Day 3 Mark Pharis

Susan and I began our day at Starbucks.  Here is the promised photo.

Starbucks, St. Francis Rd, Santa Fe

Starbucks outdoor seating and drive thru

On the way back I took more photos of the Railyard Garden.

Santa Fe Railyard Park Plaza

Circular Shade Ramada and Susan

Santa Fe Railyard – Circular Shade Ramada. Hard to see this beautiful circular rose garden

Santa Fe Railyard Waffel Garden. In the middle is a bed of blue glass stones

Wonderful walkway with trumpet vine

Community Stories – Piano painted by 7th graders needs some attention!

Community Stories

The Trust for Public Land – Santa Fe Railyard Park and Plaza

Mark gave Susan an assignment to draw her teapot life sized and he would show her how to make a template for the teapot.  He took a compass, found the half, quarter, 1/8th and 1/16th.  From this 1/16th measurement he made 1/6 of the teapot that Susan could use to make the entire body of the pot.  Ingenious!

Life Size drawing of a teapot. Using a compass Mark created a 1/6 template

1/6 th tea pot template

Later in the afternoon Mark cut a square template from 1/4 inch masonite.  Using a jigger saw he cut a square hole.  He placed the square template on a bucket, laid the clay in the template and let gravity do it’s thing.

Making a plate using a wood template

Mark Pharis – Plate

We ended the day with a slide lecture by Mark.  I love hearing someone talk about their work.  It is like receiving a gem.  On abstraction – Working on soy bottles allowed Mark to explore abstraction because there is no history in his family, life or in Minnesota of soy bottles.  In the growth of a vision one can have a small epiphanies along the way which changes the direction of the art work.  When do we learn about pots as kids, what is our history, what do we eat, how does that affect the way we think about form.  Pots create social context they are about humanity.

More tomorrow.  Esther told me not to post this so late because no one sees it at 12.24 EDS – sorry honey posting now!  Good night.