An Artist Journey - The ups and downs of creation, and how to keep moving forward.

Several months ago I was approached by a woman on Instagram to a join an online group she was starting. This was a group of female artist, and the group was established for us all to help one another gain more exposure and followers. We have all heard about the complex algorithms of social media, the thought was to play into them by liking and commenting for one another. I thought it over for a bit and decided to join, as I was quite intrigued. At first I saw this as a chore. Ok, one more thing to add to...

It seems that we all make sure to take the time and let people know when we are upset. A company sells you a bad product or gives you poor customer service, and off we go to post about it on social media, or write a three page email to the corporate office. We read a blog or a post that we find offensive and you bet your bottom dollar we are going to leave a comment about it! A friend does us wrong or hurts us. We are going to talk about it, over and over again, and it...

I have been hearing more and more from people that they are cutting back this year. Cutting back on the gift list, the over the top dishes to pass at the never ending parties to attend, cutting back on the spending, and cutting back on the stress. I could not be happier to hear this. That might seem like a contradiction from someone selling handmade pottery during the holidays, but I am cutting back as well. I am cutting back on the things that remove the joy from the holidays and adding in more of the things that do bring...

Potters are often referred to as a “special kind of breed” among the artist community. I would certainly agree with this statement. Potters are different than other types of artists. We tend to be a little quirky, silly, and able to roll with things as they come. We look at our work differently and don’t take ourselves too seriously. Many artists have to concentrate on how their piece will look and be presented. Potters have to think about this, as well as how their piece will work. How will the piece function - will the spout pour nicely, how much...

We have all heard the terms left-brained and right-brained when referring to people. The left-brain group of people are into science and math, the right-brain group of people are creative, right? Well I certainly consider myself creative and I am also a left-brained person. I like numbers, and totally get excited and geek out over science. For some reason this confuses people. They ask how I can like math and be an artist. Naturally my response is, “How could I make pottery without numbers!?!” I have had many people be a bit taken back by how I can hand make...