Being a working artist. Most of the time? I love it. I love being able to make things. I love being in charge of my work. I love the fact that I can decide what I want to do and when I want to do it. And then there are days like today. When I wake up in the morning and realize that I completely forgot that I was supposed to be bisque firing last night and the kiln has been candling on low for oh… about 18 hours. Days when I look at the calendar and I am not sure how I’m going to make all the timing work. Days when half the things I’m working on… ~don’t~ work. Days when my equipment malfunctions and I stand there staring at it for 20 minutes in complete frustration because my brain has run out of cope and I don’t understand which screw needs to be tightened or loosened to fix the thing. Oh, and the huge bowl I threw yesterday? That looked so good? When I went to take it off the bat the wire cut right through the bottom because the center was too thin. Days like today it sure would be nice to just go to an office, work my hours and have someone give me a paycheck. It would be nice to NOT be in charge of everything. How do I deal with days like today? Lists. I have my lists and I just keep working through them. Bit by bit I check things off, I get caught up, and sometimes? Sometimes everything works perfectly and the magic of making art happen makes everything all better.
When I take something out of the kiln like the bowl below and I look at it and think to myself “I made that?”
It makes the days like today worth it.
