Don’t be afraid of the dark

I got home from travelling the Deep South and my workshop at The Kiln Studio in Fairhope, Alabama. My Alabama buddy Stanley Hurst sent me some stamps and roulettes to demo

and I did. It is easy to look like you know what you’re doing when you have all these tools and gizmos to help ya.

I got back to Star and went to work making for stamping.  It was two days of disaster and disappointment. My mind was elsewhere and I had forgotten who I was. I hated the pots and trashed them.

My buddy Ronnie the Rat had told me before I left that he had seen some of my most expressive throwing of late. That to me that is the highest compliment.  I don’t have the imagery that Ronnie has so I must rely on expressiveness of form.

Here’s the secret though- you have to have a strong foundation before you make art. David Stuempfle at Starworks Beer and Glass  called me an “Art potter” and that thru me for a loop. I am from a production family and I guess I

 became the black sheep.

I don’t want to teach what I do. If I showed what I am doing now people would think I didn’t know what I am doing.

I am here at Starworks  to make what I don’t make at home.  Thank you to the crew at Starworks for giving me this time, clay, space, kilns and friendship to create what I think is becoming a new body of work. I have spent the last 15 years teaching and giving. Drawing from the deep well but not replenishing.  This is my time and my profit for years of keeping my nose to the grindstone. Making what is in your heart is like putting a window in front of it.  My love is the material, the pushing, the poking, the expressiveness of this wonderful mud.

Be who you are not what someone else wants you to be. Don’t be afraid of the dark. I dreamed these bowls up last night when I awoke in the dark all pissed off that I had tried to be something other than myself.