When Things go Awry

So the other day I got up and was raring to get out into the studio and start hammering. I feel like I’ve been slacking on my metalwork, getting pulled away in too many other directions. I really need to be getting some hammering done, both because it’s what pays my bills and I’ve got several galleries needing to be restocked! I’m feeling the pressure and guilt of not getting enough done. So I’m ready to head out the front door and go to the studio. “Oh, that doesn’t look good.” “Hmm…” Yep, the front door won’t open!

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A stupendously healthy “snack cracker”

A few years ago when I was feeling quite flush with income and not nearly so focused on saving money as I am now I observed a new, and fairly pricey snack food at the local grocery store called kale chips. I think it still took a good sale price to entice me into trying them for the first time, as I have pretty much always been frugal by nature. I found them to be quite delicious and eventually sampled pretty much all the flavor varieties. My only complaint besides the cost would be that they were so delicate. Once the kale leaf was dried it got so thin there was almost nothing to it. That got me to thinking about alternatives that might solve this.

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Has a quiet revolution been happening in the realm of education?

A while back as I was hammering away in the studio on my vessels I was thinking about the whole idea of a free, or really cheap, college education available to everyone that I’ve read about many people desiring. Just how feasible is that? Sure it sounds nice but if you look at the world as a whole interlocking matrix of systems, material, and energy flows one has to recognize there is no “free”. The costs get paid for somewhere. Never the less, wouldn’t it be nice if this was a priority for our culture, something we collectively and willingly put our personal efforts into making happen.

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Rocket Mass Heaters – increase your wood burning efficiencies 50 to 90 percent

In the last post I mentioned the three Es. I really need to write more about these soon, but that is something of a conceptual post. Mind you I have nothing against conceptual writings. I expect to engaging in a fair amount of that here with this blog project. In fact, as an artist my personal experience has been that the written word is probably the best avenue to try and convey complex concepts. Maybe it’s just me, but conceptual art trying to communicate its ideas through visuals alone often seems lacking, usually requiring a written statement to go with it that actually explains the concepts.

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