Flow: Fast and Furious vs Slow and Serene.

A whirlwind week.  I went from the solitude of my studio work to working on and in a show with hundreds of other clay artists selling thousands upon thousands of cups, vases, bowls, garden art, sculpture, masks, plates, baking dishes, ornaments and jewelry.  

Exhilarating.       

I packed up my work in bins and boxes for delivery to four different areas of the show each with their own delivery dates and times.  I arrived first thing in the morning as huge trucks were unloaded with pedestals, walls and shelves needing to be painted and assembled. 

Exhausting.

I left late into the evenings.  I lifted and painted and assembled.  Repaired broken or non-existent hardware.  I unpacked boxes and checked lists and tracked down missing pieces.  I arranged and helped hang over 70 masks in one area. Then I set up a group booth with lights and electrical in another area.  

Difficult.  

After all this, I drove my car to the loading zone and hauled out 3 bins of my own work.  Then proceeded to unpack and fill the shelves to which I was assigned.  I am a new member of this group, so I don't get a choice where my work was shown this year.  It was hard to do all the work for others and see my pieces in a small corner in the very back.  But, I recognize that some things take time and I'm a hard worker.  It's patience that I lack.  Perhaps, this just another in a long series of lessons designed to help me learn.

Delightful.

I watched people buy my mugs, vases, sculpture and masks and take them home.  Other clay artists appreciated my work and bought it for themselves.  I packed up less to take home than I brought. I worked shifts all around the show. I helped sell masks from a special installation that made over $3,000 for a local medical team.  I met many new people and made some new clay friends.

But most of all, I was part of a great team.  And for the first time in a long time, I felt delight of bonding with like-minded people coming together to make something bigger and better than anyone of us possibly could.

It was a fast flowing week, yes.  And sometimes life, like a river, needs to flow faster in order to grow.  Today, as I sit here in silence, I feel a good tired that comes with flowing fast last week and the refreshment of a slower, serene flow this week.