miriammorris.com Blog

Yes, ripe tomatoes finally. Just in time for the frost. What a short, short season we had this year. But the late spring and mild summer made it possible to have flowers all summer long. And now the maples are showing color and the tourists will arrive in town and stand underneath the liquidambars and elms and maples and paint and photograph, or just stare up into them. I’m glad people still like trees.

Above is the official governor’s portrait of Jerry Brown for his previous reign. I intend to provide the next portrait. Since he’s the only person to serve twice, as the youngest and the oldest governor of California, he should get to be three-dimensional in the new portrait. Or at least high relief. So, to that end, I have made a new official governor’s portrait in ceramic and mixed media. It is quite a lot smaller than the painting. Only 4×2 feet, so they can tuck it away in some hallway somewhere. Oh, I know that there is no chance in hell. What-ever. When has that ever stopped me?

This piece was quite a challenge, but I think I achieved a good likeness.


It’s Jerry Brown, but it is also Diogenes. Or it’s Diogenes and it’s also Jerry Brown. He’s holding his lantern looking for an honest man. At the capital in Sacramento? Good luck. The piece is way better in person. I hope to be able to get it into some public collection somewhere.
Don’t forget to visit the Altar Show at the Nevada County Fairgrounds opening October 29th, check out the schedule at thealtarshow.org. Always worth seeing. Also, Western Nevada County Open Studios this weekend and the next. My studio is only open this weekend (October 8 and 9). There are 68 artists showing work, so there is plenty to choose from.

This piece “Reading Hamlet” will be one of three of my skeleton-themed pieces in an October show at the Blue Line Gallery in Roseville. The show is titled “Spirits” and will be in the member gallery. The two artists in the main gallery looked very interesting, so I think it will be worth a trip to see it. Go to Blue Line Gallery for more information, though they don’t seem to put up information very far in advance and haven’t had anything about member shows on their website lately. They are also holding a fundraiser called “Lottery for the Arts” on October 8th, where you buy a ticket for $150 and get a chance to choose from over one hundred pieces of art when your number is called. My daughter Liza got a very nice painting at the Lottery in 2009.
Also in October, the annual Western Nevada County Open Studios takes place for two consecutive weekends. My studio will be open for the first weekend only, October 8-9. There is a preview exhibit of all the artists at the Grass Valley Center of the Arts, which opens with a reception on Thursday, October 6th.

I’m very nearly done with my new piece. I hope to have it on display for the studio tour. More on that later.
The foxes are yipping and howling at night. The raccoons are growling and eating snails and making all the deck rails filthy. Still no otters this year. They ate everything in the pond, so maybe they’ll wait another year to come back.

My brother Guy got second place at the county fair. I think he was happy about it. Last year, he didn’t get a ribbon and he said he wouldn’t do it this year, but he changed his mind. It’s hard to continue showing, or even making your art without validation.

Above is another cat portrait. This time it is an acrylic on canvas, 8×8″ painting of my mother’s crazy Japanese Bobtail cat named Ichi. She wanted a painting of him for her birthday. I’m becoming a pet portrait painter by default. I’ve also been working on a new large clay piece which I hope to have finished by the end of September. It is not a pet.

We finally replaced the wooden step in front of my studio with a concrete one. The yellow jackets living under it were none too pleased to be evicted. I used peppermint oil and dishwashing soap to dissuade them, but there are still a bunch flying around. No one has gotten stung, though.

This young wood duck still hangs out on the pond, but everyone else has pretty much moved on except for the occasional visit.

I brought the mask above and one other to the Gray Goose, a shop in downtown Nevada City. They were kind enough to ask to show some of my work. This store has very interesting things in it, and I’m happy to have my work there.

We have had some young wood ducks hanging out on the pond. This is very unusual. They seem less afraid of people than the typical wood duck. I would guess this one is a male, judging from the coloring on his neck.

It is once again time for the local fair. I took my brother to drop off his work there. He hopes he’ll get a ribbon, but his artwork tends to be a little challenging. I don’t think they have a category for disabled artists, so he’s in competition with everyone else. He said, “Tell me if I’m a winner.” We’ll see.

Finally, the last wood duck babies have hatched and jumped out of the nest box. There were eleven eggs, and all but one hatched. The remaining one appeared unfertilized. Now, I don’t have to worry that she wasted an entire month sitting on the eggs for no reason. Whew.

This is the finished skeleton for my sister Claire. It has her running shoes, her baritone sax, a cat, and some board games. All her favorite things. The skeleton jumped off the couch during the raku firing and had to be re-positioned and epoxied. Bad skeleton.

I just finished this painting of my sister’s beloved Jack kitty. He died recently, and she wanted a portrait of him for her son. It is acrylic on canvas, 8″x8.” I like to paint, but it’s really hard when you don’t do it very often. It’s probably really hard, anyway, but I feel like I have to re-learn what the paint can do each time. I used a lot of transparent medium in the acrylic to give it a more oil paint look. I hope it makes it back to Florida okay. Now, time to play with clay again!

Finally, it has warmed up and I’ve been trying to keep up with all the plant growth. A lot of people around here weed-eat and mow down everything, but when you do that wildflowers and native grasses can’t reseed and flowers like this purple late-blooming brodiaea get wiped out. It takes a lot of time and attention to make the landscape look natural and varied.

This wood duck had nine ducklings and when she left a few days ago, there were still six. That’s pretty good for a duck. Normally, the wood ducks leave a day or so after emerging from the nest box, but this one stuck around for several weeks. It was very amusing to watch the ducklings grow and buzz around the pond. The other wood duck’s babies should emerge early next week. Very late nesting for wood ducks on our pond. That will be three different sets of wood duck clutches in a single season. A record.

I have been working in the studio a little bit. The winter was so long and relentless, I want to be outside as much as possible. This skeleton has since been bisqued, but still needs a glaze firing. I plan to do raku, and the skeletons have a mind of their own, moving about in the kiln, so I’m never too sure how it will all end up.

When I took this photo, I did not know that their mother had been decapitated and eviscerated by probably a hawk. I found her body floating in the pond later that morning. I don’t know if the ducklings will be able to survive on their own, but I have seen them since, so maybe they will. Another sad event: the scrub jays pillaged the phoebe nest and ate up the eggs. The phoebes were momentarily disturbed, but seemed to get over it quickly. I guess that’s how it is for birds. The bluebirds never did finish their nest completely. I think they saw the snow and said “we’re out of here.”

The dippers were successful breeders. Three babies emerged from their nest behind the pond’s spillway. They are as large as the parents, but their bills are yellow instead of black and their bodies are stubbier. They quickly migrated to Deer Creek to learn rapid-water skills. The first set of wood ducks emerged when I wasn’t home. There were three eggs left in the nest, probably laid by another wood duck when the other was out foraging. The wood duck nesting in the new box should finish in the next couple of days. So far, the screech owl has not tried to eat her when she leaves her nest box.

Above is the screech owl, who is camera shy. I am assuming there are two of them in the box, since the male supposedly feeds the female while she is nesting.

Oh yeah, art. Above are some bird houses I’m working on. They don’t look like bird houses, but the animal heads have entry holes in the back for small cavity dwellers. They are meant to be placed on fence posts outside. The shows are all done for now. I picked up my piece from Davis. Chic Lotz’ piece sold. I knew it would, it was a nice little pot. I picked up Kate, too, at the Amtrak station. The next week, I picked up the Dictator Totem at the Blue Line. What a surprise, it didn’t sell. Ha, ha. The gallery sitter said it belonged in a museum, so if any museum people see this, just ask, I’ll find someone to donate it to you. Kate and I went to the Crocker to see where they put the auction art before I had to take her back to the train station.

The art was very nicely displayed, in the same rooms on the second floor that the John Buck print show was in. There are lots of landscapes, popular auction items. Mark’s chair was the only “art furniture” I saw. Today is the auction, and since it is raining, I guess they’ll have to have it inside instead of the courtyard.

Kate and I tried out the desserts at the Crocker Cafe because we were in dire need of caffeine and sugar. We split a piece of cheesecake. It was very good, and garnished with fresh raspberries. The coffee was good, too.
And finally, above is an example of how I fritter away my time when I’m not enhancing wildlife habitat or creating sculptures that clutter up my studio. Lots of hours of hand-sewing. This costume is a renaissance doublet in grey and burgundy, with sleeves and collar, as required by the court of Queen Elizabeth for her musicians. Of course, the socks and tennis shoes will be replaced with more suitable attire. The New Queen’s Ha’ Penny Consort (find them on Facebook!) are playing up at Tahoe this weekend for the Valhalla Renaissance Faire, hopefully not freezing to death.

Mother Nature just can’t resist reminding us that she’s in charge. Snow in Mid-May. Who would have guessed?

Kate and I went to Sacramento on Saturday to deliver a small piece for the “Big Names, Small Art” auction at the Crocker. I was not juried into the more select Art Auction that will be held in June. Mark Oldland was, and above is a photo of him on his way to Crocker’s entrance to deliver the rocker he made for it. The “Big Names” auction is like a big party with bidding starting at $25. None of that art is over 12″ in dimension. The auction Mark is in, is more exclusive and expensive to attend. For more information, go to crockerartmuseum.org
While we were in Sacramento, we saw a seal or sea lion swimming in the Sacramento River under the Tower Bridge. We were amazed. Stopped off in Del Paso Heights to see David King’s giant totems and some tiny bronze sculptures by Roy Tatman. Talk about opposites. To see what’s there, go to http://www.stcgallery.webs.com/
We commissioned a metal railing for our deck, fabricated and installed by Mark Oldland. It looks great, plus it keeps the animals from falling off.
I was really pleased that my dictator totem got so much attention in a review last week by Sacramento Bee’s art critic, Victoria Dalkey. There isn’t much written about visual arts in Sacramento, and I hope she continues to review shows for many years to come. The “Plates and Totems” show continues through the end of May. The Artery show finishes up on May 27th. The small works auction at the Crocker is May 26.
Nature report: The Dippers are busily feeding their babies in their nest behind the pond’s spillway. The first wood duck babies should emerge any day now. The other wood duck box has a few weeks to go. The gander goes off with the mallard family every day, much to the goose’s consternation. She should just leave him for a flying and faithful gander. They never did produce eggs. The phoebes finally started using the nest they constructed on the side of the house. Also nesting nearby: a scrub jay in the camellia; bluebirds in a nest box; a screech owl in an old wood duck box.

I went to Davis yesterday to see the various ceramic shows that opened this week in conjunction with the annual ceramic conference there. The photo above is from a juried show of ACGA (ceramic and glass artists) at the Davis Art Center. This gallery is very much off the beaten path and does not get visited by conference attendees a whole lot. I was the only person there even though downtown was buzzing with ceramic artists. It was a nice installation, with very high quality work. I was particularly struck by wire and ceramic pieces by Tomas Post. They looked like elegant river rocks being caged or wrapped by wire. The one in the photo below resembles a highly stylized version of a gabion wall, used by civil engineers to stabilize slopes. www.davisartcenter.org

The Pence Gallery has some nice work there. They have three distinct galleries, all currently have ceramic group shows of various themes. The main gallery has a show with three very different artists: David Kuraoka, Michelle Gregor and Don Reitz. I didn’t get a photo of Don Reitz’ work, but here’s photos of the other two.


The natural light in the gallery greatly adds to the large female figures and their ethereal presence. This show runs until June 12. www.pencegallery.org
Finally, I went to the Artery’s California Clay Competition, to see what they did with Chic’s and my work. My piece was in a nice spot, and Chic’s small vessel looked very good were it was placed. It is always a surprise to see artwork in person, as opposed to images on the computer or in print. I usually imagine the work a lot larger than it actually turns out to be. Some pieces looked better in their photos, much like people.


The show runs through May 27. www.theartery.net

And now for the nature update. Still no Canada goose eggs. I’m wondering if maybe the female is not old enough to lay yet. The wood ducks should hatch in a couple of weeks and now another pair of wood ducks took over a brand new box I made last weekend. If all goes well, the female should be done laying her eggs in about a week. The phoebes have not used their nest yet. I hope they haven’t abandoned it. The first mallard family appeared on the pond yesterday. Usually, they arrive much earlier in April. More families should appear soon. I’m hoping the silly Canada gander does not take it upon himself to be their personal escort across the busy road this year. That’s probably how he broke his wing last year. We shall see.

Even though the gander has a gimpy wing, he got a mate. I’m not sure if it’s his same mate as last year, because he has been alone since his family flew off, and he was unable to follow. You can see his drooping wing in the photo. But, nonetheless, he has his springtime honey on the pond with him right now and he is content.
The phoebes are making their mud nest on the side of the house. They carry little beakfuls of mud mixed with a some grass and carefully build a little clay cup to hold their eggs. The jays are watching, hoping to eat up some newly hatched phoebes. Every morning, the wood duck adds another egg to the wood duck box, until there are twelve or so. Then the female sits on them for a whole month. You can’t really see the eggs very well in the photo, but I think there are four or five. The ducklings usually hatch around Mother’s Day, but this year all the birds are late with their nests. There was a little snow last week, but it didn’t amount to much. I think winter is finally gone.
The Totem and Plate show at the Blue Line Gallery in Roseville is up through May. There is work by over 70 artists, with many, many, many plates and quite a few totems, too. Tony Natsoulas, the curator, did a wonderful job installing the art, with the help of his many dedicated volunteers. He seems to have no trouble finding people to help out. Probably because he is very pleasant to work with and has many admirers. Don’t miss the show, there are some great pieces there. Ray Gonzales has a beautiful plate on display, but unfortunately, it is already sold.