07.14.09 Harvest Season Begins

This is one of those "if you were here in person today" type of posts. What you would see as you walked to the studio is a patio table strewn with garlic and onions.

Last autumn we planted two areas with garlic, carefully covered them over with straw and put them to bed for the winter.












Now, mid-July, we are reaping the fruits of our patience, or rather, the bulbs! The onions and potatoes are coming on strong too, so we savored our first fresh from the garden fritatta yesterday. Yum!
~ Lynn

07.09.09 Gone to the Dogs

Actually one dog head ornament -- and it will be on it's way to Kentucky tomorrow to be a silent auction item for Breakables Live Show at the BreyerFest Birthday Bash. I sculpted this ornament back in 2002, but until now fido has only been given to family and friends who have a lovable Lab or Lab mix in their lives. This is a rare opportunity to add a non-equine Fraley sculpt to your collection!


Here is a sweet little Netsky that will go home with someone who enters the Laf'n Bear Challenge at Breakables.

Oh -- and here's another!

Two little ponies in fancy art glaze dress are on their way to the party too :-)

Safe travels everyone -- have fun at BreyerFest!
~ Lynn

07.08.09 Plan B

According to my father-in-law (and whoever emailed him this bit of trivia) an auspicious moment passed early this morning; if you were awake at five minutes and six seconds after 4:00 AM you experienced a time/date phenomena that will not happen again until the year 3009 -- 04:05:06 07-08-09.

I was sound asleep, dreaming of pulling a couple of cool horses out of the kiln. In 3009 I will definitely stay up. Snoozing through this magical moment must have jinxed the firing. Perhaps the jinx was cast by showing you a peek into the kiln. I hope not, it'd be awful to be *that* superstitious! What I discovered upon opening the kiln was that one of the Marshalls (yes, they were Marshalls!) had tipped a bit and fused his ear to the other's rump. Dang. I will post pictures and tell you a bit more about what happened later, but first I must get to work on Plan B.

Yes, I have a Plan B. This time I'm giving into superstition and not telling you what it is. Sorry. It's much less experimental (Maggie B sighs a breath of relief no doubt) and I should be able to ship Laf'n Bear Challenge Class awards and a raffle donation out in time for the show.

~ Lynn, sending out a little prayer of appeasement to the kiln gods and remembering that we learn hard lessons through our mistakes.

07.07.09 Peering Through the Peep Hole

This was the view just before the kiln's lid was closed to fire the two special pieces that will be going to Breakables' Live in Kentucky to help celebrate the BreyerFest Birthday Bash. (O.k., between you, me and the gatepost, the words "breakables" and "bash" should never appear in the same sentence, just makes me nervous .) These are rather experimental pieces, so cross your fingers that they will come out decently. Stay tuned for pix after they're out of the kiln!

It was such a gorgeous and cool (that's rare!) summer day I couldn't help but spend some time outside in the garden enjoying the beauty of one of our more colorful visitors.

O.k., now back to work!

~ Lynn

07.01.09 Back at work

This was a welcome sight last Saturday morning, crossing back into my home state after two brain stretching weeks in Helena, Montana. It was perhaps the most intense workshop I've ever attended. To paraphrase fellow student Sarah Snavely, our 2 GB brains had 32 GBs crammed in each day!

I had walked onto the Archie Bray grounds thinking, oh I'll do something out of the ordinary for me, maybe a llama or a dog. By the end of the first morning's intro and info session I had been inspired by Tip Toland to really stretch into unknown territory: the human figure.

She said something that was very reassuring, "good art is made if you're almost terrified" She glanced at Beth Cavener Stichter, they both grinned -- no, wait, completely terrified! Terrified that you don't know what you're doing, terrified of what you might learn about yourself through the process, terrified of what others might think, terrified that you'll fail, terrified that you'll succeed. Making art ain't for sissies... but what the heck, fear and fun can co-exist.

So I dove in. Made more little people maquettes than I'll ever know what to do with. Sculpted a human hand (my left hand actually) and worked on a self-portrait bust (if that isn't just a little weird I don't know what is).

Tip's other comforting pearl of wisdom was "if you're not frustrated, you're not learning!" Oh boy, I learned a ton.


Before leaving for Montana I had planned out a few new projects, each has some element of new challenge for me. This one involves re-working a "Marshall" more extensively in the head and neck than I've pushed it before.

Freshly inspired to be terrified I've been slicing and dicing. Here, the lower end of a perfectly good head has been removed...

in order to add a strip of clay to lengthen the head,


then reattach and re-sculpt the lower section.


This might not work, this could be a complete disaster... but it will be fun!

~ Lynn

6.20.09 Shhhhhh...

...don't tell anyone...

Clay heaven is at
46.60º latitude,
112.00º longitude
The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts
in Helena, Montana


















In a mere eight and a half hours a Boise gal can make her way across the Snake River plain, turn north at Pocotello, Idaho, then head up to Big Sky country. Seldom do you get a sense of arriving in a new land by merely crossing a line on a map, but when you cross from the high plains of eastern Idaho into Montana it is also a transition to mountainous terrain.

A quick note to all of those folks who have attended my "Wire to Whinny" workshops through the years -- I now feel your pain, my head is exploding with all the information being thrown at me!

For this two week workshop, "Sculpting Gesture: Animal and Human", our primary instructors are:


Beth Cavener Stichter (left), who works predominately in animal forms, and Tip Toland (right) who is well known for her life size human figurative sculpture.




Each of these two uber-talented instructors brought along a teaching assistant, fabulous sculptors in their own right, Nancy Jacobsohn and Pat Haase.

Even better, each of my 15 fellow students is willing to share a wealth of experience and information. I have 18 teachers all at once! And just as many new friends for each person has been nothing but kind and generous.


I am a sponge -- a damp sponge soaking up information, struggling with new media, new subjects, new techniques, new ways of looking at art and just about everything.

I am so thankful to be able to peek through this window to a whole new world. ~ Lynn

6.12.09 Sculpting by Committee

Sculpting by committee can be a recipe for disaster. But when it works, it's a really rewarding collaborative process.

This is a case of the latter -- members of the Boise Sculptors' Guild creating a sculpture that will one day honor the work of Boise's Women's and Children's Alliance.

It has been wonderful to step outside my normal bounds of equine sculpture. I've learned so much from sculpting side by side with Boise State students, alumnae and Professor Francis Fox (seated, center). Let me tell you, it's a stretch for me to think "human" not "horse"! I'll be doing even more stretching in the next two weeks as I attend the Sculpting Gesture: Animal and Human workshop taught by Beth Cavener Stichter and Tip Toland in Helena, Montana, at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.

I'm sure I'll feel way out of my league -- but that's a good thing! Many years ago one of my first sculpture instructors, Veryl Goodnight, told her students that if you learn the basic anatomy of a horse, a human and a bird you can then figure out how to sculpt just abut any animal. I do think that is true. But boy, oh boy, it's easy to just stick to what you know and are comfortable with. It's time to stretch out -- way, way out!

~ Lynn