So, it's exciting to me to be thinking along the lines of my work continuing to change. I see that it will probably happen slowly, or in spurts, just as it always has. I am aware that I am using some of my old ideas and techniques in new ways. Making a complete switch to earthenware and low fire has been the best thing I could have done for myself. I have seen others make dramatic changes and it never made sense to me. Now it does. I had to wait for the right time for that to happen though.Why worry about all this? Does it matter? No, not to every maker or to every person who may want a handmade pot. But for me right now I am enjoying this challenge, the questions, the new-ness of it all. I feel like I am where I am.
I feel less worried about what others think about what I am doing (I struggle greatly with this). I feel like it's okay to be using this electric kiln and these materials. I even feel okay doing these goofy drawings.
A little background here on that last paragraph.
I have always had in my head that I want to be what I called a "serious potter". Now what is that you ask? For me it meant some one who made 'serious pots'. I had my mind this little canon of British potters, Mike Dodd, Jim Malone, Phil Rogers, Richard Batterham, some others. Very Leach-like potters, nice jugs and jars and local material oriented type of potters. Others too, who I won't mention.
Of course I had other potter's who fit in my "serious potter" category who didn't quite fit the mold I had created. Ron Meyers being the most obvious.
I say all this just to acknowledge that I struggle with these silly things in my mind. They seem even more ridiculous when I put them out here in the world.