Business Lessons

I don’t have an art degree.  And, although I don’t have a business degree, when I got my ‘real world’ job, I had to learn business.  So I read – a lot. I am surprised that so many of the things I read in business literature can apply to art (specifically my pottery...

Intentional Pursuit

“You can choose what you do, but you can’t choose what you like to do.”       Grechin Rubin I exercise but I wish I liked to run.  I have tried to like it.  I got better at running for a while but I never developed a love for it.  Sometimes I say I don’t...

Intentional Focus

I really enjoy everything about pottery  (well, cleaning kiln shelves and recycling clay are not at the top of my list).  Since setting up my own studio, I have had to reconcile a few things in my mind – I am a real potter even if I use commercial glazes and fire to...

Scratching the Surface

Pocosin Arts hosts an annual artist workshop in February which I attended this weekend.  It is a great event – close to home, in a beautiful venue, with excellent instruction. This year the pottery instructor was Ronan Peterson who taught ‘Scratching the...

Instructor and student

While I was getting ready to go to a pottery workshop, I was thinking about all the opportunities that I have had to be in the instructor role.  This weekend, I am looking forward to being a student. I have had many teaching opportunities – community college...

Homemade meals, homemade pots

“Two other fashions (read: plagues) I’d like to see go away this year are the omnipresence of white plates (someone please have mercy) and cheap, uncomfortable restaurant chairs.  I’d give anything to walk into a restaurant with rich, dark, plush furnishings...