Digesting BOYCC 6 weeks later

BOYCC ended up being an inadvertent test for using my cell to make posts.  Looks like it worked!

In the 6 or so weeks since BOYCC, I've had a lot of time to think on my experiences there.  Yeah, there was the show, with all its attendant ooooh and aaaaah photos.  I brought my very best across the country in a plastic tool box, and got my butt kicked hard (I am so glad I did not risk my Hagens.  Even I would have pointed and laughed at them on the table) but it was a deserved kicking.  I could look at the table and pretty much predict where I was going to place, and I was right about 90% of the time.  There was just amazing, crazy rare things there.

However, it is NOT the show I keep coming back to.

The entire weekend was structured to be the very best of what my friends and I used to call a Hack Session, where we would meet up for a weekend afternoon and work on customs and props over snacks and maybe dinner.  Lots of socializing and brainstorming.  BOYCC had a ton of social time built right in, and lots of food.  This helped me meet folks I hadn't known before, and to rekindle friendships outside of the typical hustle and bustle of Breyerfest.

I also got to exercise my creative mojo in ways I have not in a very very long time.  My first workshop was overglaze painting with Karen Gerhardt.  I haven't painted in about forever, so that was fun, and while overglaze is a bit finicky, I had good results without too much frustration.  Next up was a medallion sculpting class.  This was more intimidating to me, as I had rarely worked in 3D when I was doing a lot of artsy stuff, and I had NO IDEA what to do.  Everyone was doing horses, so I decided to NOT do a horse head, and instead, sculpted a reclining cat from behind.  I've been drawing a lot of cats looking over their shoulders of late.  I was very pleased with how this medallion came out, so when it came time to create a 2 part plaster mold for it, I was scared.  The medallion was done in a non hardening wax clay, and I know it could be destroyed in the casting process.  And I know that it wasn't "precious" it was still hard to let it go enough to create that mold.

The mold making process was more technical, and sort of suited to how I generally do stuff-- methodical, making sure measurements are accurate.  Very conducive to how this vet sees the world and work.  My mold was a success, and my sculpture survived the process to go home with me.

Yesterday,  the dry plaster mold arrived from Southern California, and with it, a pair of bisques of the medallion and a finished art glazed version.  I am amazed that I made this thing.  Joan Berkwitz, who organized and ran BOYCC with Adalee Hude, posted her part of the process on her blog so I will direct you there for photos of the finished work.

I do think I will pursue slip casting more of these, and firing them in such a way I could china paint them and use them as gifts.  The power behind just this idea is staggering to me.  This is why I do this.  It is not about NAN trophies, or cards, or arguing about what the ultimate goal of NAMHSA should be.  It is this being able to spend time with like minded women in creative pursuits that are related but not necessarily the same (my friend Liz La Rose once described performance showing as collaborative work, and she's right).  The other stuff is just small and not truly that important--this stuff will go on even when NAMHSA fails.