Staying Focused

Relic of a Memory No.1 Copyright2009 DonnaBranch All Rights Reserved

Glass, cast, kilnformed, carved with battuto, sandblasteted, acid-etched

Maintaining focus is difficult for most of us at some time or other, so I wanted to share some interesting information that I came across while doing some reading because I thought it might be helpful to others.

One of the articles that I found helpful is Lori Woodward Simmons article "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" on Clint Watson's Fine Art Views (which I highly recommend). I thought Lori's method of staying focused should work well, particularly for artists. Lori discusses how most artists perform a lot of tasks during the day that are unrelated and that we often get sidetracked very easily. Her theme is that we, as artists, are visual; and if your work that you have to do that night or the next day is not right in front of your eyes, so that you can see it, it is completely out of your mind. I know this is true for me. She goes on to say that because we wear many hats as artists and business owners, we probably will not ever be able to "do it all", but that we can build powerful productivity habits if we get the "the real work out the night before, so that I see it first thing in the morning". Great article!

Most of us know the basic rules of how to stay focused and it is written about by Dave Cheong in his blog, but I don't think it hurts any of us to review these now and then, so here is another one at Michael Angier.

What did you think about these articles? I would love to hear in the comments.

The Serenbe Project: Installed

Photograph: Copyright Robert Rausch GAS Design Center 2008, All Rights Reserved

The Serenbe Project, which was the building of a 12-foot white oak tree, graced with 175 cast glass leaves was installed on October 31, 2008. Robert Rausch of Gas Design Center, Tuscumbia, Alabama, designed the project, Jason Smith, a blacksmith from Decatur Georgia, created the iron tree blacksmith and I created the cast glass leaves. The project resulted in a beautiful installation and it is so gratifying to collaborate with two other very gifted artists! The project is permanently installed next door to The Hil Restaurant on Selbourne Lane and graces the entranceway leading to the Serenbe property offices.

Serenbe, is a nationally acclaimed sustainable community located 32 miles southwest of Atlanta in Palmetto Georgia. The New York Times featured Serenbe in its' Travel section on Sunday, March 1, 2009. Thank you to my good friend, Julian Hazlett, calling this to my attention. Cottage Living named Serenbe on of its' 2008 Top Ten Neighborhoods.

The beautiful glass leaves in the picture were made from Bullseye Glass of Portland, Oregon. Many thanks to them, especially Geraldine Gladden, for providing such a fine glass to cast, and great customer service. Thanks also to Olympic Color, who provided valuable information about the mold material. The process of making the leaves is shown here.

A funny thing happened during the installation. We had arrived in Serenbe the afternoon before the installation in order to preview the site and make sure we had all of the tools we needed. Since we were not familiar with the area, we thought we might stay at the Farmhouse at Serenbe, however, the F-350 (which was packed to the gills) would not make the turning radius between the split rail fences. This called to mind a quote from Henry Halem, one of the founders of the Glass Art Society, who says something to the effect that "you can always tell the glass artists, because they are the ones with trucks". Maybe, another time at the Farmhouse, because it is such a beautiful setting definitely worth returning to enjoy.

Copyright Robert Rausch Gas Design Center 2008, All Rights Reserved

I am grateful

I'm grateful for snow in Alabama...

Thank you to all who have expressed your prayers during my family illnesses. I am so grateful to have all of you who have remembered to call, write and think of my family at this time. My Mom is continuing her treatments with chemo and my husband will return to the hospital for his second round of nucleur treatments at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center in March. The doctors at the University of Alabama Birmingham have been so wonderful and commited and I am also grateful to each of them.

This is a short post and I hope to be able to stay in touch at least a couple of times per week. I will be posting pictures of the completed Serenbe Project very soon.

What are you grateful for today?

Interview/Podcast Tonight with Local NPR Station, WBHM 90.3FM

I announced on Tuesday that I would have an interview aired tonight, at 6:30pm CST on the local NPR Station, WBHM 90.3FM.

The interview did mention that there were 33 or 35 leaves. There are 175 leaves!!

Before I'm off to sign more leaves....a total of 175!.....I wanted to post the link for the podcast. Enjoy. https://www.wbhm.org/Tapestry/

Interview on "Tapestry" on NPR/WBHM 90.3, October 23

An interview on "Tapestry" on the local NPR station WBHM 90.3 will be aired on October 23, 2008, at 6:30 pm. The interview about The Serenbe Project was taped at the studio, so there is a good bit of "raw" sound and I think it will be entertaining.

There should be a picture on the WBHM website that shows a real limb that I found on which I installed some of the Serenbe leaves.

Hope you enjoy.

35 Days: Serenbe Installation

35 Days Until Serenbe Installation: This weekend I started to clean the cast leaves by smoothing them on the lathe and diamond wheel. When I get them the way I like them, I will sign and date each leaf.

Hopefully I will be able to get some shots of the lathe work as well as the application of the signature and the finished leaves.

The majority of the leaves (about 120 of them) are between 7-8 inches and the remaining 30 leaves are various sizes from 3 -10 inches. There will only be a couple of 10 inch leaves.
The portion of the project that entails producing the leaves nears completion. As I discussed earlier, the installation will take place on October 30-31. We will begin early the morning of October 30 and work until the installation is complete.

42 Days: Until Installation of The Serenbe Project

I'm still working on the Serenbe Project which is slated for installation starting at 7:00am on October 30 and spilling over into October 31 if need be. That's 7:00 am EST, which is very early. I plan on traveling to Serenbe on the 29th of September so that I can visit the site and see any changes that have been made by the blacksmith.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. The Microsoft Meltdown contributed to that, however, I understand that Blogger had its' own set of issues. More pictures are ready to be posted of the process of weighing the glass when these current issues with Blogger are resolved.