EPILOGUE

A student in one of the family workshops made this drawing of me

while waiting for the smoking barrel

to work its magic on our pots...

I have it here in New York City.

It hangs now in my kitchen, to remind me that I was there.

On Monday, UPS is due to deliver the works that I made at the Tin Shop studio.

Meanwhile I wrestle with the realities of being back in the city.

I am trying very hard to follow the wise words that urge me to 

'be HERE now...'

I am trying to re-enter life in this place

where the pace is so different from that 

when I was 'making mudpies in the Rocky Mountains'.

I am grateful for all that is part of my life here, 

as well as for all that was part of this rich, joyous, creative adventure there.

I repeatedly told studio visitors that I came to Breckenridge to continue

the series of smoke fired 'Bottomless Vessels to Hold Change'

that I had started in my London studio.

I did also quote the Haystack 'welcome speech' several times: that

'no matter what you think you came for, be open to the something else that will unfold...'

and so now I am looking forward to being open

to whatever might continue to unfold....

Next month I have a residency at the Art Complex Museum

in Duxbury, MA.

If the technology there allows, I will do a blog from there.

Otherwise I sign off now from blogger-land 

and thank you for being part of my Colorado residency...

The Final Days at the Tin Shop

We had a clay community pit fire and...

one final barrel firing

as part of the Arts District Celebration.

We got everything loaded and set on fire just as the rains began...

and then, the following day

It was time to finish up

and clean up in the Tin Shop studio...

This place will forever be a joyous memory...

A place I am already longing to return to...

With fingers crossed that the two

'Bottomless Vessels to Hold BIG Change' will have by now had a safe firing...

Jenn looks confident as she readies this one

for the car journey to the kiln.

I snapped this photo before we closed the kiln lid.

Then I went back to the studio to finish cleaning up 

and packing up for my return to the big apple city.

I DO Love a Parade

Small Town Parades are a bit different from the big city style. Not wanting to miss the Friday celebration on Main Street, I left this second group of 'my girls' (and boys) on the worktable and headed out for some pre-parade mimosas and quiche..

Out-of-towners and local residents lined the streets and cheered each bit of the parade. Locals waved to their friends and photographers seemd to be having a field day.

It was indeed close to high noon when we had this special parade treat: the staged old western style gun fight between the good guys and the bad guys. After one good man was left standing, and the crowds roared, everyone who'd been 'shot' got up and the guys moved on down the street to do another fight after marching further toward the mountains.

After tastey treats from a local barbeque, I went back to continue painting and gilding, and enjoyed my parade of studio visitors. More than fifty people came inside to look and chat about my work and about their own experiences with clay.

It is fascinating to hear who 'my girls' seem to be in the eyes of their beholders. I love it when different people get the same sort of feeling from a piece. Their reactions to the concept of 'Bottomless Vessels to Hold Chnage' actually expand the essence of my original idea. And I love the names that visitors give to my'girls'...

Often I have titled a work using the suggestion of a studio visitor. Surely some of these works have not yet fully revealed their mystery to me... And the one below has been so changed by the barrel fire that she is not at all who she seemed to be in her beginnings...A petite woman with blue-grey hair came into the studio on Friday afternoon and looked carefully at every photo on the wall; inquired about my architectural ceramics; studied the finished works on the shelf in the cabinet; and then looked at this piece that was on the worktable -awaiting the final touches of white gold leaf in her hair. I had not told this visiting 'fairy-godmother-like' visitor that I am in search of names.

But she loooked me in the eye and whispered, 'That is Evangeline!'

When I responded with a puzzled look, she elaborated, '...from Longfellow's poem, EVANGELINE'

OK OK, so I have looked it up on the internet. This poem is a gazillion pages long. I promise to get a hard copy so that I can actually read the poem and decide if indeed this is who she is. But where are the Cliff Notes when you need them?

In the meantime, it is interesting to hear what other visitors who have actually read the poem feel about this name as an appropriate title. Most do seem to see a melancholy in her face. Some have suggested that she has risen from the ashes of some tradgedy, perhaps the loss of her one true love.... I wish I could know what you think...

Now on this nearly final day of this fabulous residency, I will head over to the parking lot where we will have a pit fire and a barrel fire today, as part of an Arts District celebration... And I hope that the weather holds and that it will not rain on our parade.

And even MORE !

I had thought that I had come into this residency with the intention of continuing the London series of smoke fired 'Bottomless Vessels to Hold Change'.... And even though I have quoted in writing and to many visitors and students, the words of wisdom of Howard Evans, that "no matter you think that you came (here) for, that is not what you will get... So be open to what unfolds..."; I have to admit that now having the chance to work with a wood form similar to the one that I used at the International Ceramic Studio in Hungary is way beyond what I had hoped to be able to do.

This wood form was made by Piers Peterson, soon-to-be-husband of Iris Bedford, student and studio assistant for the use of this wood form.

Now drying in my studio: 'Bottomless Vessel to Hold BIG Change'

A second one...

Each of these is as tall as the kiln.. hopefully I have measured well! About 26 inches, after the shrinkage of drying.

And now it is time to stop making new works and focus on finishing works that are drying and that are ready to be painted, fired, smoked and gilded.

I am reminded by studio visitors that this is not the time to worry about how on earth I will get these 'babies' home to NYC...

Ok. OK. So now as I step into the studio, with 5 days and 5 nights remaining here as artist-in-residence, I wonder how I can best assist the unfolding of whatever else there is yet to be...

More of Something Else

While these works sat on my worktable, awaiting my decision about their fates: (back into the kiln to und0 the effects of the barrel-fire smoke, or prepare them for their gold leafing), I had the chance to step outside of the studio to experience more of the 'something else'.

A glorious drive: the scenic Boreas Pass...

John Gill once told me and his other students at Haystack Mt School of Crafts, to 'pay attention to what you notice...' So my camera helps me to take another look...
Texture and edges..

Texture and shape and..

Surprises when I remember to stop and look closely...

Color surprises...

The surprise of snow in summer...


Surely taking in the beauty of the Colorado countryside is 'more of the something else' that I get from this Breckenridge Arts District residency. It is indeed a sharp contrast to the visual input that I get in my daily life in New York City.

And so it was with an uplifted spirit that I greeted the Sunday visitors to my Breckenridge studio. I was actually surprised that they responded so positively to the effects of the smoke... And my muse seemed to singing and dancing as I painted the underglazes and glazes on a second group of 'my girls'... Getting these 'Bottomless Vesssels to Hold Change' ready for the next step in their transformation...