2015 Starts out Right
This is a recap of January copied from another blog site that really, really didn't work out...
Another year…. how can that be? Surely the earth is traveling faster around the sun than previously, or is it just aged-related? Older= shorter years and faster speeds through space… ? I don’t know but something weird is happening..I feel a sense of urgency almost, like I need to hurry up and enjoy my life before, well, I can’t anymore.
So much happens year to year in my ceramic studio that I have decided to spend 2015 recording just what that is; I hereby commit to writing something, anything, every day for 365 days. Well, I have already messed up, I missed the first day!? But I figured I could catch up on day 2?..It’s just like me to be cheating already!..
Ok, so here we go, my first blog….
After the hectic holiday gift season, the elves at Magpie Pottery are tired.
I am taking the usual 2-3 week break after the holiday show season. This means more eating, sleeping, drinking, walking the dog sled team, reading, etc.. Anything at all except making more mugs with birds on them… Although I do like how they are coming out of the kiln these days..
Winter is a time of reflection of me; what’s working at Magpie Pottery and what isn’t? What to make more of and what to let go? What shows shall I continue doing and what venues just are not a good match? What glaze colors to try, and what tired old combinations to quit? Teach more, make less? You get the idea…
In the same vein, this morning I had the pleasure of attending the first meeting of the Beehive for 2015. 6 women artists, all of a certain age, coming together to share creative ideas and business smarts over mimosas and quiche. All staged in the most beautiful Santa Fe-style house I have ever seen; antique Navajo rugs, pueblo-style pottery, lime-green kitchen with a fire-engine red stove… I came home to my drab house afterwards and felt sadly disappointed, my house will never look like that.
Anyway, after all the eating and drinking, we finally got down to business. That is, catching up on everyone’s creative journey; what we were making, writing, wrestling with as artists. A theme rose to the surface for me, namely how to pull yourself out of a slump, how to go on year after year making stuff with enthusiasm, vigor, passion. Given that most of the jewelers, weavers, potters and fabric artists present are trying to make a living with their art, how can we do that without burning out from the sheer workload required of us to pay the bills? VERY GOOD QUESTION.
Nina, who makes the most beautiful jewelry out of Rio Grande drift wood, was in a panic. Two shipments of work due in two weeks and she was feeling not only behind but uninspired as well. What to do? How to help? Just listen? Nod sympathetically? Acknowledge that creative juice flows not when you need it most ( right before a show), but rather when one is relaxed, playful, non-striving? A bit like the big O in fact. Hmmm…
It begs the question; “What inspires us?” What keeps us going back into our studios day after day, year after year, making hundreds of plates, cups, bowls? Beyond paying for my outrageous electric bill, for me it is often something quiet, unexpected, rather subtle. A certain placement of the handle, a juxtaposition of two images I haven’t tried before, one more percent of copper to a glaze to give it just the right lime green tone.. In other words, I’m easy to please! It just doesn’t take that much to get me running back to the studio anxious to see what if….
Good luck Nina!
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