Spring 2026

Sooooo...It's been a minute. I just re-read the last post, and realized that since that time so many things have happened. In my life, and in the world at large (well, that's an every day thing, but I do digress). Buckle Up. This is a long post. 

I have spent almost a year in a creative hiatus. At least public facing. I have been playing a little in the studio, and exploring when I feel like exploring, but for the most part, I have taken a break. After I retired (during the middle of a global pandemic), I found a now favorite book called Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times  by the Author Katherine May. It speaks to the power of finding strength in retreating to rest and repair - just like the winter season, when the land rests and renews before awakening again  in spring. That is a little how it feels for me right now. 

My mom passed away in May, and my daughter and her husband are dealing with some difficult health struggles, and I have been in a holding pattern - finding nourishment in quiet times. I have made plenty of art. It just hasn't been made to share with the world. Some has been made as gifts for family or friends, or to enhance our home (think new plates for our kitchen), but I have been in a self imposed time of rest and creative "planning". 

Until this month. I have begun to create the things out of clay that my brain has been percolating on during this "season of retreat". Now I am having a little trouble (good trouble) reining in all of the ideas. 

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 Work In Progress - the studio is humming and play is happening!
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I would love to give myself credit for jump starting my creative energy, but to be absolutely transparent, I received a call for application to a favorite West Seattle art show that I chose to skip last year (for all of the reasons). The email arrived just as I was heading into a planned foot surgery, and I have been "clomping around" in a boot and boot cover for the past three weeks to create some new work to submit.  I am hopeful that I will soon be dancing along, but time will tell. In the meantime, I have been creating garden and plant-centric work. More of my favorite meditation domes that are meant to find a peaceful spot in someone's garden to encourage and soothe with lovely words....more pod shaped garden stakes and garden totem parts, and some new experiments as well.  Some successes, and (no surprise) some colossal failures. These are the learning opportunities though.  For example - Why, oh why do I keep trying to use black clay bodies. I have had SO many failures - with the clay body bloating in a chicken-pox or measles sort of way.  In case you don't know what that is like...let me just show. you

HIigh hopes for a series of new flower vases on formed and ready to fire...and the results of the beautiful shapes with said pox. In the words I have used in previous art shows for items on the "seconds" table...these pieces are  "not as the artist intended".  Additionally, I am playing with some surface decoration that is teaching me new lessons as well. 

..and

I am super excited about some new platter designs, and I decided to play with surface design mediums. I have used this material before, and it has been so long that I forgot my firing methods and glaze application and voila - more bubbles..and uneven surface and results that are just "not as the artist intended". Sometimes opening a kiln can be like a holiday, and sometimes...well, not so much. Ceramics is a VERY humbling medium. I am looking forward to trying this design again, and doing better. 

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The Good News

All that aside, I have some EXCITING new work that I submitted today with my application for the West Seattle Art Tour in September. Here are a few sneak peek photos. I am also waking up every day with a renewed eagerness to be in the studio making new work. 

I unloaded the kiln after a couple of weeks' work yesterday, and the sun came out  as if on cue- which offered some natural light to take some photos to submit with my application. I sat down to collect my thoughts and felt something sticking me on my seat. I found a small feather there. I have been "visited" with feathers of all shapes and sizes ever since my dad passed in 2018. They really appear when I most need a little nudge, or a parental hug or encouragement. I am just going to confidently say mom and dad are both involved this time. Sending me a resounding "yes", make more art! Fill your soul and share that joy it with others. I do know that is what they would say if they were still on this earthly plane. So.... Thanks. I'm on it!