It’s been so easy to be distracted from art-making lately – it was too cold in January to work in the studio, even with 2 heaters. Then it was an attack of the clumsies – nothing seemed to work out or else it just looked ‘wrong’ in some way. Then it was sick dogs and trips to the vet and extra work at the gallery and on and on . . . but it struck me that this was a pattern of avoidance and I’d found time to do all those other things, just not my art work.
What is it about not having what I want that makes it so difficult to work with what I have to do what I can? Feeling so unsettled and wanting to go a different direction but the path just isn’t there yet. Two photos:
This is what I am able to produce now, with the equipment I have. It gets a good response (all three of these found very good homes!) and I know how to do it almost with eyes closed.
It’s also more affordable – and since I don’t want to do the craft show circuit it makes it easier to sell in local venues. I’m wondering now if this is just laziness on my part?
This is the work I’d like to make on a regular basis. It will be more time-consuming, less predictable and consequently more expensive.
This is the work that people really respond to, though – every piece but one sold at the gallery around the holidays . . . it took me a while to even let it go since I knew I couldn’t produce more of it. I did get some images, though, so I can keep the carrot dangling out there. Soda firing seems to be the technique that my work responds to best – it warms up and actually looks more ‘alive’ somehow. I don’t know what other people see but I love the way the surface seems so much more active. For me there’s a sense of response that isn’t there in the other work.
So what to do? For the time being it’s going to have to be more of the “same old same old” but I’m not sure for what purpose, except for just the routine of showing up and doing the work.
hmmm-I used to feel that way about my yoga practice til I realized that as Tom Hanks’ character said in the movie “Castaway”, “You never know what the wind is going to blow in each day”
Just find a way to have fun with it Mary! We’ll all be delighted with the results 
10/04/2011
Hi Mary—my wife and I found our way to your web site today. We were down in Sewanee over the weekend and found our way to the gallery that had a few of your works still for sale. She told us we had missed the larger group of pieces that had been available as most of them had sold…a good thing! Anyway, we picked up a vase that sort of looks like a flower petal at the top, we thought it was quite unique. If we see a picture of something we like on your site, can it be made and shipped to us if we would like to obtain one? Many thanks….Nick and Marilyn Lang, Pickerington, Ohio