A Glimpse at My Pottery.

Over this past year, new love and passion has entered my life.  One of the ways it has is through my (sort of) newfound joy of ceramics.  I have become a bit obsessed perhaps - I spend as much time as possible in the studio at the wheel.  But I realized I haven't shared my work with many people, and what better way to do so, at least initially, than on this public space.  I don't know if anyone ever actually looks at this (maybe that's why I feel comfortable and confident sharing it on here!), but if you do...please let me know what you think about my work!

Pitcher & Matching Set of Glasses

Leaf Pitcher

Mug with Tea Bag Holder

Ash Glaze Pitcher

"Follow Your Heart"  Mug - In Hebrew - A Gift for Kelsey!

Bike Mug - A Gift for Jared!

Ash Glaze Vase (One of My Favorites!) - A Gift for Mom!

Simple Vase with Porcelain Detail 

Simple Vase

Tree Mug!

Spiral Pitcher

Tricolor Bowl

Handwashing Pitcher

Sugar/Creamer Set

Kiddush Cup

Raku Vase (My Favorite - and My Dad's...)

Neat Pitcher

Lidded Jar

Cut-out Vase

Hope you enjoyed! 

Monsignor Oscar Romero.

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of Archbishop Oscar Romero's assassination.  Attached is an article from BBC News that may be of interest.  Enjoy!

Oh - and good news - I met with my advisory committee for my thesis, and they liked it.  Only a few changes and preparation for my defense, and then I'll be done!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8580

840.stm 

"If I'm killed, I will rise again in the Salvadorean people."

Something to Remember.

"If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come."

a bit from Flower Children

"they wish they could be plants and lie very still near the ground all night and in the morning be covered with tears of dew."

"the leaves on the apple trees are all turning blue.  the sunflowers in the garden are quivering, heads bowed - empty of seed now.  and the heart gets watered and recovers itself.  there is hope, everywhere there's hope."

so far it's a wonderful book.  very interesting and distinct style - but i'm enjoying it a lot!  i'm going to try to read at least a little bit every night before i go to sleep.  i think a nice book like this is a perfect way to allow me to drift off and enter into my own dreams.

Everybody.

Great song, great voice.  Thought I'd share - also, listen and pass it on.  She's in a contest - most viewers on youtube wins!  Thanks everyone :]

Pig Out.

Pig out on life - that's my message to you. We have very little time. I want them to say about me: she died on the last day of her life, no sooner. --Sister Peggy O'Neill

Despite the Awful Grammar, This Song Appeals to Me...

"where he at"

he's never where he's at

he's drifting off 

in thought

got something unsolved 

he never shares

she said he spent too long time

too long time on his own

he used to, make you, catch the moment

and take you high

to watch the caravan

he only takes

and feeds his lowest needs

looks into a book he doesn't read

she said, he spent 

too long time on his own

he used to

want you

to be close

he's never where he's at

tell him you're there

whenever he shows up

I also would really love to watch Mozart & The Whale after seeing this - Looks pretty interesting.

Sharing What I See.

-from http://blogdelanine.blogspot.com/, an incredible blog!-

Beauty is Simple.

powerlinerflyers from wes johnson on Vimeo.

Music from Yann Tiersen's "L'autre Valse d'Amelie" from "Le Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain"

As I Research.

"these hills are grasscovered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it."

the beauty "provides an ironic backdrop for the ugliness still imposed on it by human beings."

"would you still call me companero, if you knew what i know..."

Questionable.

Liberty and Justice for all?  Or Liberty and Justice for some?

Affirmation

Affirmation 

I believe in living. I believe in the spectrum
of Beta days and Gamma people.
I believe in sunshine
in windmills and waterfalls,
tricycles and rocking chairs.
And I believe that seeds grow into sprouts,
And sprouts grow into trees.
I believe in the magic of the hands.
And in the wisdom of the eyes.
I believe in rain and tears.
And in the blood of infinity.

I believe in life.
And I have seen the death parade
march through the torso of the earth,
sculpting mud bodies in its path.
I have seen the destruction of the daylight,
and seen the bloodthirsty maggots
prayed to and saluted.

I have seen the kind become the blind
and the blind become the bind
in one easy lesson.
I have walked on cut glass.
I have eaten crow and blunder bread
and breathed the stench of indifference.

I have been locked by the lawless.
Handcuffed by the haters.
Gagged by the greedy.
And, if I know anything at all,
it’s that a wall is just a wall
and nothing more at all.
It can be broken down.

I believe in living.
I believe in birth.
I believe in the sweat of love
and in the fire of truth.

And I believe that a lost ship,
steered by tired, seasick sailors,
can still be guided home
to port.


-Assata Shakur

A Prayer of Hope

"It helps now and then, to step back and take the long view.  The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is G-d's work.  Nothing we do it complete which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.  No statement says all that could be said.  No prayer fully expresses our faith.  No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness, no program accomplishes the Church's mission.  No set of goals and objectives includes everything.  

This is what we are about.  We plant seeds that one day will grow.  We water seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise.  We lay foundations that will need further developments.  We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.  

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.  This enables us to do something and to o it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for G-d's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. 

We are the workers, not the master builders, ministers, not messiahs.  We are prophets of a future not our own.

Amen."

Monsignor Oscar Romero

Painting by Gerardo Arias, My Host Dad.

Unfortunate Truth.

"Fantasy is reality if you have the guns to back it up"

United in Love, We Shall Walk Unafraid

So dont ask where I'm going,

just listen when I'm gone.

and far away you'll hear me

singing softly to the dawn.

Sculpture Babik & I Built on Block Island 

Well, here I am. Spring Break 2010, about to get started on the culmination of my studies: my senior honor's thesis. Yet, here I am. Distracted by my thoughts, deciding to start a new blog. I think that it's appropriate considering I'm about to start new beginnings as I graduate from university. What comes next? I haven't the slightest clue at this point. But I have faith that I will make my path. Things will work out. 

Last year at this time I was in El Salvador. I was exploring San Salvador, perhaps just returned from Suchitoto and El Citio, with the great news that the FMLN beat Arena for the first time in decades. The people had won! The celebration, the happiness, the laughter. It was all so incredible. But has it all made a difference? Has the hope it brought to being amounted to the change El Salvador needs?  

Celebrations in Suchitoto After the FMLN Victory

I don't know. I do know that I don't want to forget. I don't want to forget anything that I learned. Sometimes I feel like all the details, all the faces, all the smiles that I encountered in my trips to Lesotho, Israel, and Central America are fading. I don't want that. But at the same time, I must move on with life, and I must learn new things. How do I keep it all organized in my head?

Rohelio - one survivor of the massacres of the Copapayo community in 1983, El Salvador.

 Can he make sense out of everything he has gone through? Does it make sense? Can it?

My thesis is on liberation theology. I am excited to study it once again, yet it also seems like such a daunting task. I hope the end product will bring me some closure on what I experienced in El Salvador. Or perhaps it will open up old wounds, or introduce new ones. We'll see.

Painting of Oscar Romero's Assassination

"Nothing is so important to me as human life.

Taking life is something so serious, so grave -

more than the violation of any other human right -

because it is the life of G-d's children,

and because such bloodshed only negates love,

awakens new hatreds,

makes reconciliation and peace impossible."

-Oscar Romero. March 16, 1980

I couldn't agree more with those words.

Sunset on Little Corn