little fame rush

I'm having a little fame rush right now. I was recently interviewed in front of an audience by Ben Carter for his Tales of a Red Clay Rambler podcast, and it was posted yesterday. You can listen to it right here. The conversation centers around writing on a blog, using social media as an artist, burnout, and what it means to share your world with customers and fans. I get a little tongue-tied sometimes, that's why I like writing so much.  I listened to myself talk and I only winced a couple of times. I'm like most people-- I hate the sound of my recorded voice, but somehow the voice I heard didn't sound like my voice so I was okay with it. I have a moratorium on self-hate right now and listening to yourself talk for an hour without wanting to punch your own self in the face is a pretty good test.

Listening to the interview I had a few moments of wishing I had elaborated on a few things or shared some more thoughts. It was like listening to an interview where you are thinking, "Ask this question! What about that, ask about that!" Only I was thinking, "Answer this! Why didn't you talk about that?!"

I'm going to listen to the interview again and take some notes on things that I want to elaborate on, and I will write a post about it, or maybe a few if I need to.  If you listened to the interview and you have some follow-up questions or something you want me to talk more about, please feel free to post here or send me an email. I said in the interview, and I will say it again here, that part of my mission is to share as much information as possible about running a pottery business, making a living as an artist, and all the challenges that go with that. I want to be a resource of support and information, so send me your questions or share your thoughts.

a tiny slice of life

I'm interrupting my series of articles on running an art-based business for a little shameless self-promotion. Regina Connell writes a blog called "A Handful of Salt" and she came to my studio a couple of weeks ago to write a profile on me. I'm usually a little leery of in-person interviews because I always feel the way I'm portrayed has little to do with who I actually am. But I'm such an attention whore that I never say "no" to interviews, and I thought Regina did a wonderful job in capturing a version of me that I actually identify with. And she took interesting pictures of my dusty, dusty pots. Though I forgot to tell her she should only publish pictures of me that make me look totally hot. Oh, well. I have to admit it looks just like me.

I'm working on my last article right now, so stay tuned, it will be up in the next few days!

artists who blog

Stephanie Levy, a fantastic artist and fellow blogger, publishes a blog called... Artists Who Blog. She published an interview with me a couple of days ago, check it out right here!

more shameless self-promotion

Don't worry, I'm working up a good, thoughtful blog post. I don't forget about my blog even when I'm totally buried. For the moment, you will have to be satisfied with some self-promotion. An magazine profile, a cute little online interview where I get to babble about food, and a reminder to some to my open studio this weekend!

another round of shameless self-promotion

First, sfgirlbybay did a nice little post on me.

I'm having an open studio this weekend at my place.

And my friend, designer Carol Young, put some of my pots in a photo shoot:


...which is just kinda cool!

remain open

Suddenly, my mood has lifted and I am feeling hopeful again. Don't worry, it's temporary. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the very cool weather we've been having in the Bay Area the past few weeks has suddenly shifted back to spring, where it belongs! And by cool weather I mean in the high 50's and low 60's, which being the spoiled Californian I am proud to be means downright chilly. I had a good Thursday this week, mostly by accepting every thing I had to do, doing it with with focus and enjoyment, and not hoping for more:
--glazing --loading a kiln --packing orders for stores and individuals --uploading images to esty
--answering email --trimming plates and bowls --popping bird and flower molds--

And then finally, in the last two hours of the day, playing with my porcelain and continuing to experiment with some ideas. And even then I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't making something for the Met, I was making something for myself and just enjoy the process, don't worry about the end result. And then I did.

I was answering questions for a small magazine yesterday and I thought I'd share with you one answer since it is so appropriate to the subject:

Where do you look for design inspiration?
Looking for inspiration never works for me, unfortunately. I have to remain open to inspiration wherever it may come to me, whether that is going to the contemporary art galleries, doing the dishes, or eating dinner with my friends and realizing I need a better salad bowl than the one I’m eating out of!

Notice I didn't say, "I schedule the perfect day for myself and sit at my wheel all day and ideas just flows from me". I decided I will never again set up the "perfect" day for "making new work" again. It's just such a set-up for disappointment, and as someone commented, the Muse does not take to being scheduled, she shows up when she damn well pleases. And that folks, is all I have to say about that!

more shameless self-promotion

Check me out on Etsy, I'm the featured seller and they wrote up a little interview too!

no such thing as bad publicity

I got some good press from California Home + Design, a nice glossy regional magazine. Of course I was totally horrified by the picture they used of me and asked the same question I always ask when photos of me are published, "Why do they have to pick a picture of me that looks so bad?" I'm really vain so I always want to look fabulous in pictures, but unfortunately I'm not all that photogenic. I'm so happy when I see a decent picture of myself. By the way, I'm not writing any of this to fish for compliments, I know the picture could have been a lot worse. An article was written about me in the San Francisco Chronicle a couple of years back and the picture they used of me was so bad and I looked about 20 pounds heavier than I was. And it wasn't me being paranoid about looking fat, because right after the picture was published I had a show and bunches of people looked at the article and looked at me and said, "Wow, you've really lost some weight!" Christa loves this picture, she said I looked really tough and like I was about to punch somebody. In our world, that's kind of cool. And the weird thing was, there was an article on the last page of the magazine about Beatrice Wood. I've never paid any attention to Beatrice Wood until I read her autobiography I Shock Myself earlier this year and realized how much we have in common. That was a neat little connection. Click on the picture if you want to read the article.