Not a thing.
Life is too damn short and, in my opinion, you only get one shot to do everything you can imagine.
Luckily, for we happy people who are called to make Art, everything we make or take on is an endeavor to express our unique position as artists and conduits of culture. Our ability to see beyond what already exists into the realm of "what could be" is our gift (or curse?) and the more avenues of expression we have, the more opportunities we have available to say what we need to say.
The past year for me has been... interesting, to say the least. I've been rediscovering my love of clay art, and it is reshaping my idea about what it means for me to be an artist in this life. Additionally, my serious foray into songwriting has opened up even more possibilities... I feel as if I'm in the most creative period of my life.
I did two shows this year, returning to ConGlomeration-- but as a potter; and was juried into a quirky local show called the Market of Curiosities. In addition to that, a local shop in York, PA, "Black Sheep Everything", has taken my pottery in on consignment and is selling the work. The reception I've received for it has been phenomenal and sales have been very good.
In learning more about search engine optimization, I changed the pottery site's name, rebranded it "Kest Pottery Studio" and finally bought a real domain name; you can take a look at it here:
www.kestpottery.com
Additionally, I'm exploring some older ideas that I'd generated when I was in my 20s: wall sculptures. I like to call them gargoyles because they remind me of the odd and amusing faces seen on cathedrals. In the past I'd sculpted them in clay that was only oven-dried, but it's more satisfying to fire them to a more permanent hardness. The storytelling aspect of the pieces is something I'd like to push further. Juxtapositions are interesting too:
What is in store over the next year? We shall see. I already have a bunch of ideas to move beyond what I'm currently doing, with ambitions to combine my interest in 2-D storytelling with the clay art.
Life is too damn short and, in my opinion, you only get one shot to do everything you can imagine.
Luckily, for we happy people who are called to make Art, everything we make or take on is an endeavor to express our unique position as artists and conduits of culture. Our ability to see beyond what already exists into the realm of "what could be" is our gift (or curse?) and the more avenues of expression we have, the more opportunities we have available to say what we need to say.
The past year for me has been... interesting, to say the least. I've been rediscovering my love of clay art, and it is reshaping my idea about what it means for me to be an artist in this life. Additionally, my serious foray into songwriting has opened up even more possibilities... I feel as if I'm in the most creative period of my life.
I did two shows this year, returning to ConGlomeration-- but as a potter; and was juried into a quirky local show called the Market of Curiosities. In addition to that, a local shop in York, PA, "Black Sheep Everything", has taken my pottery in on consignment and is selling the work. The reception I've received for it has been phenomenal and sales have been very good.
In learning more about search engine optimization, I changed the pottery site's name, rebranded it "Kest Pottery Studio" and finally bought a real domain name; you can take a look at it here:
www.kestpottery.com
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| Monsterpots! |
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| Grumpy Gus and the noisy Crow |
Generating new ideas to be able to sustain your art practice is the holy grail of being an artist. Older ideas carry over and are folded into the new; new materials can be a fresh way to explore older ideas and can generate entirely new work. I can't wait to see what comes of this in 2018!
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Please feel free to kvell, or kvetch~ I'd appreciate having a conversation with you.