What Is This Place?

 

The time is late 2021. Covid was finally starting to recede and life was beginning to return to normal for our family. At the same time, one of our two children had graduated and moved out of the house, and our youngest was pretty busy between work, school, and extra curricular stuff. In other words, life at home was getting a little quieter, so like many parents who begin that transition to the empty nest, I found myself with more spare time. On that note...also with a bad habit: during the Covid years, I began to scroll through the newsfeed on my cell phone, because that just seemed a good idea at the time. As Covid began to go away though, I still found myself spending too much time scrolling through the newsfeed on my phone, basically just wasting a lot of time not doing much. I made a decision at the time that has really brought me a lot of satisfaction and also led to an artistic renaissance of sorts: Why not watch cool You Tube videos on how to make things instead of doom scrolling? 

While I thought I was a Paper-Mache master, I discovered that the real master is named Jonni Good, and her wonderful site and videos have brought me to a new level. And while that's one example, it's not even close to the end. I learned how to sculpt clay, how to use paint sprayers and to apply varnishes, the properties of different types of glues, and this Fall, I came to fall in love with spray foam due to Allen Hops whose You Tube page is called Stiltbeast Studios. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but here's the point: I did eventually replace my bad habit of doom scrolling with a good habit of learning how to make things, and at some point I needed to go beyond watching things being made to making them myself. So technically, 'Clay's Creature Shop' is mostly in my garage but sometimes comes into the house, especially when it's cold. I've now made several 'creatures' and honestly, it's fun to make cool artistic things from scratch. I feel like a kid again!

At this point, friends and family always ask me, 'What are you working on now?' so I'll take that to mean that I've become at least a somewhat proficient hobby artist, and I have no desire to stop now. Since I've been a teacher for that last two and half decades, I want to teach some of the skills I've learned. If the posts here can help fellow hobby artists, then I'm paying it forward to all the wonderful folks out there whose videos and posts have helped me.  

Clayton Trehal