Visiting my father

I have settled into a pattern of driving up to Kamloops every few months to visit my father. He is now 92, still mentally and physically sharp, driving, and living on his own. He lives in a large town house on one of the side hills of the city, in the Aberdeen neighbourhood. He knows he would be better off living in a retirement home, but there are some repairs to the foundation of the house that he wants to see through so that it can be sold and his wife's estate settled. Because of this, he is in a bit of a holding pattern.

Anyway, I come up and keep him company for a few days when I visit. I am not much use to him. He has a son in law that also visits periodically with every handy skill that there is. My big skill -- Mathematics -- has less practical use. We talk, I usually order in one meal (pizza this time) but for the rest he cooks for me. I am getting pancakes for breakfast today before I start the drive home. We go for his usual walk down by the River. He keeps a pretty fast pace. We have a drink at 5pm, then watch some TV together, a mix of sports (golf this time), news, and movies. I picked a movie for us this time (Ex Machina) that he didn't like much, nor the TV series that I tried to interest him in (Travellers).

There are stairs in the complex that lead up the hill to a short walking trail in a neighbourhood with fancy houses with great views. I took this picture up there, the view only slightly better than what my father has in his place.

Pottery 2000-2009 (pre-blog)

I have been shy to post recently. I have applied for an administrative job at UBC and thought that it might hurt my chances if they knew how many real life distractions I have. I also had a bad experience with a post about the divorce (since removed) that my ex-wife objected to, although she had never read my blog while we were married. This current topic seemed safe on both counts, so I thought I would pick up the habit of blogging again with it.

I am slowly digitizing the family pictures, so that my ex-wife and I can share them post-divorce. I recently found a stack with pictures of pottery I made in the early days. I don't think I have really improved since this time, in fact these designs seem more innovative than what I am working on now. Luckily, I have my day job to pay the bills.

Below is an assortment from 2000 including a tea set and a water fountain in the shape of a duck. The salt shaker on the far left of the upper row of pictures was still in use at house when I left.

  

From 2001 and 2002, some candle holders and some small bowls where you can see I am experimenting with feet. The first picture below is one of the very few wheel thrown pieces I have made. I sent this one to my father and his wife in Kamloops, but the lid broke in transport. 

2004 seems like a it was a productive year. I kept the two below for a number of years. The three after that got given away. The "Sergeant Theta" bowl was a wedding gift to Peter Berg, a former PDF in the fuel cell modelling group I led. I am not sure what happened to the others. 

I only found one picture from 2005. There were years when it was difficult to organize free nights around work and family activities for the class at Britannia where I did pottery. This must have been one of them. The triangular form was made of three slabs the same shape attached together. I am interested in this kind of design now, and realized I could use my computational math skills to simulate the shapes generated from different templates and then use the tool to get the shapes I want. Mathematics meets Pottery! 

More pieces came from 2006. The one on the left was a present for my ex-wife and came with flowers in it. My daughter worked as a teenager for a flower store on Commercial Drive called the FlowerBox (which I recommend). The owner still recognizes me and I have taken my own vases in many times to have arrangements made that suit them. I kept the bud vase and salt shaker on the right for many years. Below that you can see some accents with the commercial red glaze I bought for the Britannia studio. There is the very large bowl with three feet that I thought was almost brilliant but slipped into the grotesque. 

    

    

From 2007, more red glaze and you can see I started moving into my default of pinch bowls and cups. It is what I do now when I don't have a plan when I go to the studio.

 

From 2007 there are a few pictures of other hobbies: candle making (which did not work for me) and embroidery. That is my own embroidery design for iris flowers. 

  

From 2008 and 2009,  pieces include a few things I made using purchased clay, underglaze and clear glaze. I really like the covered bowl in the upper picture. I am not sure what happened to that. 

 

There is still a gap between these pictures and 2012, when I first blogged pottery pictures "live". I will put them in another post when I find them as I sort through the old pictures, if they are interesting enough or at least have some potential for interesting commentary. Well, interesting by the standards of my blog...