I AM A POTTER!!

Gosh, it feels good to say that. I am a potter. I have always been a potter. There is clay in my blood. I started working with clay thirty-nine years ago, when I was a freshman in high school. I threw every day I was at school for four years, then majored in pottery in college. As a pottery major, I threw every day, even weekends, for hours and hours. I made dishes, whole sets of them, learned to mix clay, glazes, fire kilns, MAKE kilns...I loved it. It is probably why I have Lupus and other health problems because back then we did not appreciate the toxicity of the chemicals we were using. Then, I graduated from college, got married and started having babies. I have dabbled in clay off and on, but mostly found my creative fix in other mediums. Cake decorating, gumpaste, pastels, silk painting. Then, I met Justin's aunt, Bonnie, who is an artist. This woman can draw. Boy howdy, can she draw. My work looks so primary school to what she can do. But Bonnie loves clay. She wants to do pottery. She lives in the north Georgia mountains and has a wheel and kiln and plenty of room for pit fires, and salt kilns. She is keenly interested in the decorating of pots. Me? I love throwing the stuff, hate the glazing. Its a partnership made in heaven. So, Thursday morning, I headed up to her place. We went to Mark of the Potter and got inspired. Then we went back to her house and I threw all afternoon. I made mugs, pitchers, plates, and bowls. I got filthy dirty. My back was aching, my bum hurt from sitting on the stool so long, and my arms felt like jello from using muscles I had forgotten I had. I LOVED every second of it. By 10pm, we had a lot of stuff on the counter, and I spent the night there - her college age daughter is gone, so I had a nice room to myself. Friday morning, I trimmed and pulled handles. I left at about noon, after a walk through the woods and pastures, and meeting her horses. Over the week, she will fire the pieces and then we will decide on the glaze process, but she will be doing the decorating. Next Thursday, I will head back up there, hopefully with MY wheel so we both can work at once, and a couple hundred pounds of clay. (it is cheaper in Atlanta...) I feel so ALIVE. There is something so elemental about working with clay. I think of Tom K's "Life is short, Art is long. Get moving!" or however that quote goes. Drawing and painting are fun, but to me, clay touches my heart and soul like no other creative process. It is who I am.