Hey Yall from Mid-Illinois,
Things are getting off to a steady start. I'm trying to blance lots of new things and all is well. I just wanted to post something to see you were still reading. Leve me a note if you are.

Lauren

Well its that time of year again, It is all coming to a close. Students finishing their classes, moving trucks floating about town, and the start of caps and gowns. Sadly the end of the school year is here and its time to finish up. However, there is plenty of excitement buzzing about town with everyone livin' the last few days in luxury, which is no different here in the art building.

Yvonne and Johannes had their exhibition on friday, titled The German Exhibition, Gardens and Shards, It was loaded with great work from both of them. Yvonne taking her viewer though an imaginative land with all sorts of animals and landscape, allowing the viewer to walk through the small spaces with their mind. While Johannes played with foreground and background creating all sorts of optical illusions for you eyes.

They really turned Cube 4 into a wonderful exhibition, and also managed to give us alot of things to talk about with their final crit. The show was quite a place to spend some time in, and the food at the closing was delicious! After an exciting closing reception, and the bumpin SOA end of year pizza party, Carson, a photo grad, had a quaint goodbye party for Yvonne and Johannes at his place in just out side of town. It was really nice to sit and relax chat and enjoy the company.

Saturday was also a very exciting day, Joe Davis had a boat party on the Ohio River on his Dad's pontoon boat. It was alot of fun, we motored around a bit and swam in the afternoon and then went back to the pavilion for a grill out. It was great burgers, and brats, buff wings and all sorts of snacks, as usual the ceramics department did not starve. After most of the crowd fell into a food coma and had to retreat to the grass for a nap, those who were daring enough tried a bit of water skiing. What a fun time watching the array of talented, or not so talented water skiers take on the Ohio. With few getting up onto the skis and many faceplants into the water later, our bellies hurt from laughter. Luckily when it became my turn, and having taken one of the most challenging classes offered here at Ohio University, I only had a few good faceplants when I was trying tricky stuff. Thanks Mom and Dad for the water skiing class! All in all, it was a great day on the river and good way for us all to relax before the goodbyes begin.


Sunday, is Yvonne's last day here and Johannes follows her on Monday, so Sunday was jam packed, literally; trying to figure out how to get all the work they made home, as well as GIANT fish trophies, all the while trying to stay under the airlines, wait guidelines. So, loads of fun! In the afternoon they went to grad performances and in the evening we followed our usual routine, A trip to Tony's. I was a nice time sipping whisky and chatting, then of course the souvenir shopping began, all being a little nostalgic decided we needed a Tony's T-shirt, and Yvonne and Johannes decided to bring back a thong for their friends at home, Luckily this one has braille on it so not to discriminate against their blind friends. It was great way to end a trip to Athens.
Well Its about time to take Yvonne to the Airport, lets hope their aren't too many tears.

The 10th Annual Brat Off!!

Welcome Ladies and Gentleman to the Ohio University's 10th Annual Brat Off, brought to you by your lovely OU Ceramics Department; it was exciting weekend here full of Winners, Losers, Brats, Booze and more! This years Brat Off was by far one the better ones that I have attended, being the 10th Anniversary that were lots of guests in town for the competition. The event had over 36 entries ranging from Asian, BBQ, Beer, Mustard, Hot, Sweet, Salty, Sour flavored, home made, store bought, supped up, and vegetarian, with all them cooked over charcoal, gas, wood chips, and steamed inside of your favorite grill or kiln. As a second competition this year, they added a new event; Best In Show, entries had only a few rules, being that the sculpture had to contain at least one brat, and did not have to be edible. so there were a range of brat sculptures to choose from. There were Four awards to be given out, one for Best In Show made by graduating senior Ellissa Cox, and First-Third made by Tim Berg himself, what a display!!























Once the grilling began contestants all placed their entries on a paper plate and turned them in for the jugging. Matt Long,

the judge this year, had his work cut out for him, being one of the cofounders of this competition he was hoping to have both halves judge but because he was unable come Matt choose an honorary judge... his son!! The two of them plowed through all 39 entries, approving on some and spitting out others, being forced to try all of them even after exclaiming "but its not even meat!" In the end with bulging bellies they announced the Winners... In Third Place, 2005 Ohio University Alumni Colleen Toledano (Woooh WHoo!!!), and in Second Place, Our 2005-2006 Visiting Artist Patti Chalmers (HHhaaahh HHHaaaa hhHaaaHH!!) and in an Amazing First Place, Our very own First Year Grad Student NICK BIVENS (and the crowd goes wild!!!!)
Yes it was a stiff competion with a lot of broken hearts but someone had to be the Winner. And now for the winner of the Best In Show, there were a lot great sculptures, some more sculpturally sound, others more conceptual (yes thats right conceptual brat sculpture,) But the winner taking home the amazing fish sculpture goes to ( drum roll please) Yvonne Brueckner all the was from Halle, Germany!!! She won with her amazing "Off With Her Head" Queen of Brats Sculpture.
Though the Germans lost their pride in the competition they should have easily sweep, meaning Johannes homemade brats, they gained it back with vengeance using Yvonne's natural sculptural abilities. What an amazing competition it was this year. Since the awards were given out, it was time to do was all ceramics and artists do best eat, chat and of course drink. There was also a DJ this years event, Nate from the sculpture department, brought his records and sound system setup for our listening pleasure, which was naturally lending towards a dance party. This years Brat Off one for the books Ladies and Gentleman, can't wait to start working on my brat for next year.

FLamER FLAME!!

After Last weeks adventures, with Mom's this week was back to work for all of OU students. Including myself, who would have thought that I still was going to have things to do after my show. Glaze calc, is comming into full swing with the start of our base glazes being formulated in preperation for the 66pt triaxel that we will be working on in the upcomming weeks. With the glaze calc class working in the glaze room there has been a slight battle with all of the other classes that are working their buts off trying to make as much work as humanly possible to fill the wood kiln. Yes that right FLamER FLAME!!! will be fired off this week however I think they decided to name it BUD which I think is a dumb name so I'll stick with ours. Brads class has been working their buts off to do all the nessicary preperations for the firing, which as we all know is alot of work. They have been heading out to nelsonvillle to load trucks with wood, spending entire class periods, chopping, splitting and preparing logs to stoke and working out the door. All day thursday was devoted to loading, stratigizing where to put the glazed pieces, sculptures, tea bowls and all other sorts of work that was going in. They had four ware carts of work to be
loaded. The back half behind the second stoke was all glaze work, sculptures in the middle and the front was mostly pots. Everyone was in and out helping to load even those who weren't in the class and were just putting work into it. Johannes had a bunch of work for it, and spent alot of time helping to load.
Thursday was one of those 85 degree sping days with not a cloud in the sky, which normally no one would complain about, but loading kilns, crawling in and out, carring work and building doors is not that much fun in the heat with not much shade. We learned that FLamER FLAME holds about three carts of work, so there was a whole other cart that was left to be loaded into a soda kiln. I can't believe that a kiln that huge couldn't fit everything they made for it, Brad must of been proud of his class to make so much work that it all wouldn't fit. They started firing Thursday night and had about a 42 hour firing, with loads of people taking multipule shifts. FLamER FLAME fires Ok, there was alot of uneven spots from front to back and in certin spots along the sides, Brad and Boomer were out there all day on Saturday with the class working on evening it out, but I think this was a case with to many cooks in the kitchen, because I'm not sure that it ever really evenend out. The front was cone 11ish and the back in spots was cone 7ish but who really knows what was going on back there. All in all for its first firing it went well and there was alot of nice work that came out of it. I think that the classes were gererally pleased, there may need to be some re-firing for people to get their pots to temp, but in general I think that most were happy with with thier results. Brad and Boomer are excited for this summers Jason Hess woodfiring frestival to try FLamER FLAME out again, and I'm excited to see how many shades of brown they can come up with.



And The Hand OFF!!!


Next Weeks News: The Brat Off!!!! - get ready for Brats and Booze!!!