My mind has been heavy and I realised a month or so ago that this was because I am not making anything. I am not creating. I make gaiters and design patterns; and we are looking designs for sports clothes and day wear. But this doesn't quite make my creative bits twitch. My fingers have been twitching to get stuck into some ceramic work – but so far zilch has happened. Why? Probably because I have been tied up with other stuff. And probably because I needed to get my confidence back, my fingers in the clay and to ‘just do it’! It has been about 5 years after all….
So….last weekend I went to a ceramic workshop at the Pretoria Tech, given by ceramicist Cathy Brennon – whom I had met the previous weekend in Underberg . She lives and works there; she has a studio and gallery and makes amazing things. She mentioned the workshop to me and on my return to Johannesburg I signed up.
The workshop was really beneficial from the point that I re-learnt some things I had forgotten and learnt some really nice new things. Cathy is a great teacher and she explains her techniques well and is not shy about passing on and sharing some of her trade secrets – which is great! A really interesting part was listening to the questions from the other students (who were quite a formidable bunch of potters) and hearing the answers – either from Cathy or others in the group. But the really interesting and most beneficial thing was listening to Cathy talking about her experiences. She took a huge leap about 8 years ago to become a full time artist ie. gave up the day job. (And her husband Lawrence chucked in his day job at the same time and became a full time professional photographer – specializing in landscapes, mountains etc!) I think I should have said gi-normous leap!
Back to Cathy – In addition to talking about the journey to become a full time artist, and the journey since that decision, Cathy spoke about following your dream and doing what, deep down, makes you happy. She doesn't make it sound like a Hollywood movie – she tells quite a ‘sober’ story which makes her tale all that more inspiring – she is realistic about the difficulties of being a full time artist; and realistic about her successes (which are many). Most importantly, she really knows her stuff – she went back to university, she has attended many workshops and set about learning as much as possible – and she is still learning. I believe we all walked away with a lot more than we went in with. And she hands out really good advice which in itself is motivating.
Her words though, that stay with me relates to learning: Keep learning new things, perfect techniques, keep trying, practice, practice – and still you are going to have some dismal failures. Learn from them and keep trying. Improve your knowledge base all the time – how you do things, why you do them. Do the things you want to do; try new things; don’t work at the same old thing. Don’t work in isolation: you learn from others – mix with people who you can learn from. Get inspired and motivated from others.
But the most important thing Cathy said that really stuck was: 'Don’t make yourself unteachable.' And how easy is this to do? Well, we all kinda think we know ‘it’. We often feel a bit embarrassed about showing that we don’t actually know something, or are fearful that our ignorance will be seen by others; or worse still - go to a class and pretend we know ‘it’ all, making it very difficult to be taught. Sometimes our laziness or dare I say it, our arrogance precludes us from learning.
‘Don’t make yourself unteachable’ reminded me of an article I read about the selection process for the Bolshoi Ballet. A selector said (and I paraphrase) ‘we don’t always select the best dancers; we select the ones who can be taught.’
So get out there, learn, create and have a great deal of fun! And me? Yes, well: the little studio is cleaned, I have 2 bags of fresh clay and I have been practicing techniques learnt at Cathy’s workshop. Some of the things are going in the bin but I do have a couple of pieces worth saving! At the mo I have ideas popping into my head all the time...I am trying to write them in my little black book before they disappear! What a lovely feeling.
Its good to be back and I am having a lot of fun and enjoying the creative process – tremendously!
I have attached an article about Cathy which will appear in the Garden & Home on 12 may. Her Dream Boxes are fabulous – everyone should have one. They are beautiful.
