Springing Forward

Spring is one my favorite seasons for all the right reasons: new buds and blooms and freshness. It’s always energizing. I find myself taking bigger, deeper breaths clearing out the winter gloom. I feel lighter in my mind, body and spirit. 

With all this new energy buzzing all around me, new ideas and worked seems to be blooming too. My studio shelves are now bursting with work. I’m ready at last to load my kiln and fire it up. I see I’ll need to do 2 bisque loads and, probably, 2 glaze loads! For me, that’s a really significant amount of work in less than 3 months. 

Talking to the Trees. 

I’ve written quite a few essays about my journeys in the woods and my encounters with my wise trees. I know to some this may seem odd or even unbelievable, that’s ok. I get it. We all have our own ways to honor the spirit of creation in this world. And I believe that the more we honor that spirit of love, peace and knowledge around us, the better we will all be. 

Mother Cedar, as I call her, is always a place of energy and wisdom for me. When I lean against her trunk, I immediately feel the energy of connection. It soothes and energizes me. And if I’m lucky that day, I get a message of guidance. 

Today’s was simple: Be kind. I immediately took the words to mean, be kind to others. And then, I got another nudge. While being kind to others is important, the message was closer to home. What did she mean? It was clear. Be kind to myself. This is very hard for me to do, and a good lesson for the season. Spring up with kindness. 

Darling Darby. 

I am so thankful for my beautiful boy puppy. He is full of energy and playfulness. I didn’t realize until he came into my life that I’d forgotten something very essential to life: Play. As he sniffs and romps around the yard, I see the world in a new light. And I feel the lightness and joy through his simple enjoyment of what this day brings. 

Although what I do creating, throwing, painting and sculpting may make it look like I play all the time. The truth is, most of the time, I work hard. I push and pull and, yes, schedule my time. I may not work 9 to 5, but I block out hours and days so my work gets priority. This is an important part of the process.

But it doesn’t always have to be that way. Just like the buds, blooms and bouncy puppies, I can Spring forward. Sniff the freshness. Watch the buds open. Touch the earth, my work and even myself, with true kindness that helps us all bloom and grow. 

What do you do, when you don’t know what to do?

I have so many questions swirling around about our President, our government, our ability to survive together as a country. Then there’s my ability to make a new sculpture, figure how to paint it and what happens? I get stuck. I want answers, yes. But most of all I want to do something, I just don’t know what to do. 

This question from an email blog by author, Tara Mohr, felt more like a solution than a question. Tara got her inspiration from another author, John Holt, who said, “The true test of intelligence is not how much we know how to do, but how do we behave when we don’t know what to do.”

There have been many, many times in my life when what I knew wasn’t enough. I had a problem to solve, a yearning to do and no clear idea of what to do to get there. The biggest question is what did I do next?

Get mad?

Yes, frustration is a hard place to be for everyone. Just ask my three-year old granddaughter and she’ll tell you straight out, “I don’t like it!” Yes, I tell her, it’s frustrating when the puzzle pieces don’t fit together, the paint spills or the pencil gets lost under the couch. 

But throwing the puzzle pieces around only makes it worse, right? I don’t tell her I’ve had my own times of literally throwing clay in frustration. We’ve all been there, but staying there solves nothing. And it still leaves us in the land of don’t know. 

Breathe. 

That’s what I tell myself and now, what I tell my little granddaughter. Faced with not knowing what to do, I face it by breathing. I let myself off the hook of being all-knowing. I revisit all those times in my life when I was lost and hiding my own ignorance. Or so overwhelmed that all I wanted to do was run away. 

Even though, sometimes I did run away, and still do, in the form of busyness. I know that’s just a way to channel my loose and frustrated energy. And it’s a good tool for me as long as I don’t overuse it. 

Other tools I use are obvious to most of us. I sought out books, classes and teachers. I journaled. Walked in the woods. Sat in silence listening for guidance. I stared out the window and took solace in the wide open sky that somewhere out there a solution lived and maybe I just needed to live a little longer to find it. 

True problem solving isn’t like algebra. 

And I loved algebra in school. But as comforting as a linear equation is on paper, life as we all know, is not like that at all. Life requires that we learn as much as we can. But it also requires us to understand no matter how much we know, we will all have times when we don’t know what to do. 

But that’s the essence of truth, of creativity, of truly living. Embracing the questions. Letting yourself not know everything. Feeling the growing pains of frustration and fear. And breathe knowing it will lead to growth.

Life Changing Quotes

Quote: “What do you choose to believe?”

Quotes seem to pop up around me like flowers in Spring. And this one popped up in my inbox. At first, I shrugged and moved on but the second sentence grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go. 

“Whether you believe it’s possible or whether you believe it’s impossible, you’re right.”

I’ve had many times in my life where I didn’t believe in possible. I know I’m not alone. Our lives are full of impossible situations, things we cannot change and events beyond our control. You know what I mean: death, disease, war, and poverty. But there are others that while they seem impossible at the moment, may lead us into a new light of possibility. 

What can change possible from impossible? Choosing to believe. I know it sounds too simple but I also know it’s proven true for me. I didn’t believe I could ever learn to throw clay into bowls and cups, yet, here they are on my studio shelves.

I didn’t believe when my sweet, Labrador Jilly died so suddenly that I would be able to love another puppy again. Yet, when my new baby boy, Darby came into my life my heart opened up bigger. 

Quote: “If you don’t want to do it and you don’t have to do it. Don’t do it.”

This is a game changer for me. I was brought up to do everything for everyone and to do it well. Dirty cup sitting on a table that’s not mine, pick it up and wash it. Join the committee and do not just my best job, but more than is required. Be Vice President of my sorority, President of Women In Communications. Win awards. Work overtime. Read all the parenting books, go to seminars and do all the laundry, too. 

Always, my motivation was to help. Everyone. What I realize now, is that’s not always helpful  for them or me. Because too much helping them, left me tired and burned out. And guess what? It didn’t help them either. 

This quote is now my way to help myself by asking what do I really want to do? When I’m tempted to jump in somewhere and give it all I’ve got, I read it. Then I take a breath in and out. 

Quote: “Remember when you wanted what you currently have.”

Popping up on my Facebook feed, I thank many of my friends there for providing wisdom like this along with inspiration and laughs. 

This quote struck a particular chord. About 10 years ago, things were not going so well for my family and I. We had to weather the emotional, physical and financial storms of lay-offs, broken bones with no health insurance and college tuitions. 

I remember wanting it to all end well. New and better jobs. College graduations. Bones healed. And, particularly for me, a chance to take ceramics classes, learn to throw and maybe be able to sell a few pieces. 

Surprise! What I wanted, we all currently have!

Seeing Faces in the Trees.

As I sit here staring out my window at the cedar trees, I don’t just see green fir boughs. I see faces. Sometimes, there are wise, thoughtful faces and other times smiling, silly faces. I see cute dogs and cats, sometimes bears, foxes and crows, too. (I outlined a few in the photo above. )

Do I see these because I’m an artist? Is it the gift of an active imagination? Or am I crazy?

Believe or not, this ability is called Pareidolia. It’s the ability to see faces in unusual places. Examples of this ability abound all across the globe including, the Shroud of Turin,  the face on Mars from Viking 1 mission, Mother Teresa on a cinnamon bun in Tennessee. 

I am not alone. 

Many people have pareidolia. Carl Sagan wrote that the ability is tied to survival and the need to recognize human faces in difficult conditions. Leonardo de Vinci noted the ability to see a scene in spots on a wall as an artistic ability. Some artists use Pareidolia as a creative device in their work. 

Even psychologists use it in Rorschach tests, asking patients what they see in the indiscriminate ink blots, as a way to test their state of mind. (Here’s my Rorschach test: find the elephant in the photo below. Hint: right lower quadrant)

Does this make me special? No, not really. 

At first, I figured everyone could see it too. And when I pointed it out and they didn’t, I figured they just weren’t looking hard enough. Science bears me out on this, as 65% of us have this ability. 

Has it influenced my art and writing. Most definitely. Many of my early sculptural pieces were all about stories of animals, people and the magic of the natural world that surrounds us all. My fascination with creating masks is influenced by pareidolia. I’d say my functional ceramics are a departure into the normal world but then, I see how the patterns and shapes mimic tree leaves, clouds and, yes, faces are imprinted on some pieces, too. 

As a kid, I thought I was odd because family and friends didn’t see these faces around them.  But I also remember feeling comforted staring up at the clouds or into the trees. I loved sitting in stillness and quiet and peace. 

I still do. It’s my little corner of beauty and I don’t have to go anywhere special to find it. All I have to do is stare out my window. Any day. Any time. 

Snow, a Puppy and a Tea Party

I haven’t written here in two weeks. I’ve been happily busy in the studio, yes. I’ve been waiting for snow, yeah! But I’ve also been dealing with my feelings about life in our part of the globe. 

I know the State of the Union address by our current White House resident put me in a real funk. I could go on and on about how this person has put all of us in jeopardy all to feed his gigantic ego. But I won’t. Because the facts are clear enough. 

What I want to see clearly now and what I think we all need to see is some wonder and love. 

Snow. 

In my part of the country, snow doesn’t happen very often. When it does, I think it’s something to celebrate. I stomp through it with big fluffy boots. Marvel at the delicate white flakes. 

I just love snow. I love how it twinkles on the tree limbs. 

Decorates my sculptures. 

Frosts the lake. 

And makes playing ball with my puppy even more fun.

Snow puppy. 

Darby, my sweet ‘pup’, comes from a place with more sun than snow. When we opened the door for him that morning, he wasn’t so sure what to do. There was no green grass. Where did it go? And the bigger question: where was he supposed to ‘go’? 

After he figured that out, we took him for his walk and he got his ‘snow’ legs. 

I don’t know if he thought snow was wonderful, but to me, it’s a special kind of wonderful to play ball with him in the snow for the first time. 

Princess Tea Party. 

My granddaughter loves to play in her kitchen, build block towers, read books and coloring in my studio. But lately, her favorite thing to do is playing dress up in her princess dress and tiara. One week, we had a picnic on the kitchen floor. 

This week, she wanted to have a tea party. Of course, I said yes, your princess. 

We baked blueberry muffins. Brought a table from upstairs, downstairs and covered it with an elegant white lace table cloth. (We put a ‘special’ rug down for the occasion and for easier cleanup.) And she got all dressed up in her Princess Sophia dress and tiara. 

The muffins were served warm from the oven accompanied by Mango Tea (juice). 

Everyone had a wonderful time, loved the homemade muffins and the ‘Princess’ declared the event a success.  

I hope I’ve succeeded too, bringing you a little wonder and love to lighten your life, like it did mine. 

Magic

While my blog title is “Sculpting a Life”, I don’t usually write about sculpting. I write more blogs about creating, inspiration and my life including food, decorating, kids and dogs. The reason is simple, slowly over the years I’ve moved from sculpting masks and mixed media pieces to making functional clay work. 

Truly, it happened so slowly, I didn’t even notice. And that’s the real curious part about being an artist and the process of making and creating my work. I work on one piece, then another, and another, and each one, at that time is my only focus. I get so focused on each piece, I’m always surprised there are so many pieces on my studio shelves. 

But here’s the really curious part. While I was busy throwing cups, bowls and vases up on a tall shelf, heads and bodies and weird structures were appearing. 

Sculpting snuck in while I wasn’t looking. 

A few years back, before I was making my lily vases, I made a slab-built body. I had some old heads sitting in my studio closet and I remember thinking this might work for one of them. It didn’t. So when it didn’t work, I put it on a tall shelf and forgot about it. 

Last year, in the midst of my Party Animal explosion, a woman’s head appeared. I was playing around with a pinch pot technique which was new to me. I didn’t have any other idea about her at the time and, actually figured she’d blow up in the kiln. She didn’t. But I didn’t have a body for her, so again, I put her on another tall shelf and forgot about her. 

Magical Miracles. 

This week, I decided the pinch pot head really deserved a body. So I got out my clay and went about making her a lovely, lacy body. I had all the right ideas, but it went completely wrong. I ended up with a structure I hated and was glad when it cracked overnight. 

Remember when someone told you that failure was the road to success? Yeah, I never believed them either. But I do believe in magic. And here’s where magic happened: just as I was going to sleep I saw her body and it was already done. I’d made it years ago.

Up on that top shelf, sitting silently and patiently, the body had waited for her. 

Now that’s magic.    

Throwing and Trimming = Stress Relief.

Life gets crazy sometimes. All around are the pressures to do and do and do some more. In the New Year, there’s the resolutions to be better at doing. Get more exercise. Eat healthier. Drink more water. Again, it’s all about doing. 

But what if doing could be easy? What if being and doing became one? Ok, I realize this sounds crazy. And I am not saying I want to stop, sit and stare into the nothingness 24/7. But maybe there’s a way to feel that way, be that way in everyday life? How can I live and work with less stress? How can I take what I do in yoga class and bring it into my every day?

Yoga and throwing have a lot in common. 

Throwing requires me to be centered. Physically, my hands, feet, legs, and butt, need to be in alignment, in order to pull the clay into any kind of form. Too much pressure from one hand and the clay goes off to one side. Uneven feet or legs easily pull a bowl off center or create a wobbly edge. 

When I trim, I didn’t think I needed to be as centered. But, I was wrong. At this stage of the process, I’m taking my thrown bowl, turning it upside down and working to carve away all the excess clay from the bottom of the pot. It’s important to be centered here too. It helps to the bottom even, add a nice level foot.  

In yoga, I need to be centered, so my body can use my muscles for balance and strength. Yoga breathing is designed to help concentration, to quiet distracting thoughts so I can be present. 

When I throw, I can easily be thrown off by my critical voices or monkey mind. Using my breath and yoga alignment helps me throw and trim more easily. And I thank my wonderful yoga teachers reminding me to use my abs, that training helps me throw without throwing out my back.

Making as meditation. 

I’m not good at meditating. I’ve tried it, really I have.  I know it reduces stress but I just can’t seem to sit still and relax for longer than 10 minutes. It kind of stresses me out. But, maybe I don’t have to. 

There’s another big benefit my work gives me - less stress. Yes, studies show that no matter whether you are a studio artist or not, making art can significantly reduce stress-related hormone, cortisol, in your body. Reducing stress helps you live longer (and enjoy it more, I think). 

“A research study at Drexel University found that 75% of the participants’ cortisol levels lowered during their 45 minutes of making art. And while there was some variation in how much cortisol levels lowered, there was no correlation between past art experience and lower levels.”

That means anyone can reduce stress through art. Anytime. 

So get out that coloring book. Cross stitch. Paint. Cut up some cloth or paper. Or hoorah, put your hands in clay.