A Day In The Park

This past Saturday, March 27, 2010 to be exact, I was a participating artist at the 2nd annual Arts in the Park at the Carrollwood Cultural Center. I don't usually do outdoor shows, festivals, or fairs so this was a real treat for me. It's a lot of work packing and unpacking and setting up and I have a real sense of admiration for those artists that make the curcuit doing art festivals one weekend after the next during the spring and summer months. It was great to get out there with my cats, fish and butterflies and get feedback from the passers by and customers. I also got to catch up with some old friends. We really got lucky with the weather on Saturday, it could not have been a more beautiful spring day. We were oh so lucky that the event was on Saturday, because as nice as the weather was on Saturday that's how crumby the weather was on Sunday. Now it's back to work in the studio to replenish stock.

Recharging

Sometimes I get to feeling like I'm stuck in a rut. Happily that doesn't happen to me very often. During my latest rut I was lucky enough to have some activities that made me get myself cleaned up and out of the studio.

The art group that I belong to just finished installing a group show at Ruth Eckerd Hall. It's so much fun to get with my art buddies and see what everyone's been up to. This is a big show for our group. For more info on the show head over to our group's blog:

http://www.westchaseartists.blogspot.com/

Yesterday's outing was to get back into the routine of volunteer work at the Tampa Museum of Art. The Museum was closed for reconstruction and the brand new Tampa Museum of Art has reopened. I must say that it is wonderful. The special exhibition is A Celebration of Henri Matisse. I led a tour yesterday and had a blast.

Visit the museum's website:

http://www.tampamuseum.org/

After a busy holiday season it's hard to keep the EverReady Bunny going. Major lesson learned here is that in order to be energized sometimes we have to step out of the rut and into something new and different to recharge our batteries.

Putting Things Into Perspective

When things go wrong, I get upset for one reason or another, and at that very moment it seems like the absolute worst thing that could ever happen, I'm reminded that it can always be worse. In my own life, having survived Hurricane Andrew, I know first hand what it's like to have your house destroyed by wind and rain - but we rebuilt, we had insurance and we had a place to evacuate to after the storm passed. Sure we lost a lot of our possessions, but it tought us an important lesson - it's just stuff. Everything was OK. Even when you think it's the worst that it can possibly be, it can always be worse.

Well, for the folks that live in Haiti it's about as bad as it can get and a lot of people are realizing that as residents of this planet we need to come together to try to help. There's been a group on Etsy.com that has started up a shop called Hearts for Haiti. Members of the Etsy selling community are donating items for sale. The shop has raised a tremendous amount of money in a very short period of time. As of the writing of this post the shop has sold 1,660 items. There's a lot to choose from and new items are being listing daily. It's a great way for those of us in the Etsy community to make a small difference, that collectively has the potential to make a big difference.

http://www.facebook.com/heartsforhaiti

http://etsyforhaiti.blogspot.comhttp://

http://www.etsy.com/shop/heartsforhaiti

It Breaks My Heart

The process of working in clay and making your way through the various stages of development can be so tricky. Things go wrong. This is one peice that broke my heart. There's a pair of sunglasses adorning the fish. The arm of the sunglasses broke. I tried to repair it and in the firing the two pieces stayed together, just slipped ever so slightly to make a definite crack. The crack is covered with glaze, but the underlying crack is visible. Now, I don't like to sell flawed pieces, but I love this teapot so much and don't have the heart to smash her for the mosaic makers. So, I'm doing something that I don't normally do, I'm selling her as a "factory second." A lot of people wouldn't notice the flaw, but I know that it's there and that's all that matters in my book.

As it gets closer and closer to Christmas and the end of 2009, I start to reflect on how I spent my time. It seems like I have been making Christmas ornaments all year long!

One of the best things to come out of this year is making new friends and getting to know older friends and acquaintances better. There have been ups and downs and back ups again. And I truly believe that the downs help us appreciate the ups. All the while, I've been so lucky to be able to live my dream life: creating things with my hands. As I sit drinking my morning decaf out of my handmade mug, that I made, I want to wish all who might read this blog a happy holiday season, health and good friends and family and peace.

Judy B. Freeman

Potter

That's Clever!

Well, my heartrate is back to normal, the anticipation of nearly 3 years is finished, all that's left are the hoards of fans and paparazi that will be chasing me for autographs and interviews. My segment on HGTV's That's Clever aired this morning. What took six hours to film, clipped down to a little over six minutes. Thankfully the editors took out my flubs, and oh there were a lot of flubs. My husband reminded me that I haven't made a cat bank since the filming. I also don't think that I have ever seen my garagio look so clean and neat, nor do I think I ever will see it look so clean and neat. It's fun to be able to share a look into how I spend my time.

The cat that the bank is based on is Jazmin, a petite calico that we once had, or should I say, she had us. I still love making cats, and as you can see from the background shots, I was big into butterflies and fish teapots back then too. I've inserted a link to a video that I took of the show, just in case you missed it.

So, for my friends and family that encouraged me, and asked every so often, "so what's up with your show?" I can now finally say, the show did go on!!!

HGTV That's Clever!

I have an air date! I can't believe it, but they didn't lose the tape, or whatever they use these days to film TV shows. Anyway, set your DVR's for HGTV at 7:30 am e/p on October 13, 2009. It's going to be fun to see how they transform 6 hours of grueling work into 6 minutes of air time. Also, anxious to see how they were able to make me sound coherent. Oh dear, I hope they were able to make me sound coherent.