I am finally back on the Ranch and working!!!

Well, it has been more than a year since my last post and I have been busy.  Some really good things like getting into shows, winning awards and meeting new friends and artists.  I have had a great time watching my two boys now 9 and 11 grow into young men.  I have also started part time teaching at another local University so now I am teaching at two places and I love it!  Our home studio is going through growing pains.  We are finally getting things out of construction mode and back into art studio mode, it is amazing what that can do to your studio....  It has been a mess.  It is finally set up so I can have students come out to the Ranch to take private or small group lessons and I am excited about that the most.  It is also set up so I can optimize my own work space.  There is still a long way to go but I am planning on having it all done in another month.  I am currently working on about five commissions that I am finishing up and am so happy to have had the room to work on them.  Please know that although our schedules are busy we can make time for students and people who are still coming out here to help clean up the place or work on my mom's apartment that we are still building.

Thank you to all of you who have helped make this possible!!!  My husband has been a miracle this entire past year and has really changed my life and even the way I see him!  I adore him!!!!  Feel free to call or message or email me for any further information.

Dori Oiler
545 Key Lane
Abilene, TX 79602
(really in Potosi)
325-529-6505
oilerstudios@hotmail.com
find me on facebook!

Post Workshop Blues and the re-Emergence of new ideas.

Well I survived another workshop and was so glad I went, Shikha was so wonderful and an excellent workshop leader! Her solo show looks amazing in the gallery. It took a couple days for it to settle in that one, it is ok that I like to work in the same way and our work is similar. Two, it confirmed that the direction of my work is solid and I should pursue the beautiful side of traditionally functional objects with my own carving style on them. And of course to KEEP WORKING. Artists can make so many excuses all the time about why they have no new work but if you really are an artist you will always make work in some way, you may change your medium for a while or try something new, but you will always create. Something I have known, but now that I am definitely more mature, I understand the concept better and in a healthier way. Thank you Shikha for re-inspiring me and I have already signed up for the weekend in San Angelo in April.

A workshop tomorrow, something to look forward to!

Shikha Joshi, an artist from Austin, TX will be at McMurry tomorrow to give a demonstration and we are so looking forward to it! My entire Texas family will be there, all five of us and we are excited! He beautiful shapes and carving is so reminiscent of my older and some of my current work, it makes me want to go back to doing more of it. I can't wait to see her techniques! I will post more later abou the experience, if you can come on by and check it out!

Woman Comforts Man in Flipped Car

Woman Comforts Man in Flipped Car

Check out the Potters of Hickory Street

Welcome to the Potters of Hickory Street

Welcome to THE POTTERS OF HICKORY STREET. We are located on North 8th and Hickory in Abilene, Texas. We have an amazing selection of handmade pottery made by our Friends in Texas. We have students from ages 6 all the way to 89.
Our Gallery is full right now and we are making new pots every day in preparation for the Holidays. Start shopping early! If you want to add your own flair to the pieces, come and paint your own pottery. We will provide the bisque ware and you glaze it. We will fire it for you and then you pick it up in less than a week. It is a great activity for the family or a girls night out. Plan a party with Dori and she will make your experience a great one!
We are fully equipped with two working studios with wheels, slab rollers, work tables, extruders, pug mills, glazes, kilns and a whole lot more.
We have a great variety of teachers for you. One who excels at working with kids, One who has over forty years experience in the field and is the owner of the place and a new one with an MFA in ceramics and over 15 years experience teaching at the college level. What a great team we all make to make your experience here exactly what you want it to be.
So many choices when it comes to glazes. You will be able to choose whatever glazes you want to finish your work and how beautiful they look all done. More pictures coming soon! We hope you come by and visit us soon. We would love to show you around or just come in and play or sign up for classes with an instructor. We will be watching for you.

Abstract Inspirations is up and selling

There are two good websites to see Brad's new work, he is currently on display at the Center for Contemporary Arts in ABilene, Texas and he has posted most of the work on his blog as they were in the process so you will see a good example of the work here. The pieces look good in the gallery and are selling well, so I encourage anyone looking for some colorful abstracted work to look around and reserve what you want now. I will work out your payments with you.

http://www.center-arts.com/exhibits/exhibits_home.html


http://bradleyoiler.blogspot.com

View Blog

New things are in the works....patience.

I have had a lot of people ask what is new? When will we see new sculptures or ceramic works and the truth is soon I hope! I am working on a few ideas for a new series and in the meantime I am keeping up with some of my older work with highly detailed carving, I will post pictures of these examples soon. The new year is already looking good and will hopefully be inspiring! Keep posted and feel free to browse the archives to see older works. Be sure to check out Brad's site for current work, he has a show going up this month and has some great Abstracted works!

http://bradleyoiler.blogspot.com/

Keep in touch and Have a Great start to a new year!

THe Oilers

Summer Trip 2010

We took a family trip to Ohio to visit my family this summer, the cousins in Ohio, Aunt Jendi, Uncle Fred, Pop Pop and Grandma Barb and Na Na Su Su. We had the best time and got a chance to reconnect to family that the visits are way to far apart. Hopefully we will be able to revisit again soon. Here are a few pictures of the kids from the trip.






I urge everyone to stay as close to family as possible and to visit as often as you can! It is difficult to be so far away. We miss you all dreadfully and hope to be back soon.

The rest of the Paintings from my current studies....

So this is it for now, I am and will continue to work on these and others so stay tuned for more paintings. I have some great new ceramic work almost done and ready to post about after our trip to Ohio, so stay tuned. In the mean time, I will post about the trip and family to keep those interested updated! Stay Heatlhy and Keep Smiling! Create something new every day!

New Paintings that I am still working on.......

All of these are in progress and probably will be for a while, I am still learning how to paint within my own style and I struggle with a flat canvas. I am so use to being able to manipulate my material in a three dimensional form that I find drawing and painting a challenge, I was once told that a certain part of my brain works well in a three dimensional capacity and not in a two dimensional world, I know there is something to that, but I know that with practice and diligence I can master anything I set my mind to so I post them for the world to see.... It helps to hold me accountable for continuing in my study of drawing and painting to improve my skills. I know that as I become a better artist in any form it will influence my art in all areas even in ceramics and I am excited about the possibilities! Bear with me on this Journey! Keep Smiling and Creating!

The Oiler "little" boys are painting again!

William's Portrait of someone?

David's image of Penguins

The boys love to paint and create in any way, but when I start painting (which is not very often) then they want to paint with me so the mess begins! I actually love their paintings and their ideas you would think that with us all around the same area our ideas would overlap a little but they don't! The boys are independent and confident in their abilities as artists and I wouldn't have it any other way! Hope you enjoy their creations! They are my heroes and inspire me every day!

Tae kwon Do Belt Racks

I made a customized a Tae Kwon Do Belt Rack for my son David last year when he went to his first tournament. This was a big step for him and I wanted something to make it special, turns out he won a trophy also so he got a lot that weekend! He loves his rack, no one else has one like it, until recently. I am now making more on a commission basis and will customize them also. I can only do a few at a time as they take quite a bit of time, they are cut out and then hand carved and painted. Just one more project to add to my things I can do list. I never dreamed I would be making belt racks when I received my MFA in ceramics. You never know and they are fun to make! Keep your minds open and your spirit free! Keep Creating!

Oiler Boys and their other Passions

We actually do more than just art out here in West Texas and Sports is one of them. All the boys love Tae Kwon Do, although William is on a sabbatical right now, he is playing baseball instead and Brad has found a new joy in the martial arts as he is getting in great shape and he gets to hit things. It balances his life well with art and teaching!

Honey Pots

I had recently made about 80 of these honey pots for a honey farm in Colorado. It was a fun production project and one I hadn't done in many years. It was also great timing in sharpening my skills before I teach the wheel throwing classes this fall at McMurry University. I shipped out 60 and had all the other "good" ones sold within a week, just from people visiting the studio. There are times where I think I should just make functional pottery with nice colors and I will supplement my income just fine, and then I remember my true happiness comes from creating from deep within my spirit. My sculptures... Functional pottery is a process that I love and I will always keep my skills sharp and the pots coming, but I could never give up sculpting and carving. I have been finding some good collaborations between the two while I was working on this series that I hope to show later. It has been a very busy summer already! We are leaving for a family trip to Ohio, I will be visiting my sister with a farm, my mom who is staying with her and setting up my mom's ceramics studio while we are there. Maybe even starting her inventory for her. Then on to my dad's in Columbus to help him with a long list of projects we hope. We like to feel useful and a real vacation is hard for us to take! David and Brad will be working hard on their Tae Kwon Do Skills while we are away, David really want's to test fo rhis blue belt in August! Brad is getting ready to move up to a red belt soon. William is practicing being a Wii master and has already beaten Lego Harry Potter, released just a few days ago and of course baseball! In Ohio we expect to have lots of outside time and I am looking forward to temperatures that are a bit cooler than west Texas provides. Stay tuned for upcoming events and new art. I should be posting about once a week again now. Keep Making Art and Smiling every day!!!

Salt Pigs

SALT PIGS

A new item to add to my portfolio, salt pigs. Every once in a while you get a request from a friend or parent who would really like this item that they saw in a magazine, but they want it in red or yellow, etc... and "could you make it?" If it looks interesting and new I usually will, so now I can make salt pigs. I had made a few extra just in case, but funny thing is as soon as people saw them they all sold. I guess I better make a few more of them~ I will have more available at the McMurry Christmas Art Sale. These are fun and cute and great to have around your kitchen if you are a cook or baker. Just spoon out the salt as needed. Hope everyone has a great day.

new place setting project

Hello again. This year for the National Arts Program Exhibition I decided to go more traditional. I had been working on a new place setting design and glaze combination for our home and came up with this. I really like the combination of the balance between the masculine and feminine elements and all of the pieces work very functionally and of course stack nicely in my cupboard and in the dishwasher. Things I never thought I would consider when creating work. Currently I am overwhelmed with commissions which is a blessing but I am anxious to get back to my work this summer also. I am able to take on a new teaching challenge this fall that I am so excited about. I am teaching the wheel throwing classes beg and advanced. I will manage the lab and help the new adjunct as he finds his way. I am grateful for the help and I hope he is up for the challenge. I did take an honorable mention for this piece at the exhibition so it helped to reinforce I was on teh right track. I also have a more feminine series I am working on. Maybe I can get them done in the fall. The honey pots are thrown and bisqued and ready to glaze tomorrow.

The new thing in my life is massage therapy on a regular basis. It is amazing what it can do for your body! I highly reccomend that if you can afford it on a weekly or bi monthly basis to definitely do it! I have more strength, flexibility and I am in a lot less pain of a daily basis! THis is a big deal for a ceramic artist and teacher!

On a side note William turned 7 this month and David turns 9 tomorrow. What a crazy month! Mom is in Ohio taking care of my sister and her kids as she is recovering from surgery and a trip in July is looking inevitable! My dad also seems worse so the visit shouldn't wait! I just wish we had the time and money for the trip. I will take donations for this trip!!!

I hope this finds all of you out there happy and healthy and doing what you love every day!

Being away from family

O.K. I knew it was going to be hard to live so far away from my family but I had no idea how hard until this past year! My dad had a major cardiac episode and now has a pacemaker (pictured above), my sister seems to be losing her breasts to infection and is having trouble with depression and anxiety and also high blood pressure, and now as of today, my step mom is in a nursing home recovering from hip replacement and today my dad had another cardiac episode, he didn't even call 911, his pacemaker just shocked him and after he recovered, he went about his night. I was lucky he even called. I have the strongest pull I have ever felt to drop everything and go right now to help out. Dad and Barb HAVE to change their diet NOW and that is going to be hard for them! My sister has my mom with her now so things there will be better, I hope, but really..... what do I do? He called "just in case something else happens tonight".... It is a twenty + hour drive, even if I did leave now.... I know this is not my normal type of blog, but I really needed to just get this out before I felt a bit crazy! What am I going to do? I have a commission I have to get done, but I could leave that in others hands. and how will I sleep tonight.? O.k> I will stop whining now and get back to life. Thanks out there for letting me spill tonight. I promise the next one will be more uplifting.

Abilene Autism Extravaganza

David was able to attend this all day conference on autism and meet one of our heroes, Temple Grandin. She and David talked about science and animals and art and she was very encouraging for him. He came right home and wrote about it. David also had over 10 people from his school attend including his teacher and his principal. His new school has been so supportive and his academic life has been changed forever because of it. We have been so blessed be having the right people around us during this entire experience! Thanks to you all and I hope you have a great day!

Texas Snowman (woman) the 2nd

So, here we are in Spring Break in Texas and we are still able to make a snowman. The boys decided to use some tools to carve this one to get more detail to create a portrait of me. How sweet, right? Well at least they are creative kids! Hopefully we are at the end of the bad weather and we can start enjoying the normal Texas heat!