Paul Chenoweth

As the popularity of JK Rowling’s characters exploded, the likelihood of successfully searching Google for a local potter /craftsman by including the word “potter” in a search string diminished dramatically.  I posted that issue on a forum over at ceramicartsdaily.org just recently and received good reactions to my post, “Google – Find a Potter“.  The consensus of opinion from a small group of responder (but very engaged/passionate responders) is that the following search terms are most likely the best to use when searching for a potter/clay-artist…obviously, if you know the individual’s name or the name of the studio your chances of success are excellent.  But what if you are in a new place and just want to see who-is-doing-what with clay?  Here are the recommended search terms:

• pottery
• ceramics
• potter
• crafters
• hand made

I like this list, even though I’m scratching my head about still including “potter” on that list (no offense, Harry).  So, here goes.  I reviewed the meta data, title tags, and content on my own site and have made sure that these words are included…ok, I excluded crafters to avoid the whole clay is a craft not an art debate.  In the next month or so, the amount of time that it seems to take Google to circle back around to index the content on my web site, I hope to enter “Nashville” plus some of these terms and have my site show up on the first page of the search results.  I tried it today, and…nothing – not even page 2 or 3, so today is my baseline for this experiment.

For those who actually use Google to find clay artists and potters when you are on the road, I would be curious to know if you use other search terms…I guarantee that there are artists out there who need to know! And for the hard working potters in the world, take note: look at your web content and make sure that your copy includes descriptive words that people might actually use to find you (see list above).  Don’t be a muggle…use your magic to be discovered on the web!

P.S, And bless all those clay-artists/potters whose actual name is “Harry“.
P.P.S. Yes, I get it. This very post is the most likely to return in search simply for the concentration of key words…we shall see:)
P.P.P.S.  No one uses “Home Page” in a search engine  to find you, so use something else in you title tag…trust me on this!!

I am very pleased to announce that Ron York of York & Friends Fine Art has agreed to represent my clay sculptural work in his gallery.  Ron and I have known each other for many, many years but just recently began talking about the possibility of representation.  For the “networking works crowd”, our conversations began at the   2012 Belmont University Alumni Art Exhibit where Ron’s paintings were displayed near some of my sculptural bottles.

The York & Friends gallery is located at 107 Harding Place near the intersection of Harding Place  and Harding Pike here in Nashville, Tennessee.  If you need a good excuse to stop by, please mark your calendar for the York & Friends anniversary party reception on March 10, 2012.  I am making plans to be there to mingle and talk about my own projects and would love to see friends stop by. From the description, there will be a great crowd and great food…plus new work from the featured artist, Vicki Shipley.  If you are unable to make the reception, it is my understanding that the anniversary celebration runs the entire month of March.

It is a massive celebration of one extra cup of coffee, but the fact that “M” is for Mugphlute made it through a year of monthly posts is fairly unremarkable.  Thanks to the many visitors who are interested  in ceramic musical instruments and my recent efforts to explore the world of whistling water vessels.  There are a few people who visit the site regularly and I appreciate the traffic.  It does encourage me to post.

This is the latest effort to emulate an ancient whistling vessel. Fowl Mask is a bottle within a bottle. The two separate bottle chambers act much like Peruvian water jars where water passing from one vessel to the other pushes a column of air toward a whistle construction (beneath the mouth and beak).  There is more work to be done on this piece and drying time before the first firing may take several weeks.

I will be experimenting with a new graphic transfer technique that involves powder-based photo copies and Mason stain.  There will be more on that later.

For now, Happy Blogversary!

Learning how to read the beautifully carved glyphs of the classic Mayan era comes with an appreciation of the logic and complexity of the language plus an even deeper appreciation of an under-appreciated civilization. Much of what we see in the written record on the ruins of Central America has wiggle room for interpretation. We have only glimpses of daily life in Mesoamerica and tons of folk tales that mingle mystery, ritual, conquest, and kingdom building based upon only a fraction of the facts from two thousand years of development. Had the thousands of volumes of written text survived the conquest of 16th Century conquistadors, perhaps there would be less interpretation and far more comprehension of the culture and science of a decimated population.

Dr. Bowen continues his quest to reveal the unknowns of Mesoamerican music. We know little and grasp for threads of reality with every new discovery.

“I have been too busy and too excited to journal this week. We have discovered additional evidence of the reverence that the Uxmalico community placed on music.  As hundreds of years of burial fill and dust were painstaking shaved from the base of a test pit, just a fraction of an inch at a time, a large ceramic shard overcame its shyness to bring smiles and cheers to the whole team. Staring up from centuries of silence appeared a glyph bearing the classic image of a Macaw playing a horn flanked by a graphical symbol reserved for identifying brightness of gods.   On the horn is a simple arc and half-moon that can be translated breath or wind.  A tiny inscription near the base of the horn is not completely discernible, but may be significant upon closer exam.

Surely it is mere coincidence that a calm day was interrupted by a gentle breeze and the flutter of wings as we gathered around the excavation’s prize. But I cannot help but to interpret this finding as another indication that music played a part in the mysticism of this culture.  The scribe who painted this glyph has not been identified and the crudeness of the style may be an indication of youth, inexperience, or perhaps a caste who was not considered worthy of contributing to the permanent record.  We continue to excavate and will expand the tests to the edge of a square depression that borders the hostile overgrowth.”

Actually, the World Flute Festival sounds like a fun trip.  I’m not sure the musicians attending would appreciate the fiction of Dr. Bowen’s MugPhlute stories and would likely panic at the awkward fingering and lack of intonation that most of these things exhibit.  Besides, I’m not sure that MugPhlutes can speak Spanish *grinz*.