CLAY
The many stepped processes of hand-gathering and hand-processing clay — traveling to the site; the intentionality and prayer to Mother Earth; the physicality of digging, carrying, stirring, washing, straining, wedging; the patience required for the process to complete — all of this before the creating even begins — each is a step towards deepening in relationship and offers valuable insights to the way things operate in the world and my place in it.
When the firing process is also held in a prayerful way, the act of offering the earth back to herself in the name of "new life" preserves the sacred connection through to each work's completion.
An excitement builds as I prepare to visit the site to gather materials. Mother Earth! Abundant. Beautiful. Hearty. Fragile. Resilient. Precious. And so very, very generous. With prayers for thanksgiving and appreciation for the gift of my hands able to work intimately with Her, She relaxes with ease. I smile. My heart opens. In Her vastness I become so small. Bringing the earth with bare hands into buckets too heavy for me to carry alone, I am humbled by Her gracious invitation to deepen and expand in my knowing. Offering prayers again on departure, we move forward in the patient process of making the materials ready to work with. Each time I visit the site I revel in my expanding understanding of both Mother Nature and myself. I cherish the gift of this blessing.
Working with materials from the natural environment requires a deep commitment between Mother Earth herself and the personal self. With this commitment comes responsibility. The labor of gathering materials — the knowing where and what to look for, the how to take and how to thank, the patience of cleaning and processing, the ability to deeply listen, and the journey of creating a new form — this alchemy — it all requires harmonious, open, committed engagement. There is the listening to, the learning from, the letting go of, and the going along with. Once perfected there comes to be a resonance, a rhythm, a brilliance. There comes to be a Knowing. An intimate sharing between artist and material emerges.
A piece is not completed until it survives the fire. Anticipation builds as wood is chopped, the pit is prepared, and the pieces are offered.
We gift our power, our prayers and our patience. It is no simple task to balance force with gentleness, strength with ease.
It's hot. I mean really hot. Hotter than any hot I have known. As the pieces burn, the pieces change. And as the pieces change, I change. And even after the firing, the pieces continue to change and work on me.
Living, breathing pieces of earth, molded by hands, to be returned back through the fire to re-emerge as separate and completed form — a sacred birth.
To the earth, the water, the fire, the air and the space — may you move through me and with me with ease so I may move through you and with you easily .... I close my eyes, I open my heart, I busy my hands and I listen...and I learn…
