.
We drove to Copenhagen this weekend. I decided to spend my last weekend in the city. I toured around by boat and on foot, went to a house-warming party for Katrine's friend and met up with my friend Caitlin's sister, Brittany who just moved here from the states because she married a Dane.
This weekend was a photo finish.

burning leaves of autumn

Denmark is shedding its leaves and leaving me solemn.
This October is more crisp then those I've passed before.
and I have recently discovered that the leaves are not more orange on the other side of the pond.
They are the same. Somehow I need to keep that fact present in my mind.
I went on a walk today around the lake and took some pictures of me falling into the light of autumn.

this week in ceramics

Like The (Potter's) Wheel.

This past week has been interesting at Guldagergaard. We have been working so hard this past month all together and this week 4 artists have packed up and headed back home. They were only staying for a month or two. So now I am at a point where I feel like I should be packing up, because I have worked just as hard, but I still have 3 weeks left here.
Now I am trying to refocus and think of things I want to do for my remaining time here. I made paperclay from some royal copenhagen slip casting clay. That was something I had never done before, but Claire and Merja were working in paper clay and they taught me how. I spread out layers of it slowly on big plaster slab and when it was thick enough I hand-built some tableware. They just came out of the bisque this week, so I am excited to glaze them. See below!
Last night I wrote out some goals so that I could manage my time well. Jody sold me her nice china porcelain clay for a reclaimed price, so now I can try to make some little sculptures that will be able to travel home with me.
Jody and I went to the post office yesterday because we decided mailing stuff home was the best solution. I bought a box and will mail stuff later this week. All of my sculptures are in an exhibition now, so I won't be able to mail them...I will just have to take what I can with me in a carry-on bag I bought from the second hand store last week and give the rest away as presents.
I am getting really excited to visit my parents in Romanis, finish school, graduate,and find a job...in that order. Von has been sending me info on different universities that are hiring ceramic professors. I feel like there are quite a few. That is good news for me.
Other good news is that there is an artist/designer working here, Rikke Hagen, who lives in Copenhagen and comes out to Guldagergaard a couple of times per month. I was feeling like I had too much time on my hands and she offered me a job being her assistant last week. So I will work for her a couple of days a week and get paid. Hopefully I can offset my living costs a little.
And in other good news, Mette offered me a job working their NCECA booth in Tampa this next March. I wasn't planning on going to NCECA, but wanted to be able to see Richard and Mette again. Then she told me I could have a free badge and she could pay me a little. WOW! So here I come Tampa. I've never been there before and I look forward to a new adventure. I will love to tell people about this place. I love Guldagergaard.

it finds you somewhere with your back to it

REAL LOVE.


Today I went to Slagelse, the closest big town to where I live. I was meeting some ladies from the church to use their sewing machine and fix some pants of mine. I ended up drawing a pattern for my backpack because one of the women wanted to make one just like it. So I measured all the pieces and showed her how I put it together. I still think that home-made backpack is a miracle.

After the sewing party, Christina and I went out to dinner at a Kebab restaurant downtown by the train station. She lives above the station so afterward she walked me there and we found out I had missed the bus by 3 minutes! If only we had left dinner a little sooner. Unfortunately, after 8pm the buses only run once an hour, so I had to wait for an hour to catch the next one. She waited with me and we talked about her future plans. She has dual citizenship, since her dad is American and I wondered if she would ever want to live in the US. I think she will apply to BYU for next year. Exciting!

Finally the bus came and we said our goodbyes (in English and Danish). The bus driver and this one guy were looking at us, but I just got on and moved to the middle of the bus. About 5 minutes later that guy came back and stood next to me and spoke to me in Danish. I said "what?" a few times and then he realized "You're not Danish." "No." He sat down beside me and we talked the entire way back to Skaelskor. He lives there with his family. He was flirting with me and wanting to know when he could see me again, etc, etc, but I never know how old guys are here (because the really young ones sometimes look really old!--I'm talking highschool teenagers looking like mid-twenties, no joke) I asked him his age and he said 22. Figures. Then he asked how old I was and he was shocked when I told him 28. He asked how old Christina was and I told him 20. He thought she was 16 and I was 19 or 20.
Thank you very much. I will take that as a compliment and start acting the age I look.

Here's a picture of my new found maturity.

recipes recipes recipes

Papa Was A Rodeo.
This week I have been glaze testing. I have mixed up a bunch of glaze recipes and seen one final product that I wasn't pleased with at all. I am used to certain results back in the states and my first test was a little disappointing. We have a few different materials and I had to do some substitutions. Those slight difference will change the mood of my work completely.
So I am tweaking my recipes and hoping for the best. We open the kiln tomorrow. Cross fingers.
Today I used a million more recipes in the kitchen. I wanted to make a cafe rio style taco salad, so I had to make the dressing! I found the recipe online, but didn't think I would be able to find ranch dressing anywhere, so I also found a recipe for that. I made buttermilk ranch dressing from scratch!!
Also for dessert I made a flan from scratch. I have never done that either. But I think I will do it more frequently now. I used this recipe and found it most delicious...so did everyone else!

I have been making bricks lately. Richard has a commission from the city of Copenhagen to make bricks to restore an old church in the city center. We have been moving clay to the mixer 80 kilos at a time, mixing more grog into it and then moving it back to the studio to wedge and form the bricks. Its a pretty arduous process and unfortunately last week I was sick for a couple of days. I had the stomach flu (or mild food poisoning) and stayed in bed for two whole days. Everyone told me I should go to the doctor, but I kept thinking it would be expensive, like in the states. Guess what? Its free...even for a non-citizen. Richard called the doctor and told them how I felt and then he put the doctor on the phone with me and we just talked over the phone. Then the doctor told me which medicine to get and that was it. Richard went and bought me the medicine, some yogurt and some apples. I was very grateful that he was around to take care of me.

I'm glad I finally feel better though. I hate not eating for days and feeling weak and tired all the time.

The three new artists that have come to the center this past week are Eva Funderburgh, Jody Greenman-Barber and Carol Grant. Carol and Jody both work in pottery and Eva makes hand built monsters. On Monday there is a throwing workshop with Takeshi Yasuda. He arrives tomorrow and the other participants will show up on Monday. I am excited to peak in on the workshop and learn a few things.






meal time is so nice time.

farvel

Dark Sedan.

I don't mind the transitory life style, making hello-s and saying goodbye-s. At Guldagergaard there are always artists coming and going. I have had a roommate, Claire from Ireland, since Aug 23rd, but she leaves tomorrow.
I will be sad to see her go. She is a great artist and she humored me when I wanted to listen to this song one-million times these past three weeks. TAK for that!

Three new artists came last week. Two from Cananda and one from the US. I'm sure they will have plenty to offer my studio practice and life in general. I love learning from everyone, hearing their stories and sharing meals together.
Tonight I cooked a Mediterranean style meal. There were 8 of us at dinner, but I think I made enough for 16. I have a lot to learn about food preparation. But too much is better than not enough, right? Now at least we have lunch for tomorrow.
All my pieces made it out of the bisque intact. Tomorrow I will mix up some glazes and do some tests. Then I have to prepare for my exhibition by glazing all my work.
Here is a flyer I made up for the show. Katrine translated it into Danish for me to print, but here is the English version.




soooo excited.

clay on your head!

For the Skaelskor Cultural Festival, the gallery asked us ceramic artists to participate in their annual "CLAY ON YOUR HEAD" project. I decided to go with an American surfer motif. It was a lot of laughs.

I've been speaking Danish all my life.

Tonight at dinner Richard was teaching me Danish. Raoul kept joking about how we should have a chalkboard installed on the wall because dinner was becoming like a classroom. I was asking Richard how to say everything and then having him repeat it three or four times so I could remember. Plus I have to analyze the Danish grammar, so I can understand it, since I don't have a class.
Anyway I asked Richard how to say "to remember" and he said something that sounded like "whooska" and then I realized he was saying HUSKER. I already knew that DU means YOU and put the two together, husker du. When we were little we loved playing HUSKER DU. It was a memory game, meaning "Do you remember?" in Danish. I had no idea it meant that and I have pronounced HUSKER like corn "husk" my whole life.
oh the joys of childhood.
I learned French from Disney movies and Danish from board games.

København

Saturday morning I woke up singing, "This is not a rat race with winners and losers this is the fast pace way of life" in my friend's apartment in Copenhagen (København in Danish). Friday I went to town to go to the temple and a singles institute activity. They were having an international night where we learned about Nicaragua. There were two girls from Nicaragua there (who live in Denmark) and they made the food and did a presentation. It was so fun, mostly because I got to speak Spanish all night and we planned to hang out some other time. They are so nice and cute.
There were these two guys from Norway and an American girl there. Afterward we just went walking in the street, in search of Dr. Pepper, but without success. Maybe I will go visit Norway?!? I'm not sure, but those guys were talking me into it. I have to see if I can find a cheap airplane ticket.
Then on Saturday I went to the train station in the morning to meet Merja. When she got to town we went walking around looking for second hand shops. We both wanted to buy more warm clothes. Many of the shops were closed, but we turned the corner in this one neighbor and found a little market. There was a whole street filled with garage salers!! I guess it was the neighborhood's party so all the people who lived there brought out their stuff to sell. I found a leather jacket for $8.50 and a sweater and long sleeve shirt for $7 each. Mostly, clothes are expensive here. I haven't wanted to buy anything, so I am sooooo happy about these purchases.
After our success, we went to lunch then to the Danish Design Center and then headed home.
I really love that city. They have bicycle lanes on every street and at some streets the bikers even have their own lights! København is like a fairytale.

five minutes without talking

I am having the time of my life. srsly. Every day is different and the same, relaxing and exciting. But sometimes you really do miss those people with whom it is so natural to go five minutes without talking. You know who you are. love you. thinking of you.

sooooo much wood.

I moved so many logs from one spot to another today. boyohboy. my back is tired.

The best version of what i could imagine just happened.

Silver Screen.

I have just been starting every post with a song that has been in my head/on repeat on my ipod. Some of the words stick out to me and I am glad to have a place to reflect on the lyrics.

I really feel like the best thing I could imagine is happening to me right now. Last week a new artist from Finland came. Her name is Merja. She is so fun. We have such a good time together. I have always loved Finland for some reason so we talk a lot about it and she shows me pictures of her fashionable daughter who lives in Helsinki. She told me that she told her husband all about me, how happy and fun I am. ha. She is great company and for dinner the other night she made us meatballs just like Ikea. They were soooo good.

This week Richard and I are preparing the kiln site because next week we are firing the huge wood kiln. The kiln's name is Embla. It takes three days to fire. There are people coming from Sweden, Denmark and Norway to load and fire the kiln. We will just sign up on a schedule and take shifts through the night for 3 days. So Richard and I are cleaning up, preparing shelves and organizing wood.

I have also been casting more porcelain cups, glazing those I already bisqued and putting decals on the glazed ones. So far we have about 70 finished. I think they want a group of 150 before we take them to Slagelse Community to sell. I really enjoy the process of slip casting and decorating with decals, so I'm glad that job fell into my hands. I have a good time doing it.

Today I started making a landscape out of clay. Before, when I had my landscapes out of styrofoam everyone complained that they didn't mesh well with the sculptures. So I am making one out of a smooth, red, earthenware clay that they have here. It is sooooo smooth. I think I love it. Hopefully it looks good.

I am making dinner for everyone tonight. I made a lemon meringue pie for dessert and I am going to prepare a red curry for the main dish. So far I have made pizza, chicken-vegetable soup and tacos. That might be the end of my menu repertoire...(that's French for repertoire. See I told you I was practicing French!)

Fin.

Woweek number Two.

I listened to the new Vampire Weekend album a while ago, but never "heard" this song until today. And I love it. Give it a listen?
Giving Up The Gun.

Yesterday I finally figured out my flight home. My original ticket was for two months out, when I was going to travel around Europe for a month and end up visiting my parents in Romania. But then they offered me the assistant position for three months, so I needed to change my ticket. However, my departure date was too close to change, so I just took the flight, hoping to fix my return flight later from Copenhagen and skip visiting my parents all together.

When I called the travel office that helped me book it, they said that I had to go out of Romania and that it couldn't be changed (only to find out a day later it could be changed). So I made plans to leave here a week early and go to Romania anyway. It would be a shame to come all this way and not see my parents on their mission...plus I found a non-stop flight from Copenhagen to Bucharest--totally worth it.

I spoke with the director of the center here to make sure it was ok that I leave a week early and she said it was. She is very nice. We talked for a while and she asked me how things are going. I am really loving this place. During our conversation she told me three things that I am taking a huge compliments. First she mentioned that I could come back and that the more times I am here the easier it is to start making work and getting in the flow. Second she said that Richard, the studio manager who I work for, loves me! yes! I was hoping to be a good, hard worker and impress. And third she said I look European and that I fit right in. That made me feel great. Many people have told me that. Everyone starts speaking to me in Danish, and act really surprised when I answer back in English.
It feels good to be in a country where you fit it. I really love it here. Danish people are so friendly and funny. Their sense of humor is really great.

Art wise I have made 6 new sculptures. They are very cute. I will post pictures when I am finished with them. I hope to make at least 3 per week. This week I am ahead of the schedule and will start another one today.

Play is a child's work. So I'm not sure if I am a child or an adult, but I feel stuck/most satisfied in the world of play. Would you rather have more children acting like adults or more adults acting like children? Besides the tantrums, I choose the latter. I think the former makes me sad. Childhood is not a time to be forfeited. It is a time of discovery and imagination, where the world is open to possibility, where there are many questions with no need for answers, where creativity rules every action. Growing up is not my favorite. It's not that I hate responsibility and bills (although those aren't that great). It's just that I miss innocence and simplicity. If I were Miss America, I would definitely choose world peace and happiness for all.
Today, two women came into my studio and laughed with my sculptures. I put a smile on their faces. Good job me.

This is all reminding me of that documentary Promises
I love that movie.
Watch it.

Farvel.