In quarantine.

So here I am, in self-quarantine.  Strange days we are living in right now.  I find myself having a hard time focusing on work in my studio.  Instead, I have been obsessing over domestic chores such as cleaning my stove until it gleams, reorganizaing my sock drawer, and scrubbing my shower stall-- not once, but twice in the last few days.  Can't see my friends, can't go out to eat, can't grocery shop without fretting about contact with another person. The creative spark is essential to my practice and my mental health. The way through this is forward, not backward, so will just have to get out there and start fiddling around until something ignites the fire.  Of course my classes at the Firehouse are on hold for now, which makes it all doubly depressing and frustrating-- not just for me, but for my students as well.  This will pass, I know it will.  As Sherlock Holmes would say, I "must possess my soul in patience."

So here I am, with my first website since the late '90s.  Had one at that time, and then, well, didn't.  What to say?  What to say?  Let me introduce myself.  My name is Elyse Bogart, and I live and work in Norman, Oklahoma.  I have a BFA degree in painting and a MFA degree in metal design, both from the University of Oklahoma.  Sadly, OU shut down its metal design program several years ago.  I hear that's happened a lot around the country, which is very disappointing.  I teach jewelry making classes at a community art center here in town, called the Firehouse Art Center.  And yes, it is an old fire station.  Occassionally I throw in a casting class or an enameling class.  (See www.normanfirehouse.com for information.)  About once every year or two we bring in someone from outside to teach weekend workshops.  Over the last 30 years we've brought in John Cogswell several times, Charles Lewton-Brain several times, Andrea Kennington several times, Cynthia Eid, Alan Revere, David Huang for a demo afternoon, and Harold O'Connor among others.  The Firehouse is not a large place, but I like to think of us as "Small but Mighty." 

John Cogswell teaching a forging workshop on the FH patio:

  Well, it's time for me to get back to work in the studio.  Over the holidays I decided I needed to organize all the images of my older work. I had previously had my 35 mm slides digitized, but needed to get them all into files with labels.  That took a lot longer than I thought it would!  Now it's done, so I will now and then be posting here some pics of pieces that are long gone to who-knows-where.  Just for fun.