NOTES TO SELF
The Notes to Self collection captures the artist’s state of mind as she moved through her transition into working as a full time artist.
It communicates her commitment to giving her art both time and power and is uncoincidentally inspired by the Mary Oliver essay Of Time and Power which the artist read every night as a meditation of intention while making the collection. Each work in the collection exemplifies a piece of the artist’s commitment to honouring her creative spirit fully and embracing the authentic voice trying to be heard against the loud screams of the ego. The work itself is the resolution of many experiments in form and finish that came before it. The collection comprises six hand built voluminous stoneware vessels that are finished with many layers of experimental glaze in an abstract painterly style. The words of the artist’s poetic meditation mantras were etched into the underlayers of glaze representing an unbinding contract of trust she made with her creative spirit. This collection represents an overcoming of the artist's fear to create work from the soul.
'My responsibility is not to the ordinary'
"It is six a.m., and I am working. I am absent-minded, reckless, heedless of social obligations, etc. It is as it must be. The tire goes flat, the tooth falls out, there will be a hundred meals without mustard. The poem gets written. I have wrestled with the angel and I am stained with light and I have no shame. Neither do I have guilt. My responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth. It does not extend to the lost button, or the beans in the pot. My loyalty is to the inner vision, wherever and howsoever it may arrive. If I have a meeting with you at three o’clock, rejoice if I am late. Rejoice even more if I do not arrive at all."
- Mary Oliver