primalmommy on mon 28 jul 03
Hello clayarters...
I am physically home from Tennessee and the Appalachian Center for
Crafts, though I am mentally still in transit..
It was, as always, an infusion of much needed inspiration, direction,
challenge, and uninterrupted time to focus on what I have learned to
call "my work" (without feeling the least bit pretentious.)
ACC is a gem of a place, steamy and green and wooded, where cecropia
moths beat on the windows, deer barely raise their heads to acknowledge
your passing, and blue tailed skinks scoot along the sidewalks. This is
my fourth year and it's like summer camp, familiar and predictable.. the
familiar, cottagey smell of the cabins, the smell of the wood shop, the
blacksmith shop, the glass shop... mama Lea's kitchen...
The clay studio is vast and well equipped and has shelves loaded with
interesting work. I have spent many late nights there, torn between
obsessing over the project at hand and wanting to head back to the cabin
where I knew craftspeople were gathered around the table having
refreshments and (of course) talking shop, day in and day out...
I admit I have come to the conclusion that the cleanliness and order of
the studio have a direct relationship to how long Vince has been gone
for the summer ;0) When he's there, you could eat off the floor... but
apparently the dust and disarray accumulate as the summer progresses w/
"the cat away". Still, the studio space is impressive. The air
conditioning and big bright windows, wheels that run like tops and a
bewildering array of kilns -- it's a remarkable place. Vince, I left a
jar of gooseberry jam in your office ;0)
The workshop: a dear friend (from the Hendley workshop last year) said
it was like learning to speak swahili and italian at the same time.
Lana's stamp-encrusted, densely decorated, deeply meaningful work... she
had us building like little architects, slabs, drawers and doors...and
ideas I never had time to try (yet)... and then Leah Leitson's thrown,
functional porcelains, like Victorian ladies with parasols... there was
so much information it will take me a month to process it all. The
challenge was to find time to try everything! The handbuilders kind of
focused on Lana's demos and the throwers on Leah's, but we all tried it
all.
Lana and Leah have great chemistry; we had goosebump moments, we had
teary moments, but mostly we laughed like howler monkeys. We went, as a
group, from the deeply personal and spiritual to the completely
irreverent... and when it came to the clay we were challenged, inspired
and sometimes frustrated! (especially tose of us unfamiliar with
throwing "cream cheese".) I never feel like I have gotten my money's
worth out of a workshop unless some of it is rreally hard to master!
There were some wonderful student projects and remarkable women in the
class.
Jeff (my hubby) went along this year for the first time. Late at night
in the clay studio, obsessing over a project, I had this nagging feeling
that I should go back to the cabin since my Jeff would be there
waiting... when I made my way back (you guessed it) --nobody home! He
was in the wood shop working at the lathe, having adopted the "we can
sleep next week when we're home" approach. And on the nights when he did
get back to the cabin first, I'd arrive there to find him laughing and
telling stories with half a dozen new friends. Another extrovert ;0)
Anyway, I am home... The kids had a wonderful time at their
grandparent's place... a vacation from mom and whole grain/healthy food
and homeschooling... they enjoyed neon, sugary Captain Crunch cereal,
(with crunchberries of course)... several trips to the toy store...
unlimited cartoons and nintendo... s'mores over a camp fire.. fishing
with my dad. Jeff and I have never been away from them together except
once, for an overnight.. Coming home, I was so eager to see them I
wanted to jump out and run alongside the car the last ten miles of the
trip.
Picked 20 pounds of blueberries on the way home and, in my yard, finally
enough raspberries for jam... zucchini the size of a baseball bat...
foot tall weeds in the garden but the studio beckons...
Yours, Kelly back in Ohio... opening packages of Jostaberry jam from
Hank in Eugene, fig jam and crabapple jam from Sheron Roberts and
Jeanette Harris.. my lovely new tool from Phil/Bison (o glory!) and the
little bowl from the wood kiln in Lacrosse -- talk about a wood kiln
making a silk purse out of a sow's ear! Thank you, Karen Terpstra!
p.s. Helena, your account keeps rejecting my emails. Please try
primalmommy (at) mail2ohio.com ...
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