Catching up...

It's been a solid month of hard work and worry but the ashes seem to be settling. The seeds planted in my creative psyche at the pre-conference workshop I attended in April have begun to bloom in my work in ceramics. Nothing fired yet but decisive and promising marks are appearing in clay. I'll post photos at the end of the month as that's when we'll be firing the semester's work.
Here are a few shots of my favorite ceramic artist, Don Reitz, at work at the workshop. He's a great storyteller and a very talented artist. I draw a lot from his philosophy and it was awesome to hear it from his lips as opposed to articles and essays. To paraphrase briefly one outburst, 'Here I am, over 80 years old and still don't know what I wanna be when I grow up. I play with clay all day and people pay me to do it! Isn't that great?! It's unbelievable!'
I've been out to do photography once since the move, with no good photos yet. I'll try again this weekend. maybe by the lake. I'd be able to keep up with more creative pursuits if not for the anthropology class I'm taking this session. It's a 17 week class crammed into 17 days. That means one chapter per night. Each chapter covers a different Native American group. I do a reading summary and reflection paper for each chapter. We just finished our midterm exam today. But, it sure beats working for a living.
This is exciting stuff, doing what you love. Every day brings new possibilities. I'm so damned excited I could puke! Every day I get up, have a breakfast of mixed fruit with my youngest daughter, on the deck in the sunshine, do some homework, boss the kids around, greet Michele as she comes home from class, have a little lunch (lately a veggie sandwich with tomatoes, cucumber, red bell pepper, carrots, radish sprouts, and mayo on ten grain bread-YUM), then it's off to the ceramics lab. There I finish work from the night before, either trimming or assembling pots. I then set out to create more pots. After a while I clean up and head home for a late dinner and more homework. It's just awesome. I don't know what I'll do when the fall semester starts and I have four classes!
Thanks to all for your support, and by all I mean all who receive my posts via email. You've made a difference in my life. Peace.