You find your favorite mug on their shelves- bring it home and nourish yourself with slow tea. Like a favorite old hand knit sweater. 

I have been making pots that way recently- I think they are coming along. And I really do not want to stop.

I hope you will come see them at Paradise City in October!

My goal as I move toward that show is to slow down and enjoy each pot and each sculpture and every step along the way.

I hope you can slow down and enjoy your moment also.
Warmly,
Val

 
Paradise City Arts Festival
It is the second weekend in October at the Northampton fairgrounds. I hope to see you there! 

The other day I finally fixed my kiln (very pleased with myself for figuring it out myself with the encouragement from a friend) and was able to fire it off with a bunch of glaze tests. I am super excited to run another load before the fair with high hopes of bringing in some new work hot out of the kiln. Wish me luck- it feels very last minute- thus the anxiety.

​I just got back from the woods. It is a misty soft morning and there were drips of left over rain on all the tiny new born leaves and branches. Stunning!

It is spring and I have been dealing with a ton of ideas popping inside me- images of things I want to create. It is very fun. So much potential and bubbly energy!

I love it..... until it starts to feel painful.

The pain comes in the form of overwhelm, indecision, pressure, should's, impatience, and then moves into frustration, impotence, lack of energy, being stuck, and finally into a feeling of being a fraud, not really being an artist, being worthless, etc.

YIKES!

Does this sound familiar?

​With easiest possible techniques, make doodles. For me that means getting some clay or wax in my hand and start playing with form- make something goofy- like a critter. For you it might be hum a tune that you are making up, or play with words on paper, or close your eyes and dance. 

It is about lubricating the pleasure of making, and thereby ease the pressure.

It is letting yourself in by the side door. Let it be a casual visit, not too long and certainly no dressing up for the occasion. Just welcome your artist self in with a glass of water and let her sit at the kitchen table and fiddle. As she starts feeling safe again things will start to grow- and pretty soon she will be helping you the stove, cooking up a storm and inviting all her friends. 

What I mean is that it is in the doing that the creative process works- not in the thinking about it. So just get some material in her hands and look away, pretend you don't care and it's nothing big. When she starts to giggle, you are on your way. Don't make a big fuss, but give her a cookie and delight with her, and encourage her to come back tomorrow.

Ok- so it has taken a few days to get this out and I went for another walk this morning. I had to tell you about the image.

I was in the deep woods, which soon will be dense with full grown leaves- such that I will not be able to see the distance. But this morning I could see the far hills and the sun had just come up over the horizon and it was pouring through all the tiny little fresh leaves. It was like looking through a mist of emeralds. 

I hope you are getting out and noticing all the miracles of new growth! And if anyone happened to catch that particular idea in a photo, I'm betting I'm not the only one who saw something like this- send it to me and I will put it in the next email!

Warmly,
Val

On the plane home last night, coming home from being with my family for the holidays, I began to think about goals and resolutions. It is a hopeful moment infused with an energy of possibility. I love it because for this moment I let go of the weight of the todo's and lean into the lightness of possibility. 

I start with goals- resolutions are a next step.

I think about my personal goals first and then my professional goals, because my personal goals are the groundwork for everything else.

It is good if they can be very tangible- like, for me, training for a back packing trip with my daughter this summer on the Appalachian trail. Truly there is a lot I need to do to make it so that I am capable of this adventure! But what a win/win! I will become stronger and more confident in my body again! And I am so excited to share this with my daughter!

It was fun to start to break it down into all the constituent parts and begin to see how it will fit into my daily life. Like right after I write this, I will be heading out to take a hike in the woods.

The resolutions are more like the practices that will help you get to the goals. So in my example it is practices like the morning rituals of exercise, the afternoon rituals of movement breaks and physical therapy type exercises to strengthen my knees and ankles. 

If I think of them more like practices and less like chores, they have a quality of self-care and loving awareness. 

And this leads me to the main point of this whole ramble- which is about the qualities of being.

After I have set some goals in my mind, and looked at the practices that will get me there, I always ask myself what qualities of being will help. And then I call in those qualities of being.

Huh?

Surely I have mentioned this before so forgive me if it is getting old.

What I am talking about one of my teachers calls divine qualities and another teacher calls transpersonal qualities. They are things like courage, hope, simplicity, play, levity, compassion, calm, groundedness. They all sound good, or at least the ones I am talking about do.

There are, of course, the opposite qualities available as well. It may be that you are swimming in some of the uncomfortable ones without even knowing it. They are things like fear, anxiety, heaviness, hate, discouragement.

So the practice is to look at your goals for the year, and check in with yourself- how are you feeling about it? When it has gone bad in the past, in what way has it felt bad? And then what quality or two or three, but not too many, would be most helpful going forward? 

For me, when I have tried to get in better shape, I have found myself in a cycle of should's and heavy handed discipline and then resistance and rebellion- the chocolate and sugar calls so strongly any time I declare I am going to lose weight. Even just sitting here writing this I can feel the heaviness and stagnation that makes this goal almost impossible. I think there is even some self-loathing in the water.

Yuck. No wonder it falls apart!

So for me, as I move into the new year, I am calling in Love, Play and Compassion.

I will be writing them large somewhere in my bedroom so I wake with them and go to sleep with them.

I will be taking the time, and I invite you to join me, to notice, with an openness to seeing and feeling it, what painful qualities are stirring in me. And then I will wrap myself in compassion and love- opening my heart to let the qualities pour in. And when I feel the self care doing its healing work, I will invite play and light hearted pleasure to the party. 

This is what I want to bring to my personal goals and also what I want to bring to my professional goals. Strike that- it is what I choose to bring to my personal and professional goals. 

Want is infused with a sense of scarcity- I want something I do not have. Choice is infused with empowerment. I have options, as we all do, at any time. The compassion, love and play are all there available at any time, as are the nagging self- deprecation and feelings of deep disappointment.

It is a radical thought and I invite you into it:

Choose how you want to be with yourself and the world around you. And then Nourish that choice in your daily practices. 

So the New Year's Resolution to get in shape for my big adventure in the summer is really a resolution to keep coming back to an awareness practice and choosing to call in the qualities that make me feel good and help me to put engage the work that I do in a positive way.

• What is your goal?
• What are the practices that will get you there?
• How does it feel when it starts to turn bad?
• What are the qualities that you choose to bring to it?

I would love to hear what yours are! In fact, I bet it would be super energizing for all of us if there was a way to share all of this with each other.

Have a really fun transition into 2024! 
Warmly,
Val

Having installed the big piece that I have been working on for so long, (images below) and that took over as a really big push in the last month or two, I feel like my leaves are settling into gravity too. The exhale of the cycle. Letting go and landing. 

There is something so important about completion. Closure. Release.
​
It can also be scary. There is a strong sense of purpose and identity with the projects underway. Who are you without all the doing? And what if they are not actually any good? 

Many of us are much better at the starting and have trouble with completion. This can cause things to get clogged up and the overwhelm to build to the point of inaction. There becomes no room for creation.

Fall is a time of clearing out, completing, creating space for new work to emerge.

In order to complete things, you have to trust that you are ok in the silence of not doing and that the work will be what it is. It wants to be seen.

When you are ready, the next thing will already be bubbling up. It is in you waiting for it's time. And it will be served by your being able to see the last one to completion. You are learning with each one- if you let yourself see them to completion.

I have been working with a breath meditation recently that allows for a pause at the bottom of the exhale- a still point. If you sit in that silence for a moment, you get to a point where you can feel the urge, the desire, to inhale. I think of this as being ready to activate again.

So in my still point after completion, I am finding home again, reestablishing the rhythms of exercise and good food, nesting, catching up with all the people and things that slipped to the side during the big push. Being a person not just an artist and a solopreneur.

Having done a long overdue deep clean in my bedroom a few days ago- and reveling in being able to see the top of my dresser and the beauty of the clean windows, I woke this morning with a sense of emptiness. I started to feel it as a lonliness or something wrong or off, and then I realized that it is the sensation of my psyche asking for energy- calling for the activation of the inhale. 

It lead me to write this to you. And having done that, I feel renewed energy pouring in.

I gave myself permission for a kind of softness and self-care that is like a deep exhale. And now I can feel the impulse for the next thing beginning to emerge. A desire to be back in the studio with new ideas. And an urge toward offering a rich group experience, connecting in a process of creating.

Today I am ready to clean the studio again- create beautiful space to be in for the winter.

I tell you all of this with the question for you of what is closing? How are you landing? Can you give yourself permission to find closure, to let go, to have a pause in the still point, and then listen for the urge towards the next thing?

Don't rush. Revel in the cycle.

Warmly,
Val

​Good Morning!

​I woke to a chill in the air- making me aware that we are on the out swing of summer. I can taste a bit of fall in the air. After getting so much news of this being the hottest summer on record, there is a bit of gratitude for the beginning of the shift. 

Yeah- I know- it is not over yet- there is more heat to come. And in some parts the heat persists.

It is a scary time of the reality of global warming making itself felt in the weather.

I know I am not alone in worrying about the ramifications of these changes- how will our cultures and the powers that be respond? Can we hope that not only will we slow and stop the engines that drive global warming, but that we will figure out ways to avoid the greed and violence that comes with fear?

It is a tall order. Layers and layers to it. So many aspects to the paradigm shifts that we need. I do not pretend to know all of it or even a fraction. 

That said, I do know that we as artists, have an essential role to play, or many roles to play.

We are the truth tellers, the cultural healers, the heart salve. We are the ones who can speak the deep knowings that have no words. Through music, art, dance and poetry we can draw up what is tender and warm, strong and complex, challenging and paradoxical in each of us and in the greater being of which we are all a part.

There is great wisdom available if we allow ourselves to enter that vulnerable space of not knowing. Face the fear  with  hope, gratitude and caring. 

As artists of all sorts our job is to open ourselves to the unknown and let it whisper through us. We do this by falling in love with the forms and marks, images and sounds as we refine them into full expression. You need only trust what is beautiful, compelling, moving to you and to let yourself revel in it as it comes into fruition. Maybe it is sorrow, maybe it is forgiveness, maybe it is hope, maybe it is inspiration. All of this and more is essential.

We speak from and to the heart of our world, and our world needs us so badly as we turn to face the troubles to come.

So please take good care of yourself. Rest and nourish and lean into the community you love so that you have the energy and focus to do the deep work of creative expression.

***If you would like more accountability and grounding as you create your work, please feel free to come to the co-working session on zoom on Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons est.

***If these thoughts are resonant for you and you want to take your art more seriously, but find challenges in doing so, please sign up for an interview exchange. I am pulling together thoughts about programming that will be of greatest service and I would love to hear what is going on for you as I do this. 

***If you resonate with all of this and have considered going to grad school for your creative work, because you really are ready to take it more seriously, but are finding that there is no grad school that really feels right for who you are and what you have to offer- please set up an interview exchange. I am developing an alternative and I really really want to talk to you about it as I pull all the pieces together!

Warmly,
Val
​

 They were very accepting and wonderful- but I kept not being satisfied. Many rounds of tests over the last year an a half resulted in a few glazes that I really like and a lot of test pieces and test tiles. 

Last summer I was able to install the first part of the commission- a wall fountain and two medallions that you can see below. They look great! In the process of working out the glazes and processes, I made a number of other pieces which I was able to show at Paradise City Arts Festival last spring along with the fountain.

Finally this spring I finished glaze firing the original pieces- some of which you can see close ups of below. 

When I laid it all out in the original configuration I found it boring. Totally uninspiring. 

So I started to play- rearrange- add some of the test pieces- rethink the configuration. This is again a very fun process- it is like reinventing and giving it new life. 

Where it stands now is that this is a draft version. It is very different than the original- so I will be talking with the clients to make sure that they like it, or if they have thoughts about. 

I am going to give myself some time to look at it, and maybe do a second draft, before I get the backer board and start to set the pieces into a permanent configuration.

​​I had the greatest time yesterday (ok- now more than a week ago) going to the Asparagus Valley Pottery Tour- the one I mentioned in my last email.

It was fun to fondle all the pots, to see and feel how different everyone's work is, and to get to know a few people just a little better. I bought pots like a kid in a candy shop! And I was very happy to hand over my money because I love their work and I want to do my tiny part of supporting them.


In my 20's I used to do craft shows in NYC. It was a really big schelp- a ton of work to get the stuff together- a lot of making  what I imagined would sell, and then a few extraordinarily long days of setting up, smiling all day, and then tearing down. It was exciting and exhausting. And I remember how painful it was to watch most folks walk right past my booth.

It felt like rejection on a deep level. It felt a little like I was selling my soul, prostituting myself in the name of art. 

Now when I do craft shows- 30 years and a couple of careers later- it is again exhausting physically- but I come home invigorated.

My ego is not on the line and I am not prostituting my self. I have no trouble with most folks walking past my booth, because I get to have a few really great conversations with people who are excited about my work. I get to feel like the work is received; I am not mumbling to myself in a vacuum.  I end up feeling deeply nourished, re-energized, and inspired by the whole thing. 

It's connection with real people on a deep level about what I have created. What a gift!

The thing is that I had those deep conversations with a few good people then too. So what has changed? It's not just that I grew up- though that helps.

3 things off the top of my head that make it better:

1.  I now understand that if I am making work with integrity and honesty- following what is truly compelling to me individually, then the work will speak to a very specific set of people- and not others. And that is good. So I go to the show with the intent of having those conversations- connecting and enjoying being among my work and other artists work. It is an experience that I enjoy.

2. I don't  try to imagine what will sell and focus on making those things. I proved to myself way back in my 20's that the work that was best received was the work that I let myself play with, that I had let go of audience while I was making and just engaged the exploration.

3. I am not in a scarcity mind set. I do not have to sell. It's not that I am wealthy now, far from it. But my relationship to money has changed so I do not have the same kind of pressure, anxiety and fear-  on me to make it worth while financially. I trust more.

That third one is a big deal- it makes the difference between feeling like I am trapped and beholden to anyone who might give me money and feeling like I have agency and I can be generous.

If you are trying to make a living as an artist- you might be able to relate to this issue. In order to justify spending the time, effort and money on your creative work, you have to sell. You need the money. 

I want to poke a hole in that. A big hole. In fact I, want to violently destroy that concept that we have to sell to whoever will buy because we need the money. It is such a demoralizing, disempowering trap!

I have my story of selling to such a guy- bringing the work to his uptown apartment in a taxi at the end of a grueling day of at the craft show. It was my most expensive and significant piece and I had already lowered the price beyond where I was comfortable. He said he wanted to see if he liked it in his space. Once I was there he started to dicker with me about the price. I felt cornered and even though I tried to hold my ground I felt powerless. I was so shaken I was in tears leaving his apartment.

When he saw my emotional response, he told me to take it easy- it's just a game he said. A Game. It still makes me mad. It was my life, my heart work and I had put a lot on the line to be there. I felt like I needed his money. He had all the power and he was toying with me.  I still wish I had said no to him. He was not worthy of that piece. 

I heard a great story this weekend about a very famous ceramic artist who said no to such a person. She let a $75,000 sale go because the guy was behaving like an entitled disrespectful person. (I have stronger words coming to mind, but you get the idea.) It's fun to think of her saying no to that kind of money, but is it really the same thing if you have already reached that kind of success?

What if you had that kind of sovereignty even now? What if you only sold to people who were worthy of your work? I mean really, you are putting your heart and soul into it. You are not just whipping things off an assembly line conveyer belt. You are taking time with each and every part of the work. You care about it. It has meaning to you.

What if you valued your time, effort, skill, vision, creativity and soul enough to say no?

Do you really want it to go to some arrogant prick who is trying to get the best deal out of you, who collects work and brags about how little he paid for it and how desperate the artist was? Do you really want to grant him the power over you? 

Put that another way- would you want your child, or someone very dear to you, to give their power away like that because they need the money?



I know- but you do need the money. It is reality. Our economic system requires that you have money to survive. I get that. Hear me out.

Ok lets put it in a more positive way-