And just like that, Summer. Blooms are forming in the garden. My battle against the bugs in the garden has become a morning routine, and I have no idea if I am making a dent by picking them off one by one. My kids are very much enjoying water play, sprinklers and shallow pools and I have a little nudist on my hands... but I think thats just what it means to be three years old.
We've had some upheaval in our lives, my husband lost his job a few months back in a company wide round of layoffs. We are hoping that it will open new doors, and looking forward to new chapters, but it's not without some concern. Despite knowing how most of our days may go, life is a mix of agency and surprise. It's made me stop and consider other possible avenues to explore, while I wont walk away from pottery and art, I think I would like to pursue a secondary career, and I'm still looking I what that may be.
But on the upswing, for now I have signed up for more shows then I really anticipated participating in this year. I will be present at the One of a Kind Show at Merchandise Mart (Chicago) in December... it is a 4 day show, with two days to set up, so it will be my biggest event yet, and I honestly am not sure what to expect or if my work will 'work' there. But I am excited and preparing for that.
My next big show is the Bucktown Arts Fest, also in Chicago, Aug 23-24.
I'd like to show a bit of what I've been working on here, pieces I'll be bringing to the shows but that i'll also make some of them available online. My artistic vision have shifted again, and I've leaned into botanicals - lemon pieces, branches laden with fruit, the weight of bounty. While working on this current stream... I have been thinking of abundance. Who gets to have and who does not. A single avocado tree can produce 200-300 fruit a year. I feel like many of us have been gifted the over production of giant zuccini during the harvest season, simply too much for one family. Or maybe you are the one gifting extra tomatoes and peppers once the plants tended so carefully have grown strong and plenty. It may not always be this way. I'm not overly optimistic as a person on the whole. Maybe that is a safe guard, a response to my experiences (but that is another conversation). But here and now, there is much. The use of starvation tactics on Gaza against families and children, and the cutting of SNAP benefits most recently here in the US. It's wrong, it's dehumanizing and it's evil. The refusal of those who have much... to share hoarded wealth is wrong. Anyways. I don't know where I'm going with this.. but these are just some things that run in my head as I am creating.
The pieces I've made use sprig molds, which is when a plaster mold is poured around a form, in my case, a botanical sculpture, and it can then be used to recreate that form over and over. A maybe most famous example of sprig molds are the iconic wedgewood forms. Here I have made molds of grapes, and a coffee botanical branch for the mugs. The lemon bud vases are still made wholly by hand... I've been working out where these sculpted or mold elements work best.
Making this body of work has been a challenge in a good way. Figuring out what glazes from my glaze catalogue will work best, and what parts to accentuate may seem obvious when a piece is done, but it takes a lot of thinking and considering. One jewel of success from these so far is the green glaze drip running over the body of the lemon vases. That made me really happy.
I have one more kiln to run which I hope to fit the remainder of the botanical inspired pieces, including large shallow fruit bowls, my goal is to start that tonight. After that I'll try to get some of this work online for purchase.
Always wishing you the best as we navigate this life.
