Figuratively? For me it’s literally. I don’t like the mess, but haven’t found a way to skip Phase 2 and get right to Phase 3: Having great stuff!
We had a great season. Main Street continues to grow and tourism is growing along with it. I was cleaned out this Spring, so I’ve been ramping up new things in the studio to replenish the shop. We also have more of our long-time students selling their work in the shop, so you get more variety of style and they get to sell their beautiful work.
Along with that, Stafford Springs is becoming known as an arts town, and this couldn’t make me happier. Art in general continues to grow and be reflected in our Main Street businesses. We have new art in and around the shops, beautiful new plantings in the parks, and some really funky & unique new shops. As our old mill buildings get renovated, the business owners have been leaning toward fabulously eclectic and artistic makeovers while still preserving the integrity of the original historic structures. So cool.
I personally have been doing a little more busy work, partly to give my body a break from the physical jungle gym that is a pottery, but also to hang out in the coffee shop each morning to absorb lattes and meet new people in town. Some of you know that I work a second job that predates pottery, and because I love so many genres of art (or because I’m batshit crazy), I don’t ever want to give up anything art-related. So I still love working as a symphony musician at night while running the pottery during the day. Over coffee in the mornings this past season, I’ve been arranging music for my instrument.
As I do this, I’ve been thinking about how similar all art processes are. An initial idea becomes a raging pile of mess and slowly emerges into a final form. I tend to work in washes: I get a general shape and then refine, refine, refine, until I’m absolutely happy with the final result. And then do the next one. I still don’t like the messy part, and in an ideal world, I’d skip it entirely and just have magic instantly flow out of my brain while I suck lattes and do nothing. O’ to do nothing!
Never thought I’d actualize this side project (not to mention the stuff I studied in grad school). You just never know what the future holds.