27. August 2008 by admin.

…I am usually pretty wiped out.  No exception this time, having just turned off the kiln, even though I fired a load of bisque for a studio mate.  13 1/2 hours for the firing, not much compared to my normal cycle, but maybe it’s the getting up real early, and trying to do two things at once, monitor the firing as well as your own work, that takes a toll.  So, Shelly, here’s hoping that the kiln gods are looking out for you!

I’ve got two kilns of my own to get out in the next seven days, readying for the Clothesline Art Show at the Memorial Art Gallery here in Rochester.  It’s the area’s biggest show, and the largest single fundraiser for the art museum.  Usually it’s non-stop talking with lots of artists and customers whom I haven’t seen in a good while.  Always enjoyable, and a bit different now  as for the past year and a half I have been serving on the show committee as the artist representative.  Perhaps soon I will write more on the perspective given by being on the other side of the ropes, so to speak.  These things are not easy to bring off!

Speaking of different perspectives, it’s rather interesting to be in the position of running a studio of four potters, rather than just having my own place, as I have for the past 20 years.  I’ve shared space now for the past four years, with several individuals, but I’ve got a serious and seemingly long-lived group here right now, and it’s forced me to confront the fact that we all need and deserve our own space, as well as looking out for my own interests as the lease-holder.  There have been some interesting experiences over the past year, but I’m feeling like I’ve got a grip on things now.  This is also an interesting area to explore on the blog in the future, with names and actual events changed to protect the innocent!

Well, I’ve got sweat and dust all over, and it’s time to get clean and then to bed.  Anyone actually reading this thing?

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24. August 2008 by admin.

Well, I got back home yesterday after spending the better part of the last two weeks on the road.  I went out to the west coast to attend a nephew’s wedding, and then my family extended the trip with a stay on Monterey Bay to really have some face time and to continue the celebration of my parent’s 60th  wedding anniversary.  It was a great time, as we are all of an age where it is tough to find time to get everyone together, and distance can be a problem too.  So, we got to spend five days beach walking, card playing, trying our best to imitate the beach volleyball playing in the Olympics (ha!), and enjoying one nice meal together after another.  It was a fantastic time together, and much needed, as it had been a couple of years since I’d gotten away from the studio for any real vacation time.

I had an interesting 24 hour series of flights back to NY from out west (flying isn’t what it used to be!), scrambling to book new flights after cancellations, after missed connections, and dealing with two lengthy delays on the runways (one for 4 1/2 hours when the airport was shut down for tornado warnings just as we were getting ready to take off, and then had 36 hours in Rochester before leaving to teach a five day workshop at the Wesleyan Potters Guild in Connecticut.

That was a wonderful experience!  I had terrific students, talented and giving (and great cooks!), and we were able to make a lot of large pots in a short period of time, using a technique of centered bisque molds.  We had a terrific firing in the kiln to top off the week.  Workshops like this are a true treat: I find that I really enjoy the teaching, and the constant interactions with the class.  Seeing them progress and get exciting about their work leaves me with such a nice feeling.  And, invariably, they are all people I enjoy getting to know.  I always feel as though I come away with more than I gave.

Now, however, it is time to pay the piper.  I was burning the candle at both ends, and feel a bit as though I was hit by a truck.  I’ve got to get down to the studio, get organized, and glaze and fire a couple of glaze kilns in the next 10 days.  So, there is no time to waste.  Orders for galleries need to be filled, I’ve got two shows in September, and it will be petal to the metal all the way there.

I need to pay attention to my garden, do some serious cooking, and stretch stretch stretch every day to get all the kinks out.

So, if anyone is actually reading this, I’ll be at the studio today, working away.

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7. August 2008 by admin.

Well, this blog thing has not gotten off to a jet-propelled start.  Mostly I’ve been too busy in the studio, so that when I get back home and the choice after dinner is to stretch, bathe and rest, or else sit down at the computer and pound out some blog, I choose the former.  And now I’m looking at more than two weeks of being on the road and away from the computer.  So, hopefully things will get better in time…

I’ve been working real hard trying to wrap up my production so that I can have a couple of kilns to fire when I get back, just before the local Clothesline Art Show.  That and prepping for a week long workshop at Wesleyan Potters in Connecticut.  I’m going to be teaching a modified version of the sectional throwing methods that I use in the studio to make big pots and extreme shapes, but simplified so that the typical potter can make the forms and use them in their own studios.  It’s going to be a pretty exciting week, and I hope that I’m able to get everything across to the students.

So, time to pack for the wedding out in SF, and then some down time on Monterey Bay.  I’ll check back in later on.

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1. August 2008 by admin.

I’ve been back from Ann Arbor for about 10 days.  I’d forgotten about how draining it is, how much recuperative time is needed to get back to a productive state in the studio.  It was something I used to plan into my schedule, but I guess in the three years I’ve been away, that memory went away too.  So, after four days of the show, getting up at 6:30 am to prep for the day, and getting back to my hostess’s house at 10 to 10:30 at night, and two days of travel and set up, I’d figured I would just slip back into the studio and get on with my packed schedule.  Wrong!  The first couple of days went just fine…unpacking the van, getting pots back on shelves, booth paraphernalia back in place, processing credit card sales and other receipts, updating my mailing list and taking care of the many bits of correspondance needing to be addressed from show attendees…it was just like the show had been extended.  I was running on adrenaline.  But when the time came to get out the clay, start wedging and making pieces, my psyche rebelled.  I just couldn’t do it.  Every bit of me was calling for an extended time out, a break.  I felt like taking naps at all hours of the day, felt a malaise in me that another cup of coffee couldn’t cure.  It went on for a few days, and I began to get worried.  I knew by that time that I’d overestimated my physical and psychic reserves, but still wanted to will myself forward.  It was no use.  So, I gave into the urge to get away from things not by leaving for the beach, but by doing different things around the house and studio.  My computers went into the shop for a week (explaining the long absence from the website) for upgrades and repairs.  I organized my office at home like never before, cleaning out piles of drek and catching up with most of my tasks there.  I performed studio maintainance that had been patiently waiting for my attention for months.  All good things to do, and necessary, but not what we normally program into our heads.  I continued to fret that I wasn’t “making things,” a condition of anxiety that I seemed to have hardwired into my brain in the struggle for survival in this most difficult arena, being a self-sustaining potter.

But, (important lesson here…am I listening?) we are not machines.  The pieces of us that enable us to make the work we do, need rest, and tender loving care, and maintainance.  It’s not just the drive chain of the slab roller, the tank of the compressor, the fins of the spray booth exhaust fan that need attention.  Our bodies and our minds do too…  Funny that a person of my capabilities finds that such a hard lesson to learn.

So, the show, how did it go?  It was Ann Arbor…lots of people around, lots of sales, lots of time to catch up with old friends, both customers and exhibitors.  It was a grind, but at the end of the day I made what I needed to do to go forward.  It’s a special show…there are so many knowledgeable and enthusiastic customers, which is a treat in this time of downward spiralling shows.  You get to meet and talk with lots of other potters who come by, from aspiring college students to people I’ve admired for many years, like John Glick.  You get to know some of the good folk who stroll by your booth, get to hear a bit of their stories, tell them a bit of yours.  You talk with the people who have spent many hundreds of hours putting the show together, and making it happen, trying to convey your appreciation for their efforts as well as whatever your concerns might be about what could be improved.  You people watch, from the dog lovers carting their charges about the grounds in all manners of conveyances to the exhibitionists who parade about in the crowds, displaying their “wares.”  You become a part of a scene…

I’ve wondered at times about the future of these craft events, these bazaars, which can be bizarre.  It’s a strange way of life, doing shows, but they do have their own attractions, their lure.  At their most basic level, they are all about getting to meet the people who like what you do, what you make, and passing some of your product and your knowledge on to them.  But, they are also so much more.

Enough for today…time to go make more pots!

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