Support group

At certain times of the year for ceramicists, in fact most artists there is an air of industry and extra striving. Competitions and exhibitions are a time to excel and push yourself to prove something. We get caught up in the pressure and the constant disastrous failures and completely lose focus on what it is we are trying to prove and to whom.

Normally every kiln firing has a few disappointments but if there is no deadline, we just put that down to a learning experience, pull ourselves up and have another go or put the idea in the cranial incubator for a while to see if any solution gels there. 

 Sometimes the problems seem insurmountable!

 

During competition time, it feels like a dog eat dog world. The kiln is against you, time is against you, and the family seems to need you more or seems to be more critical of your need to escape to the studio.  Your brain takes a holiday and suddenly you are incapable of doing any of the things you have managed to do at every other time with the computer, the camera, the kiln program...blah, blah, blah.  You feel like the only failure in the world.

Just when you are treading that fine line between total capitulation to failure and glorious victory in completion it’s nice to take time out and get a bit of perspective.

  I love my circle of clay mates! To meet up with them and share our war stories and then laugh like drains is one of the most nurturing experiences.  You see that you want success for all of them because that makes them an even stronger support group.  You feel happy to go out of your way to help out with something, to get them over the hump because happiness and success are contagious.  An interesting study that came out of Framingham Mass. Heart study this week was that the health and happiness of your friend’s friends impacts on your own health.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97848789

So it made my morning to see this on my messages on my phone this morning

<<You May Steal This

 

So I didn't!

 

And look! It wasn't the end of the world.

 

Thanks for the support ! Hope your project is going well too.