On Maintaining Sanity

Wow.  A lot has happened since I last posted.  Mostly that eight weeks have passed, so I only have two weeks left of my Arts Administration class, and I’m already thinking of ways to celebrate.  I feel as if this quarter has taught me a lot, and not just about Arts Admin.  Getting into a groove with school, work, life, and my studio has been a challenge.  Being busy isn’t a bad thing, I just have to learn how to adjust (which I’m still learning how to do).  I was talking to a Bestie recently, and I looked at her and said,

“I expect you to tell me if I go crazy and I don’t realize it.”

Lately, there have been some days where I was incapable of processing normal thought.  There was so much in my mind, that it couldn’t happen; so I would start saying weird things…like socially awkward things.  (This is really not new, but it emerges more so when I’m overwhelmed.)  So I can see where family and friends would be concerned. 🙂

These are some things that are helping me work through the stress:

• Yoga is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.  I know I’ve talked about this before, but it’s like taking a Xanax; however, the results are longer lasting and a lot better for you.  I am not great at it YET.  What helps though, is remembering that stillness that I experience in savasana for those times when I feel the anxiety approaching.  The stress can be suffocating, but if I can breathe and focus on nothing, I begin to relax.
• Hanging out with family and friends.
• Listening to quirky awesome music.  Lately my fav Pandora station is Electric Tiger Lily.  Create it now, you will be happy you did.  Laura Marling radio is also another good one that has helped me this quarter.
• Studio time has a calming affect if I’m not trying to meet a deadline.  Just doodling away on the clay while watching something awesome on Netflix (Dr. Who is my current obsession).
• Great weather and sunshine.  Sometimes at work I have to leave the building on my lunch and experience the outdoors.
• And finally, if you know me, even remotely, you know I should have put this one first on the list, but it’s more epic on the finale I feel…there’s this stuff call wine.  I can get my discussion questions for school done in a fabulous fashion when I’m drinking something dry, be it red or white.  My family actually got me wine for Christmas last year.  This is a gift that never get old.  For reelz.

So that has been my life lately, doing work in addition to some of the aforementioned bullet-pointed items.

In other news, I shipped my work to Baltimore!  It felt really good to get that checked off the list.  One of my platters was featured on the email blast for Winterfest (see image below). 🙂  I feel as if my packing job was pretty awesome, but there is always a bit of uncertainty when sending the past few months of your life away in a cardboard box.  Did you know Fedex was open 24hrs during the week in some locations?  That blew my mind.

This show is pretty awesome.  There are images of the artists’ work on the Clayworks website (you can see a few extra pieces that I shipped to them as well).  I’m pretty stoked about getting my more recent work out and about and being part of such an amazing group of artists!  I’m sharing it with the following people:

• DANIEL BELLOW (MA)
• MARY KAY BOTKINS (IL),
• MITZI DAVIS (GA),
• ADAM FIELD (CO),
• URSULA FRIES-HERFORT (NH),
• WALTER HYLECK (KY),
• BEN KRUPKA (MA),
• JUSTIN LAMBERT (FL),
• CLAY LEONARD (OH),
• LISA ORR (TX), B
• RANDON PHILLIPS (TX),
• MIKE PONESS (MD),
• GRACE SHEESE (IL),
• WILLI SINGLETON (PA),
• MATTHEW SMITH (NC),
• MIKE STRUMBAS (CO),
• NATALIE TORNATORE (MN)

In other clay related news, I’ve been working on some extra pieces that I wasn’t able to finish since school started.  Amazingly, I have been able to keep them leather hard, and I hope to get those finished soon because I am participating in the Merry Art Market in December, and I have been asked to do a traveling holiday show here in Savannah.  I am also doing another craft fair this weekend called Land-lovers’ Artisan Market at the Landings in Savannah.  I am sadly not going to have any of my most recent work available here, but I do have a pretty good inventory of older pieces that I will try to pawn off on some unsuspecting individual. 😉

I was also recently commissioned by SCAD to create some acorns and serving dishes.  I can not tell you how exciting this is.  As soon as I got the email, I was like, “Yes!  There is no possible way I can turn down making clay acorns.”  I will have images of the process and results soon, but I don’t really want to share and ruin a surprise for someone who may be receiving these awesome goodies.  I’ve really got to say that for the summer to have been so quiet, the fall is bringing a lot of opportunities, and I’m hoping to keep up with the demand.   I am firing a kiln right now that has one of these little guys and I can’t wait to see how the final results turn out.  Oh, what the heck.  I have to show you.  Here is a peek of the latest prototype.

How adorable is that?!  Like seriously, this may have to become a thing.  🙂  How cute would that be for a wedding present and instead of SCAD, let it say the marriage date?  The hubs and I need one just so we can remember when we were married.  Those are enough words for now.  More to come soon at a more frequent pace…hopefully. 😉