Ganesha

Today Bee and I went to the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena with our friend Cupcake Murphy to see the new Ganesha exhibit. Not only was the show excellent, but unbeknown to us, it was also their free day! (Every fourth Friday of the month is free admission, and parking is always free there. A Miser has got to like that.) I'm a lover of Ganesha, the elephant headed god who is the destroyer of obstacles; The Misers could really use him right now. Probably most people in the country could use him right about now. I enjoyed the museum's collection of ceramics from different Asian countries as well. It's always amazing to see pottery that was made centuries ago, and it always inspires me as I make things with clay myself. Right now I'm  incorporating animal motifs into my work, and I saw a lot of pieces today that were adorned with various animals such as fish, birds, elephants, butterflies, dogs, and dragons. Also inspiring were the Chinese porcelain pieces from the Qing dynasty. The glazes are amazingly vibrant, and the pieces themselves so thin and delicate. Porcelain is my main clay of choice right now, but it is the most temperamental clay - it's difficult to throw, and it cracks and breaks more easily than other clay bodies. It is challenging to say the least, but I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. I figure that if I can master working with porcelain, then I will be able to work with anything. Today, I came out of the museum with a head full of ideas, and the hankering to go to more museums more often. Especially on  free days.

P.S. Tommorow ( Saturday, March 28, 2009) is Earth Hour. The Misers plan on turning off all of our lights from 8:30pm to 9:30pm. The goal is to have 1 billion people from around the globe participate in this. Sparky thinks that there should be an Earth Day - no electricity for a whole day. How cool would that be?