weekly retro #84: art, allergies and dying
this past week was full of endings and beginnings, and reflections of past cycles. there's no light without dark, life without death, blah blah blah welcome to the retro.
my long-awaited pieces came out of the kiln so i blogged about everything i made in my fifth class, just between my sixth class ending and my seventh class starting. i'm really so stoked about how the teapot came out and plan to make more. i can't say enough about how fulfilling it is to take earth and use your hands to make something beautiful and unique from it.
the studio was doing a deep cleaning between semesters so i had to take a week off from practicing on the wheel, which gave me the time to continue my painting. then on wednesday, i started the new semester with hand-building - the class where it all started last year - so i can get studio access as i wait to get off the membership waitlist. i'm building a pumpkin and i can already see how i'm like 500x better at clay than i was last year.
pumagreg is doing great, and he does has some kind of spot under his front leg that he's been licking a lot so he's on cone duty until the vet can see what's going on tomorrow. sometimes when the seasons change, he gets allergies and will overlick himself and it clears up on its own but i want to make sure nothing is infected because his soft, black fur makes it hard to see what's going on. but he's doing great otherwise - he doesn't even freak out when i put the cone back on after his meals.
i visited my dad. he lives in a small facility, so those in rehabilitation like him are among those in hospice, and that explains why i wasn't entirely surprised to see the body of someone who had just passed away being rolled out while everyone else was in the common area playing bingo. it wasn't traumatizing or even the first deceased person i've seen, but it definitely moved me. my dad won one of the bingo games and then gave me a tour of all his little "milkshakes".
he's become less guarded about what's on his mind around me, which sounds like a good thing - and it probably is for him. it's not great for me, though, and i just tell myself that at least i'm alive and can get around and make things and not have to be in such proximity to death every single day. also, the vending machine down the hall from him doesn't have coke zero.
things i enjoyed this week
- i always appreciate anil's annual reflections on 9/11.
- figma does this awesome video series with designers talking about their "source materials" and had zach lieberman on. it inspired my project for this week, which is to reorganize my desk so it's covered in inspiration instead of supplies.
- enjoying phoebe bridger's latest album brought me back to one of my most favorite live covers ever
next week will have a hopefully very short vet visit, orientation for a class i'm taking at sfpc, some clay touched, teeth cleaned, weights lifted, and (lol) hopefully less death.
xoxo jenn