LindaCowardPottery

New and Exciting Times for Brookside Pottery

2011-12-25T00:34:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it! Brookside Pottery has moved downtown to the Atlas Building in Tulsa.

I still have the location in Brookside but it has become as it started, the studio for kilns, clay, tools and larger classes during the fair weather months.

Change has happened again. And this is a fine change. My space is lovely and located on Boston between 4th and 5th street on the first floor of the historical Atlaas Building in the Deco district of downtown. I love it.

The front area includes a gallery of my pots and a few chosen friends paintings and sculptures. The back are is a production studio area. I will also tutor and teach very small numbers of people.

My minimum hours are Mon-Fri from 10:30-2;30 and Most Saturdays. Closed Sundays. These hours are still in transition and I find myself working until about 7-8 every evening so far as I watch the traffic flow.

This is wonderful. I love the building and I love being there. It is a new day!

A Feather kind of day.

2011-08-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a day will choose a theme for itself and if you listen for the clues when this is happening it is wonderful. We have a new hummingbird feeder out our window after seeing the little guys buzzing around a yard. it was no time until they discovered it. We have been watching an array of birds feeding on the suet every day and night out our dining room window. That is all fantastic and predictable. Offer it and they will come.

But today there is more. After long nights of playing hard and long days of working hard, I find myself soaking in my hot tub nearly every morning and sometimes every night as well. It is a way to meditate, decompress and be ready for what the new day might offer. To take time to hear the birds every morning and watch them find their food, play in the pond and watch us from the electrical lines is a pleasure.

This morning I woke to a wonderful poem about blackbirds by Wallace Stevens posted by a friend and a very interesting wall sculpture of a black crow appeared to share as well. I was ready to listen to the day.

On the way to the hot tub I noticed a small beautiful blue jay on the table on my deck. I picked it up and studied it looking at the shiny blue and gray feathers. I thought about the source.

Next, sitting in the water I saw a very small feather land on top of the water. It floated with the grace of a lovely sail boat on the sea. Delicate and strong at the same time. Not sinking. "Walking on water" in a way. It drifted a bit in the breeze. It never over-reacted. Its core was strong and it supported all the delicate softness of the feather. It glistened. In a way it looked like a sailboat. In another way it imitated the shape of the original bird perhaps. And the risks. My husband said it could be full of mites you know. I did not remove it. How many I thought? It is so small. I watched it floating a moving a bit longer wondering what else I could learn from this moment, from this small light weight object that had the ability to fly and to float, never being sucked into the water with no air and no light.

Finally, with hesitation I removed it from the tub, it clung to my fingers and I let it go. Letting go.

Mother Nature gives us clues on how to live the good life, if we listen.

Later, John told me there is a new book out about feathers he saw reference to in the New York Review of books. I suppose I will have to find it. We are so apart of our times. We have a mass kind of thinking and cannot escape our time and how we think and respond. I suppose this is how history and cycles happen. We reflect our culture and our time.

So, today, after I go to my studio will be a wonderful time to make birds. Bird people perhaps. Maybe I will make a few bird baths, fountains and bird feeders as well. Feel it, live it, enjoy it. Soak in the moment.

Tourist Buses Chapter 2

2011-05-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

A few mugs I made while in Hawaii


My desk at the City of Refuge looking toward Japan.

After my religious dose, I headed south and stopped at a coffee farm and museum. The place was packed with people from a tour bus. They looked like your typical American tourist, lots of people with money burning a whole in their pocket as they searched for interesting things to buy for gifts for others. The shop tempted them all with samples of fresh baked rum cake, coffees and teas. There were tee shirts, colognes, 99 cents shell necklaces that I was tempted by until I saw they were made in the Philippines. I found mass produced coffee cups with decals for $12-$22 dollars. They were nothing special, just old fashioned looking coffee cups like restaurants used to use. So much money and how would they spend it? Money was burning holes in there hands. I walked around noticing only one person came into the museum that explained how the history of the coffee plantations. I sprayed my arm with jasmine Hawaiian perfume and continued to watch them shop. What a shame, potters so close by with handmade pots and they preferred flavored coffees, cheap shell necklaces and tee shirts. I went to the restroom, washed the cheap perfume off my arm and wondered how any potter ever makes a living.

Listening Chapter 3

2011-05-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

Reflections in the ocean at the City of Refuge on the Big Island of Hawaii

You know we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Funny thing for a potter to say.

We learn when we listen and you usually don’t learn a thing when you are talking unless you are evaluating recent knowledge.

I was visiting Pu’Uhonua o Honaunau, a historical park today, commonly called the City of Refuge, and heard some interesting words from a demonstrating wood carver and park ranger named Tom De Aguiar. A young man walked by with his golden retrievers unleashed and the ranger said, “Hey, you gotta get the dogs on a leash.” The young man ignored him and instead of going after him or yelling, he mumbled a little under his breath and did not look angry or at all irritated.

He said, “There is a time to listen and there is a time to not listen. The not listening person is the one not interested. The one who is listening is learning their peace. The other is not ready.” Then he kept carving a hiking stick he was working on for a man getting ready to retire. I do believe he is a good listener.

Earlier in the park I heard a loud and grabby lady, asking where is all the information, what should she be looking at? Are there any organized tours? Don’t they have another map like the one on display she can buy? The lady was wearing out the lady park ranger and was hardly hearing any answers. She was exhausting to listen to and had no idea the answers were right in front of her. The maps were in a box, the information was neatly numbered to match the map and there was a park path to follow as well. The lady ranger explained there would be an official tour later but the lady wandered off. She had not listened even when she asked the loud questions in a nearly rude way.

The sea turtle is still protected on the grounds at the City of Refuge

We were on ancient royal grounds where they killed people like her for disobeying and not following the rules.

In this ancient ground of spiritual power, those who had broken the Kapu meaning they could not look at or get close to the chief, walk in the chiefs footsteps, touch the chiefs possessions, or let his (her) shadow fall on the ground, were punished. Women could not eat the foods reserved for offerings for the gods; they could not prepare food for the men or eat with them. When a kapu was broken the person was put to death. If they did not punish the guilty then the gods would get them. Thus, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes.

So much for the lady asking questions unless she could make it to the Place of Refuge, another area in the park behind a large stone wall where everyone is or was given a second chance. No blood could be shed there. In those days, old people, sick, too young or defeated enemies could wait out battles thanks to the bones of dead kings being buried there. Everyone was released and given another chance. So what happened to that good idea? And we are the civilized ones?

Listening is important. If you want to learn how to make art you need to listen and it is a good idea not to be grabbing information but take it with grace and give it time to jell. If you cannot understand it you are not ready for it.

No one should want to be a shallow expert. It is good to keep your confidence but keep the gate of your mind open.

When beginners come to my shop and I give them free information so the art will grow, I am amazed how many become experts immediately and start spouting off absolutes. I am still a beginner and I started 35 or 40 years ago. If I thought I new it all I would move on and try something new.

Chapter one Staying Inspired

2011-05-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

coffee beans growing on the Big Island of Hawaii, Kona

Today I drove the island looking for potteries and coffee farms. I want to know how others stay inspired and I will also tell you what works for me.

The first potter I saw had a great set up. Originally from Oregon he moved to Hawaii 18 years ago and started a pottery, gift shop, coffee and macadamia nut farm and also sells shaved ice. The man’s shop was immaculate. Never have I seen a coffee-roasting machine right next to a potter’s wheel and not a spot of dirt next to either one. The shop was immaculate. The sign read, pottery and coffee welcome and enter. I pulled my rental car down the hill into his small private driveway and parking area. An English bulldog who was simply doing his job announcing my arrival greeted me. I stepped into the gallery and saw several crystal fired pots, jewelry, soaps, teas, canvas bags and a bar with a big shaved ice sign next to a display of coffee tea and nuts. The potter welcomed me and handed me a small fresh cup of coffee. I introduced myself and we began talking about inspiration and pottery. He took me through is studio and led me to the balcony where he pointed to his coffee trees. He explained that he used to be a seminary student and switched to clay and then began making a relationship between growing coffee beans, making clay and God.

He explained how you start with a 100 year old plant, wait 4 years and the flowers begin to grow. Many of the flowers fall off the branch; some remain and turn into the coffee bean. First they turn yellow then green then red and then purple. After that no other beans grow on that area and later the top of tree blossoms and it is trimmed and new branches appear.

He was thinking hard and the harder he thought the larger his eyes got and the more he questioned my religious beliefs. He quoted the bible and told me how he was an atheist and thought he knew all the answers and then became a spiritual person. He said he had been married to a new age woman and participated in her rituals and how that did not work out and he remarried.

He asked me about my religion and I confessed that I am a Unitarian and he was not sure what to make of that. It was like he had heard of it but was quite skeptical.

“What do you believe in?” He asked me.

I said that most people think Unitarians don’t believe in anything but that is not how I feel. I told him we as a group do not believe in original sin and have a great sense of fairness for others and we are political watchdogs as well. His eyes got a little larger and he looked at me skeptically. I said, “I am an optimist and a positive thinker and I don’t think most people are evil. However I am no fool, I know people do bad things as well. I am not a Pollyanna. I like the fact that our church will marry people in love from varying religions. I think that is a good thing.”

He went on to load his kiln as my cell phone rang and I think he became more skeptical about me.

“I don’t think it works, people who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior getting married.”

I was only asking about inspiration and his pottery and somehow the conversation kept rolling back to religion.

I walked back over to his sales area purchased some of his prize winning coffee for my husband and he handed me a New testament and I said thanks and crammed it in my purse.

It was not exactly what I had in mind about what inspires others but it just helps prove we are all in it for many reasons. I drove off and headed for coffee farms and the Kona coffee guild

Forward for Getting There written from the Big Island

2011-05-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

Forward

I sit in a hotel room in Hawaii where I have finally isolated myself from the outside

world to write this book. I have wanted to write this for several years, have started it a few times panicked thinking maybe I did not know enough after all. Now I have regained

my confidence and I want to share what I

know from my years as a potter, a sculptor,

a wife and mother and a half way decent business person/artist/teacher. I want to tell you how I have survived over 35 years in a fairly conservative community and stayed inspired and produced thousands of pots.

I found a way to do it and enjoy it and not

ever give up. Everyday I still wake with

more ideas and creative energy.

I hope this book finds it way into the hands

of others like me who just wanted to make

art and lots of it. Communicating through

art is one of the most rewarding parts of my life. So follow me on this journey about surviving and balancing life and making your

life rewarding everyday.

It is late at night, I sit in an old hotel listening to the rain hit the tin roof, thinking. Cars pass on the wet two-lane road in the Kona area of Hawaii. It has rained all day and everything is green and lush. I am staying in a hotel started in 1927 by a Japanese family and it remains in that family. It is a cheap clean room, spare with a bed a chair, dresser, lamp and desk

with no chair. I have stored my clothes in

one half of the dresser and turned the other half into my pantry. I don’t want to leave this side of the island until this book is nearly finished. I must write it. I feel compelled. I look out the window and I see a gallery sign reading, Art Farm.” Maybe that is where I am. I am stuck writing next to an art farm. Let it grow.

Kiss an Egg, a book chapter written in Costa Rica

2011-04-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

How difficult is it to keep things simple stupid?

Here in Costa Rica we saw the chickens that laid the eggs and bought them from the owner. The eggs are fresh and tasty. I cannot check the date on the end of the carton. There is no carton. They come hand delivered in a recycled large tray. I have not seen a Styrofoam egg carton since I arrived.

So what happened? Did we need more eggs than we could supply without the big stinky chicken farms? Is it simpler to run to the store and buy them? I think the answer is very complicated. We changed. And, I think the word quality was lost. And then there is that industrial revolution thing.

I am guilty. Just one egg is not enough. I bought too much stuff for my studio thinking it would make it easier. When you visit the potters in the pueblos of New Mexico there is proof the number of tools we think we need is a bit much. I love my tools. I am a tool monger. I like handmade, commercial, newfangled and traditional Chinese tools as well. I sell tools. But the truth is it is how you use the ones you have.

I am guilty. I have a lot of eggs from all kinds of cartons. I have too many tools and that takes more space and more organization. I even have sentimental tools from a friend who died. It is hard to give them away. Life could be simpler if I had fewer tools. I don’t even know what I own. I am trying to look at some and realize I have had my turn, now let someone else play with them. It helps when I donate them to worthy causes. But I have to keep several handfuls to stay secure. At least I have taken them all out of the boxes they came in and used them.

Our ideas, our projects our lives are easiest to enjoy when they are kept simple and maybe a bit organized.

I look in the depths of my dark clothing closet and I panic when I try and find shoes. 30 shoes? 20 pairs? I don’t know. I get the flashlight and search desperately for 2, only 2 good shoes. And, I cannot give them up even if they are too tight or stinky. Maybe I should throw a couple of chickens in my closet.

In grad school we all loved firing with cone 10 gas in that giant kiln. It took several of us to fire it, load it, and mess with all the air, gas, thermocouples and dampers. Then the gas crisis of the 70s hit and they turned the gas off. This caused a panic. We were not considered necessary gas users.

That is when I looked back again to the simple way of life. What is basic? Native Americans, Africans and Mexicans do not have the latest super L&L kiln and the pots are gorgeous. I started studying their ways, combined their ideas and fired the simplest way possible. I used sawdust, grass, and dung, wood whatever material was most available. I confess I did bisque fire for permanence. Feeling the clay using the simplest techniques. I learned primitive techniques are neither unsophisticated nor inferior. I could also see how tradition in crafts would have been helpful.

When I attended the Hopi Indian workshop in the 80’s I asked Fawn Navasie where she got her ideas. She said, “I just close my eyes and see them.”

Most likely, she only had the tools she needed, and probably a real chicken pecking in the yard. The kiss of simplicity.

Putting your eggs in one Basket

2011-04-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

What kind of potter or artist do you want to be? Can you force your style? Do you want to learn just one thing or lots and everything?

Do you want to make functional ware or make a very pure form of art?

Can you tell what kind of potter you are? Is it important to be only one kind of potter/sculpture?

Generally, I have found the more I learn about different techniques and ways to fire etc., the better. When you open up to new ideas and maybe a different way to build or fire you begin to have more choices. Sometimes I wish I did not know so many ways to do things. It would be easier and with tunnel vision you can make more progress faster and possibly become an expert in some area. Ceramics is full of so many directions as are most of the arts that it is hard to know which way to turn. Experimenting even when the experiment does not work is a learning process and adds so much to your knowledge.

Put your eggs in one basket and you limit yourself. Sometimes it is just more difficult to carry a lot of baskets. Remember you can always set a few baskets down after a while and get more specialized in your knowledge. Knowledge, learning and listening.

On being Grounded

2011-04-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

A dear sweet friend who had been through a very intense experience of a dying father, finally had to let go. The father had lingered and held on to her and finally when friends forced her to leave the room and take a short break, he died. She had to let go as well. Her friends took her outside and sat her in a lawn chair, removed her shoes and put her bare feet in the grass. This experience did in fact ground her. She found the strength to continue with her life.

Planting and flipping dirt may help many of us get grounded. Whenever I lose a friend I want to plant something to prove life continues and to see things grow.

Those feelings also happen while working in clay, dirt. A friend of mine whose beautiful young daughter died “grounded” herself by learning to make pots. The pain never totally left but it did significantly ease the pain.

My students get their hands busy and all of a sudden they relax and with the sensuousness of the pliable clay in their hands they go into the zone. They will work through the stress of the day as they slam the clay down on the worktable to remove its air bubbles and begin to tell me their life stories as well. “Clay talks.”

The creative experience grows as the hands work the clay. You just can’t help it. Grounded.

"Did you hear what I really said?" Chapter 46 of Getting There

2011-04-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

Talking to a friend, he said.” So what is your book about? “ I started to laugh a little being embarrassed trying to sum up about 45 unedited chapters. He knew what I meant immediately. He is an old friend and a retired preacher I knew in Knoxville when I taught middle school.

“So it is just like when people used to ask me on Tuesday what Sunday’s sermon would be about.”

It goes something like this in my own interpretation. There is the book I plan to write. There is the presentation you hear. There is what I actually write and the book you remember me writing. Sounds like a good explanation to me!

I have been writing this book off and on for about 10 years.

I started scribbling it on paper rapidly in outline form when I was at a conference with my husband. A conference offers me a nice clean quiet hotel room where I can think with no interruptions. A first I could not write fast enough and I knew exactly what I wanted, an almost how to kind of pottery book. Next, I looked at my bookshelves stuffed with how to books and thought, “No, that is not quite what I want to write. There are way to many already. Writing another book about how to make a coil pot really is not necessary.”

I want to write a book about the essentials of living an artistic life and how to make that possible.

Books that have been meaningful to my life are, Gift from the Sea, it helped me through hard times, Like Water for Chocolate, because of the adventures and they way she added recipes between chapters, not playing by the rules, and Eat Pray Love, the search for meaning in a woman’s life, and the humor of Nora Ephron’s, Heartburn and I Hate My Neck, which remind me not to take myself too seriously.

I wish I could turn to my husband to help me edit these 45 or so chapters. He is a terrific writer but a bit to analytic for my style writing. My book is more about feelings and surviving as an artist and his is facts and history.

Maybe writing this “life” book is all about being a baby boomer in my 50’s. Another friend said, “Oh yes, my husband is in his 50’s so he is writing a book too.” I can’t let that pop my bubble or maybe it is true and just take it from there.

My most meaningful life book about pottery now is Centering, not about centering clay but about centering your life and Bernard Leach’s book the Potter’s Mark. I must confess, I have never made it entirely through either one. And, I hope to design my book in a way that if you don’t have time to read it all at once, you can pick out chapters to read individually that might be inspiring one at a time. And, I want chapters in between that offer fun projects and yes, food recipes as well.

I am not sure where this book belongs on the shelf. I talked to the editors of Ceramic’s Monthly and they are more into the how to books in a tight economy. They have tried the more philosophical books and have not been able to sell them. And it may be that Clay Times would read and accept a chapter as an article, I am not sure. It is kind of biographical and probably a little more new age spiritual than I want to admit.

I have a friend who has been through the self publishing, print it as they buy it and with her help it might all fall into place given enough time to work on it.

But I do know I can only write when I am not home and can not feel obligated to go to the shop and make a living with my hands. I have written several chapters in the hotel room while my husband attends his academic conferences, about 20 chapters in hotel rooms in Hawaii, and several more chapters while staying with friends with great feed back on ideas in Costa Rica. I still need more time and a little help with formatting etc on my computer.

Writing is as rewarding as making pottery and certainly does give my tired arms a well deserved rest. I have always loved teaching and helping my students of all age to find their way through art and life.

How about, “Finding your way, an adventure through the essentials of art and life?” or “Getting there, the essentials of life and clay.” Well, maybe. Just write and edit and put the icing on the cake later.

Hands, Chapter 31 "Getting There"

2011-04-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

The following is a chapter from my book, Getting There, This was written while staying with a friend in Costa Rica.

The Costa Rican laborer’s hands may be the roughest hand I have ever shook. The second roughest hand was my friend Mikey’s daughter. Her hand was an American cowgirl hand.

My husband is a professor and writer and he has very soft hands. My son is an artist with very long thin fingers. My daughter’s hands are like princess’s hands, tiny soft and small, waiting for white lacy gloves.

Hands lead our way to the senses. We shake hands, we feed ourselves sometimes with a fork and sometimes we hold onto a slippery mango.

I explain to my pottery students that their hands are their finest tools. The most expensive tool will not necessarily produce the finest pot. You see this as the aspiring young to the clay student asks, “So what kind of wheel or kiln do you use? Or what kind of camera should I buy?”

Through your hands you feel and make artistic decisions with clay. Pinch pots are the essence of all clay making and the feeling, pinching and moving the clay makes it happen whether you are throwing on the potters wheel or pushing the clay around making a figure.

Hands. They tell us a lot about each other. Do you sit on your hands? Do you extend your hands easily? Do you stick them in your armpits? Do you decorate your fingernails and protect them? Can you resist rubbing a babies head? Can you squeeze meat to make meatloaf? Do you point accusingly?

Sensitivity connects through your hands. We find our way through our hands.

Think about a baby’s chubby new undirected hand before they learn to get what they reach for. The strength of strong persons hands can be impressive. And, of course, there are the jokes about the size of a man’s thumb indicating similar matching body parts. Old people’s thin-skinned worn hands from years of work becoming more delicate again, telling us to slow down.

Hands show agreement and confidence when we shake. Hands show the clay who is in charge.

As we see it. reality.

2011-03-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

In the garden in Hilo. Photo Linda Coward

We listen when we are ready and want to hear.

When we are ready, we see what we want to see.

We are all always in motion and changing.

listen photo L Coward

Reality is as we interpret it.

Stength Photo L Coward

Ancient Celtic Prayer, maybe the oldest

2011-01-29T06:01:00.000-08:00

The Deer's Cry

I arise today
through the strength of the heaven, the light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Spendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

Translated by Kuno Meyer

Reading Anam Cara, perfect for a potter

2011-01-29T05:14:00.000-08:00

From Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom John O'Donohue
...Spiritituality of friendship with the body

The body is your clay home, your only home in the universe. The body is the soul; this recognition confers a sacred and mystical dignity on the body. the sensors are devine thresholds. A spirituality of the senses is a spirituality of transfiguration....Thoughts are our inner senses...they bring out the mystery of inner landscape.

I make landscape pots now I have a better understanding why.

Brookside Pottery? Where is it? What is it? When is it?

2011-01-16T10:49:00.000-08:00

When?
Brookside Pottery hours will be by appointment and luck of the draw until Mid May.

I will be easiest to find on Monday mornings, Wed. and Fri. afternoons and Saturdays and by appointment.

Where?
I am located in a garage down the alley off 37th Street. Actual address 1138D East 37th Street. Across from channel 2 on the west side of Peoria. Basically in the parking lot behind Locker's Hair. It is not as confusing as it sounds once you find the parking lot. Call 918 747-7574 for shop and my cell is 918 697-6364. I will help you find your way.

What is it?
Artists studio, my and my son's pottery for sale.

I sell many kinds of clay, low and high fire. I also carry Kemper Tools, Mud tools and more. The glazes I usually sell are Amaco, Spectrum and Laguna with a specialty in cone 5/6 glazes.

I also teach adult classes on Tuesday nights weather permitting, all levels with a class maximum of 8 students. Young adults are usually tutored on Saturdays for one hour at $25 per hour plus materials.

Contact info: Linda Coward
                        claylady00@aol.com (00's are numbers not letters)
                        shop (918) 747-7574
cell (918) 697-6364


The rest of the story
Nothing stays the same and that is true with my very unconventional business as well. So Brookside Pottery or me, Linda Coward continues to change to survive. If you are looking for a Walmart or a Hobby Lobby or A freshly painted up town gallery, keep looking. This is alternative shopping from the artist's working studio.

It is fun to meet people who find me on line and come to check it out or buy clay and tools. Sometimes people are looking for mugs or mass produced pottery. Well, that is not exactly what I am either.

The reaction to my alternative and creatively cluttered shop brings back memories of Santa Fe art studios in the early 70's. I usually apologize and try to clear a path to the customers needs. My studio space is small not 740 square feet compared to the 2600 I used to have. Yes, I need to keep sorting. But tucked in every nick and cranny of the shop you will fine tools, nature objects for inspiration, and projects in the works. It is fun and a little different. It is a very personal kind of shopping experience.

Brookside Pottery is a working pottery studio. I teach small classes, tutor adults and children and that is a great way to learn one to one. I also sell tools clay and glazes. I am an artist and I am a teacher. I have a masters degree and about 40 years of experience. And, like a crazy woman I share a lot of technical info with the community.

Now I have added more obligations to a very busy life. I am teaching 3 classes at Roger's State until May. This will affect the shop hours tremendously. I will be glad to meet anyone by appointment. The shop has limited heat sources as well but is a wonderful place to be especially in fair weather.

What it is all about.

News clip from the 80's. Ian on my lap at the wheel

Ian at work

Ian teaches enthusiastic boys

My ever so helpful student, Vera at work.

Creature Comforts USA - Art

2011-01-11T17:32:00.000-08:00

Favorite new poet John O'Donohue

2011-01-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

A Blessing for the Senses

May your body be blessed.
May you realize that your body is a faithful and beautiful friend of your soul.
And may you be peaceful and joyful and recognize that your senses are sacred thresholds.
May you realize that holiness is mindful gazing, feeling, hearing , and touching.
May your senses gather you and bring you home.
May your senses always enable you to celebrate the universe and the mystery and possibilities in your presence here.
May the Eros of the Earth bless you.

Just got my new book Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue
Love this one. I will relate it to pottery somehow later.

What a powerful and positive poem about the senses. Wish the poet was still alive. What insight!
I will see if I can translate this into a sensuous clay pot or figure. Clay the wonderful sensuous art material. Responsive and strong at the same time.

A Kim MacConnel Retrospective

2011-01-03T18:22:00.000-08:00

Contemplating My Clay Stuffed Navel

2010-12-31T15:34:00.000-08:00

Every year at the end, comes a new year. It happens every time until our end of time. So here we go again. It is a time to re-evalutate. Did you know what you wanted this year and did you work to get it? Did it happen or are you just passing time and taking that heaven forbid attitude of "Well. It is just meant to be." Or, all things happen for a reason. Sorry, I just can't buy that way of thinking.

I woke up too early again. Thinking. It is the last day of the year and do I regret this year? Or was it fantastic? Time to reevaluate. And of course, there will be no New Year's resolutions. That was a resolution I made years ago. One day at a time is plenty for me.

A few years ago I went to a new age kind of winter solstice party. It was lovely. We followed an ancient type ritual and filled golden glass Christmas ornaments with herbs and wishes or goals if I remember correctly. We were supposed to break it at a significant time which I don't remember either. I got too busy as usual and could not make the next 5 meetings.
Well, that is only a couple years of missed meetings so I am thinking of popping it open now and see if I came anywhere near those goals. I have been afraid to open it, I suppose, in case I did not succeed in reaching my goal. It can be such a reality check when you set a goal and don't reach it in ample time. I highly suspect that means it wasn't really a goal worth pursuing in the first place. Maybe a goal you think you should have instead of a goal you should have set from your own heart.

That horrible idea, "Mission Statement or Artists Statement" comes to mind at this point. Or heaven forbid the word that makes me run from any meeting "BYLAWS." I know I am not in a trusted and self------room if the word bylaws comes up. Trust=no bylaws. And, mission statement=trying to figure out what you want.

So what is in that little gold ball that has been sitting on my bookshelf for 2 1/2 years? Maybe I can pull the note out and keep the ball intact so I can stick it back in and wish harder if I did not make it. So, I get the ball, I pull the lid off, I tap it. I tap it harder I thunk it! A little spice comes out. I run and get a flashlight and tweezers. Where have my goals gone? After all this time watching that Christmas ball every season, sitting on my shelf, glaring at me and singing, "Are you there yet?" I dig in the ball with tweezers. Nothing. Damn. I have to set me goals again or break the ball.
So I grab a brown paper bag and head to the front porch and squeeze the ball down into the bag. Closest object to crush it? Pumpkin, still in tack from Halloween. Whack! Missed Whack. Score. I carry the broken pieces into the house and pour them carefully onto a paper plate. shake shake shake. NOTHING. What no goals? Gone? Was this a trick? Did I wait too long? Where did my goals from 3 years ago go? Or was it 4? Damn it. Was it the journey? Is it finally the nerve to break the ball even though I was told this is "done in the spring?" I did not like those goals anyway, maybe.

Now I am goal less. Not.

Just as a good olive may depend on the stuffing inside from intense garlic to feta cheese my naval stays stuffed with clay. Sometimes I wish it was stuffed with paint or writings but for now it is still clay. The olive itself must be fine and oily and well taken care of but it is what is inside that often counts. Bernard Leach said,"When the inside of a pot is right the outside naturally follows."
Oh damn my goals are gone.

The year? How do we judge our own lives?
Mind body spirit? naa, just a step away from bylaws.

Maybe personal life goals? professional life goals and paths we follow? Well.maybe.

John had a sabbatical this year and I had high hopes. Hooray we could travel and do something cool together. I had had several years of great January months. Starting with something way out of my world, a cruise. John calls them cattle calls and would never go with me, let alone pay for one for us to spend some time together. Whatever. My fun loving Mother and friend treated me to a cruise 3 years ago. We had a blast. After all, we grew up together because she was a young mom and now we had some quality time together aka no cooking no cleaning just travel. The next year I was invited to Hawaii for a 6 week event for a young lady I had mentored. Mixed bag but great opportunity. My time alone there was well spent working on my book and I enjoyed a lot of the time with my young friend and her boyfriend. The next year was fabulous! A friend who started a b&b in Costa Rica invited me to come stay, play in clay, and enjoy. It was a fabulous month. The sabbatical? Oh dear. Well, I remember a short trip to Austin TX where we did a little research, John on his book and me on my book and a visit with old friends and his sister. "Not that there is anything wrong with that" but I had high expectations. History now.

Then doors began to open. The same day the rich Jewish camp made me the pitiful offer, Rogers State called and wanted me to teach in Upward Bound, a great opportunity. An hour away but the delight of working with students in clay, at the University, who were first generation college or minorities. Fabulous. I always prefer working with the underdog. I loved it and they loved me. A room full of self achievers and a bag of clay.
Next, the opportunity to teach at Rogers State appeared. A clay studio needing TLC and a lot of ambitious students. Perfect. Loved it. And an opportunity to teach art appreciation in small town, Oklahoma. Just Georgia O'Keeffe enough to make me love the idea. Done and successful and a good inspiration as I relearned art history and goosed the class with alternative ideas every now and then.

With the encouragement of a dear friend I also attempted to get in a first class show Vision Makers and hot damn! Accepted. And they only chose 3 clay artists out of 185 or something like that. Re established that I can make show pots. Thank you dear friend for making me step up to the plate and try. Score.

And then the Governor visits festival of trees and I am told goes directly to my pots and stares and soaks them in and then buys 2. Score. 15 more minutes of fame and recognition feed the ego.

So what was in that gold ball? I don't think it was this specific.

Next, personal goals. Life was getting a little dull. An element of surprise hit and now I feel alive again. We must be careful not to bore ourselves to death. I fill invigorated with a new sense of who I can be and what I am. I will spare the gory details which are much too common. Just let me say, I feel fine. I feel alive and sensuous and ready for this last trimester or whatever of my life. I don't feel old and I am full of energy and ideas. I look to Beatrice Woods again. Give me some jewelry and a lot of inspiration and I will show you a good time.

Yes, this is the clay in my naval for the time being. I'm watching it on fire. I connect with the universe one day at time. Screw goals just do a good thing everyday and have a bit of a plan.

Echoes of Memory, my favorite poem

2010-12-31T08:19:00.000-08:00

My favorite poem of 2010. Thank you Martin O'Neill for this discovery

Echoes of Memory

by John O'Donohue

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

Chapter 1, Creating a New Pottery Exhibit, The Journey of Creative Energy

2010-12-29T08:50:00.000-08:00

Ian Coward at 6 months old sitting on my lap at the potter's wheel "helping" me make a plate. From the Bristol Herald Courier Sept 28th, 1983

An invitation to have another exhibit, a big blank room and a lump of clay. What could be finer? My son Ian and I will exhibit together. As you can see above he got an early start.

I was delighted when a friend asked me a few months ago if I would like to have my own exhibit at the Equality Center in Tulsa. Finally, after years of showing and selling in so many different directions I am returning to creating for quality shows. Some of which, are just for me. Maybe I have finally paid my dues and can return to some original goals, producing quality pots and sculpture made from my heart and soul and exhibiting off the street.

I was once a starry eyed grad student. You know the kind. I know the kind. They feel they have paid their dues already and the art world is just waiting for their fantastic work and to make them famous. I had several shows in museums in East Tennessee and Virginia. It was nearly 40 years ago and to tell you the truth, I have to think hard to even remember when and where they were. I suppose, over the years, the light dimmed on these events as I raised a family and tried to survive creating and selling literally thousands of pots.

My first museum show was at the McClung Museum at the end of my grad program at the University of Tennessee. I loved the process and the learning experience. Arranging museum walls, designing a large poster for the event, planning the opening, all the things that go into making a good show happen.
Reality hit when I had to choose the number of pedestals for the show. And, I had not made the pots for the show. Oh My God or OMG or panic time! There were 30 blank pedestals waiting for 30 show pots. 30 show pots. Not 30 pots. 30 show pots, with lights blaring on everyone, showing every detail good and bad.
I recovered from the pressure of such a major exhibit by simply creating each pot, one at a time, just making a good pot in a theme. Looking at the big picture and all the attention on the show could make me panic. I had to go back to the basics, ground myself literally, in the clay, and focus on creating significant thought and ideas through clay. Did it.

Until I had that show, I was only a potter's potter. People who understood the real beauty of clay knew what I was doing. A person off the street might wonder why I was making non-utilitarian pottery using primitive methods. What? Firing in sawdust? Not water proof? An opening on the top not even large enough to stick a plant in? Black and white pottery?
I was amazed. On my opening night for the first time in my life, I sold over $1000 at my first museum show. I became a starry eyed grad student.
And there were more shows in museums. A two person show with my friend Pat Herzog "perfect Pat." Our exhibit was a ying/yang kind of show. She created elegant porcelain with tight forms. I reached back to our primitive roots using ancient techniques from Mexico, Africa and Native Americans. It was a lovely and successful show.
There were more shows. More museum shows in Emory, Virginia. I was in familiar territory, established and on my way to the top of my little pottery world.

I started my first gallery. My husband had tried to give me a reality check. "You will never find a place you can afford to rent." Three days later, I had a place. $50 a month and I got a job at a pizza place to make sure I could pay the utilities as well and buy a few things to get started. I also taught college part time to stay in the art world as well. My grandfather had sent me $1000 out of blue and I was determined to make it happen. It was a wonderful 4 years and I had created my first business, Meadowview Pottery Workshop. It is now a green local produce and restaurant owned and operated by the famous author, Barbara Kingsolver, who I later got to meet.) I wonder if they still put bright red geraniums in the window every year like I did.

Then, we moved. My husband had to get his PhD to continue college teaching on the tenure track and we moved to Austin Texas. I was a new girl on the block again and had a little baby and needed to help support the family while my husband got his degree. New place, new baby, new life.

In reality what good was a degree in ceramics in a new town, a big new artistic town? I did not know anyone. I could not think of food service because I thought I could never remember who wanted the iced tea. I applied at the mall knowing that worked while in grad school.

Then, still on my way home, I stopped at a pottery shop, Feats of Clay, poked around, talked to the owner about pots and life and left with a job offer to become a self-employed potter in her established pottery. I called the other offers back and took the job at the pottery shop where I learned how to make a living with clay.

Making a living with clay will cure a starry eyed grad student quickly. More more more. Got to make it faster and learn more techniques quickly. ""Oh look! Someone wanted my plate and my cup." And then the life question appears, the question all potters ask themselves on a daily basis unless they have a trust fund or a rich spouse, "Do I make what I want to make or do I make what I know people will buy? Do I make sculpture or do I make utilitarian pots?" And, we answer it all the time. "You do not have to choose. Make Both." Repeat.

A few years later, after grad school, we moved to Norman OK. The baby was getting bigger, I had a nice big attached garage to work from, re-established my pottery career teaching at the Fire House, and had a profitable kiosk in the local mall with two other potters for a season. Then we wanted to grow our family, had another baby, and moved to Tulsa.

The starry eyed grad student was on another life path. "Doing it all. Finding a way to do it. Just trying to make a living and prove myself a worthy potter from somewhere else."

It was what I had to do to survive.


"The Audience," 1983. A theme that continued to Garden People and Wind People many years later. Taken from an old feature story about me and my work in Bristol Tennessee at my first gallery/studio, Meadowview Pottery Workshop.

Yes, I will get there and back to the subject about the latest show I will be creating in Tulsa. Just having fun writing about getting there.

BEATRICE WOOD

2010-12-18T23:13:00.000-08:00

Henry Miller - To Paint Is To Love Again

2010-12-17T06:32:00.000-08:00

01-16-07 Face Sculpting: Two of Two Another you tube posting.

2010-12-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

01-16-07 Face Sculpting One of Two, Another you tube posting

2010-12-14T12:43:00.000-08:00

Sculpting a female face in clay. Demo how to sculpt a face. Found this on You tube. Excellent demo!

2010-12-14T12:33:00.000-08:00

Come join me for Pottery Class at the Philbrook and make some cool Holiday Gifts!

2010-10-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

We need just a few more students for this class to happen at the Philbrook.

Should be a lot of fun! If you are interested call the Philbrook Education Dept asap!

Elegant Clay Constructions

Starts: Thursday, October 14, 2010
Ends: Thursday, November 18, 2010
Times: 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
$136/member, $170/not yet member

Artist: Linda Coward

Learn a variety of hand-building techniques while creating beautiful clay constructions, vessels and ornaments. After firing, the pieces can be glazed with an array of colorful glazes to create exceptional works of art.

The holidays are right around the corner and everyone can agree there’s nothing better than a handmade gift. In this six week class, you’ll learn a variety of hand-building and glazing techniques for a clay creation to give… or keep for yourself. All skill levels are encouraged so sign up today by calling 748.5379.

Finding Their Way with Clay, Tulsa Girl Scouts Earn Pottery Badge

2010-10-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

It is always fun to share the art world with younger people like scouts and birthday party people and get togethers. Had a beautiful fall day, doors flung open sharing my knowledge in clay. Take a peek at the girls having fun, working in clay.

Festival of Trees 2010 ideas for the Philbrook

2010-09-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

trees imbeded in side of pot

cut out trees to add to pottery surface

a variety of size and shapes to play with landscape idea

makes for fast Christmas decorating!

my collector trees making new variations every year

working on small affordable versions of my landscape pots for Christmas giving

landscape as patchwork collage feel in clay, another festival idea

So here is what I've been working on this week getting ready to add a few new pieces to the Philbook show. I think I have done this show for about 16 years. Time flies I suppose. So here are some ideas in the works. These pieces are raw clay and will later have deep bright colors on the surface. It is a continuation and variation of my landscape series. I want trees in the project but not really Christmas trees. Who wants to put a nice pot away for a year? So here are the ideas in the works.

When an Object Becomes More than an Object.

2010-09-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

Beatrice Wood Pot, low fire with luster

Stuff, things, crap, treasures, icons.

There I laid soaking in a hot steamy deep bathtub trying to figure out the importance of objects again. A beautiful cool day, sun is beaming through the bathroom window and the vision of Beatrice Wood's golden goblet and tea bowl with her Dada figures dancing around the edge kept coming to mind.

Spiritual. Sunday morning. The golden work of Beatrice is the most spiritual object I can imagine. It radiates golden light. I also remember the lighthearted figures dancing around another bowl creating the lighthearted free spirit feeling I have deep in my soul.

I remember as a child in a very conservative Lutheran Church in southern Indiana overhearing conversations about those threatening Catholics who worshiped idols. There was the Mary thing and the statues, and crosses and rosaries, they felt were just so wrong in their opinions. This was being said below their gold and white statue of the German looking Jesus with his open palms.

My hand, copied on a machine and made into a stamp with the journey symbol on my palm.

I remember having a critique of my painting in Italy by a famous super realist. He described me as an icon maker/artist. And my feeling was "Of course, I make icons every day. I am a potter and sculptor. What do you expect and what is wrong with that idea? Choose an idea and make it sacred or at least special."

A beautiful teapot I spotted in a thrift store. Paid $18, worth $1600. Why? Famous maker.

My cash register only goes up to $1.90 and sometimes that is all I need.

Then there is the stuff dilemma. What about all this crap I have accumulated over 40 years. Gee I really wanted it all at the time and now I have to separate through it just to see it. Perhaps if I had my walls of my house completely loaded with adjustable shelving I could see it all. Spread it out and stand back and look. When I lose something, which happens a lot, I am amazed at what I find when I start digging in my house. I am afraid a lot of my stuff owns me. It holds me down.

But how to separate from my treasure and pass it on. I don't think of myself as a very materialistic person. Maybe it is a time thing. Boring people have clean sparse houses. They do nothing but clean and watch TV and there you have it. The perfect unlived in looking house. There must be balance in there somewhere. I usually don't have or want to make the time to sort.

Stuff. When is it important? When does it become valuable? How long will people hold on the beanie babies, even the defective ones thinking they are so special? The craze was proof how everyone wants to find or own something that is valuable and special. They tried to make that one happen. Yes, somewhere we have a few beany babies in the basement. I hope we bought them because my daughter liked them. But, we still have them and she doesn't want them any more.

Pots I made for a wedding. Now they are more than just vases.

A few months ago I went to two different lectures where objects were discussed. Ying Yang. No Impact Man was all about the green philosophy to the extreme. Give it all up and see what you think to the extreme. And then about a week later I heard a talk about Objects and Memory which discussed the importance of things we own and our memories. I stood and asked a question at the end of the lecture expressing my confusion of the importance of objects. What counts? What is an important object?

One of the most debatable art objects I have seen. Who calls this art? A museum so it must be true?

Objects become important to me when I feel a deeper meaning associated with the object. It may reflect another culture, or help me remember great travel experiences. Good objects are usually well designed to do what they need to do. Some of it is simple sentiment. The family Bible my Mother gave me when I was little. I wrote in it, "I will keep this always too." There it is, in print, in heaven forbid, a Bible. It is full of little treasures, clips, ribbons from my Brownie days some 50 years ago. Crap to someone else, meaningful in some odd way to me. And of course my first note from a boyfriend is in there as well. He could not spell.

My son tried to do me an unasked for favor recently. Bad idea. He did not like the crowded office in my shop and decided to clean it for me even though I specifically asked him not to as I left town. I came back to a mixed blessing. Where is my little painted table for my phone? Where are my two coffee pots I use for hot drinks at openings? My rolling rubber made cart I bought in a yard sale? What? He had the nerve to write free on them and put them in a parking lot of a nearby restaurant. Not a good idea. It was my stuff. A simple phone call and a what do I do with this would have made our relationship better. Don't mess with other peoples objects. You cannot tell which objects are important.

Thousands of penny pieces of green candy made into art in a contemporary art museum in Fort Worth.

Form follows function, the saying surfaces so often. What is the function of all this stuff? Does everything around me have to have a function? Boring! How much is enough? Does the form meet the needs of the function?

It is part of our culture. If you have ever traveled to another country or exotic place with a group, you know how we spend our time. Shopping and eating. Mostly shopping. Enough said.

So there it is. Objects. Things. I'll keep thinking about it and hopefully will find the time to figure out what really is important sooner or later. And there is always the "rotate it" idea. That is my advice to customers who come in my shop and want something and have not more space or cannot justify it. Meanwhile I will keep making stuff and hope somebody wants it. I feel the urge to use lusters again to make it all glow. I will leave behind literally thousands of pots. What a big pile that would be if they were all in the back yard. It takes thousands of years for pottery to turn back to raw clay. It will be a while before I "leave no footprint."

Undoubtedly a fine art object and a source of inspiration. A friend owns this lovely Adelaide Robinaeux pot. I created many pots inspired by this one in my friend's studio.

There is a Very Moody Chair Sitting in my Garden.

2010-09-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

Mischievousness

stability

moody blues

life is precious

tenacity

strength

age and wisdom

positive thinking

inner light

I looked out my bedroom window and this is what I saw.

New Landscape Pots to be Shown at Rogers State University Gallery Faculty Show

2010-09-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

It is all about using the clay like a canvas for me and the New Mexico Landscape. I always think I want to paint but I cannot leave the clay behind. Interpreting earth shapes form and color in clay makes so much sense to me. So here are the latest vessels averaging about 15 inches in height. I apologize for the snapshot like photography. Want to get these on my blog and not wait for the perfect photo.

Just trying to make a living making pots.

2010-09-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

Potters always wring their hands trying to figure out what they should make. I have asked myself this for about 35 or more years. Should I make show pots or should I be the village potter? I kick the dirt around and the I always come to the same conclusion. You don't have to choose. Make both.

Recently one of my students who is a great marketer suggested to Ian my son and struggling artist, that he have two lines. He spends hours carving and laboring over every pot he makes. He keeps complete notes on his glazing and that is something we all strive to do and most of us don't because we think we will remember. I have a lot of empty notebooks because I just want to do it, glaze and fire. I think I will take that advice as well, two lines of work.

I have gratefully gotten into a really good show titled Vision Makers. I feel lucky because the juror only chose 23 out of 185. I had the pots made way in advance taking time to make "show" pots not my village potter pots. I did not make the pots for that show. I just wanted to make some really nice pots.
I would love to only make show pots because I have spent a lifetime making thousands of little pots. My philosophy was to make pots my friends could afford for everyday use and thought that would help fill the world with handmade usable everyday objects. That is a big task. Next, you find yourself worn out with no extra money and everyone expects you to make cheaper things. Guess it kind of bit me in the butt. Nearly all my students pots became more expensive than mine.

So then what happens? Well. Unfortunately it is true that most people measure the importance of art by how much it costs. Before long, the ego gets involved and confusion sets in. Most potters bail out at that point because they cannot afford to make pottery and they don't feel so good about it anymore. Of the 12 people I went to grad school with I believe on 2 or 3 of us actually tried to make a living making pots. Others turned to real estate, education administration etc. Not me, I just kept making until my body yelled "slow down lady!

Looking back, I think maybe I made a few too many village pots. I live in an area where there could be a better understanding and support for the arts. When I first opened my shop, people came in surprised it was all one-of-a-kind work. They asked me where I kept my molds. We have come a long way but there is always room for a lot more improvement.

One awakening for me has been the Vision Makers show. Several people came up to me with great compliments on my work saying things like, "Gee Linda, I have never seen such beautiful colors in your work." Or "Now those are really great." I felt very appreciative of all the compliments. But it was a reminder to me to keep making the good stuff. It is kind of like when a woman gets a compliment when someone says, "Gee, you look great when you wear makeup."

The juror was a great communicator and went from piece to piece with a critique. It had been many years since I had a critique of my pottery. It was enough to make me sit down my wine glass and food plate to hear what she would tell me. And, it was rewarding. She got it. She knew they were landscapes, she loved the colors, she knew they are built from spontaneously ripping the clay. She also knew the time involved is in the glazing. She had no negative words, only compliments and understanding.

I have often told students, it is not always the time involved when you make something. More hours does not equal a better pot. I am not saying don't put in those long hours to learn the process. I am saying you cannot always make it better by working it to death. And then we have the different approaches to creativity as well. Some people need lots of structure and to work tightly and some go with the flow. There is no correct way.

I had to question the "time put in" idea as I delivered my work to the gallery having jumped through the jurying hoop. I looked around a little as I placed my work on the table. OMG there were woodworking pieces that took so many more hours than mine. There was a piece with more that life sized cast body cast that looked like it belonged on front of a ship. There was reflective glass in large pyramid shapes with stones inside. There were baskets and intricate fabric and hours and hours of well executed art work. I looked at my work, produced from what I see in my environment, from my heart and I felt like maybe I should go home and see if I could find something bigger and better. Another artist bringing her piece in as well gave me the knowing eye because she felt that way about her work as well.

We should never take to seriously being included or excluded from a juried show. That is so easy to say when you get in and so painful to the artistic ego when you don't. Maybe that is one of the reasons I have not entered many shows in the last 20 years. Now it it a little more difficult technically with sizing photos and the professional approach you have to take.

I have an old friend from graduate school who worked on her degree in weaving. When we first got out of school we were ready to set the world on fire. In a nutshell, later we both kind of shrugged our shoulders realizing even if be became incredibly famous in our areas probably no one in our general community would really care or understand. Both of us just wanted to do our work and lead creative lives and we gave up on being superstars. Just make it and they will come was our approach.
I look back at the 60's -70's pottery books and the pots are photographed in warm lovely environments. Not any more. Now they must be properly lit with no distractions and look kind of like they are floating in space. I get it but part of me wants to rebel and photograph my pots in natural complimentary environments. "Mother Earth" would not make it into any competitions with that attitude.

My next eternal obstacle is still pricing. It has to do with feeling humble, not wanting to play the game and not being very realistic. I have told my students it a left over 60's way of thinking and I have a hard time letting go of that. It has not paid off. Several people once again scolded me for pricing too low again. "Three times more than that! That would be about right." some told me and I know they were right. But they did sell and that reinforces those old bad low pricing habits. I have about 10 new pots heading to an opening of a new gallery next week. What to do. Same old problem.

Vision Makers. What a nice compliment.

New Pots for First Opening at Baird Hall Gallery at Rogers State

2010-09-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

What a pleasure to be on the faculty at Rogers State and get to participate in the first show in the incredibly beautiful new gallery. I am continuing to work on my landscape series as I use the clay like a painters canvas. As you can see, these are works in progress. I am now moving on to wall pieces, round and square, treating the clay even more like canvas.
Many times I think I want to stop working in clay but I cannot help myself. I know the martial so well and I love 3-d. It is so basic. It helps to literally ground me.
I love the smell, the way it bends and the glassy surface that always surprise me at the end of the firing. It is a real pain to lift, to hang around in the dust and to never be finished. But how can I resist. The clay calls my name.

Blackbird fly

2010-09-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,

Beatle's lyrics

Pottery and Cupcakes

2010-09-10T06:50:00.000-07:00

So what is the best cupcake recipe I have ever tasted doing on my Pottery blog? Anyone who reads this knows I write about life and pottery and this recipe did come to me my pottery class. I was talking to one of my students and she said she was divorced and the best thing she got out of the marriage was this recipe. It was her ex mother in law's recipe. Somehow the name of these cupcakes will have to reflect that fact sooner or later. We ate and enjoyed and tried to stay away from having a 2nd one. We were like bees and honey.

And then this wonderful quiet woman brings a surprise to class. The cupcakes. We ate and enjoyed and tried to stay away from having a 2nd one. We were like bees and honey. Just when I thought I was over chocolate moving on to raspberries and yogurt ice cream as a favorite, these jewels to the tongue appear.

She told me I could share it so here goes.

The Best Damned Chocolate Cupcakes from an Ex Husbands Mother

Hi Linda,

Below is the recipe I mentioned in class tonight. Enjoy.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Filling:

1 8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

1 6 oz. chocolate chips

Cake:

1 ½ cup flour

1 cup sugar

¼ cup cocoa

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup water

1/3 cup oil

1 tsp vinegar

Mix filling ingredients together. Mix cake ingredients. Add cake mixture to cupcake holders, filling ½ to 1/3 full. Drop a spoonful of the filling mixture into each cupcake.

second place cupcake is in Denver downtown at Cook's fresh market

The jewel of the tongue

Bake 25 – 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Rogers State Art Appreciation class plays with the sit sat set in the garden idea

2010-09-05T22:38:00.000-07:00


Pryor Oklahoma students get introduced to the idea that sometimes "Art is outside the frame."

Field next to campus

We gathered a few objects needed for the project including an old lawn chair, landscape timbers to make a frame, flowers and umbrellas and started to play with the idea "Sometimes art is outside the frame. We took turns composing different thoughts and ideas and tried some symbolic ideas to get our point across. The flower represent tradition in paintings, we played the the umbrellas for spots of color and we jumped in and out of the frame for various reasons. Given a little more time we could have made it rock and roll a little more. Anyway we expanded our thought and began to understand a few unusual concepts in a very hands on way.

student volunteers to bring landscape timbers to build frame

The sit sat set idea involves a chair in a garden surrounded by something.

Pottery Class, Tools, Clay and more at Brookside Pottery in Tulsa

2010-08-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

This is it. Reminds me of Taos in the 70's, dusty and real! Come on in!

Yes. We have it all. Brookside Pottery is not your average shop or gallery. It is an artists' studio where you can see it made, take class or buy supplies. We have survived a tough economy being one of the last surviving art spots on my block. So now I am in a smaller spot in the alley behind my old shop on Peoria. I have been making pots for nearly 40 years and my son Ian, continues the tradition.

Our hours more than we would like but that again is s survival technique. We are not Walmart and we don't have employees and we have to have other jobs these days as well. But, we live close by and remain flexible to get you what you need or help you find it.

I am teaching at Rogers State this fall. The classes are throwing I and II. And, I am also teaching art appreciation. I teach all day Mondays so you will have to call me cell to reach me. And I teach art appreciation on Wed in Pryor from 12-1:15 and give me some time to get back to the shop.

Yes, its me wearing a golden egyptian mask for fun.

I am scheduled to teach an Egyptian Art Class at the Philbrook on Thursday nights starting Aug 19th at 6:30. It will include mask making, boxes, bas relief, and Egyptian paste jewelry and more. See the Philbrook website under adult classes for more in on that one.

I also teach an ongoing Wed night class for beginners and above. The class is a lot of fun and a bit informal. You can learn a lot and have a good time as well.
When I have enough students to start a new beginning class we will start one most likely on Tues nights. Just call and get your name on the waiting list. 6:30-9. $150 plus material for 6 weeks. Learn the basics. This is a step by step class.

Naomi works on her horse during a tutoring session

Another way to learn is for me to tutor you in hand building or throwing. If my regular schedule does not meet your needs or you want all my attention, this is the class for you. It is $25 per hour for hand building and $30 per hour for throwing.

Ian teaches some enthusiastic boys

I also help scout troops earn their badges, host birthday parties and get togethers. It is a one time $20 instruction fee and $25 per person. To be arranged to fit our schedules.

Here are my attempted hours,   Tues, Thurs and Fri. 12-5
                                                   Wed. 3-5. class from 6:30-9 or so (during the fall semester)
                                                    Open most Saturdays 10-4
                                                     Closed Sun and Mon
                                                     & open by appt as well

I know, it is difficult to remember but these days we have to have other jobs as well.
If you are in a hurry or coming from a distance, call to be sure we are there. We will do our best to be there when you need us.

Come and visit and I think you will like our little shop hidden away in the alley. You get lost of special attention and get to see the studio in action as well.

Linda's landscape vessels selected for Vision Makers 2010

Shop phone: (918) 747-7574, cell (918) 697-6364.

The Man who Listens to the Rocks

2010-08-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

We were waiting for our breakfast burrito at the picnic table lunch area at El Parasol in Espanola knowing from past experience that it would take a while and was well worth the wait. John spoke about an aggressive young couple who drove a BMW and had the room beside us in our funky little motel. "He was obviously aggressive and successful and expected life to reward him financially." John said. "And he had a fit little trophy wife with a pony tail sticking out her ball cap as well." "Yes" I said and probably a republican with a personal trainer.'
That opened the door for the rock man sitting at our table to speak to us and give us his personal philosophy of life as well. He had been listening to our conversation and has a slight smile on his face and nodded every now and then.
The man who had joined us at the table had a long scraggly gray pony tail and I could see one of his bright blue eyes looking from the side under his sun glasses. I had expected he would have brown eyes. In fact they were that bright German blue eye color. He was probably in his late 60's or early 70's and he spoke with an accent, probably an American Indian accent.
He had been listening to us talk and now he joined in during our long wait for our to go Mexican lunch.

"You may not believe me but the great spirit talks to me through the rocks." I eyed him closely. He did not have diluted pupils, he did not smell like booze. He looked calm and steady so I listened and could not just write him off. "You see, I rub these rocks together and if you rub them just right they will talk to you." I listened closely to the difference in the sounds as he hunted for the talking sound. Finally they sounded lower kind of like ocean noises and he said, "See, there it is, the rocks are talking." He continued. "I found one of these in Peru and one here in Santa Fe. And look, see how they are so similar?' He handed me the smooth warm stratified rocks and I had to agree. There was only a slight difference with the one from New Mexico being a bit darker. I handed them to my husband who was listening but not adding to the conversation and he agreed. I put the rocks like a treasure back into rock mans hands.

I tried to stare into his blue eye I could see under his dark glasses. "There is an understanding. " he said. "You may not believe me but the spirit tells me through the rocks that there is understanding. It is the sound of meditation. Can you hear it? I can talk to people and tell them how I feel but it is not the same. I am from here. I traveled to the shrine in Mexico. A man asked me on the train why I was going to the shrine. I told him because my son was graduating from high school. Why? He asked me 2 more times. Because my son is graduating from high school. No, Why really? Because I am looking for the window and the mirror. I did not understand why I said that but later, on the square in the town in Mexico a man came to me with a stone in a rag. He opened the rag and inside it was a quartz crystal. The man said 6 pesos and this is the window and the mirror for you. I did not understand. And then I took it to my Mexican friend who has many rocks and said he can protect me from any trouble when I travel in Mexico if I just say call him or say his name. I showed him the rock and and he took it from me and drew a line on the table. He the put the rock over the line and I saw a mirrored image, two lines. Next, he held it to the sky and through the hole of the rock I could see the sky. You see he my Mexican friend told me "Look," when you look at the mirror image you have a perception of life but when you look through the window you have reality. This is what the rocks tell me."
"Number 95! Number 95" the speaker announced at the window of the restaurant. He smiled, "That is me."
"Number 96! Your order is ready." and that was us.

We smiled at each other and said our niceties. And he walked off into the parking lot.
John and I looked at each other. "That was a moment. A special moment and knowing moment about life. Was he really there or was he a spirit?" said my ever loving and usually so skeptical husband.
The rock spirit man drove past our picnic table and waved us good bye.

I paused, I wondered and we cut our breakfast burrito in half and ate it and drove on to Ghost Ranch.

I sometimes wonder if I should listen so carefully. Should I care and open my heart to others so easily. Oh, what I would miss if I did not care. I think I will keep listening.

There was another man in Hawaii I listened to at the City of Refuge. They had similar souls. He tried to tell a young man to not let his dog run loose in the park. The young man just ignored him and instead of getting angry he said, "A person cannot hear until they are ready to listen." and he let it go.

Sometimes you must want something for a long time before you get it.

2010-06-11T07:13:00.000-07:00

Hey you! I want in. Lillian

Classes, Pottery Tools and Clay at Brookside Pottery Tulsa, Summer hours

2010-06-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

Fellow Potters and wanna be potters in the Tulsa Area!

I am teaching in the Upward Bound program at Rogers State this summer. This will affect my studio hours. I want to be as helpful to people needing pottery, class and supplies and it is going to take a little more time co-ordination.

There is no air-conditioning in the shop so it is warming up in the afternoons as well and we need to "go with the flow." Mother Nature rules!

So here is the plan and we will see if it works!

Tues-Fri 4-7

most Saturdays 10ish-4 or so

and by appointment

If these hours don't work, I will repost on this blog.

This really is alternative shopping from the artists studio. I am certainly no Walmart. So many new customers come in and say "Oh, this is not what I expected." as they look for a gallery setting or a big shop full of supplies. It is a personal shopping experience and most people enjoy it when they realize it is more like the good old days. I throw open the doors, turn on lots of fans, turn up the music and make stuff, good stuff. And, I get to know my customers and give them the best service possible.

I sell many kinds of clay, lots of tools, kilns, brushes etc. If I don't have it I order it for you.

And I teach classes in the shop, Rogers State and the Philbrook.

I also tutor and do parties and get togethers.

So, call before you come so you won't waste a trip. Work is 918 747-7574 and my cell is on the machine if I am not there.

And, thanks for supporting your local potter.

Landscape pots at Brookside Pottery Tulsa

2010-05-06T21:07:00.000-07:00

I have been really busy producing lots of big show pots and these are some of the results. These are from my new series titled, Landscape. If feel great to take the time to make several large pots. It just makes me want to get an even larger kiln. It is great to stay inspired even after nearly 40 years of pottery making. Life is a bit to busy but it sure is fun.

Brookside Pottery is Back and Linda is Writing Again

2010-04-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

Bowls for my friend Joan in Baltimore if she likes them. $6 each and freight and handling. Yes, I saved these for you and did not sell them at the herb festivals. Bright colors to welcome spring.

Not just another snake in the grass #1, 6x6 inch tile with 3d snake. $25

Not just another snake in the grass #2, 6x6 stoneware tile $25

Not just another snake in the grass #3, 6x6" stoneware, $25

I never meant to ignore my blog for this long. I just completed three herb festivals in a row and have been working like it was Christmas. The only way to get it all done was to put in 12 hour days and just suck it up and get through it. Now is the time for readjustment. I can get so used to severe pressure to get all my work complete that it takes time to readjust to having a life. It is just the way it is.
Why do three herb festivals in a row? Because I am an artist trying to survive in a tough economy and I try to think of creative ways to "stay out there" in the public's eye. I really do like my new studio that I have been in for a year and a half now. Did not think I could say that again after grinning and bearing for a tough winter with no real heat. When your studio averages 47 degrees for a long time, well, it just isn't that much fun. Even a sense of adventure is sometimes not enough.

The Snake in the Grass series was just for fun. I did not take them to the herb shows because I wanted to see them for a bit. One of my students made snakes in class the other night and I must confess, I liked the idea. Even though I have a master's degree a part of me just had to join her. My first idea was to sell them in the festivals to kids to paint. But guess what? I wanted to paint them. And I found out with only one day's notice the date of the 5x5 and thought I might try this as a quick and fun idea. Well, they are 6x6 and I would have to race to the gallery to get them there after the herb festival and I was not convinced anyone would pay $55 for one, so I kept them. And what a fun idea! Can you imagine these mounted in a new tile wall just every now and then. What a conversation started and alternative tile wall they would make. I saw in my sister in laws house in Austin TX a similar idea. Just metal lizards that appeared to be climbing the wall. So, why not stick them on a bright and fun tile and mount them permanently. I am not finished with this idea. There are more complex ones in the kiln firing as I write.

In the decent weather my studio has the feel of Taos about 30 years ago. I remember meandering down dirt drives into interesting little spice shops, kite shops and funky galleries. It is a bit out of sight and out of mind but people who find me, want me and usually buy something.

So now what? It is change of pace time. I am getting to be a bit dull having lost a well rounded personality to hard work. Luckily my husband can keep himself occupied and usually doesn't seem to notice if I am not there much. "Ricky, I'm home. Ricky?"

Now it is a pleasure to start my show pots. In order to make any money in little shows in Tulsa I have to make a lot of pottery that people will buy spontaneously. It can nearly wear an artist's soul out, especially one who has been doing it for about 40 years. But alas, I survived the rain, the wind and the grit flying all over me to come out fighting again. I just want to make upper end items now. And, by continuing to teach in my shop and for Roger's State as well, I can now afford the time to make my best work. I still have plenty of funny little special orders to complete as well.

Now I should have time to exercise, cook a little healthy food and maybe even read. No more hitting the pillow and immediately passing out. As Paul Fink, a historian in Jonesboro Tennessee, in a "rest" home had on his door, "It is hell to grow old." I mentioned this to him as we hiked across Tennessee and stopped to talk to him and his response was, "Little lady, you don't know half of it." Well Paul, you are gone now and I still remember those words and I get it now. But, I am not going down easily, just gracefully. What else could you ask for?
Now I can focus on getting some photos of pots posted on my blog and special orders in the mail to friends.

And I am back to write as well.
Balance it is back to that "balance" thing again.

Rubbing Stones made for the Philbrook

2010-04-02T07:10:00.001-07:00

I was thrilled to be asked to create 4 rubbing stones for the Philbrook Museum. They are placed in the garden and students find them near the original artwork and create rubbings on paper using my stones. I was told what told which four places in the garden these were to be based upon. They chose the waterfall, Eric's tree, the metal tree and the lion gate. Here are the results.

Tulsa Pottery Class for Spring Break and more

2010-03-12T22:21:00.000-08:00

Pinch pots made by Becky Weggler in class
.

We just want to have fun and spend some creative time learning something new.

Well pottery class may be just what you want.

I will be in town over spring break making lots of pots for the upcoming spring art shows. And, I have discovered I really like tutoring adults and children individually or 2 or 3 at a time. We get to know each other and it makes the class more special for all of us. I have taught all ages from 3-83 and have been doing this for over 35 years.

I offer a creative environment and probably the smallest class size in town. This is more fun for us all. So here is the deal:
Call or email me and set up an appointment.
I tutor for $25 per hour plus materials and we make what you want to make or I give you ideas if you do not have the experience to know what you want or how to do it. The classes are by appointment to meet both our schedules.

I am also starting a new adult beginning pottery class on Tues nights next week from 6:30-9 or so. The price is $25 per class plus materials. It is a 6 week class but people join as they please, unlike the more structured old days and I keep the ball rolling and the students learn something new every week. I demonstrate at the beginning and then you can do something similar or maybe something different. The class size is usually 5-6 at a time. It can be as challenging or relaxing as you please. After several classes and learning the basic technical skills you can advance to the Wed night class.

I include the basic info below. Just call for more info at (918) 747-7574 or email:Claylady00@aol.com (00's are numbers not letters).

Rank beginners should not be afraid. You will be amazed at what you can make. And it is a great place to make new friends.

Tuesday Evenings Beginning Handbuilding, the basic techniques, pottery, 6:30-9 p.m. six-week classes are designed for beginners and those getting back into clay. Students will learn how to make pinch pots, slab pots, coiled pots and hollowed-out forms and how to create pots using a combination of these techniques. Students will also get an introduction to firing and will glaze their own pots. During each class, students will watch a demonstration of a new technique and then work to complete their own forms. The atmosphere will be relaxed and productive. Class size 5-8 persons.

Advanced or repeating students will be given more challenging versions of the above projects or they may repeat any project they desire. Be sure to let me know you are repeating and send in your deposit ASAP.

Wednesday Evenings Beginning and Intermediate pottery, 6:30-9:00 p.m. Class size: 6-10

This class offers more exploration of individual projects. Students with the basic handbuilding skills will love the loose nature of the class. I am there to guide and help and suggest project ideas but students work more independently. Problem solving with specific wheel problems available during this time. Make reservations based on space available per week

Fee: $25 per class or $150 for 6 weeks plus materials and includes the firing and glazing of six-10 pieces. A small firing fee will be charged for any additional pieces. A $50 deposit will guarantee a space in the class. Please mail or bring your deposit by the shop. The deposit may be returned with a five-day notice. During our tough economic times, class fee may be paid by the month (4 classes)

NEW, Special Projects Want to make a special project but don’t want to take an entire class? I can guide you through it as a special student for $25 per hour per person plus materials. By appt.

Tutoring for throwing $35 per hour. Need extra help when learning to throw? This is one to one trouble shooting for the beginning throwing student. By appt only.

Open studio open to previous students. $25 per session by appt.

And for Spring Break:

Fees? Special group rates for scouts, home schoolers, parties etc: One overall $25 instruction fee and $20 per person includes clay, materials and firing. Students may return a second time for only $10 for glazing finished projects. There are several options for the second projects.

Private tutoring for 1-3 students is $25 per hour per person.

Regular classes are $25 per person per week plus materials and usually meet 4-6 times, once a week.

Open studio: $25 plus materials time to be arranged.

For more information or to schedule a meeting time call:

Linda Coward, Brookside Pottery

1138D E. 37th Street

Tulsa, OK 74105

Magical installation 600,000 coins, 2000 bones and 800 communion wafers

2010-03-08T20:05:00.000-08:00

As seen at the Blanton Museum in Austin Texas. A statement about Catholicism. Beautiful installation. Bones, coins and communion wafers.

Intimidation, The Pecking Order of Life

2010-03-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

Chickens. I remember reading somewhere about the pecking order in the chicken world and how it works. The new chicken, unfamiliar with its new environment is liable to get pecked by other chickens until it dies or fits in the group. For people, it seems to start in kindergarten if not sooner.

The two most difficult chapters for me to write in my book have been this one and the chapter on ambition. Funny thing. Am I intimidated by writing about intimidation?

I don’t want to whine about my position in life. I don’t want to appear negative. I am not. I just want to be supportive of all our fears as we constantly adjust to our own pecking order.

According to wikipedia: “it is necessary to determine who is the 'top chicken,' the 'bottom chicken' and where all the rest fit in between. The establishment of the dominance hierarchy is believed to reduce the incidence of intense conflicts that incur a greater expenditure of energy. The dominance level determines which individual gets preferential access to food and mates.”

Therefore I feel the most comfortable in my own environment. I don’t want to be pecked. I don’t want my family to be pecked either. And, I don’t want to peck others as well.
I am sitting in the library of the University of Texas feeling like I must write just one more chapter of my book. How could I have left out such an important emotion, intimidation?

This library brought it all on. Looking around I realize all these students did extraordinarily well on their SAT test. Intimidation comes into play as I realize several of these kids averaged some high score I do not even know is possible. Many are high achievers can be in one space? Determined smart little Asian girls and many others from around the world gather around the computers in the library and giggle. I love the international feel yet I could really get pecked here in this unknown world. And, there is the young intelligent young man from somewhere else, studying a very scientific cell on the computer in front of him or is that a diagram for some other secret of the world? It brings out my public school science fear.

They all go back to their designer apartments with their chai latte tea in hand. They will all remain at the top of the pecking order.

Even my husband, graduate of this school, PhD in hand, felt a little intimidated as he began his latest research here on Native American Women as they were portrayed in the late 1800’s by Harper's Weekly. A highly intelligent man, even he felt a little intimidated.

Generally I believe any place is what you make of it. In other words, take advantage of where you are to learn what you want and your pecking order should not be a problem.

When we first came to Tulsa, I was so taken back with so many other Professors who always started their sentences with, “Well. When I was a Yale… or Well, when I was at Harvard…” It almost seemed to be a way to separate oneself from the John Steinbeck image of Oklahoma or simply, “In case you have not noticed, I am better than you.” Attitude.

And of course, anyone feeling threatened can always rely on Eleanor Roosevelt’s statement, “No one can make you feel any worse than you let them.”

I repeat, I feel safe in my own world.

In the middle of my pottery career I moved for my husband’s job 5 times in 10 years. I thought we would always be on the move. Stuff was under control after cramming it in boxes ever so often and asking if it was worth moving it again. The bad part was always reestablishing my position in the pecking order. Who are you? Are you any good as an artist? How much to do really know? Are you a decent human being?

I think feeling insecure promotes intimidation.

I dream about feeling insecure on journeys. I am always packing too much stuff in too much of a hurry or I am wondering halls of unknown schools. Sometimes the halls are familiar halls of a small town junior high school in small town Tennessee where I felt the pecking order happen quickly. There I was a Yankee girl in unknown territory. And now I return there in the middle of the night in my pajamas, if I am lucky. I run for trains and I watch my clock in my sleep. I think I prefer not to analyze these dreams. Just let them roll off the pillow.

Jesse Stuart the Appalachian writer taught in a rural school in Kentucky where he took his math students to Louisville to compete with a bunch of private school rich kids and his kids won the competition. That is the kind of story like to hear.

Learning and understanding helps with the intimidation issue.

I try and recognize when I am feeling intimidated and deal with it in a reasonable way.

The only time I ever felt intimidated in college was when I broke down in tears while giving a report in a Political Science class as a sophomore. I had a thick little paper back book to report on and five minutes to do it. I stood in front of a bunch of smart ass politically savvy boys of the early 70’s with a one inch thick stack of paper trying to explain the politics of the book. I could not see the relationship of the chapters in the book, felt my face redden and started crying. It seemed so complicated to explain in a few words and they seemed so critical. The teacher understood, knew I was prepared, over-prepared, said he understood and let me turn in a written version. Intimidation brought me to tears.

Please note: technical problems for the moment on font size, sorry, I am not yelling this. font size won't change:

Intimidation comes in many forms, mental, physical and spiritual. It can sneak up from behind and grab you when you least expect it. Or maybe it keeps you from even trying out some of life’s challenges. Recognizing it is the first step. Not taking yourself or others too seriously is the second step. Being prepared for whatever it is that is intimidating you is the third step. If all else fails, just run for it so you don’t get pecked to hard.

"So How is the Pottery Business Going these Days?"

2010-02-27T05:02:00.002-08:00

"Fine, thank you, just fine." And then the potter thought about how much there was to do that day.

Sometimes my business feels a good challenge. I love being a potter, having my own business, and making pots. Money? I am not in it only for the money or things would be different here. Everything would match and I probably would not smile very much. I would not be in the studio I have now, small and off the beaten path. The studio has a good feel, especially when weather is good.It has been easier when people had a little extra money to buy things they love. And, it is so much easier when the good weather come back.

And of course, friends are still trying to "fix me." Ideas for growth and success are tossed my way every day. I appreciate it but what I really need is just more time for production and to be able to think. Every day is open studio here and any artist who has ever been on a "studio tour, open to the public" knows what that is like. It makes it difficult to plan a work day. Wanna be's stop by, friends needing to vent drop by, and any one else who has a little time to kill. The door is open.

I just cannot stop. I love creating. I am always happy to see some one love what I have made for them, people who know the beauty of one of a kind well crafted pottery. And, it is kind of fun to think how many pots I have made over the last almost 40 years. Thousands and thousands of my pots are out there. They will long outlive me, the potter. I still get calls with people searching for a local potter who died about 10 years ago. I think that is fantastic. He is still in demand. I think that would put a smile on his face.

I guess I probably won't ever be wealthy but I have a rich life. I stay just busy enough to not get ahead and make all things I want to make. I stay busy enough supplying people with clay and glazes to be just a little interrupted and help others but not make much profit. Online stores are like giant Walmart that under price me and are so available at the touch of computer keys and paypal. Customer service and answers to many basic questions is the perk they get buying from me. Still some rude customers will pump my brain and still save a dollar and buy what they need offline.

My Grandmother told me once, "The depression just came and went and I never knew the difference." She raised 5 kids alone, worked in a grocery store and took in ironing as well. She waited for her husband to come back from Texas after trying to find work there but I think he fell in love with playing the spoons in the local bars and never came home. So much for the trust fund.

So, I will ride the wave, keep making lots of new pots, try and get into the online biz a bit more, teach here and there and just keep on keep looking for the balance of life and cash.

So how is the pottery business these days? "Fine, just fine, and you?"

The World is going to miss this fantastic poet, Lucille Clifton

2010-02-23T09:58:00.000-08:00

The NY Times ran an obit for this wonderful woman on Feb. 17th. She died at 73 with a great attitude.

Homage to My Hips
these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places, these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been
enslaved,
they go where they want to go.
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
I have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!

Natl book award in 2000 for "Blessing the Boats:New and selected poems.
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a $100,000 award
Finalist for Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for "Good Woman:Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980

Interesting woman, interesting poems.

Oil lamps for a Tahlequah Christian Church

2010-02-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

Additional pottery pieces added to the church collection.

Oil lamp sits on small coaster.

I always make extras and this "extra" splash of glaze made this one a little different than the rest. Most likely I will keep this one and it will be for sale. You must keep the wick especially close to the opening hole and use ultra pure oil so the lamps will not smoke. Some weep a tiny bit oil at the bottom, and we never know which ones will do it until they are used. That is why I recomment sitting every one on a small saucer just in case. And lamps should never be left unattended. Handle with care.

Plate or patten for communion bread.

Several years ago I made several communion pieces for a Christian Church in Tahlequah OK. They contacted me a while ago and asked if I could add a few more pieces to their collection. I was glad to do it and wish I had a list of every church who has and used my communion sets.
I named a blue glaze after Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Tulsa. It is Virgin Mary Blue.
One day Father Eishoff (terribly misspelled and no hope of figuring it out for now) came into my shop and said, "I need a big foot washing bowl, a giant platter for the towels, and two enormous pitchers for the foot washing ceremony and I want them on Virgin Mary Blue."
Virgin Mary Blue? I thought. Hmmm. Being the Unitarian that I am I did not know what color that was. After a trip to Italy and several religious paintings later, I figured it out. So in an attempt to figure it out I mixed 7 new shades of blue and let Father E. pick it out and named it Virgin Mary Blue. I also had named the other Saint Mary's Blue # 1, #2, #3 etc.....

At another point in my career I hosted several Presbyterians in my shop for a night of demos, bean dip and a show just for them. Several Ministers came to my shop and I had made quite an array of plates and goblets, referred to as chalices and pattens in the religious world. They purchased several and sent some around the world to their sister churches. If only I had photos and lists. Too late. And, that was before I owned a digital camera. It is still a sin for potters not to keep photographic records of their work. Sins should be mentioned in this particular blog post, don't you think?

So, at last I have more work for the Tahlequah Church and they will be coming to pick it up soon. Another special order complete. Amen.

Tim and Andy produce a big vase for the Mom.

2010-02-19T11:57:00.000-08:00

Tim and Andy hold a big vase they created for their "Mom." They pressed in their hands with a heart in the middle and each chose their own textures to go with it, all made with tender loving care with Mom in mind, Later, they chose their own glazes as well as we tied the design together.

Hand in hand these fellows produced, with a little help from me. They swapped ideas and worked together well spending quality time together and having fun.

I had a call from Tim Baker who owns a fantastic restaurant called Sonoma Bistro and Wine Bar in the Brookside area of Tulsa. Even during his busy Valentines season he made the effort to spend quality time with his son. He wanted to do a clay project with his 5 year old son for his wife. We thought and planned a big vase for fresh flowers. It was big and certainly not a project for novice potters but we did it any way. I knew we could pull it off if I helped guide them through the whole process. We did it and they were proud. And, it created great memories for Dad and son.
I am doing more special tutoring in my small shop. It is fun and I really get to know the people I work with. They are amazed at how rewarding it is to create one-of-a-kind quality art works. It is great to share talents.

Unitarian Stoneware Coasters in the works

2010-02-19T11:48:00.000-08:00

Each coaster is stamped and then individually incised.

When I have a special order I always make more just in case something does not work and so I will have an example to keep. And, sometimes the extras end up purchased anyway.

Close up of the coaster.

This is a recent project made in my studio and almost finished. I will post more photos when they are glazed. There are several glaze samples cooling in the kiln as I write this. I will publish the finished test samples as soon as they are cool.

I create carefully selected special orders on a regular basis. If this is of interest to you email me at Claylady00@aol.com. (00's are numbers not letters). I will quote a price depending on the design and work involved.

Ambition, " Some times I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits." Satchel Paige US baseball player .

2010-02-12T19:45:00.000-08:00

Landscape women series, Created in Hawaii 2oo8.
Only Half Grounded

Holding on to life

Cruising

Laid Back

Ambition. The Christian Work Ethic. The ego. As the artist churns. As the Mother gives.
The time clock keeps ticking. I am getting older. Ambition is different in my late 50's compared to being 25 years old.
Ambition can be a painful and or scary word as you get older.
I still have a lot to do and now I have less time to do it in. I do not regret my accomplishments but I could have done more. If I could have been more selfish, I could have soared, I think.
How hard to work? Do you want to be a workaholic? How important is the time you spend with your family?
I have always had the attitude, "I can have whatever I want if I try hard enough". Isn't that an all American way of thinking? I look at big fancy houses and think. I could have had that if I really wanted it. Maybe. Friends have said, "Yes it is true Linda but you were not willing to compromise your life or your art to get it."
My shop has been very cold this winter in this extraordinary cold winter of 2010. Finally a couple days ago it warmed up and I felt very privileged and "special" to have my own studio, always.Mostly, I just find myself working between two heaters in my shop, trying to finish special orders that I am grateful to have, waiting for spring. Funny how a little warmer environment improves productivity and attitude.
Sometimes I forget how lucky I am. And then there is the maybe it is not luck thing. I do sacrifice a lot to have what I have. It is a trade off. The trade off is having a regular income and someone else paying you on a regular basis not to mention retirement.
I doubted my ambition the other day when my son went to another successful potter and asked for advice on how to be successful. I do believe in sharing info and having mentors and a lot of sources It just made me doubt my own drive for ambition. Have I tried hard enough? Oh the art ego. All the sensitivity that gives us an awareness of our environment and the ability to reinterpret it can sometimes backfire.
But now, I look at the youthful ones, dealing with the same issues, full of hope and desire, aspiring to go to the top and be successful artistically and financially. It wears me out just to think about it. I feel a little envy of their energy level and a little relieved not to have to prove anything anymore. And I feel very confused often about how ambitious to be.
Friends try and "fix" me all the time. Oh yes, we will get you a big studio with heat and air and we will form a new arts group or studio or school or .....I hesitate for some basic reason that I don't understand. I just want to work and keep trying to balance my life. A little work and a little play and time to think.

Truthfully do I just want it all? I want to be artistically respected and successful, rich, thin, intelligent, alternative and have a ton of free time. I would like to have a few more one person shows in museums ( a fact hardly anyone in Tulsa knows I have had because I don't want to toot my own horn) and and I would like a lovely studio and not have to worry about my children. I would like to have dinner parties with arts folks like we did in the state of Virginia.

I cannot stand the words by laws, mission statements, or artist statement. Yet, I love to write. It just feels like if you don't know what you are doing why are you doing it? I don't want to write it down. I may change my mind about the artist statement and write one. Remaining a little flexible is a good idea. But, I cannot stand to see people write down their mission statement, declare it and think that is it. You have it. Finished. It is in print so it is official. I don't believe it.

It has always blown my mind how I can be working on a project and folks will come in and say "Oh yes." Yawn yawn. And then, it gets in the paper and people think it is a big deal. Not until it is in print does it matter.

And then there is the family thing. How do you do it all? The Women's Liberation movement kind of bit a lot of us in the butt. Yes, I believe in equality and I don't regret supporting the movement. But boy did we increase the work load. My husband helps me more than I ever expected. I loved raising my children. I enjoyed sharing our creativity and helping them grow into their artistic wings. I did not enjoy sitting on the elementary school gym floor and playing bingo. Motherhood had its own ambitions, most of which have been met. Hugging my children has always felt good.

Ambition. I find it painful to think about wondering if I am ambitious enough. Could I have done better? Or do I just need to take a chill pill and let it be.

Writing helps, working helps, just putting on my shoes and going out the front door helps. This chapter will need a lot of editing and more thought, soon to come.

Tidbits about Valentine's Day compliments of Kokopelli's blog

2010-02-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

Valentine Angel $75

Be Mine Valentine $60

Loved this post about the history of Valentine's day via Kokopelli foods blog. I have sold their wonderful beans and more in my pottery shop for many years.

Thank you for this history. Maybe now I will stop complaining about Valentine's Day to my wonderful husband who does not like to celebrate holidays with me. Some of these customs are very interesting.
I used to make special pots for this holiday but it does not actually seem to be a very popular day for pottery sales. So...here is some info anyway.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14th by many people throughout the world. Couples exchange gifts and cards to express their love and devotion to one another. Worldwide, the most popular gifts are candy, flowers and jewelry. In the U.S., heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and red roses are the most common.

• The first heart-shaped box of candy was sold in 1868 by Richard Cadbury. Chocolate has long been considered an aphrodisiac. The Aztec emperor Montezuma drank ground cocoa beans to increase his sexual prowess. In Mesoamerican marriage ceremonies, the couple shared a ritual cup of cocoa, which was believed to increase their luck in love.

• The red rose was thought to be the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman god of love and the father of Cupid. He is known as a mischievous, winged child, whose arrows would pierce the hearts of his victims causing them to fall deeply in love. He is prominently featured on boxes of chocolates created for Valentine’s Day.

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making it the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas.

• The oldest known Valentine's Day card is on display at a London museum. This card was sent in 1415 by the Duke of Orleans to his wife in France. The Duke was imprisoned at the time in the Tower of London.

• Exchanging Valentine's cards most likely began in America as early as the 1700s. The first mass-produced Valentine's Day card was sold in the 1840s by Esther Howland, a Massachusetts native. She originally sold hand-made, lace cards for as much as $35 per card!

In Japan, the present custom that only the women give gifts to the men on Valentine’s Day was originated by a Japanese confectionary company. The traditional gift is chocolate, and is given by the woman to all of her male friends & acquaintances, including superiors and co-workers. There are two levels of gifts:

• Giri-choko (“obligatory chocolate”) is given by the woman as a token of friendship or gratitude to her male co-workers, superiors and friends. It isn’t unusual for a woman to buy and hand out one dozen or more boxes of chocolates on Valentine’s Day. It is thought that a man’s popularity can be measured by the number of chocolates that he receives on this day; however, this can be such a sensitive issue that some might not comment on it unless assured that it will not be made public.

It is expected for woman to give chocolates to their male co-workers. The unpopular co-workers will receive the chō-giri choko (“ultra-obligatory” or “cheap chocolate”).

• Honmei-choko (“favorite” or “true love chocolate”) is given by the woman to the man she loves, or is truly serious about. Usually, the “favorite chocolate” is given along with another gift such as a necktie.

One month later, on March 14th, the men are obligated (thus, the name “obligation chocolate”) to give gifts to all women who gave them chocolates on Valentine’s Day. March 14th is known as White Day – gifts include marshmallows or white chocolate, or candy in white boxes; the term refers to the color of marshmallows which was the type of candy originally marketed for this day. The recipients of giri-choko are expected to return a gift of at least equal value to each woman from whom they received chocolates.

(Sources: http://www.holidays.net/amore/didyouknow.htm, www.squidoo.com/valentine-traditions-worldwide, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day

Delicious Dessert Chocolate Chip Muffins

2010-02-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

OK so this blog is about as much about food as pottery. I'm guilty, I'll admit it. I love to cook good food. Most potters do. Make bowls and plates and fill them up with homemade food made with tender loving care.
I learned something from my tiny little mother in law would not eat a real piece of cheese or butter if her life depended on it. She said, Desserts should not be diet food. Agreed.

I think back to the family reunions in the country in Osgood Indiana when I was a little girl. I just realized maybe that affected me more than I thought. Like Water For Chocolate kind of ladies with skills mostly in German foods like potato salad, coleslaw, macaroni salad and heavy casseroles. All those large boned ladies in their feed sack farmer's dresses. They loved to cook and there were tables full of bowls with rich mayonnaise ridden foods, not to mention the fried chicken and whatever. It would be fun to go back in time and have a good look to see what really was in all those big Pyrex bowls on those large wooden tables with the thick brown table legs made to support those incredible family reunion meals. They cooked and chatted all day while the men sat in a circle of chairs outside. Kids ran around outside and exploring the rooms in the big brick house while wondering how everyone was related.
Making pottery is kind of like cooking. You just fire it higher and eat it instead of using it. When I first moved to Tulsa and had a 6 month old little girl, a rental house with no studio space and knew no one, I cooked for creativity. I also cooked for cash. I made muffins and bread for my new neighbors delivered to their door at whatever time they wanted it. I knew an ex-school teacher who made more money doing that than teaching. I always wondered if I could do the same.

So from my favorite muffin book, Muffin Mania, used to supply new neighbors with treats I share this delicious Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe. It is fast, easy and delicious. The ingredients are simple and it will make you wonder why you would ever purchase a cellophane wrapped muffin again. PS Use high quality really good chocolate chips. Yes, you can lower the calories with a few diet tricks or make smaller muffins but I will take my Mother in laws attitude about dessert on this one. Delicious. Pretty fast for a dessert treat.

Chocolate Chip Dessert Muffins

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup melted butter
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients and add chocolate chips.

Combine egg, milk, and butter and stir into flour mixture. do not beat.

Bake 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

A few chocolate chips melted and drizzled over the tops when slightly cooled, make these a special dessert treat for chocolate lovers.

makes 12 regular size

Katy Loves To Throw, Brookside Pottery Tulsa

2010-02-07T15:55:00.000-08:00

I remember when Katy was born. She was a tiny twin. Now she is a vivacious 8 year old. She is lucky to get to be tutored in clay every week. Even when the shop is cold, Katy wants to come to pottery class. Yes Katy plays Little House on the Prairie with me and that involves working in the slightly cold pottery shop and throwing our clay water out to the imaginary horses at the end of class. Katy has a vivid imagination and works hard at her clay work and occassionaly gets in little trouble at home for creating clay studios maybe where she should not. She has decided it is worth it.
Katy's energy is high and she does both hand building and throwing. She shows a lot of independence and like to do things her way lots of times. Most people won't let 8 year olds throw but we do it anyway and she loves it. She loves the thrill of the clay spinning in her hands and sometimes we get traditional pots and sometimes unique pieces of sculpture. Anyway, we are having fun and I love teaching her on a one to one basis.

Fourth Grade Boys Create Giving Bowls in Pottery Class

2010-02-07T15:14:00.000-08:00

As I walked into the church ready to start teaching a new 8 week class of pottery to fourth graders I was passed by what seemed like a million high energy kids following a flag with a 4 on top. Could it be? Could that be my new group. I continued down the hall way pulling my clay. clay paddles, texture makers and such on my squeaky old luggage roller. "Was that the fourth graders going by?"I asked as I pulled my heavy wheeled supplies to the edge of the hall waiting for my turn to use the room. "Sure is!" replied the other teachers. And then two helpful ladies corralled the forth grade boys and lead them into the room like while bulls at a rodeo. They were gobbling their snacks and pushing a bit and bouncing off the walls. "This is gonna be a fun challenge." I thought and dug out my singing bowl from Tibet and began to play it. Their eyes came my direction and they became mesmerized by the sound. "What is this?" I asked them. No one knew exactly what it was. "Who can still hear it ringing?" I asked as the room got more and more quiet.

And this is how it happened.
Bowls. It is all about bowls. This is a singing bowl used by Tibetan monks. Feel the vibration. Can you feel it? Who can hear it the longest? You can try this later. Make the bowl sing. Bowls are like people in so many ways. We let others give us things for our bowls of life and we give to others to fill there bowls as well. Bowls have lips, bellies and feet. We will make bowls as different as we all are and we will have bowls to keep, bowls to share and more bowls. Bowls for everything. We will make animal bowls and all kinds of shapes as well. Bowls should be as different as every one is in room.

We had a blast. I told them stories as we worked and they told me about their life experiences as well. It is going to be a fun class. Who knew hanging out with fourth grade high energy boys could be so much fun?

Watch us grow. Watch us grow artistically. I am glad to share 40 years of knowledge with them and they are asking me for more. One boy said, "Hey this is fun. Not boring. I get so bored. I want to do this! I'm coming every week!" And I said, "Good me too. I don't want to do boring stuff either. This is fun. I try and not have a boring life or do boring things. We are going to learn a lot together."

Brookside Pottery Class Information for Feb. 2010

2010-02-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

Brookside Pottery
Adult Classes
1138D East 37th Street, Tulsa, OK 74105
918. 747. 7574
Linda Coward, Teacher

Tuesday Evenings Beginning Handbuilding, the basic techniques, pottery, 6:30-9 p.m. six-week classes are designed for beginners and those getting back into clay. Students will learn how to make pinch pots, slab pots, coiled pots and hollowed-out forms and how to create pots using a combination of these techniques. Students will also get an introduction to firing and will glaze their own pots. During each class, students will watch a demonstration of a new technique and then work to complete their own forms. The atmosphere will be relaxed and productive. Class size 5-8 persons.
Advanced or repeating students will be given more challenging versions of the above projects or they may repeat any project they desire. Be sure to let me know you are repeating and send in your deposit ASAP.

Wednesday Evenings Beginning and Intermediate pottery, 6:30-9:00 p.m. Class size: 6-10
This class offers more exploration of individual projects. Students with the basic handbuilding skills will love the loose nature of the class. I am there to guide and help and suggest project ideas but students work more independently. Problem solving with specific wheel problems available during this time. Make reservations based on space available per week
.
Fee: $25 per class or $150 for 6 weeks plus materials and includes the firing and glazing of six-10 pieces. A small firing fee will be charged for any additional pieces. A $50 deposit will guarantee a space in the class. Please mail or bring your deposit by the shop. The deposit may be returned with a five-day notice. During our tough economic times, class fee may be paid by the month (4 classes)

NEW, Special Projects Want to make a special project but don’t want to take an entire class? I can guide you through it as a special student for $25 per hour per person plus materials. By appt.

Tutoring for throwing $35 per hour. Need extra help when learning to throw? This is one to one trouble shooting for the beginning throwing student. By appt only.
Open studio open to previous students. $25 per session by appt.

Information about children’s classes available.

Making Potter Bowls and Loving It, Giving Bowls

2010-01-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

Earthy handmade large bowl measuring 10" high x 13 wide. Bright Robin's Egg Blue inside. $120 plus shipping and handling.

Recently made slab and pinched giving bowl, ready to dry and fire twice.

Cereal bowls thrown on the wheel waiting to be trimmed, fired and glazed.

A plain and simple glazed bowl, thrown on the wheel, sells for $9 and lasts forever. Lead free, microwaveable, dishwasher safe and ready to fill with soup.

Very large bowl, great for bread, salad, candle your choice! Formed by hand from three different clays. Sells for $120 plus freight. 10" tall x 13" wide

The giving bowl. I read the book a long time ago and found it fascinating. Being a potter and having made who knows how many bowls over 35 years how could I resist reading a book like that. In essence, the Monks are out everyday with their empty bowls living off what others put in them. Hmm.
Part of me likes the idea and the other part wonders what separates them from the persons I see under the interstate, same spot everyday with a sign, "Will work for food." or "Homeless" etc. Beyond that it is an idea worth thinking about and I think I have a new spring theme.

I want to make more bowls. The bowl must be one of the oldest produced shapes ever and quite functional. And of course, I want to push it to utilitarian/art/ worthy and thoughtful, not to mention beatiful.

When I am stressed I like to make bowls. It soothes me. The wheels spins, the lump of clay forms into a lovely container that later meet our basic needs. Or, making it is the basic rhythm of pinching round and round, watching how the clay moves, forming the patterns and one of a kind finger prints. Later the bowl holds something we need to nourish our bodies or contain something special. Or to just sit there, looking lovely and handmade to do whatever we want it to do.

When I am not stressed I also like to make bowls. A person cannot have enough bowls and they make lovely gifts for dear friends, new or old for that matter, brides. Everyone needs bowls.

Life hands us what we have. What is in our bowls? Are we grateful? Do we want bigger bowls? Smaller bowls? Brighter bowls? Matching bowls? Earthy bowls? One of a kind bowls? Bowls.
Do we have enough or too many?

I like to think life does not hand me what I have in my bowl. Would you call that bowl control? I like the take charge kind of attitude and that might make it hard for me to stand on the corner with my bowl and see what happens. How long could I stand there? I think I would feel embarrassed.
I cannot stand the phrases, "It is just meant to be." or other similar religious statements and I won't go there for now. So what about that bowl?

I am making bowls, special bowls, all kinds of bowls and will soon have an artist's statement about them. Follow me on this blog and let's see what happens. By spring I should have lots and lots of bowls for sale, all kinds.

Put simply, I love making bowls. And now my "Giving Bowls, made with love, one at a time, for many reasons for many people."

Pottery Class, Scout Badges, Birthday Parties and Tutoring at Brookside Pottery, Tulsa

2010-01-23T14:36:00.000-08:00

A new beginning class has just started at Brookside Pottery.
The class meets on Tuesday evening from 6:30-9, lasts 6 weeks, fee $150 plus materials. (materials run about $45 and includes clay, tools and firing).
Please note: my studio is a fair weather studio and during the winter's coldest months we have to delay the class. The shop is heated with space heaters and below 45 temps make it to cold to work. The rest of the year it is no big deal. So we must remain flexible with when we can meet.

A more advanced group meets on Wed. nights for the same fee and same price.

See info below for general info:

Brookside Pottery is here to help you learn the art of handbuilding and throwing clay. We make both utilitarian and sculptural creations.

Who? All interested persons who need help learning the basics of pottery making. I have the knowledge, equipment and space to make this fun. Over the past 35 years all ages have come to Brookside Pottery to make pottery and have been surprised what they can create with good instruction.

Where? Brookside Pottery is now located at 1138D East 37th Street, down the alley off 37th Street. It is a small creative studio with a garden outside complete with a picnic table for refreshment time.

When? Work time can be arranged individually. We can meet during your regular meeting time or on weekends at your convenience. Day or night, we are flexible. For an additional fee I can come to your regular meeting space although the real studio experience is fun and recommended.
The class usually lasts from one to one and a half hours including refreshment time.

Fees and alternative ways to learn about pottery: Special group rates for scouts, home schoolers, parties etc: One overall $25 instruction fee and $20 per person includes clay, materials and firing. Students may return a second time for only $10 for glazing finished projects. There are several options for the second projects.
Private tutoring for 1-3 students is $25 per hour per person.
Regular classes are $25 per person per week plus materials and usually meet 4-6 times, once a week.
Open studio: $25 plus materials time to be arranged.

For more information or to schedule a meeting time call:
Linda Coward, Brookside Pottery
1138D E. 37th Street
Tulsa, OK 74105

747-7574 work
697-6364 cell

Thank you for supporting your local potter!

Materials to take home for the enthusiastic ones!

25 pound bag of clay=25 baseballs $19.00
1/2 bag $10
1/4 bag $6

Basic pottery tool kit $17.95

or buy tools individually as needed
Needle tool $2.19
Wire $2.49
Various loops $2.49 up
Chamois $1.00
Brushes $3.00 up
and much more available as well
Glazes run $8 up per pint

Firing fees:
$1.00 an inch in the longest direction of the pot ($2.00 minimum firing fee)
Small beads etc must be placed in a fireable bowl.
All pots must follow the rules of good pottery craftsmanship and cannot be thicker than 1/2 “ and show no signs that they might blow up as determined by Linda. Pots will be handled carefully but we cannot be responsible for pots surviving firing or handling.
Fired pots must be picked up within 2 weeks after being fired.

Clay and Pottery Supplies in Tulsa Available at Brookside Pottery

2010-01-23T14:33:00.000-08:00

Need Tools, Clay or Supplies?
Brookside Pottery has everything you need or I can get it for you!
normal hours:
Wed.-Fri. 12-5
and the 1st and 3rd Sat. from 10-4
and by appointment

Please note: Jan and Feb hours are less reliable because of no heat in my studio and travel plans. But I will do all I can to meet you at the shop for your pottery tool needs. Just call first to be sure I am there or call my cell and I will meet you there or have someone else help out.
(918) 747-7574 shop (918) 697-6364
Where did I move?
1138 D East 37th Street, at the end of the alley behind Diamond Brokers and Lockers Hair, my old storage garage, on the West side of Peoria.

Thanks for supporting your local potter!
Linda Coward

Puff Pastry, Triple Cream Goat Cheese and Raspberries Walnuts and Honey, My Newly Created Recipe

2010-01-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

A decent Washington State Champagne makes cooking fun while sipping.

Hmm, triple creme goat cheese, not so expensive, from Whole Food's Market

raspberries, walnut honey goo, more of this and a little less cheese than online recipes

egg wash to seal and brown the pastry, simply brush over pastry before baking

Ready to bake, oozed out goo painted on top, take advantage of mistakes
The pasty always splits a little.

Carefully study what you bake while having another sip or 2 of of chamagne.

Let it cool a bit before you cut it. Place on plate for faster cooling. Serve on apples or crackers.

Eat this while waiting for cheese to cool.

Additonal bonus recipe to be made into cabbage/meatball soup tomorrow.

Yum. Here we go again. Could not help but share this delicious recipe I just made up. This was made for my Sunday night date with my husband. We watch a couple of stupid TV shows and have terrific appetisers. We could not stop eating the Goat Cheese Brie Puff Pastry. Guess I better start a new exercise regiment if this continues.

I looked up some recipes on line and then decided to play "Splendid Table" using ingredients I already have in my refrigerator to make something really good. After all, who wants to run to the grocery if you don't have to and have way to many leftovers from holidays? I looked up a few ideas on PuffPastry.com and then made my own version.

Ingredients:
Bottle of champagne to sip while cooking;
A frozen puff pastry, thawed about 40 minutes and ready to roll a little thinner
1/3 cup frozen raspberries, fresh if they were available
1/3 cup of walnuts chopped
1/3 cup of local honey
a few snips of fresh Rosemary about 1 tsp+
small wheel of Goat Cheese Brie
Egg with 1 TBS of water to baste pastry

Drink a swig of champagne and start mashing frozen raspberries into walnuts and honey in small bowl. Roll out the thawed puff pastry just a little larger and spread the raspberry honey walnut goo on the center of pastry sheet. Swig champagne and then place goat cheese in middle of raspberries goo. Fold the pastry over the cheese and hope it does not fall apart. IF some of the goo oozes out, fear not. Place loaded pastry in ungreased pan and cover top with extra goo. Baste with egg wash, after swigging more champagne. Place in over at 425 for about 30-40 minutes. Cool for about 30 minutes or half way through the TV show. Call husband run to TV with more champagne and eat other appetisers while waiting for brie. Is that Brie on Desperate Housewives or brie in oven? Have more champagne.

I made a plate of sliced apples, grapes and celery with peanut butter to snack on while waiting.

I also made a meatball something to add a little variety.
Throw Sam's frozen meatballs in saucepan, add, chopped canned green chili peppers, two hands full of shredded cabbage, a bunch of garlic and fresh thyme and rosemary. Simmer on stove and cook until meat is ready and cabbage mix is soft. Eat a little and save the rest to use as a base for a great soup the next day.

Next day Cabbage Meatball Soup with Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Left over meat ball cabbage combo
can of Progresso tomato soup
several more hand fulls of shredded cabbage carrot blend
A couple TBS of ketchup for sweetness
A quart of chicken broth
more Sam's frozen meatballs
Cook it a while on the stove until cabbage is soft and meat is cooked and simmer a little longer than you thought you would.

Made some great homemade garlic mashed potatoes. When you are hungry enough, put mashed potatoes in a bowl and scoop soup over potatoes. Smile and eat. Later call several friends and tell them to come over and share it. Feeds a small army and is fun to share so you can make something else tomorrow and have a little left over.

Try not to overeat and remember to share anything you have left over. Boy it is hard to diet when the food tastes so good. Maybe the cabbage cancels the triple creme Goat Cheese. Oh well just think portion control!

Musing about the Slow Movement

2010-01-03T15:09:00.001-08:00

Playtime
bedtime
central time
fast time
slow time
no time
big time
hard time
my time
your time
some time
long time
short time
real time
show time
hard time
time clock
time out

It is here and it is gone. It is so basic and still so complicated. I was intrigued listening to NPR's To the Best of My Knowledge as they discussed the concept of time. Americans do keep moving and try to defy time thinking there is never enough time to do what we want to do.
Time is a such an abstract concept. Yesterday is gone, totally gone and tomorrow is not yet here.

Time plays with our way of thinking. Are you on time? Are you power playing by arriving late? Are you on Mexican or Indian time and expected to be late? Do you set your clock 3 minutes faster so you can play mind games with your watch and not be late?

I remember reading in UTNE magazine how the alarm clock changed our concept of time pushing us to conform and get to work on time. How many times have we pushed snooze and tried to defy time? I remember growing up in Indiana and hearing the whistle blow from the Seagram's factory signaling my Dad to go to get to work or have lunch or quit for the day. I remember being fascinated with the first public clock in small town Indiana as it showed us a digital clock the first time and the temperature as well. And now, I hear still hear a noon whistle in Tulsa on Fridays and the Church Bells from Southminster Church on the hour and half hour as well. We live in such a time conscious society. I have found I normally run about 7 minutes behind the rest of the universe. I don't like to hurry.

We can slow down time if we really make a conscious effort. The way this best worked for me was when my husband and I walked across Tennessee some 587 miles in 62 days. We did not race across the state. We walked in the cool of the morning and in the evening. Some days we walked about 12 miles and some days a few more. We were very aware of our environment. I took photos and my husband wrote about our adventure and we sent articles back to a small town paper in Tennessee. Several years later I biked across Oklahoma. I remember hearing the young men who want to be there first rattling their tents, bikes and leaving camp first. Their day's ride was over by early morning. I finished toward the end of the day. That slowed time down a bit but not like walking. You are where you are when you are walking but you still see a lot from a good bike ride.

The pottery process if most rewarding when it is done slowly as well. It is no fun to be thinking about the next project while working on another.

Those early morning hours are fun when you feel relaxed and slowly wake up slowly making plans for the art or life projects of the day.

I get upset when I see adults trying to hurry children through a day. Learn fast, faster than anyone in you class. Hurry! Grow up. Act like an adult. Dress like an adult. Be an adult. The computers and video games seem to encourage fast behaviour as well. I remember my son saying once as I literally pulled on his arm rushing to catch the school bus when he was 5, "Hey Mom, Did you see the birds on the line?" No, I didn't. I was in a big hurry.
We should not rush our children to learn to quickly. They need to be able to fully grasp a concept be it math or creative thinking before hurrying them on to the next idea. For example, the ancient Haiku, Old Pond,Frog jump in. Water Sound. Yes you can "get it" quickly but how much to you really understand or contemplate if you move right along?

I met a dance teacher at the private Jewish summer camp where I was teaching this summer. My slower than New Jersey speech pattern drove her crazy and she let me know it. She could not sit still and spoke rapidly. After a bit of getting used to each other and discussing our differences we got along just fine. So often people in the north consider us "slow" if we don't respond as quickly. We grew to appreciate each others habits.

Walking through Whole Foods market today, around noon on Sunday, I noticed several ambitious shoppers, mostly well dressed short haired young men, flying up and down the isles with their shopping carts. In my slow mood, I found them very irritating. They nearly ran me down several times as I jumped out of their way. And, I am not sure they got much more accomplished that I did in a few minutes less.

I love the question, "What do you have when fast food is not fast?" When you wait a long time for fast food there is just nothing there. Just like food, a good glaze recipe is likely to have many ingredients in it to make it better. Foods with lots of layers of taste can sometimes be better as well. Or, maybe just slowly eating an apple can give you a chance to savor it more. Some people eat so fast they hardly salivate. Eating in the car while on the way to an appointment is just a little too ordinary in this country. And of course we all know if we eat more slowly we supposedly eat less leading to better health.

There are so many layers to thinking about time. When I think about time and age it feels so bizarre. My earliest memories were my Mother reading to me from a library book about squirrels in my bedroom as a small child. I also remember running around in a cemetery with other kids and crawling on my knees in concrete drain pipes under the road scraping my knees. It is so unusual to think that person is still me. That was about 54 years ago. And it is strange to realize we are as old as we have ever been and as young as we will ever be. And of course, that some day our time ends, totally ends.

I feel better when I do things more slowly. And if you move too fast sometimes it catches up with you. During the Christmas rush,on the day of my open house, I was moving fast, too fast. I was moving so fast I tripped and fell in my office at my studio. I laid there for a minute, wondering if I had broken my wrist or knee and thought about the consequences. I had nearly tripped twice before a few minutes earlier. Still, I did not listen. I got up slowly and thank goodness, nothing was broken even though I tripped onto a concrete floor. I was rattled but not injured. Then, I listened after the "what ifs" got a hold of my brain.

As a society, I am afraid we are not listening. We get in the hurry up habit and it is hard to break. We would not want to appear lazy or slow. Well, now we are beginning to reevaluate this fast pace. We? I think we. Same song, slow down we move too fast.

Big Horn Sheep Pots

2010-01-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

Sold and out the door before I got picture of them glazed. They were a dark brown clay with a shiny brown and tan interior. Stoneware and stronger than the Mexican version. Very silly and very one of a kind. Small ones are about $25, Medium are $35 and Large are $45, plus shipping and handling. And I can make even larger ones for $60 up to be used as outdoor planters. Special orders welcome!

This is a Glitzie girl still available. I only have this one available now. She was hiding and shy and maybe a bit glamorous for an ever so earthy big Horn Sheep kind of Girl. She is 9 inches wide from nose to tail and 6 inches tall.

I sit in my very cold studio still wanting to make pottery even though it is 37 degrees in here! I will have to play Little House on the Prairie just like I do with my little 8 year old student. I am Ma and she is Mary. Her twin sister who take painting somewhere else, not pottery, is in fact, Laura. When we have to throw the thicker slip water over the fence we call that watering the horses in the winter on the prairie even though Tulsa in no way resembles the prairie except for wind and cold.

I have always felt very inspired by Mexican, African and Native American pottery. Those were my influences in grad school some 3o years ago. I love the Mexican goat pots and found myself making a variation of them creating my Big Horn Sheep pots. After a trip many years ago, seeing Big Horn sheep at and around Big Bend Nat'l Park, I starting making my Big Horn Sheep pots. They are fun and silly. They help liven any party with the small ones holding salsa and the big ones a large bag of chips. I don't make them all the time. With the encouragement of others I decided to make some this year for Christmas.
I still have one who is a bit glitzy and not as earthy as most. "She" stimulated a special order for a couple of smaller ones and I made a couple extras as I usually do when I have a commission. As soon as their feet (hoofs) hit the table they were all gone, out the door. I just realized I don't even have a picture of them complete so glitzy will have to show how they look finished.
Maybe I will make some more soon if the shop ever gets warm enough to stick my hands in the clay.
Usually my pots reflect my environment. I came across the poster of the big horn sheep and realized that is kind of how I feel today. Thick, strong, I can take the cold as I stand my ground here in this shop or on the rock. Just bring it on Old Man Winter. Mother Earth is here!

Slow Down You Move Too Fast, The Dilemma of the Christian Work Ethic

2009-12-11T06:49:00.000-08:00

Fernando Botero's Reclining Woman

photographed at the Birmingham Art Museum (BAM)
outside in their art garden

Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.

As I wake up every morning lots of times I wake up with good ideas. It is a wonderful state of consciousness. It is there when I wake in peace and take the time to listen. It can be a time of new ideas for pots, creative display ideas or a key to finding inner peace.

Today I realized I need desperately to slow down. I remember as a child spinning a large metal top on a hard linoleum floor. You push down hard and press the metal stem making a grinding noise, metal against metal, applying more and more pressure. Then you let go and it spins and spins nearly falling over several times until it comes to rest on its side. I am a top.
Every year I love and hate the Christmas season. I love to make art people want. I love to go to a show and sell like a maniac and get the compliments feeling greatly rewarded in so many ways for my hard work. I love it when people want to buy my work.
I hate pricing my pottery. It is not that I don't know how. There are formulas, experience and real ways to honestly price my work. Whenever I mention this, my ever so helpful friends start telling me how this is done, as if I don't understand, and scolding me for severely underpricing my work.
I knew I was really in trouble when a friend, a savvy saleswoman friend, came up with a great idea. "I want to sell your pots for you and price them what they should be. That $70 pot should sell for at least $300. I am going to open a shop and sell your pots under a fake name and they will sell like hotcakes." Have I shot myself in the foot now? I cannot even try to sell for more if I sign the pot? The worse thing is, I like the idea. I would love to just make them and someone else, with not ego involved, can sell them. But, what has this spinning top done? Have I landed unsuccessfully on my side before finishing the spin?

I just quit weight watchers after losing 15 pounds. I will admit that 7 and half of those pounds were lost in PA while teaching at the Jewish Kids Camp in the summer where the food was not so great and I walked a lot. Now in this "spinning" part of the year, I find myself craving petifors and rich luscious foods. And, I know I should put my shoes on, go walk and take care of myself. The waist thickens, the face gets big and yikes! How quickly we can undo good habits and begin to pay the price.

The Christian work ethic. I don't like it. I do it. We cannot escape our culture. How do we keep the top from spinning so hard? I am a free spirit who can easily be sucked into getting great pleasure from being extremely productive. Something tells me it gives me a place of respect. It makes me valuable. So then why do I need to work under an alias to make this happen? Something is wrong with this picture.

I knew life was out of balance the other day when I quickly ran into Whole Foods looking for some delicious squash/crab creamy soup and noticed I was in another universe. People were taking their time, enjoying shopping, slowly carefully picking out their dinner and smiling at the same time. I was in a spinning marathon, rushing to get back to work and hurry and eat my dinner before a long night of teaching after working all day.

I am not whining. I am thinking out loud. When we do this public journal thing we open up to much criticism. I write these thought publicly because I know so many others feel this way as well and we need moral support and understanding. I thank everyone who has written me to say, "Thank you. You feel this way too? I thought I was the only one."

I like being busy but it is time to sit back and look for the balance. My husband wonders if he is even married and patiently waits for the calm after the Christmas storm as he has for some 35 years. My cats beg for my attention. The dust is thick on bookshelves. I may have to go back to the beginning of my half read books. My chest of drawers looks as bad as my office, cluttered and piled sky high. I haven't raked the yard yet.

I do have hope. I am not going to make a lot of cash again this year. But, my son replaced the windows in the garage door of my studio. I can clearly see the channel two tower and I can tell if it is day or night, dry or wet or soon to be snowing. But the really special and most calming thing is watching the hawk on channel two's tower. We have a special relationship from my point of view. I look out several times a day to see if she is resting on the perch of the antenna or swooping around the tower. She brings me calm. Watching the grace of flight. Watching her do her job as she watches for her dinner below. Sometime she is just in her nest, privately resting. I wonder if she watches me too. I would offer her a bunch of feeder mice on a box on the roof if I thought she wanted and could see them. And a very creative friend suggested I throw some in the air. Well, I do have a slingshot but it just doesn't sound right. So I will just watch. And, take a few lessons from the hawk.

Just kicking down the cobble stones.
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.
Hello lamppost,
What cha knowing?
I've come to watch your flowers growing.
Ain't cha got no rhymes for me?
Doot-in' doo-doo,
Feelin' groovy.

Got no deeds to do,
No promises to keep.
I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep.
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.
Life, I love you,
All is groovy. Sources: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/s/simongarellyrics/thefunkthstreetbridgesongfeelinggroovylyrics.html

Potters like to Cook! It All fits the picture! Raspberry Salsa Recipe

2009-12-08T07:55:00.000-08:00

Raspberry Salsa, spread it on anything you like! Crackers, apples, celery, cake, lips.

John and I have a TV date every Sunday night and we watch desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters. Don't worry, we don't take TV seriously. I hardly ever watch TV. But this is our ritual. I go to Whole Foods and choose 3 special cheeses, cut some apple, add a few other good appetizers like stuffed grape leaves or maybe olives. And of course a good glass of wine. We kick back our shoes and stuff ourselves and laugh.

Pan roasted almonds with a touch of salt and raw sugar. Addictive addition!

Part of the ritual spread on the TV trays.

OK. So I have fallen off the weight watcher wagon again. Guilty. What can I say. I love to cook and I am a foodie. I will jump back on right after I try a few new recipes. Here is a great and simple one from Chips,Dips, & Salsas, by Judy Walker and Kim MacEachern.
If you are ever invited to a potter's pot luck etc. GO. We love to cook generally speaking. There is something about beautiful food and beautiful pottery. They go hand in hand.
Oops, I did not put this on one of my cheese plates. Mistake on my part on my pottery blog but oh well imagine it and next time I make it I will put it on a plate I made.

I made this recipe on Thanksgiving and it was so good I had to make it again. It is fresh and lovely and extra tasty. It is recommended over goat cheese. Having a picky veggie daughter I put it on pound cake for Thanksgiving. This time served it over goat cheese and also spread it on celery and apples to lower a few calories. And, I have been known to just reach in and snatch some out of the bowl in a spoon. No double dipping!

The Chambord, syrup and cinnamon make this dish. Don't worry about the chill time frame. It is good new or the next day. I think it would even be good on cardboard. Great! Easy.

Raspberry Salsa

6 ounces of raspberries, rinsed
1-11 ounce can of mandarin oranges, drained
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbs boysenberry syrup (I used blueberry)
dash of Chambord raspberrie liqueur (they say optional, I say do it)

Combine all ingredients in a pottery bowl made by mwhaw. Stir gently to combine. Chill for no more than one hour.
Stir and serve.
Makes about 2 cups.

How to create versus How about trying this idea? Art or Craft

2009-11-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

I was working with one of my students tonight showing her how to make Christmas trees in clay. An interesting thought happened. She is a good student and has come a long way as she becomes more of an art professional vs more of a craft student.
We were talking about "How" to make the Christmas tree and I kept suggesting "what if we do this or that." I explained that each tree must be looked at individually and we think of the possibilities of things to do with the surface and the shape. I explained that there is no right way to make it. We just look at it and think of new ideas that might make each tree more individualistic and interesting. And that is when I realized that one difference in art and craft approaches is with art you usually have the know how technically, assuming you are somewhat proficient. With craft, you want to know how to make it. This is only a small part of it. I am not wanting to confuse craft with craftsmanship at this point.
It is just a small difference in approach. And, I recognize with practice, a person approaching the same idea as a "crafts" person would also begin to reach out.
When does it become art not craft? I don't know. Maybe craft is about "how to make it" and art is "How about trying this or that."
This sounds a little too simple but is worth thinking about.

Thanksgiving Poem by Marge Ackley

2009-11-26T19:34:00.001-08:00

My friends Tom and Susan sent me this poem his mother wrote about Thanksgiving. I think it is lovely and I share the sentiments.

We offer gratitude to and for all friends

Who create, remake and refine one another;

Who point to stars and keep us from the dark;

Who help us hear the music in the silent places....

Who hold us and will not let us go.

By Marge Ackley

Happy Thanksgiving
Tom & Susan

Are You Looking for Brookside Pottery, Linda Rimstidt Coward, Tulsa Oklahoma? Classes, gallery and supplies

2009-11-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

Just in case you have lost me and are looking for Brookside Pottery, I am making this simple post on my blog.
Some of my customers think lost me or think I have gone out of business after I moved from 3710 South Peoria. So this is a simple way for you to find me if you have googled my business.

Where am I?
I am not located in the alley behind where I used to be, right behind Locker's Hair Salon, across from channel 2 in Tulsa. The actual address is 1138 D East 37th Street. I am down the alley off the parking lot in a garage at the end of the building. It is easy to find me if you turn west off South Peoria on 37th Street and look around the parking lot.

What are my crazy hours?
Hours: Seems like I am there all the time. I run late and stay late.
The official hours are Wed.-Fri for 12-5
And open the 1st and 3rd Sat of every month

Don't let that fool you. I am there a lot more and I teach on Tues and Wed nights as well as tutor on Monday afternoons. And I have to have some more worktime as well.

What kind of shop am I?
The shop is a working pottery studio, I teach classes, host birthday parties, scout groups and just about any kind of get together.
I also sell clay, tools, glazes and equipment.

How can you reach me for an appointment or more info?
My shop phone is (918) 747-7574 and my cell is (918) 697-6364
or you can email me at claylady00@aol.com (00 are numbers not letters)

I have been a potter for about 36 years and located in Tulsa for 19 years.

I hope this post helps if you are one of my customers that thinks I have disappeared.
I will be harder to find in Jan and Feb because my shop has no heat or air conditioning. If it gets real cold, I will be open by appointment only.

The Finest Folk Artist I Have Ever Taught

2009-11-14T19:54:00.001-08:00

Steph's latest pottery face influenced by a drawing by Picasso

Steph holds her pot just after it comes out of the kiln.

Steph has been enjoying making vessels with faces on them based on her drawings.

Friends talking and exchanging ideas.

Steph and Don enjoy seeing another pot come out of the kiln.

Steph's Indian Face

Steph and Don came to see me one afternoon to talk about taking classes. They had found me on the Internet and Steph wanted to learn how to make things with clay. It is a pleasure to teach her. She is in my opinion as good as any fold artist I saw in the Baltimore Folk Art Museum. Her work belongs there.
I have taught her several techniques and she continues to grow and learn and is not intimidated by any form or idea. She just gets in there and does it. She keeps a great journal of drawings and ideas and I want to help her find her way to form these ideas. She is very original and loves really bright colors. I have also called in my son, Ian, to help her on class night. She immediately was drawn to his work and they get excited talking about ideas, colors and inspiration.
It is a pleasure to teach such a natural folk artist and to see the joy in her eyes when her work comes out of the kiln.

The Pursuit of Happiness, lol

2009-11-12T09:13:00.000-08:00

VooDoo Diva sitting on the shelf at Brookside pottery, always smiling and waiting for a home.

Today a friend posted a quote about happiness on facebook and I cannot get it out of mind without writing about it. I tried to boost myself out the door and "get on with the day" but instead headed for my claw footed bathtub for a soak. It is a great place to think. I wanted to think about happiness which gets a little tricky.

The quote that started this is:

"Taisen Deshimaru, a Japanese Soto Zen Buddhist teacher writes: If you are not happy here and now, you never will be."

If you want to be a happy person that puts a lot of pressure on you. I get a little self doubt if I start questioning it. Would a "happy" person think like that? Wouldn't a truly happy person just say "Oh yes, and push like, lol comment on facebook, the over the fence communication system of our day?

I generally feel happy, am told I am a "happy" person and try to surround myself with happy people. Blag. The thought of that makes me unhappy. Sounds like everyone is either smoking pot, on anti-depressants, overly religious or just plain dumb. Oops, how could a happy person say such a thing? I don't want to be a PollyAnna but I do like the braids.

A friend recently gave me a treat of Richard Sadaris ticket to hear him read. I was happy. We sat on the back row, giving me a feeling of freedom and superiority being a bit claustrophobic. And I laughed harder than I have in ages. lol.lol. I laughed until my throat hurt. I left happy and feeling like someone had hit me laughingly in the chest. Is that happy? Or is that just laughing, some kind of evolved instinct?

Having goals makes me happy. In the early years of my marriage I confess, my husband and I were getting a bit bored with each other. Goals. I knew we needed a mutual goal. We are both a bit type A, asking a lot out of life, and we needed to head in the same direction. Can you be type A non hyper active? That's me for all my friends that are reading this saying "Well maybe John is type a but not Linda."
So I thought about it and we decided we would hike across Tennessee and John would write about it and I would photograph it. That made us both happy. One step at a time, it slowed life down and helped us get down to the basics. 567 miles in 62 days of happiness. Sometimes sleeping on the ground, spread eagle and holding on tight while the earth is spinning is great.

I read in a book about the Hopi Indian tribe that never has a Hopi said, "Stop the world. I want to get off." And then the book elaborated about the Hopi sense of time and the calmness of the culture. That sounds happy to me but that was over 25 years ago. Is it still true? Was it ever really true?

Recently, given the opportunity, I would have gladly hopped out of this mind and body to give myself a break. Stop the world. I don't want to get off. I just need a break. This goal thing is getting out of hand. I don't do illegal drugs but I did drink a cup of real Kava the other night to try and "turn off." It tastes like drinking dirt and it only helped me go to sleep. By morning I was ready to hit the road again. It is too easy for me to forget to take time for myself and relax.

"Slow down, you move to fast. You gotta make the morning last. It's...." Forgot the rest of the song. Hope that was not the important part.

I watched a group of friends recently pursue their happiness. It seemed to be that none of them would be happy until they each found a husband, a rich husband. It was quite a scramble. They all buffed their bodies and "smiled" at rich men a lot. My concern was if they would be able to find love if they could not give love a little more. Was love really even involved? They all did it. I hope they are happy and have found love. If they stay married and keep smiling I guess the answer is yes. They are happy. I often wish I could be that self centered and get the body back in shape and spend some cash.

Spending cash does not always work either. Before my first child was born I had a miscarriage. Just when I thought OK, we are really having a baby and that will be fun. Boom. In my mind I could intellectually accept it. The baby probably would have had problems of some sort. I can try again etc. So, I decided I would take the deposit, all $500 I had given the Doctor's office for the baby having experience, and go shopping to make up the difference. I left every store I visited all day empty handed. Cash, as long as I have enough for basic needs, does not do it for me

Sometimes I wonder if crazy people are really just happy people to the extreme. Then I hear the other side, the scared and angry stories about truly diagnosed crazy people

I am happy when I cook. I am happy when I am making art alone. I am happy when my kids and husband are happy. I am happy when I am exploring, traveling and learning. I am happy when I surround myself with intelligent and interesting people.
I am not happy when I get on the scales after I cook. I am not happy when I can't think straight because people won't leave me alone so I can make art. I am not happy when I worry about family and friends. I am not happy when I think I am not happy.

How much is happiness related to gender? My husband and I were talking about this the other night. Is it more difficult to be happy if you are female? I am not sure. But, thinking about why so many women are not happy is a worthy thought. I am sad when I see a woman's happiness come only through her husband. That is not to be confused with appreciating, supporting and loving your husband. But in fact, many woman's careers which can bring happiness are greatly altered by the husbands job and motherhood. You have to be able to pull off what you want in any location and in stolen moments. And, I think it is mostly OK.

Yes, I am happy most of the time. It helps to be a basic optimist by nature. A friend told me you can change your habits but not your basic personality. It makes me wonder if we can control our happiness. I think the answer is not black and white but how about "sort of."

So Mr ever so smart Zen Buddist teacher. Yes I am happy now and will probably always be. Right after I take a nap.