Have You Missed It? I Sure Have!

It’s been a long time.  Almost 6 months since I worked on my pottery practice.  How did this happen?  Well, in retrospect, I think it’s due to the art classes I was teaching.

Since Thanksgiving, I’ve had two family emergencies that really shook myself and my family to the core.  Things are slowly beginning to balance out, but in those moments, I always tend to have some real moments of clarity. You know, when shit hits the fan you take inventory.  Who am I? What am I doing?  Who’s important? What’s important?  What’s it all for? Why?

In an instant, I could see that there were some things I was doing because I “should” rather than because they align with my life journey.  I really REALLY want to be an artist.  From the bottom of my heart, I am trying to get to that place where it’s not a secret goal or hobby, but where I can make a livelihood from it. And slowly over months, opportunities trickle in that are – in themselves ,wonderful opportunities.  But they  do take me off my path. Excuses like “well, it’s the grown-up thing to do” or “but, the money is good”…  seem so valid.  Even though I have a quiet sadness for what I am not doing.  Long story short, pottery is a part of me – like the air I breathe.  Teaching prevented me from having the time to do pottery.  Which to me, is like not breathing.  I get so much joy from people taking home my pots.  I truly enjoy making them and I truly enjoy putting them into the world.

I’m officially stepping down from teaching painting and starting up pottery this March.  My idea is to make cookie jars or large vessels that resemble the characters that will be in my Secret Garden series.  So, there should be quite a bit of animals, pattern and color involved.  The above photo of silly faces are the stamps I am making now in preparation for March.

I’m looking forward to getting back on track.