Girlfriends Pottery Night

I’m so excited to be participating in and conducting a live pottery throwing demonstration a week from today back in my hometown of Van Wert Ohio.

Calvary Evangelical Church “Girlfriends Unlimited” Women’s Ministry is hosting a night of fun and fellowship and the theme for the night is you guessed it POTTERY!  Yea!  So I will be there with my potter’s wheel, showing the ladies the process of making pots and enjoying the opportunity to share my passion with everyone.

I feel so blessed to have been invited!

If you live in the are and want to participate I’d love to see you there!

Just call the church for details.

Why Dirty Girl???

My Mom called the other day to get the address to my etsy store so some of her friends could look at my pottery.  I asked her if she had a pen and then proceeded to give her the address.  There was a long pause and then she said in an embarassed and a little uncomfortable tone “Why on earth did you pick THAT name???” You know that tone that our mother’s tend to use when they disapprove and yearn for something a bit more wholesome….lol!

And it reminded me of so much of why I did pick that name…..why it was really the perfect and most natural fit for who I am, what I do, how I live my life, embrace my creativity and the open spaces I have in my mind and heart for just a little bit of irreverence and a whole lot of fun!

I’m here, I believe we are all here, to live out loud, to move through the world in our own uniqe way.  I’m not afraid of getting dirty along the way.  Well, I used to be.  But then I lived a little and learned that life in general and especially life guided by inspiration and passion don’t stay nice and neat, clean and inside the lines.  It’s a messy world out there and if you don’t want to get your hands dirty you probably aren’t going to be doing much, well, anything of much consequence anyway…..

Why not just color inside the lines, follow the rules, listen to the “experts”, plan, plan, save, worry, invest in other people’s opinions of us (good or bad;), move through life in a little bubble, have a narrow focus, take care of you and your’s?  Cause we aren’t here to survive….we are here to THRIVE.  To make a difference, to change the world, to be the light, to realize and help other’s realize their God quality, to know that this encarnation was purposeful, that we moved the human race forward in our evolution…..transformation is the name of this game, and it’s a messy and beautiful one my friends!

Art imitates life.

Pottery and all my creative endevors have shone a light on, made visceral and given me a metaphore for the process of living, of healing, of transforming my own life and having the courageous and audacious notion that my life’s purpouse is to walk beside, get dirty with, and love othe’rs through the transformation and healing of their own lives.

So, that is why I named my pottery business “Dirty Girl” and that is why it is much more that making pots, selling them on etsy and having a hobby I enjoy and that fills me up.  Pottery and creativity in general have been the gateway to inspiration in my life, and inspiration is the very breath of God breathing through you.  It’s not a frilly thing..IT’S WHY WE ARE HERE…to be taken over with awe, to raise our vibrations, to come into alingment with source and to transform the world through our inspired action.

What inspires you?  What inside of you is dying to come out a play…the kingdom of heaven is inside you…you aren’t fallen, it isn’t something to wait for…you are emergent, the time is now  Let it out!  The world is waiting.

Some New Pots

It’s my favorite kind of day.  I woke up with the sun shining in my window, looked out to see the trees in all of their fall glory, had a cup of coffee and opened my kiln.  I’m still learning about glazes and trying out new mixtures so everytime I open the lid after a firing I’m so excited and delighted to see what new surprises are waiting for me.

Today I fell in love with three new pots and I wanted to share them with you.  Enjoy!

The Perfect Fall Weekend

Fall is my very favorite season!  There is nothing like the cool crisp air, the landscape coming alive with vibrant shades of yellow, orange and red leaves, the smell of a bonfire and roasting marshmellows over the open flames, apple cider, roast pork, fall veggies, friends and family together, the reminder of harvest and the bounty of the land and how it provides for us….it’s all just so very magical!

I just spent the weekend surrounded by all of that and a road trip with my dear friend, Amy, to Brown County where we shopped, ate some amazing fried chicken, drove around the countryside,  and took pictures of the fall leaves, covered bridges and animals we met along the way.

We also took part in the “Back Roads of Brown County 8th Annual Driving Tour of Artists’ and Craftsman’s Studios” This was one of the highlights of the weekend for me as I was able to meet and talk with three amazing potters, see their studio’s and purchase some beautiful pottery!

The drive was beautiful

We visited 3 potteries.  Oak Grove Pottery, Schatz Studio and Gallery and my favorite of all Spears Gallery.   I fell head over heels in love with Larry’s pots!  The textures and colors he creates through the glaze spoke to me and I was in seventh heaven as he talked about his pots, showed me some of his techniques and gave me some pointers on how to achieve similar results.  In our discussion we discovered we ordered clay from the same company and he shared with me the name and number of a distributer who would could help me save money and cut my shipping costs on clay in half! I bought a tumbler from him and would have loved to purchase even more!

I love to meet other artists….to hear their stories…to be inspired by and encourage by their work and their success.  Everyone I met was so very friendly and open and I’m so very very grateful to have had the opportunity to peek into their creative spaces and hear about their process.

With all this inspiration I’m headed off to the wheel to get my hands dirty!  I have pots ready to be glazed, some ready for firing and a whole lot of ideas for new pots!

Sending you love and laughter from my little corner of the world!

Happy Mistakes

Last week I was glazing a kiln full of pots and I was using a new glaze.  I had the idea that this glaze was going to be just fantastic, so I picked my favorite piece to put it on. As I was painting on the usual 3 coats that this particular manufacturer had recommended I noticed that it was starting to crack and flake.  As it dried the cracks got larger and larger and my heart sank cause I just knew the glaze would flake off and leave ugly uneven spots on the pot.  I was so disappointed  because not only did I use the entire sample but my pretty bowl was going to turn out ugly.  UGH!

Fast forward to the next day when I opened my kiln and to my surprise that bowl was the prettiest piece to come out of the kiln. (In my opinion anyway;)  The glaze had indeed flaked off in the firing and left this organic and natural resist pattern that I found so very pleasing.  Jason came home and insisted that I not put in on my etsy store to sell…HE wanted it for himself!

It now sits in out kitchen on display.  It’s my favorite bowl.  What a happy mistake!  And it got me thinking about all the ways I try to do it right, make it perfect, have it all figured out ahead of time.  Mistakes, apparent failures, things that go wrong along the way….can so many times turn out to be more beautiful than originally intended.  That piece is unique and one of a kind, something that even if I tried I could not duplicate.

That’s what I love so much about the creative process.  It puts me in touch with the rhythm of creation, with the source of all that is, with that divine energy that is so mysterious yet so perfect and that flows through each and every one of us.  We never know what will come, we just follow our bliss and allow the unfolding.  We live and actively show up for the ride that is our life.  Along the way there are cracks and flakes, wrong turns and apparent mistakes…things that we like to label as failure.  But maybe…just maybe there is a priceless piece of treasured art being created that after the fire will be revealed as such.  Get your hands dirty…..do it wrong…..I DARE YOU!

*~*Here is to happy mistakes and letting go of the fear of failure!*~*

Today I Stood at the Top of a Mountain and Cried

I did.  It’s true.

Jason and I were driving this little dirt road in the Rocky Mountain National Park that took us to a peak at 11,796 ft high.  There was another road we could have taken, the Trail Ridge Road…however we opted for the slightly more exciting dirt road that is only open from July 4th to mid September.

It was a harrowing drive at points, narrow, sometimes loose gravel, hairpin turns, steep drop offs on both sides of the road and no guardrails of course.  There were gorgeous views of mountains, a waterfall and rock formations that took my breath away.  So many times I stood there in awe with my mouth wide open I’m sure…just staring at it all.

And then we turned around a bend and there it was.  The most beautiful sight I have ever seen in my entire life.  I couldn’t describe it even if I tried.  It was one of those things that is truly ineffable.  I sat down on a boulder and just cried.  I cried those silent hot tears of awe, wonder, joy, humility, sacredness and connection with source. (I’m crying typing this the memory is so powerful)  It was one of those spots on earth where the veil between the worlds is thin, where I could feel the presence of god, the connection with the cosmos and every living thing…where I ceased to exist and became the mountain…became the melting snow that formed the very first drops cascading down the high summit that would eventually form a roaring stream.  I WAS the stream.

And then I prayed.  The prayer of a joyful radiant  goddess standing on the top of a mountain with her hair blowing in the breeze, her feet planted on rocks millions of years old, her soul at perfect peace.  I prayed the prayer of thanksgiving, of transformation, of the change and seasons….I prayed peace.  I prayed love.  I prayed joy and delight.

It was an amazing day!

My Beloved and My Friend

“This is my beloved and this is my friend.”

~Song of Solomon~

12 years ago today I married my best friend and lover Jason Andrew Anspach.

If you don’t know him let me tell you a little about him.

He is strong and wise and brave.  Kind and fair, loving and sensitive.  He is the smartest person I have ever met and he delights me with his intelligent and perceptive take on every subject from politics, art and spirituality to sports, business and the latest results from consumer reports;)  One of my favorite things to do with Jason is linger over a long meal and talk for hours at a time.  He is interesting and funny, open minded and an excellent communicator.  He stretches me and I love seeing the world through his eyes.

Jason is one of those people who never says a unkind word about anyone.  He is genuine, there isn’t an untrue or false thing about him.  He works hard, never complains and lives his life with an uncommon grace that everyone who meets him recognizes.  He loves cars, wine, great food, music and  experiencing all the best the world has to offer.  He is a dreamer who believes with all his heart that all of his dreams will come true, and they always do (there WILL be a Bentley in our garage one day;).  He moves through this world with a steady positive and simple pace that I have always admired and envied.

I found this quote today:

” Find a guys who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to you heart beat or will stay awake just to watch you sleep…wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you are just as pretty without make-up on.  One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you.  The one who turns to his friends and says ‘that’s her’. “

I found that guy….and I married him!

I can’t say that the past 12 years have been straight out of a fairy tale.  Anyone who has been married more than a month knows that sustaining a healthy marriage is hard work.  And we have had our share of working hard to honor, love and cherish one another……and we haven’t always succeeded, it hasn’t always been pretty or uncomplicated.  But the one thing that has never been hard is loving him. The love I have for Jason is the most natural and easy thing that I have ever experienced in my life, and the most true thing I have ever known.  And after 12 years of practice we are getting better and better at honoring each other and learning how to live in an equal and mutually beneficial marriage.

So today I celebrate our love, our friendship, the life we are creating together.    Thank you Jason for loving me, for standing by me through the laughter and the tears, the dreams realized and the dreams shattered and every mundane moment in between.  When we are old and gray I know we will  be sitting on the beach, hand in hand, laughing about what a great ride this life has been!

Rock & Roll Inspiration

I’ve been feeling a little uninspired today.  Usually I can run to my studio and throw some pots or turn on an inspiring video to get me feeling good again, or even take a walk outside on our beautiful 10 acre property, but the Direct TV guy is here and has been here for 2 hours already, my pottery studio is torn up because of a remodeling project I’ll post about soon, and it’s hot and humid and raining outside.  Blah!

So I went through my saved favorites on YouTube and there they were…..my favorite band of all time, LIVE.  I have been following this band ever since their very first cd.  Every Live song has a memory for me and I’ve been blessed to see them in concert many times.  Their energy and passion is one of a kind and they always inspire and thrill me.

Their sound is pure post-grunge rock, hard and driving, dynamic and original.  The lyric deep and joyful, always meaningful and most often deeply spiritual.  When I see the lead singer Ed Kowalczyk  perform I always get the sense that there is nothing else in the entire world he would rather be doing than performing.  I find a kindred spirit in him, in that he wants to make music that means something.  Music that transforms lives, prompts new ways of thinking and ultimately changes things. Oh!  And he is a fellow mystic…gotta love that in a rock star.

So I thought I’d share some LIVE love with you!

I hope you enjoy….and listen to the lyrics, you will be inspired, I’m sure

Here is Ed talking about the creative process of songwriting

Live at the Paradiso singing “They Stood Up For Love”

Their newest release “Forever”

“I Wanna Dance With You”

Aren’t they AMAZING!!!

I’ll be back in a few days with some before and after pics of my new studio and then hopefully I can post about some pottery…since this IS a pottery blog after all…lol!

Peace!

Spiritual Adventure in Time & Space

Merce Cunningham, one of the 20th centuries most influential artists, transitioned this past week.  He was 90 years old.

Merce  liked to say that dance was a “spiritual adventure in time and space” for a dancer.  He also said that “Movement, any kind of movement is dance”

He was not unlike so many of the artists who inform my view of art and creativity.  He attended the now legendary Black  Mountain College, a breeding ground for the avant garde  American artist, most who went on to shape the 20th century modern art movement.

What I find so fascinating is that while so many of them went on to be considered legendary in their respective arts, they all shared very non-elitist views of creativity and art making.  M.C Richards, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, , Rudolf Steiner…they all had very transcendent views of art.  Ambiguity and poetry informed their work.  Simple community, lack of competition, the idea that every act was educational, were the themes of their lives and their school.  Everything they did, they saw as an act of  creativity.  There was no wrong answer and no room for false movement.

It was their relationship of the creative life to all life that has drawn me into their work.  They would focus on bringing the creative process into what are often times considered “non art” activities….they would have festivities in a moment’s notice, carry with them a feeling of always creating something, of everyday adventures.  They believed in living out loud in front of others so the world would wake up and see that the smallest things in life can be a celebration.

That is how I choose to honor Merce, to continue to live my own life with that kind of imagination and authenticity, and to encourage others to do the same.  We are ALL artists, constantly creating.  No matter what our medium..even if we don’t have a definable medium…it’s the way in which we author our lives that is so important.  Art is not to dazzle others as M.C. Richards, a contemporary and friend of Merce, once said. “It is to reveal the secrets of our hearts so that others seeing that witness, will have the courage to reveal the secrets of their own hearts.”

May we all have that courage as we go about our daily lives!  I’m up for the spiritual adventure in time and space…how about you?

Bounti~Full~

“Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you”

~Mahatma Gandhi

It rained last night.  One of those really great thunderstorms with fat happy raindrops and thrilling lightening that illuminates the sky.  This morning with the rain still fresh on the grass, I walked out to my garden and squealed with delight at the sight of all t he veggies that were ready for harvest. I ran inside, grabbed one of my bowls and promptly filled it with goodness that I used in this evening’s dinner.

As we sat and ate dinner (pasta and veggies in a white wine and lemon butter sauce) I felt so full of gratitude.  There have been some rough times over the last few years: 3 months after I opened a 6,300 sq ft spa I realized I was under-capitalized and overextended and my husband lost his job, 3 years after that losing my home to foreclosure and literally not knowing where we were going to live or how we were going to eat, then a month ago getting laid off from my manufacturing  job just as we had re-built and recovered fully from the craziness of the preceding years.  Gratefully, we have saved and this latest twist has been easy and has turned into an unexpected opportunity to dive more fully into my pottery and look at where I want to go next without financial pressure.

But it got me thinking.  Every step along the way there was ALWAYS enough, and many times more than enough, I just didn’t necessarily see it or know it.  I know now, cause I have lived it, that the universe IS endlessly bountiful.  My cup…or rather my bowl runneth over.  And just like the inner form of the bowl, wide and open, ready to receive, I now live my life in anticipation of all the abundance the universe is ready to pour into my life, all I have to do is ask!