Following Intuition: An explaination of my disappearance

You may have noticed I have not been posting regularly and have not been as active in the studios with new work. Rest assured, I am in no means "giving up" or "selling out" or anything superficial like that. To give a long overdue explanation and to let you know the extent of this pause in activity, let me tell you a story.

Short story: I am currently in a graduate program for City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. As a full time graduate student I honestly cannot allot a respectable amount of time to ceramics and still get my school work done and on top of that sleep enough to remain healthy. As such, I came into this program knowing it would be at least a two year pause from studio work. In fact, it is the first extended period of time since starting to work in clay six or seven years ago I have NOT had a studio at my fingertips.

It's strange, not having that outlet. I've found that I replaced my ceramic studio with a kitchen studio. I bake desserts and I bake bread and I cook as often as my schedule will let me. The discipline I had in the studio has been translated into my "things that keep me sane during the semester" schedule (namely running and Aikido). There were definite creativity dry points when I felt as if I had no outlet and felt out of place, but I am starting to realize how these parts fit together. I'm also comforted by what a farm hand in Roxbury, NY said, "We are fooled into thinking that everything we do needs to be obviously connected." And it's true these things I'm doing aren't obviously connected, but that connection is there, and it's found somewhere deeper than the surface. I'm slowly starting to figure those things out.

Long Story:
Let's go back to my childhood. Here is something I have written that I feel explains my development pretty well, "Raised as a first generation American, I have grown up wanting to better educate myself so that I could assist in making communities such that people didn’t feel the need to leave. My parents came to the U.S. in 1981 from a war-stricken communist Cambodia. They started their life over, with no money, no language comprehension, and my older brother not even a year old, just so he and I could live a better life. They stressed their desire for us to be successful in achieving more than they could, due to their circumstances. As a result, among other values, they have instilled in me a work ethic, a self confidence, and an understanding that this is my one life to live. One of the most influential teachings my father has passed on is that time is my most important asset."

Now, let's go back to Freshman year at Syracuse. Eighteen years old, working in clay for a year, naive to the existence of Sorority girls, and floating on a cloud of optimism about the world and how I was going to change things as a teacher of the Visual Arts. I quickly fell in love with Ceramics and the Ceramics community, and became a ceramics major. However, with every semester that came to pass, I spent the first two weeks looking into other programs, either because I felt there was something missing or because I felt I was at a University with all sorts of things to learn that I wasn't taking advantage of. I have been told I have a fatal flaw of finding nearly everything facinating- to the point of being debiliatated by all the amazing things in the world because I can't focus on one. "Jack of all trades, master of none."

I looked into Psychology, International Development and Social Change, Business, Landscape Architecture, Architecture, and so on. I felt Ceramics was, personally, at times a very self-serving discipline, and I felt my purpose in life (remember this was a younger me talking) must have something more to do with actively working with the community and effecting change. Throughout the years, the things keeping in the Ceramics field was thinking, "It's not what you study, but what you do with what you study that matters." What kept me going was a vision, of sorts.

The intent was to use those skills to transform old warehouses into some form of aesthetic community city space, with bustling artist studios, creative community classrooms, and progressive local businesses. The ultimate goal of this building rehabilitation project was to create settings that fostered community by making visible the relationships between the people, the businesses, and their surrounding environment. While the core intention of creating a greater understanding of an individual’s place in a local and global community still drives me, the more I learn the more I realize how much I do not know and how much more is possible.

Here I am, listening to my intuition for once. I've gotten better at in over the past year. I am learning, expanding my world, and trusting that the clay and the hands and the years of muscle memory will still be there when I find myself with a studio again. No worries. These are all chapters of the same book, and the story is a beautiful one.

OBAMAWARE: Potters speaking out & helping out

Click on any image for a 360 view and detail shot.
Pictured: Obamaware by Beth Lo, Janice Jakielski, Julia Galloway, Jason Walker, Ayumi Horie, Garth Johnson, Shoko Teruyama, Michael Kline and Andy Brayman.

A direct quote from Kristen Kieffer's website on the subject:

"Pots That Can Take the Heat: Obamaware! Ayumi Horie invited 27 great ceramic artists from around the country to make work for an online exhibition and fundraiser featuring Obama-Biden specific pots in limited editions. In just seventy-two hours (10/19-22, 2008), the sale and auction of these highly thoughtful, collectible and poignant Obamaware pieces raised $10,000 in donations for the Obama/Biden campaign.

“Potters often talk about the intersection of art and everyday life and functional ceramic’s power to impact people on a daily, intimate basis. Through Obamaware 2008, we [expanded] this dialogue by generating a timely conversation and by supporting a candidate who is brave enough to promote a hopeful, humanistic paradigm.” –A.H."

An interesting article by Sarah Archer about pottery’s history in politics and action: Kitchen Table Politics: ‘Obamaware’ Campaigns for Change, One Mug at a Time

Bike Culture in Carrboro

Back Alley Bikes: Best Bike Shop. They sell only used bikes, with no ridiculous Lexus-Bike showroom, they've got affordable repairs, awesome music choice and a gnarly old couch to lounge upon. The shop is manned by Jason (in the top picture), Rob, and Ben (in the second picture). With honest opinions, friendly faces, bikes with character, militant bike stickers, and down-to-earth people, the place feels like a bike shop should.

Then there is the Recyclery. It only took me so long to put this post up because I kept forgetting to take pictures of this place. I would go each week and get caught up with the bikes and forget to shoot. Every Sunday from noon to five, as long as it's not raining and it's above 55 degrees, the barn (shown in the last image) opens up. Inside and out is some sort of bike graveyard, full of bikes and bike parts waiting for the right owner to come by and bring them back to life. A lot of community children come by, volunteer 10 hours (or are supposed to), we help them repair or pull a bike together, and they take a bike home in exchange. Other people can do that, too.
Inside the barn are all the tools you'll really need to work on a bike, and between all the people there is all the knowledge and experience you'll need to work on a bike. From what I can tell, there are two "head guys", but the whole thing is free form, who organize it, Rich and Chris, whose last names I don't know. Chris's mom works the sign in desk when you walk in (shown above).

If you've the inclination, you can work on your own bike project, the Blue Urban Bikes Project, help a kid fix up their new bike, or you can do general volunteer work. The first time I went I took apart supposedly recalled bikes with frames sawed in half, but all new components. Strange, but it was great. I wasn't attached to the bikes, so I could just focus on taking things apart! Take it apart and you'll learn how it works.We've got wide bike lanes! (It's Carrboro!)

Oh the things you learn...

Surgeon General's latest finding, though it's been tracked through the years, the real effects of it haven't fully been grasped until this past decade. Here is a time based model of it's progression:
Wal-Mart's Disease

This is where I live!

It's Carrboro!

The "Live Free or Die" Never Dies

I am a full fledged North Carolina Resident.

My health and auto insurance is here, I have a residence here, I belong to the local Co-op, I will vote in the NC elections this November, I will file the 2010 US decennial census at my NC address, and, the most defining factor of my residency, is that my car (after much unrest) now has a "First in Flight", red, white, and blue North Carolina license plate (NC only has one plate per car, not two).

After an incredible summer at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, I left on the morning of August 11th. By Wednesday the 13th, I had arrived at 203 Blueridge Rd, Carrboro, NC - my new home. It's taken a week, but it's finally home!

Long story short, I am here as a master's candidate in the Department of City and Regional Planning. Classes started on the 19th of August, and it's been non-stop since then. The people are amazing. I haven't even begun to scratch to surface of who all these people are. Still, DCRP has a reputation for being one of the most social masters programs on campus, so I'm sure I'll get to know them all.

Still, more stories and more pictures to come. Live Free or Die is still my motto, and the Old Man is still alive and well.

Until I can show you all my new living situation, here are some images from the Watershed archives.

The End of an Era

My apologies for not posting in such a long time. Originally I wanted to write once a week, but I seem to have a hard time writing once a month.

Much has happened since the last time I wrote, as is expected. However, as a summary I'll say the Green Art Show made it's debut, I taught clay lessons to other 600 students grades k-5 with my fellow resident Daniel, I was juried into the Infusion 10 x 10 teapot show with Fong Choo in St. Louis, decided to go to grad school for City Planning in Chapel Hill, North Carolina come August, signed a contract to be a studio manager at Watershed for the Sumer Visiting Artist Residencies, and a dear friend has moved away from Maine.

As we are nearing mid=May, the residency is coming to a close. We are cleaning up our studios (or moving them down to the factory where the summer studios are) and the people that we've lived with for eight months are all leaving to do exciting and indubitably amazing things. One is getting married, another is going to get more famous than she already is, and another is going back to a teaching position in Thailand.

Though it's sad to see everyone go, we are still enjoying our days together over great food (as always), and as it was Dan's Birthday today, good margaritas, too.