...more on "Art & Fear"

For any artist visiting this site, and this particular post, if you have not read this book yet, do yourself a favor and gift yourself with it.

As a past college art instructor, I would hold class critique sessions at the completion of a new student project. Critiques were ongoing throughout the semester & I'll always remember the tension which had its roots in FEAR as students were facing their first critique session. Trying to help students get comfortable being UNcomfortable, I'd often liken the first critique to feeling "naked" before fellow students (to which they all related!).

Point being.......the making of art comes from a place deep within and the SHOWING of what's been made lays bare a very vulnerable core of the one who made it. At least in the beginning, I have seen this to be true. As an artist becomes more comfortable with the whole creative process, likewise, he/she becomes more comfortable with the "self" the art reveals.

This little (BIG) book "Art & Fear" by Bayles & Orland addresses so many things each and every artist grapples with in their individual life as an artist and in the identification of threads which are common to all of us who create art, I find it a validation as well as a comfort and an inspiration......it'd be a great one to add to your list!

When Life Gets Hectic...

"All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness". ~Eckhart Tolle

....and, for me, when life gets hectic and there's alot on my mind there's no greater place for me than my studio. More specifcally, there's no greater place than having my hands in clay. Something about the creative process is a soothing balm....very much like an ethereal connection outside of myself. Yesterday, I was in the studio throwing pots on the wheel and all of life's concerns were suspended for a time.....my awareness focused on the silky feel of the clay spinning on the wheel, the form that took shape under my hands. I am not a "production" potter.....I never try to produce the same thing twice.......rather, I set out to "throw a pot" and in the making of it, I simply allow it to "become" what it seems to want to BE......guess this is the reason I tell my hubby "I have 'new kids' in the studio"!

From a place of "inner stillness" emerges a new creation.....