Make

“Your life is already artful – waiting, just waiting, for you to make it art”

Toni Morrison

3 pottery pieces from my recent class and an old treasure I’ve saved from Scott’s elementary school days (circa 2005)

It’s been a lovely winter for me, spent happily making art from my life. I crafted a PLAY-book, a small scrapbook filled with words and photos from my 2024 One Little Word, “PLAY.” I created a digital photo book from our trip last winter to Patagonia in southern Chile and Argentina. I went on an Artist’s Date to Barnes & Noble where I purchased 3 beautiful magazines (guilty pleasure!) and then spent a few glorious days designing a vision board of images and text cut from their pages. I’m hoping it inspires me to live into my 2025 word, “CURIOUS.” I also fashioned a Bingo card, a fun, creative way to document and track some intentions for this year. Oh, and I painted, a lot!

Amidst that abundant art and craft making, I also enrolled in a 6-week class in hand-building pottery. For years I’ve wanted to experience the tactile pleasure of molding clay with my hands, a new kind of making for me. I treasure the small pottery pieces our children made in elementary school; they’re still proudly displayed in our home. I believe those wonky little masterpieces have been whispering to me all these years, encouraging me to try my own hands at shaping clay. I finally listened!

Of the 5 pieces I made in class, 3 crossed the finish line. One piece didn’t survive the initial firing, and another was so sadly misshapen I abandoned it to the trash bin. But 3 reached the glazing step, followed by their second firing. I couldn’t believe my eyes the afternoon I picked them up, I was so pleased with their own imperfect wonkiness! Next winter I hope to go back to the studio to make more pots as the entire process was fulfilling, no matter whether the final piece was a success or a failure. The joy truly was, and always is, in the making!

We make so many things in our lives:

We make the bed each morning and dinner each evening (not my favorite); we make a myriad of decisions, from insignificant to life and death; and, if we’re mindful, we also make meaning. As the quote above suggests, we can even make our life into a work of art.

Winter’s chill has receded now; we’re weeks past the first day of spring. The redbuds are having their moment in the sun, covering themselves in tiny, vibrant purple flowers. Fresh strawberries for custard pies will be available at our local Farmer’s Market in a few short weeks. With all this greening and growing, I’m finding myself pulled into the grand busyness of these longer, warmer days. That will mean less time for me for making. Yet less time doesn’t have to mean no time. They say you write what you need to hear, and so I’ll re-emphasize those words, “less time doesn’t have to mean no time.” I need to keep making, consistently, even if only for 15 minutes/day. It makes me feel good: energized, balanced, and fulfilled.

In my recent pottery class, the instructor, Stan, could not wrap his head around the idea that I wanted to make clay pieces that were not functional, that would not be used as a mug for drinking coffee, or a tray for serving food, or a vase for displaying flowers. We went back and forth in a friendly repartee, yet I could tell he was getting increasingly exasperated that I wasn’t “getting it,” that pottery needed to be made for a purpose. Finally, I stiffened my spine, looked Stan in the eyes and said, “I’m a painter, absolutely nothing I make is functional!” His stricken facial expression matched his response as he said, “It’s ok to be wrong!” I laughed in the moment then later stewed on his words, finally concluding it IS, indeed, ok to be “wrong!” It is ok to not listen to your teacher (I’m 60 for goodness sake!) It is ok to make your own decisions, creative and otherwise. It is ok to make pottery or paintings or vision boards or Bingo cards just because they make you happy. It is ok to make things that don’t make sense to anyone else. It is ok to make art from your life and to make your life a work of art.

Below: Images from the PLAY scrapbook I’m in the process of making.