iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

SF in the Presidio looking north over chaparral toward the sunny Pacific

Hillside panorama in north SF looking over the chaparral towards the Pacific on a sunny afternoon in September

smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

A challenge where we made cup sets in class and then each person who participated got one of the set from each potter (including your own favorite). My favorite challenge. I like to think they're being enjoyed wherever they ended up. High fire stoneware. #ceramics #pottery #cups #handmade

7 tumblers or tea bowls arranged on a pottery wheel head. They're vaguely a set, matte white inside and pale gray with patterns in light green, red, and aqua outside.

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Reposted by smws

Aled Thompson @aledthompson.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Hey #PortfolioDay I'm Aled and I'm a UK based illustrator and storyboard artist who's recently just made the jump to freelance. Open for commission at the moment. ✉️- al98thompson@gmail.com linktr.ee/aledthompsonart

A lonely crow perched on a stump in front of a fallen log in a pine forest

A pathway through a forest with sunlight shining through the trees

A yew tree in the foreground in front an overgrown graveyard with a church in the background.

Some moss covered fallen logs in a forest

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Reposted by smws

Aura/Moom @moomanibe.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

I know it's gauche to quote tolkien but genuinely the most interesting thing in his letters to me is this one from 1963 wherein he laid out in very plain terms what I think is THE fundamental thing that makes so much art have a life in your head beyond what you see on a page or play in a game

I am doubtful myself about the undertaking. Part of the attraction of the L.R. is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist. To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Happy winter solstice, especially to all northern hemisphere-ites who find this time of short days difficult for the spirit. We're going sunward now! May we travel to spring together.

A colorful drawing of a bearded wizard summoning a small gold fire in greens, blacks and purples, with many abstract designs

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

I'm too easily cynical about the world at large. I don't know where the road goes and I need to keep that in mind. Sometimes good things happen out of nowhere. #art #landscape #drawing #surreal #lineart

Line drawing of surreal landscape with curved objects and many textures. A tan road leads through it. In the sky a tilted sun face looks upward.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

This time of year can be gray and dark in northern climes. Remember sunlight

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Well, handles came out a bit rougher and bumpier than intended, but they're usable mugs. The slip doesn't quite fit the clay either but the cracking looks fine. #art #mug #pottery #handmade

Pottery mug, white inside, green rim, slip designs

Pottery mug, pale inside, warm orange outside, blue drips at rim, dimples in base

Pottery mug, white inside, green rim, sprayers of green glaze over slip designs and blue swirl

Pottery mug, white inside, blue rutile glaze at rim, curly slip design

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

How will they turn out in the heat of the 1300⁰C kiln? #art #pottery #handmade #firing #kiln

Glazed bowl and mugs on wooden shelf awaiting kiln firing

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Somewhat abstract landscape I drew with the restriction of using only one brush size, opaque only. I like to think of stories to go with such images. Is the red object tilted because of the aftermath of some event? #art #landscape #abstract #colorful #digitalart #surreal

Semi-abstract image showing two columns or towers, one red, one blue, a green sky with tan clouds, a sliver of tan/blue land, everything rendered in a rounded bubbly style

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Bowls are nice. This one is squared off a bit, sometimes that fits in a cabinet or a drawer better. #art #pottery #bowl #green #handmade

Squarish green pottery bowl with tan rim, being held in sunlight over dark background

Squarish green pottery bowl with tan rim, being held in sunlight over dark background. Carved curvy designs are evident in the side.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

For soups on a cold day I like a bowl with a handle. Dark speckles from iron in the clay showing through the glaze is nice too. Fired cone 10 reduction. #art #clay #pottery #bowls #soup

Large bowl-shaped pottery mug, speckled white inside, speckled pale drippy yellow and blue outside with cinnamon brown base. Background with white studio table and shelves

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

I like throwing hefty objects. The bowls are small mixing or fruit bowls with a shiny shino glaze and slip decoration, the vase is a kinda regrettable gray. #art #handmade #pottery

A gray vase with white accents and a tan and brown decorated bowl on a white shelf

Two medium large pottery bowls glazed shiny variegated tan and brown, with carved decoration, sitting on a desk

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Over the years I've painted from many photographs. It exercises skills around many aspects of drawing and painting, and as long as you understand the limitations can be very fruitful. #art #illustration #digitalart #drawing

Digital painting of the very colorful iridescent dogbane beetle Chrysoctius auratus after a picture by George Grall on a light gray background

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Pumpkins are the opposite vessels of pottery, ephemeral, impractical, rotting in days. It's strange that I've spent time on such mayfly art. I nevertheless love pumpkins, sand paintings and Goldsworthy-type arrangements easily erased by time.

A pumpkin carved with stars and spirals and triangles in combination, lit from within and photographed at night

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Sometimes it's important to just play around and not worry to much about what you're making. Try and surprise yourself! This stern fella ended up with my sister. Stoneware sculpture, cone 10 reduction fired. #pottery #sculpture #art #face

Sculpture of a bearded middle-aged face in clay, glazed tan and brown, white background

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Hope you enjoy this painting of a fuyu persimmon. In bright seasons I foolishly try and paint things when natural things are so beautiful already. The reality of the objects can highlight the artifice. Or, as the kids say: touch grass. #art #persimmon #digitalart #painting

Digital painting of a brilliant orange fuyu persimmon on a white background

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

This is an old drawing, reference from redditgetsdrawn years ago. I love the timesaving of toned paper: don't have to scribble for ages for a middle ground. I found her pose and face peaceful. #art #drawing #blackandwhite #b&w #portrait #figure #charcoal

Black and white charcoal drawing on gray toned paper of a lady lying back, feet up, head toward viewer. Only the flesh and hair is rendered in detail.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Yarn bowls are fun to make, I do love a spiral. The trick is not getting the rim to warp where it's cut. There's probably a technique but for me: mostly luck. Reduction fired stoneware. #art #pottery #yarn

Two yarn bowls with spirals cut in the side, both glazed white, one glazed brown outside

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

I sometimes enjoy a light sketch of an idea more than a finished painting of fully recovered scene. I'm not really sure what's going on here but I like it. What are these creatures doing? They seem pretty chill. #sketch #surreal #drawing #digitalart

A lightly colored sketch of a bird creature and a mammal creature emerging from an amorphous blue sphere

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

I don't often make with porcelain because it's so fiddly to work with, but if you make it thin enough it's translucent. This spiral-design tumbler glazed celadon inside and reduction fired to cone 10. #pottery #porcelain #sunlight

Porcelain tumbler on a wooden shelf in sunlight. The spiral design etched in the thin porcelain is translucent and the sun shines through.

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Reposted by smws

Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

An amazing essay by @shing.bsky.social at @sarahgailey.bsky.social's newsletter Stone Soup that was exactly what I needed to read today. It's about making weird little guys, and how important that is. stone-soup.ghost.io/love-letter-...

stone-soup.ghost.io

Little Guys

A Love Letters Feature by Shing Yin Khor - September 2025

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

It's homegrown tomato time where I am. Such a luscious food! I painted this one years ago, I think I used GIMP. #art #painting #digitalart #tomato

Digital painting of a lumpy heirloom tomato, red with greenish blush on top, white background

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Teapots are fun and interesting to make but I almost always make tea in a cup in the microwave. Look at how the spout swoops though! #pottery #teapot #ceramics

Pottery teapot on wooden picnic table. Teapot glaze is matte tan to shiny chocolate brown with swooping handle and spout.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Sometimes when I draw something I get a story in very few lines. #drawing #lineart

Line drawing of a minimalist slightly distorted figure of a man in a jacket floating and reaching upward. There are bits of detail suggesting bubbles, petals, angular shapes. Spots of color on an ochre background.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Glaze can do interesting things on textured surface. #pottery

Cherry tomatoes in a small pottery bowl, white inside, tan outside with blue highlights on a zigzag texture.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Subject from redditgetsdrawn several years ago. #drawing #portrait #charcoal

Drawing of a woman smiling in black and white charcoal on gray toned paper

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Sometimes when I've made something there's a part of me that says "sure it's pretty... but not very *practical*". But this bowl is not much more difficult to clean & use than a regular one. Harder to stack? The green glaze is Cushing matte green, stoneware fired to cone 10 in reduction. #pottery

Hand holding a green bowl with a fancy petal rim

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

I always liked the complicated linework on old engravings when the artist needed different shading, and how it added to texture as well as tone. #illustration #lineart #b&w #portrait

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

I do love a simple bowl with some mild decoration.

Tan bowl with yellow inside, touch of blue at the rim, on a wood windowsill. Meadow in background.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

This account is for sharing art but I guess it's impossible to ignore in the time and place I am: I'm starting to think these masked ICE thugs kicking in doors in jackboots and abducting children to camps might not have my best interests at heart

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

I think sometimes I didn't realize how much baggage I was carrying around in life until years of time sharpened my hindsight. #illustration #surreal #lineart

A line drawing in blue on a grey background. A big-headed humanoid with small legs, simply dressed, carries a very large egg-shape in a sack. There are a few lines of text in a made-up script.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

‪My pottery teacher @finemesspottery.bsky.social did a very wide variety of demos, this one was on how to make a working pottery whistle. I made mine into this derpy frog! Raku fired as part of a different demo. Loved that class!

Derpy pottery frog whistle, side view, glazed metallic copper green

Derpy pottery frog whistle, 3/4 side view, glazed metallic copper green

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

To me the distinction between "illustration" and "fine art" has never been an important one. A lot of the fine art of the Renaissance was after all illustrations for biblical or mythological stories; and illustrators often address the human condition. More inscrutable? "Finer" art.

A take on the queen of diamonds card in a style with outlines, simple ornaments, and a restricted palette similar to that of bicycle bridge playing cards.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

I'd probably make these soup cups/mugs with smaller handles these days, but I do like the overall shape and the rutile accent on the rims. Do the slip designs have a meaning? In my mind, they just add visual interest. Stoneware fired in 🔺10 reduction. #pottery

4 large mugs with pale blue slip decoration. The 2 on the left have a milky shino glaze, the 2 on the right have a toasty brown shino glaze

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

I've lived quite a few places in the US, but my childhood in the desert southwest probably informs my art. Some people have said they see it in my pottery! This is a drawing I did of a yucca pod.

Line drawing of a yucca pod on pink background

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Here's a tension I often feel with pottery: the mug is nice in the hands, easy to use, easy to clean; easy to give or sell. Conversely, the menorah was really interesting to make, came out looking great, and is just strange enough that I never found anyone to buy it or gift to. #pottery #sculpture

A deep brown mug with a jade green glaze inside sits next to an ornate leaf-patterned menorah with a blue accent glaze on a desk. There is a ruler for scale.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

I didn't even check to see if Sketch Swap was still up, I did this sketch years ago after a reference from Flickr. #art #lineart

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

I've made sculptural and non-functional ceramics but I most enjoy making practical, functional pottery that encourages daily use. Also I like slip decorating and green glazes, as on this high-fire stoneware mug. #pottery

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

The Internet is now old enough that the site I did this art on is long gone. What do they say? 'The Internet never forgets, but it loses things all the time.' #blue #art #sketch

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

I've always liked throwing and decorating bottles, but people seem to want them less than I expect as gifts or purchases. This set is high fire reduction stoneware with mostly shino style glaze. #pottery

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Ceramic mug fired in cone 10 reduction gas kiln. Outside, nice earthy tenmoku glaze. I learned this kind of 1- or 2-finger handle as a "dog-bone" handle and the style remains my favorite. #pottery

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Raku fired sculpture from several years ago. Going for a fox but I think it suggests wolf more in the end. I don't keep much of my work but this little one has stayed with me as moral support beast. #raku #sculpture #pottery #ceramics

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Hand built high-fire stoneware pinch pot teapot I sculpted in a very ornate style. It's quite small, probably 1 cup or less, but I like how it came out. Pours well! #ceramics #teapot #pottery

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Old raku jar. Think it ended up with a friend of mine.

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smws @kiaparowits.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

If you see this, post your blue art.

A digital painting of a leaf atop tiles, over which float swirly designs in lavender, blue and gold. Image is bluish overall.

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