The Journey of Motherhood

Motherhood is a process and our roles as parents are ever-changing as we watch our children grow and come to understand who they are in the world. What I love most about parenting my son is encouraging him to embrace his creative spirit, while also exposing him to things that are not yet in his scope of imagination. Christopher is three, so for us that has meant watching the leaves change and fall this autumn and winter...and this also meant chasing the leaves that were falling. I must admit that in the midst of all that can be uncertain with our children I thrive on the few certainties that we are blessed to have. One for us is eating together. We try to eat together as a family every night, but Christopher and I eat together all throughout the day. When I created this set I was thinking of moms with young ones. I was thinking of those morning breakfasts, snacks and lunches...when you are so exhausted from...well lets just face it, from everything! So you sit down and have a cup of coffee or tea while you feed your child. I think because so much of our lives revolve around food these days, I get excited to create what I call "Mom and Me" sets. This is a mug for mommy and matching baby food bowls for child. This particular set has three images of mother and child going around the mug, which was painted on with oxide over the glaze. I love hieroglyphics so I tried to make these images simple and a little hidden. The images start with pregnant mom, mom and baby and finally mom with young child.

Focus on the curves

Recently, I have started a new line of work focusing on curves and bumps. I have been thinking a lot about how our journeys contain rivets and unexpected curves. Sometimes it feels disastrous, but beauty is there if we look close enough. The glaze I used on this piece is called Speriment. I love this glaze because it accentuates the curves and bumps. Like our lives, it breaks and shimmers the most where the bumps and curves exist.

Flourishing

"Sometimes when you feel the most trapped you are actually in the best place to flourish." I wrote this statement down one night before I went to bed and later drew a picture of this piece. It had been a crazy year. I had almost lost my life giving birth to my son, so my body was healing...and I was feeling so many emotions around the idea of not being able to have anymore children and learning to take care of a child who has a rare metabolic condition. We all find ourselves in these places...places where life's hardships seem so strong, so overwhelming, so difficult that we feel trapped. In those moments I get annoyed by the old cliche, "when life throws you lemons, make lemonade." And yet, there is part of my soul that knows I can choose to flourish amidst my hardships or be overcome by them. This piece is a functional vase for flowers to sit in and represent the idea of "flourishing." We become the vase but don't have to stay trapped.

A Place for buttons

My grandmother inspired this piece. She was a seamstress and when she passed away she had tons of buttons in tin jars. I have some of her buttons and have accumulated some of my own. It hit me one day while I was throwing that others might appreciate having a jar to put left over buttons and sewing materials in (because lets face it spools of thread fill up tins pretty quick!) I made this piece with that in mind, but created an alternate lid with an open whole for knitters who would rather have somewhere to store their yarn while knitting:)

New to the Blog thing...But not new to dirt! (thank goodness!)

It is hard to believe that I started creating pottery almost five years ago. When I found pottery I was at a new place in my life. I was taking a break from the social work field and grieving the loss of my sister. I was trying to find healing. In the midst of this searching I found a new passion. First, I focused on learning the skills behind my craft. Then came the desire to place bits of myself in my pots. My life experiences have led me to a place where I desire to seek beauty in the midst of tragedy and I want pottery to be apart of this process. My pottery is created with the hope that it will foster conversation about life experiences, thoughts, hopes, social injustice, oppressive forces and spirituality. My pieces are very purposeful, and typically stem out of a thought or idea about life and the world around us. Ahh…but in the midst of all the thought that goes behind each piece, I am hugely practical. My goal in my pot creations is to provide function in the midst of thought. I want my mugs to provoke thought and pleasure while people are drinking out of them. I imagine flowers in the vases I create sitting on a table or mantle. I hope that my pieces can be conversation starters or meditative. I am excited to share this journey with you and share my art.