Lines …
Here I am, working away at underglazing these pieces and giving myself heck for painting outside the lines. Now, you should understand, these are lines that I drew on the piece myself — not lines printed in a book, or handed down from on high. They’re actually little pencil drawn lines. While I was in the midst of haranguing myself it suddenly hit me. This is what we do all the time to ourselves! We draw our own lines (sometimes not just in pencil) about who and what we are, how we should react to things, what we should remember and how we remember it, and then we take those same lines and draw them around other people as well — and even though the lines aren’t real in any sense of the word, we behave as though they are etched in stone.
Geez, eh? This is what happens when I’m working away, concentrating very hard. You should see what happens to my pea like brain when I am throwing clay — it goes round and round like this world we live in — especially when the clay doesn’t respond the way I think it should, or even more crazy when it does fantastic things without much input from me!
So, you want to know what kind of work I do? It’s not real work in the sense of digging ditches or loading dishes … it’s the process of unravelling what’s trapped in this psyche of mine through some kind of concentration and artistic expression. I’m sure there’s lots of other ways digging into this depth experience but if you have the opportunity to get skillful at some kind of artistic expression I think it’s the least painful way of doing it.
Anyway, that’s my two cents for today. If I go any deeper with this the pot won’t get done! Heading out to the Old Church Theatre tonight to hear some celtic mustic. There’s going to be bagpipes!
Hope you’re having a great day …
Susan McD
