Talking Clay, Talking Life, in Today's Inquirer

My Inquirer story about the life lessons learned through clay and among real artists can be found here.

Outtakes featured above: a recent release from the kiln (a gift, shhhhhh, in celebration of the forthcoming launch of Going Over) and a photograph taken in the Wayne Art Center's lobby, where the work of the extraordinary young glass artist Madeline Rile Smith (daughter of my good friend Karen Rile, about whom I once wrote here) is currently being featured.

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In which she wears the blue glass snake

I mentioned a luminescent glass snake in my previous post—the work of the talented (and completely lovely) Madeline Smith.  She taught us so much last night in her lamped workshop—about implosions of glass and the conduct of heat and the varying properties of colored rods.  This is how you make a dinosaur's eyes, she said, as a 2000-degree flame emanated from the metal wand in her hand.  This is how you distribute a figure's weight across its head and feet.  In any case, I couldn't go home without having a piece of Madeline's art (she has so many pieces so beautifully displayed to choose from), and this morning I asked my son to snap a photo of the glass-snaked me so that you might see what I am talking about.  Madeline's web site is a work in progress, but you can find her contact information here, should you wish to talk with a glass master or procure a glass creation for yourself.

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