It has been a while since I last posted a blog.  I don’t know where the time goes.

One minute it is the fourth of July, the next, it is almost Christmas.  To me, this year has been a blur.  Lots of ups and downs, disappointments, and gleeful moments. All in all, it has been a pretty good year.

I didn’t create as much pottery this year as I usually do.  I hit a wall back in the spring and it took several months to get my mojo back

I still love creating mugs, platters, bowls, and plates that are inspired by nature.  I love using grasses, flowers, and found objects in my potter

But, I wanted to reinvent myself a bit.  I am not the same person I was last year.  I have evolved, changed my way of thinking, become more confident in who I am and how I want to live my life.  I think I was hiding behind people and not being true to myself.  I now have a glimpse of who I want to be, which comes with age, circumstances, and wisdom.

I have stepped out of my comfort zone and I am trying new techniques with my pottery.  I have quite a bit of failing, but it is a learning process. Being a self-taught potter, it is all trial and error.

Loving earth elements, nature, old patina, and free-form shapes are what’s sparking my creativity.  I adore rust, stains, cracks, and broken pieces.    Nothing piques my interest more than old cracked pottery, rusted metal, aged copper, tiled floors that have been trodden for decades, found deer sheds, or vintage leather.

As always, I am on the hunt to gather the coveted elements.  My jeep, four-wheeler, and pockets are usually full of rocks, limbs, feathers, and flower pods. Incorporating these loved elements into my art is exciting for me.

Trying to figure out how to connect the two realms has been soul-stirring.

My new creations take time to figure out. The holes need to be in just the right place to attach deer sheds, picking out old leather to blend with the other elements, or finding just the right branch with the perfect bend to create a handle.

It takes a little bit longer to create this type of pottery. Creating something new and making it look old is my challenge, but I love every minute of it.

I am still slab building and hand throwing the pottery that I have created for years, that is the backbone of my art.

Like aging and evolving, we all need to try something new, stretch our imaginations, step out of the comfortable box.

As Franz Kafka stated,  ” Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old”.  Let’s all see the beauty in what seems like a broken world.

I let my emotions get the best of me at the beginning of the year.  With determination, being grateful, counting my blessings, having the wisdom to change the things I can, and letting go of the things I can’t change, I am in a much better place.

I am devoted to creating what I love, what I would love to have in my home.  I am a firm believer in living an artist’s life.  Letting art be in the way you live, cook, keep house.  The way you dress, garden, and work.  Art is pretty much everywhere.

The more I look at nature, the more our Creator has an amazing sense of beauty, from the smallest flower to the vast sky. I want to immerse myself in this and pay tribute to what was created for us, to enjoy, protect and savor.

With the year winding down, and what a year it has been,  I know that I have changed the way I see things and that is a good thing.

I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season.  Enjoy the lights, festivities, fellowship, family, and cheerfulness!

Until next time~

Be kind to each other!

Much love,

Cindy

Ecclesiastes 3:1