…by the dawnzerly light?

<< Here’s one of the local Cooper’s hawks preening in the pre-dawn light above my tent “office”.  Every morning at EXACTLY 5:48 by the alarm clock, the pair begins their day by skrekking KIK a couple of solo kiks, then rolling out a long stream of duo kik kik kik kik kik kik kiks.  But the crows are up a few minutes earlier, also clacking and giving their hollow caws. (Side note: crow is okay, but raven is better, if you’re lucky enough to live where it live.  I missed raven when we lived in St. Louis, although there there are two species of crow, American and Fish; it almost makes up for being ravenfree).  The crows are nesting too, and fly into the palms with beakfuls of sticks.

American crow (all photos A.Shock, click to enlarge!) >>

I haven’t had a chance to bird the campground systematically, but casual encounters besides crows and coop’s are yellow-rumped warbler, a common yellow-throat who sings every morning on the other side of the fence, mallards who stroll about the campsites like cats, snapping up dropped hotdog buns and popcorn, a white-crowned sparrow or two, ruby-crowned kinglets scolding fussily overhead, and Anna’s hummingbirds, a hen of which kind was moments ago diligently gathering spiderweb from the plank fence just feet from where I’m eating breakfast.  She took her time — eventually I got the photo on the left. <<

>>Cooper’s hawk in the morning sun.  It was being hassled by the crow above.

Today I’ll be at the San Diego Audubon Festival at the Marina Conference Center on Mission Bay from 11am until 5pm, or maybe a little later.  If you’re in the vicinity, come on by: there’s still both beastie and wazzo wares to check out, and other artists and exhibits to enjoy!

Here is the Office, Three Star Owl‘s nest away from nest on certain roadtrips, complete with cot and a TV tray table that serves as a desk, and a battery-powered lamp or two. <<

And here is the Cooper’s hawk who nests here each time I’ve stayed in this RV Resort.  It’s eating something fairly large, with pink feet — like a pigeon — and feathers and tiny shreds of meat are dropping down onto the empty campsite below.  Attracted by the predatory event, a gang of crows is circling, cawking, but the Coop’s is plucking calmly. >>

From 11am to 5pm on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I’ll be at the San Diego Audubon Bird Festival in the Marina Conference Center on Mission Bay in San Diego, with wazzo-ware and beastie-ware in small but delectable quantities.  Come on by!

Talk about a bull in a china shop.  It could have been much worse, but still…

Just after the Three Star Owl Open Studio/Camelback Studio Tour came to an end, and I’d put all the remaining wares onto my studio worktables to await packing for the imminent San Diego Bird Festival trip, a big stupid dove — a Eurasian Collared Dove — blundered in on foot through the open door and into the small space, pecking the bricks for imaginary food.  It was not a good place for it to be; Eurasian Collared Doves belong in my studio as much as they belong in the Western Hemisphere, which is to say, not at all.

<< Eurasian Collared dove.  Their monotonous, moronic call is “Duhh, HUNHHH, What?…” (photo A.Shock)

The studio is an add-on plexiglass “lanai” type room, so there’s nothing but windows all around.  When the dopey bird realized it was inside, it panicked — even though no one was chasing it — flapping repeatedly against the windows, knocking stuff over, and not getting anywhere near the door, which was still wide open. Test-tiles and miscellaneous small art and found objects festoon the horizontal window-support where it was fluttering, and they rained down on the artwork below, crunchily.

Although several of the falling items were broken, I was lucky: there was only one serious casualty among the sales items, a nice little turquoise horned lizard box with a road-runner on top, smashed to unpleasantly surgical fragments: a horn here, a beak there, a tail, a foot.  Here’s the grisly carnage >>

The dove was luckier: it came to rest, and E was able to gently grab it in his hands and release it outside.  It flew away, a little bit alarmed at its unintentional incarceration, but probably mostly disappointed that there wasn’t any millet to be found in that scary clear box.  Sigh; one less piece to pack for San Diego.

…among other things.

Tomorrow, Friday, is the first day of Three Star Owl‘s Open Studio, part of the Camelback Studio Tour.  The weather is supposed to be beautiful, but the meteorologists have less lovely predictions for Saturday and Sunday.  We’ll see.  Rain or shine, wind or calm, I’ll be here from 10 – 5 waiting for you to come by and check out the owly and non-owly wares.  Lots of mugs, by the way, from corn to ravens, snakes to scorpions.  And bowls, lots of bowls.

Here is a detail of a small jar fresh out of the kiln: each owlmorph is considerably less than an inch tall. >>

Three Star Owl is proud to be part of the South Scottsdale Art Alliance’s Camelback Studio Tour next Friday Saturday and Sunday, 25, 26, 27 Feb, from 10am – 5pm, and you’re invited!

<< detail, Greenish Beastie Pitcher, breast “plumage”

Several homes in the “we could have been but we voted not to be” historic neighborhood of Sherwood Heights, in what the sensitive prefer to refer to as “Original Scottsdale” between 54th and 60th Streets and Thomas and Oak, will be hosting more than twenty local artists in a variety of mediums on these days.  Everyone is welcome —  it’s free and it’s fun.

Three Star Owl (Studio 4) will have a small but pithy assortment of sculptural and functional clay items for sale (as they say, come early for best selection!), and throughout the weekend, I’ll be demonstrating hand-building techniques in my tiny and ramshackle studio space.  (And the always business-minded Cranky Owlet would like to remind potential shoppers that cash and personal checks are always welcome, but Three Star Owl is not set up to accept credit cards).

For more information and directions, click HERE, and click here for a map.  There will be signs around the neighborhood directing you to each host home.  If you have any questions or need further information, please don’t hesitate to contact Allison through this website’s Contact page.

Hope to see you there, rain or shine!

The Beasties are coming!

Here is a close-up of the finished surfaces of the same Beastie Pitchers shown in raw clay a couple of posts ago.  They, and other functional and sculptural ware, will be offered for sale at the upcoming Three Star Owl Open Studio, coming toward the end of this month!  Stay tuned for more details.

It’s the Return of the Beastie Pitcher! For those of you familiar with Three Star Owl “Beastie Ware” — functional clayware that looks like it might nip your fingers, or wrestle the napkin holder to the ground — here’s a march of the beastie pitchers: three in-progress, highly textured pitchers in various stages of drying, destined (if they survive their ordeal of fire) for an Open Studio/sale coming up in just over a month. Stay tuned for more details!

…back from Sierra Vista and Southwest Wings Festival; tired.  Nice show.  Thanks to everyone who came by, and thank you to the organizers, who did a good job in a new venue.  It’s always nice to see friends, returning customers, and new faces.

To those of you on my emailing list, if you’re wondering why you didn’t get an advance email notification of the event in your inbox, it’s because I absentmindedly forgot to send out an e-flyer before the show.  Hope you found your way to the Three Star Owl booth anyway!

Right: Coati/scorpion lidded vessel with coati-tail handles (A. Shock, 2010, stoneware, 9.5″ ht)

Come visit “The Owlet” in Sierra Vista starting tomorrow, through Saturday.

I have new Three Star Owl work to share, familiar work, unfamiliar work, and, for some reason, LOTS of MUGS!

For more event details please click here.