yeah umm, pretty much!

UN LIVECOM Award being presented before METRO regional council. The livcom award was a private commission to re-imagine and re-stabilize the broken UN award into a new glass sculpture which was finally represented before council on Thursday.
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UN LIVECOM Award being presented before METRO regional council.

The livcom award was a private commission to re-imagine and re-stabilize the broken UN award into a new glass sculpture which was finally represented before council on Thursday.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Robert Heinlein

Currently thinking about a short studio visit film to portray my passion for all things melting.  In the mean time this captured my heart along with many of last years short-film awards.  listen closely!

“The re-fabrication of the beast” back in the studio and back to work, currently rebuilding my kiln, lovingly nicknamed “the beast” into a convertible two to three ring glass kiln with on base leveling wheels for all your glass needs…
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“The re-fabrication of the beast”

back in the studio and back to work, currently rebuilding my kiln, lovingly nicknamed “the beast” into a convertible two to three ring glass kiln with on base leveling wheels for all your glass needs…

I recently had the opportunity to view this film at the Portland Art Museum.  A quiet stunner, this documentary helps breakdown the ins and outs of the artist world, in its ever changing, moody, process oriented realness.  I love Gerhard Richter and love this documentary even more.

At long last back in Portlandia and back to work in all the familiar ways… thankful for the decompression, thankful for the inspiration, most thankful for the beautiful people who make my life what it is…
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At long last back in Portlandia and back to work in all the familiar ways…

thankful for the decompression, thankful for the inspiration, most thankful for the beautiful people who make my life what it is…

Snippets of an artist life… Ed Samuels, 2012 photos by BAMBAM Productions

[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

Ed Samuels “Jemez Chantdown”

the next day it snows… I’m mesmerized by the pockets of life amidst the burn down… very half and half like life!

Jemez, New Mexico: A little known jewel in the middle of nowhere!  Ed Samuels property ala 30 years of hand built wonderfulness!  Hiking naked in 80 degree weather, rock sculpture, painting on the deck… this is why I’ve come and the sort of life that could convince me to stay!
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Jemez, New Mexico: A little known jewel in the middle of nowhere!  Ed Samuels property ala 30 years of hand built wonderfulness!  Hiking naked in 80 degree weather, rock sculpture, painting on the deck… this is why I’ve come and the sort of life that could convince me to stay!

Traveling south, internet became obsolete. My journey became more personal so there was no point fighting myself to post pictures on slow connections when the view was so wondrous. For three weeks the surf scrubbed my brain and the sun bleached my heart clean. After an amazing break from myself, from art, and from the world at large I’ve packed my bag and flown to New Mexico. I’ve felt a profound calling to this area of the world for as long as I can remember. I’ve posted up at a inspiring artist hideaway in Jemez, NM. More will follow as I begin to reconnect into western life.
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Traveling south, internet became obsolete. My journey became more personal so there was no point fighting myself to post pictures on slow connections when the view was so wondrous. For three weeks the surf scrubbed my brain and the sun bleached my heart clean. After an amazing break from myself, from art, and from the world at large I’ve packed my bag and flown to New Mexico. I’ve felt a profound calling to this area of the world for as long as I can remember. I’ve posted up at a inspiring artist hideaway in Jemez, NM. More will follow as I begin to reconnect into western life.

Department of Education, Mexico City.  Four stories of Diego Rivera murals that knock your socks off and take your breath away.  By far one of the beautiful mural sequences Ive seen world wide.  Subtle and provocative they portray the sweeping history of Mexico.

Casa Azul and the ever alive Frida Kahlo

After a 14 hour bus ride I arrived in Mexico city. I’ve found myself  the only gringo around for the past few days and its almost like i’m losing my english…. a great calm is spreading over me. The bus system here is wonderful if you know where you are and where your going….as you can imagine I’ve had no clue where I am and even less where I’m heading… today I headed out to tackle the city anyhow in a  last ditch effort to tackle traveling alone… an amazing photographer friend of mine flys in tomorrow to share in the journey, there will be better photos with my having my personal photographer along… laugh
In the court yard the plants grow soft against the azul of the walls and you can see how a painter would live life like this.  Everywhere I look are the little touches only the creative make, a shell here, a skull there, her painting easel just so, and the never ending re-use of bottles for beads, paints, bits of scripture…Frida is everywhere in this country, like the virgin mary, ever watchful, ever present, ever silent…  but shes very much alive here in her house, speaking from every corner, her passion and her love and her longing somewhat raw and overwhelming
On the way here I got caught half in-half out of the subway door… startled i began laughing when i flashed to a memory from my childhood, my mother getting separated from us on an italian light rail…  many past events have been finding there way into my memories during my solo travels…  i’m beginning to realize how special my childhood really was. I’m experiencing a big “travelers shift¨on this sweet little artist sabbatical.
Ive realized on the road that every day can be viewed as a series of small successes. Finding a needle, finding the launders, feeding oneself… It all takes enormous effort and as frustrating as it could be, i found the opportunity to congratulate myself every time i accomplish one of the thousands of menial things it takes to make a day… perhaps as in life this could be applied to the process of creating art.

Casa Azul the studio and house of Frida Kahlo