Today was devoted to developing several large beehive forms. This is a difficult shape to do without a mold. After finishing one prototype the method to developing these forms freehand was figured out by this incredible team on staff at the TMoG. We also revisited the tray formed bases for the previous days’ production. In developing this body of work scale, proportion and the technical method of blowing are everything. This requires a real focus, persistence and commitment to specifics. Again, Ben, Alex and Gabe did a fantastic job. This team is very tenacious and persistent in figuring things out…and I appreciate it. While all the blowing was going on, Conor began cutting all the large bell-jar forms from the previous two days’ production, as well as grinding the hot-sculpted trees. It was gratifying, thanks to Conor, to loosely put the three components of the sculpture together for a quick look at what the final product will look like. This crew is very adept at interpreting my ideas and, through all of my descriptions and mild instruction to the team during their production, their attentiveness (followed by skillful persistence and meticulousness) brings a pleasure upon me to work with individuals such as these. It is such a privilage to work with artists whose individual work is compelling in its own right…only to have these folks more than willing to contribute to the development of my own. While I have many ideas to work with, the challenge (in this case) is to have this team only work with two or three potential projects…to have these objectives be brought to fruition. I think tomorrow we hope to continue to work on components for the beehive domes we made today and hot-sculpted bees. Ideas can come quickly, but to realize them just plainly takes a lot of time and effort.

From the studio we all went over to Conor’s house where he had prepared a tasty barbecue. Great music and great company…we all had a blast. There was a lot of laughter, a lot of dancing and we would like to make it perfectly clear: we like to party with beer. Yah!!!

p.s. Ben…we’d like to thank you for letting us borrow your car. We only rolled it over twice.