Week 6 - Wins and Losses
Wins of the week:
Lars Voltz (one of my fav ceramicists) followed me on instagram!
A BFA student on instagram posted me as their “weekly inspiration.” That’s a pretty crazy concept for me to wrap my head around. It means so much that my work is influencing other emerging artists, even just through social media.
I finally finished building the base part of my 3 part sculpture. I feel like I could keep adding to and refining it forever but it’s due time to for it to be done.
Losses of the week:
There is a lazy Susan turntable stuck under the drywall that my ~200lb sculpture is sitting on that I completely forgot about until chatting with Brian on Wednesday about firing the thing. I hadn’t used it since May when I started the form, but we discovered that it’s still able to turn. It’s probable that the turntable is deeply embedded in the drywall and has pushed the clay at the bottom of the sculpture up into the base. I don’t know if we’ll be able to slide it out somehow while loading, and I don’t know how badly this will go if/when it’s fired up to bisque temperature. It would really, really suck if it ruined the integrity of the form.
Knocked one of my favorite mini sculptures from the raku-becue off the shelf while I was playing around with stacking them, and it chipped. I guess that just means I’ll have to make a bunch more. They are fun to stack!
The studio has been on the back burner again this week. I called off work today to try to make up some studio hours, but was barely able to put in 3. Turns out just like cave walls collapsing in on themselves from millions of years of sediment accumulating above ground, i too am susceptible to caving in from the weight of the residue left behind from months of harmful remarks and instances that I let roll off my back. My body is tired from all of that today, on top of typical exhaustion from being constantly on my feet in all my jobs.
I wish there was more time in the week.
These sticky notes describe the other part of my recent struggles in the studio. I’d like to be more intentional about saving tasks that don’t require me to enter a vulnerable making state for communal studio hours. I don’t like feeling like I’m being shut off and rude during class time, or when other classes are in the studio, but most the time when I’m sculpting, any visual or auditory distraction takes me out of the meditative state that I require for my intuitive process. That’s why I typically try to reserve time outside of class to sculpt. It’s just been challenging to find quiet hours to make this semester because the studio is full with classes when I’m off during the days, and the nights that I am off, like tonight, I’ve been exhausted.
I’m so grateful for this space and community. I am just being open about my present struggles with making, and existing. I could go down a rabbit hole explaining the particulars of all my present challenges, but that’s not what this blog is for.
Thanks for bearing with me while I’m in the trough of the wave.