The Daily Delaney

This post is about one of the other arts I practice. Since 1996, I've been studying martial arts at Quantum, first in Seattle and sometimes at our sister school in San Francisco. Like sculpture, it's something I came to later in my life (I didn't start until I was 36). And, like my other artwork, I hope I'm getting better the longer I do it. I think I am.  This weekend, I and six of my friends participated in our Red Belt testing. I've been wearing the Red Belt for a couple of years now... but that just meant I got to learn the techniques for that level. On Saturday, I got to show off what I had learned. The curriculum we have to know at this level is pretty insane... eight belt levels worth of kicks and blocks and punches, nine different kata (all performed in a sequence that runs almost a half hour in itself), grappling techniques, diving, rolling, defending ourselves against people swinging knives, stretching, breathing, TEACHING... not only do you have to...

Tonight, I'd like to talk about a different "piece"of my work. (Look it's only been 5 days and already, he's doing fill in pieces!) Nooo... when I decided to do this, I laid out an entire week's worth of subjects and pictures, so I could just grab one each day and go at it. But as a very wise artist once said to me, "Your sculpture is a conversation between you and the material". I take that to mean sometimes you have to let a thing tell you what it wants to be and help it get there. And after the last few days, I feel strangely happy and full of wonder at the way things work out. So let me tell you about the kids. After I got done with my regular trip to the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar in Austin (where I met the above mentioned artist, Mr. Tom Farr), I jetted home for a week to teach the kids of Edmonds Elementary to do what I do. I brought in clay, they brought in... Stuff , and we went to work. 13 classes in 3 days, an hour in each, anywhere from 5...