This last class session has been the longest and strangest ever! It stretched ever longer as we had to keep canceling class because of extreme heat or excess smoke and then add those days onto the end of the session. As I’m writing this, I’m still working to finish all the firings! Usually, I’m a relentless optimist, but I feel like curling up and hiding from the world right now. There’s a lot of things going on and sometimes it’s just too much. I also seem to be at odds with time-constantly impatient to get things[…]
Let’s Stay Real
The world hasn’t suddenly turned into a hologram, it’s still just as physical and concrete as it ever was, but our ways of interacting with it have definitely changed. Right now most communication and visual connection is virtual. We can’t see our loved ones in person so we see them on Face Time. We can’t visit a museum or gallery or see a performance in person so we have to look on-line. I understand why this needs to happen–but honestly, I don’t find it that interesting. I get notifications of on-line shows and virtual events practically[…]
Craft
What exactly is craft? To me the word ‘craft’ is a bit of a woolly term. According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is both a verb and a noun: an activity involving skill in making things by hand, and also work or objects made by hand. It carries connotations of both excellence and mastery in making and at the same time, it suffers from a lower status. Craft is often perceived as the country cousin of Art. Somehow making functional and practical pieces is not seen as glamorous or interesting–but I have a different opinion.[…]
The Routine of Risk
Call me crazy, but I’ve noticed that the crows in my neighborhood are practicing good COVID prevention. They seem to be staying in small family groups and limiting their contact with other groups. There’s been no dive-bombing or food thievery, and while they’re not exactly washing their ‘hands’, they’ve taken to washing other things. We’ve recently put out a water dish for all the animals that visit our yard and they have been loving it! Half the time it’s a bath for the young bluejay siblings, and the rest of the time it’s a watering hole.[…]
Opening
As we creep along trying to make sense of our current, ongoing situations so many things are unknown. The world is trying to return to a level of familiarity–a bit more work for people, some small, safe gatherings, and more opportunities to support our local businesses with some curbside shopping. But some things are unchanging–traveling is still hard. Both my parents are older and live far away. I would love to go visit them soon, but it just feels too risky both for them and for me. However, it does seem like the right time to[…]
It’s all about virtual
When almost all of the upcoming art shows got canceled or postponed or went virtual, I felt a kind of freedom. There was nothing to be applying for or promoting–there was nothing coming up. I didn’t have any should’s, so I could just make! It’s been so fun and freeing, kind of like being a kid, I’ve just been playing, experimenting and following my curiosity. But now, I hear Mom calling, it’s time to go home and there are in fact, a few things coming up that need attention. The Contemporary Clay show at the Western[…]
In Gratitude
I hope this finds you all well and staying safe in this new, stressful and uncertain time. This newsletter was going to be on throwing as a continuation of the previous one on handbuilding, but so much has changed since then. I wanted to just reach out to everybody instead. I know we’re all in this together, but of course everybody has their own things to deal with. Some have school age kids that are now distance-learning from home, some have been furloughed and don’t know about the future of work, and everyone is worried–about going[…]
Hand Building
I love hand building. It has to be the most basic and most ancient way to work with clay. It’s satisfying and instinctual and it can be done by anyone, anywhere. Pick up a lump of sticky mud and form it into a bowl or figure and it transforms into a way to hold water or remember your ancestors. While it is ancient, but it’s not simple or necessarily easy. There are plenty of techniques used in hand building that have to be mastered in order to achieve the effect you want. One of the things[…]