Hello 2009

The Circle of Eight crew said goodbye to 2008 by making pots until about 10:30 in downtown Charlotte. On my ride home I thought about how as a potter, we all did what potters do most of the time, we braved the elements, pulled out our creative voices, laughed about the absurdity of it all, got the job done and went home to take care of our tired bodies. Pretty much doing a demo in the cold summed up all the hard work I encountered myself in 2008. Once again anther pile that I straightened out in my head.

Joey and I have had four days together with the children before we all start back in our normal routines for 2009. We have worked together on deep cleaning and organizing the house, which feels great. Had several family movie nights and friends who have come by for some laughter and play dates. The kids have had a great vacation and I've had time to get my head a bit settled for a start fresh.

So to sum up 2008 for myself professionally. These are things I can give myself a pat on the back for. Baby steps in the competitive world of clay in my eyes, but yet accomplishments for me that I can be proud of.

-Getting into Strictly Functional in 2008

-Getting my an image of my work in both CM and Claytimes

- Doing more shows this year than ever before. ( My body still is not sure if that is a good thing or not.)

-Teaching an Art History Class

-Being accepted into a International show

and Finally getting accepted in the ACC for next year.

*Personally......

- I put my family first and not my career this year. I tried to have a good balance with everything.

-Joey and I had a good year of working together as a team to keep our little crew on course. This has been 9 years in the making for us. When you get married late in life, its hard for two independent people to work as one. At least for us and its always a work in progress..but a good one.

-The kids have had a successful year in school...all three have escaped my learning issues, which makes me so happy and proud.



For 2009
- I'm going to take better care of myself health wise. I'm starting to feel the effects of what I do and I need to exercise more, eat right and rest more.
- Work on Content and Quality..not Quantity in my work.
- Figure out what to do with my salt kiln ( more on that to come..that is a HUGE pile in my head.... more like a basement than just a door I've shoved thoughts into!)
- Work on just having pieces for my wholesale accounts and pieces for juried shows and sale shows.
- Get back to having a set price list and narrow down the amount of pieces I make.



Finally, the best thing to clear my head, work through thoughts and purge my head of "stuff" is music. Joey made me all sorts of new CD's for my studio and digging up old tunes is one of the best things. Here is Steven Forbert singing "Romeo's Tune".
This song is a little quirky, but it puts a smile on my face.

http://www.downtowntv.com/downtown-live/2007/7/10/episode-24-steve-forbert-romeos-tune.html