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Pinky & Maurice

Contemporary Ceramics

July 16, 2017 by Claire Atkins Leave a Comment

Making MOFO Pots : Serious Women’s Business

This year from October 29 – November 11, I have the ENORMOUS pleasure of leading a group of women on retreat to the Gaya Ceramics and Arts Centre in Bali. Under the tutelage of artist and Gaya Director Hillary Kane we’ll embark on a journey of creative daring to create BIG pots and BIG magic.

(This magical women’s retreat is now SOLD OUT. Don’t hesitate to contact me to join the waiting list. Meanwhile, check out the workshop schedule below and follow the links for fees and details.)

Birthing Big Pots: Creating Big Magic, A Women’s Retreat

Workshop Schedule 29 October-11 November, 2017

Engage in a dynamic exploration of creativity, daring, and the art of finding one’s centre in a two-week immersion combining skill-building in clay with a genuine deeper look within.

Sunday 29 October 

Welcome Dinner at MOKSA restaurant

A sumptuous meal and a moment to ponder all the reasons we each find ourselves at this table together, a lighting of the candle of inspiration, courage, and dynamism for the two weeks to come! 

Our exploration is organised around the five elements as they are known in Bali: Apah (water), Bayu (air), Teja (fire), Pertiwi (earth), Akasa (ether), and is informed by the Balinese tenet Tat Twam Asi or That Thou Art: you are a reflection of me.

These philosophies will guide us in a tactile exploration of the ephemeral, eternal, elemental construct of Self and its tangible metaphor in pot-building. Each day will be guided by a new concept and technique.

Monday 30 October 

Bwana Alit – Bwana Agung : Micro to Macro

A temple visit to Pura Campuan.

We’ll explore the Balinese concept of our bodies as the microcosm and the universe as the macro—everything in intimate relation and reflection of the other. 

Meditation, Pranayama and journaling.

STUDIO FOCUS: introducing the technical — working small and going large.Tuesday 31 October 

Pertiwi: EARTH — deliberating the medium

Morning yoga, meditation and journaling

STUDIO FOCUS: Technique: throwing in pieces and assemblingWednesday 1 November

Women’s circle—a directed discussion

STUDIO FOCUS: Technique: throwing in pieces and assembling (continued)

Thursday 2 November 

Bayu: AIR — the space within

Morning pranayama focus and journaling

STUDIO FOCUS: Technique: throwing and coiling

Visit Javanese throwers the traditional giant pot builders to see coiling plus paddle and anvil technique.Friday 3 November

Morning yoga, meditation and journaling

STUDIO FOCUS: Technique: throwing and coiling (continued)

An introduction to Somatics (the wisdom of the body)Saturday 4 November

Apah: WATER — the river journey

STUDIO FOCUS: Technique: paddle and anvil

Afternoon visit to one of Bali’s High priestesses for a water blessing, open forum discussion with priestess.

Sunday 5 November    

FREE DAY

Monday 6 November 

Early morning water temple: bathing, blessing, clarifying

STUDIO FOCUS: Technique: beginning form upside down, then throw and coil.Tuesday 7 November 

Teja: FIRE — the creative collaboration

Morning energising yoga and journaling

STUDIO FOCUS: Technique: beginning form upside down, then throw and coil (continued)

Evening: Agni Hotra (fire ceremony)

Wednesday 8 November

Morning energising pranayama and journaling

STUDIO FOCUS: Technique: handbuilding fast-coiling technique.Thursday 9 November

Morning meditation — calling in inspiration

STUDIO FOCUS: Technique: micro to macro using a maquette to guide creation of large sculptural forms.

Friday 10 November 

Akasa: ETHER — the intangible charged and vibrant atmosphere

STUDIO FOCUS: Technique: combining possibilities of approach

Tibetan Bowls — led meditation (Pura Pasar Agung)Saturday 11 November

River ceremony —“aarti”— the art of Letting Go

Brunch and departure*

For details on workshop fees, inclusions and accommodation details click here. 

A non-refundable $500 deposit secures your place in the workshop. Book in the online shop here or contact Claire now 0420986570 or at sales@pinkyandmaurice.com

Early Bird ends 30 July. 

*This workshop schedule is a general outline and is subject to change.

Filed Under: blog post Tagged With: Bali, Big Pots Big Magic, Claire Atkins, creativity, Gaya Ceramics, HIllary Kane, inspiration, Pinky & Maurice, pottery, women's retreat, workshop

December 22, 2016 by Claire Atkins Leave a Comment

Big Pots, Big Magic

I’ve been reading Tim Winton’s latest collection of short stories, ‘The Boy Behind the Curtain’, and apart from the odd paper cut, the life of a novelist appears to be a relatively safe one. However, for Winton, growing up the son of a cop, life has been shaped by havoc and uncertainty. Safety, he says, is a great gift ‘but to be afraid is to be awake’. And while these days he doesn’t go looking for trouble, he feels that he and his father’s careers have depended on accidents and risk, ‘…without strife the cop and the novelist have nothing to work with.’

We can play it safe and write stories or make pots each year by pulling out the same old tricks, but if we want to grow as artists, confronting a certain amount of ‘strife’ and uncertainty in the studio is required.

Last week on the blog I was sharing Dr. Brene Brown’s thoughts on the subject. Brene Brown has spent a large part of her career studying courage, and for her, an artist’s failure to embrace uncertainty and vulnerability is death for creativity.

In other words, artists need to get a little shit scared!

Next year, from October 29 – November 11, I’m taking a group of women to Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre in Bali, for the workshop/retreat ‘Birthing Big Pots: Creating Big Magic’.

And today is the BIG reveal. Let me introduce Hillary Kane, woodfiring potter, Director of Gaya Ceramic and Arts Centre, and fortunately for us – our workshop/retreat host. Together we’re going to make some BIG POTS in 2017, and today we’re chatting about our juicy BIG retreat, the power of play, and the benefits of embracing uncertainty.

Feeling nervous? Then this one’s for you.

hillary_kane_gaya_ceramics_big_pots_big_magic

Hillary Kane

Claire Atkins: Thanks for joining me here again in the cyber studio Hillary!

Firstly, I’m hugely excited about the workshop in 2017, and it’s inspired me to think and write about how our ideas evolve and how we grow as artists. Recently, I was sharing about Shaun Tan’s thoughts on creative process, and he says it’s important for artists to keep their creative soil well fertilised and tilled. I know that horticultural imagery resonates with you, how do you keep your artist well watered and happy?

Hillary Kane: I find it amazing how little time I take to just play in clay—and yet this is the advice I would give to absolutely every artist as the ‘fertiliser’ (organic of course) for their flowers of creativity.

By Play, I mean setting aside a good chunk of hours to work with clay—throwing, hand building, mushing and mashing—with absolutely no intention: no product in mind, no judgement of what arises—even if that is nothing beyond the tactile fertility offer by the medium itself. In some ways play requires a sort of discipline—because we are all so programmed to aim toward a result and to understand productivity as something that results in a product. I look back and recall the best moments of breakthrough—the greatest fruits of creativity that I kept pursuing for years and years afterward—came out of those few pleasurable moments of real true clay play.

hillary_kane_clay_play_gaya-ceramics_big_potsCA: Do you get artists block? How can we overcome our creative fears?

HK: Again, this is something we are all rather too conditioned to—and that’s why it rings everyone’s bell. For me it is this Samsaric reminder—that at moments, all those things I thought I had outgrown (like being afraid to try a new form, or go bigger, or venture in a totally new direction), come right ‘round to haunt me again.

From the outset, I think we need to remember that the very act of creating means bringing forth something completely and totally new—and that that at its very essence, means diving off into the unknown. Thus, fear is intimately tied to this free fall. Perhaps it is time to turn the feeling of fear into that of exhilaration. The ‘unbearable lightness of being’ embodied within the heaviness of an inert ball of damp earth.

One simple activity I employ to get myself out of the mind frenzy and back into the medium is to very simply throw—one single 1lb. ball of clay after the next, after the next. Same uncomplicated form over and over—a bowl or a cup— until the rhythm of muscle memory takes over and the racing thoughts relax a notch. Set those humble vessels all out on a ware board, and then mush them all up– or wire each off the wheel and throw it directly into your reclaim bin—or at the wall.

The bottom line is to not think about clay, rather to get your hands in it. Then all the tactile magic of the medium will work on re-grounding all the performance anxieties and you’ll realise the reason you got yourself into this practice in first place (and in the last place): because it just plain feels good.

hillary_kane_play_big_pots_pig_magicCA: Dr Brene Brown says vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation and creativity – how do you think being vulnerable helps us produce authentic work as artists?

HK: Absolutely. And clay embodies everything that engenders vulnerability in an artist: it cracks, it warps, it dries too fast, it doesn’t stick together, it has a memory of what it was before you came around, it reacts to the weather, it reacts to your emotional stability, it reflects you, it demands of you, and then…. it has to be fired.

Without question, firing is the absolute when it comes to letting go and accepting vulnerability as your stance in life–especially when you happen to be as addicted to anagama firing as I am. Spend months toiling on a body of work that reaches many hundreds in numbers, another three days balancing with exquisite care each of those pieces in a patchwork puzzle within the kiln—and then introduce all the eggs in the nest to the most voracious, ferocious, and consuming fiery blaze before daring to peer once again in at them—this is vulnerability.

Every anagama firing, at some point, brings me to my knees. I have realised that that is precisely why I keep coming back for more. It’s not masochism—it’s the comfort of being humbled again and again. To know that the learning has really just begun–my life’s work is still before me–and that in that space of uncertainty and unknowing, can arise the most profound and authentic talisman of who I am as an artist.

Gyan_Wall_and_Hillary_Kane_pack_Bali_GamaCA: You’re a multi talented artist, but what is it that clay holds for you?

HK: Tactility, grounding, fire, humility—about in that order too. I do still consider myself a painter—as well as one who gets her hands into everything from Batik to architectural design—but even my paintings have moved toward my clay practice, as I now employ a raw paper-clay ‘primer’ thickly onto my canvases, and then enjoy watching the craquelé surface naturally appear as the clay component dries and shrinks. I guess there is something about Time and timing, spontaneity, as well as the touch-ability of clay that I can’t get enough of.

Gaya_Ceramics_Bali_hands-on_wheelCA: Now, tell me about Birthing Big Pots! How will we spend our days?

This is a very special workshop in that I am viewing it as more of a retreat—and by that I mean an experience that goes well beyond working with clay in the studio. Many of the workshops that I am instructing, I do try to engage the participants to think wider and deeper into their intentions than just the skill-building and technical aspects of the experience—but for Birthing Big Pots, that focus will be all the more apparent. We will be digging deep—introspecting individually and as a group—plying the metaphor of creating a vessel and all that that creative journey implies. Via daily led-meditations, yoga, journaling, discussions, speaking circles, and the like, we will look way outside and way inside our studio practice to the essence of what it means to be creative, to harness the daring for creativity, to bring something to life. Get ready for some amazing transformation, ladies: this is going to ask a lot of you and give you so much in return! (Plus some enormous pots to bring back in your hand luggage☺)

hillary_kane_gaya_ceramics_blessingCA: In many cultures, making pots is men’s business, and in the Australian ceramics community making big pots is often associated with big blokes! Neither of us are particularly physically big, how are we going to do that? Do you need to be physically strong to make big pots?

HK: The nexus of this workshop came from a long-contemplated idea that it would be a really amazing experience to explore the fallacy of the Only Big Men Make Big Pots mentality. In the ceramic world—art world—world, there are of course so many instances of masculine, ego-driven dominance and centre stage.

Sure, physical size and weight can be of assistance when throwing around a huge mass of incredibly heavy, water-laden earth—but so can technique. And that’s the point. There can be many approaches to solving any problem or intention out there—solutions beneficial for everyone—not just women. But in this workshop, I hope to share several of those techniques that will enable women of any stature (and even any level of ceramic experience) to approach making vessels as big as they might dream.

Perhaps it is not incidental that a real pivotal moment in my life—one that turned me toward clay as an essential ingredient to live by– was when I watched a tiny, old woman, as ancient and wrinkled as time itself, in the remote north of Cameroon, patiently, simply pinching an enormous water jar—no tools, no wheels, no awareness of any limitation.

fullsizerender-4CA: My sons wanted to ask you this next question. Why women only?

HK: This is not about exclusivity—rather empowerment. Let’s just say that sometimes empowerment comes from removing a variable (this time being that of gender), creating a safe space in which to explore, nurturing a sense of belonging. An all-women’s group encourages each woman to be able to be herself supported by a circle of sisters, hopefully finding deep strength there to carry forth back into the world of men. These gatherings are so important to initiate.

hillary_kane_gaya_ceramics_ubud_art_villaCA: Finally, what basic clay skills do we need to participate in this workshop? Who should come?

HK: Although I am very deliberately not going to limit this workshop to only those who already have decent throwing skills, it may be beneficial to have sat at a wheel before. However, that said, you could come at this completely green and still potentially gain heaps technically, emotionally, transformatively…

…Ahhhh. Dear reader, are you inspired muchly? I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather be shit scared with than Hillary Kane! 

Are you in? You a bit shit scared? Let’s dare greatly, and suck the marrow out of this old life together.

Hit the link here for workshop details, accommodation and exclusive Early Bird rates when you book through me to create BIG POT MAGIC in Bali in 2017!

xClaire aka Pinky & Maurice

hillary_kane_gaya_ceramics_ubud_art_villa_family

Filed Under: blog post Tagged With: Bali, big magic, Big Pots, creativity, Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre, HIllary Kane, Pinky & Maurice, retreat, workshop

December 13, 2016 by Claire Atkins 2 Comments

Vulnerability : The Birthplace of Creativity

Last week I was on the farm, and I wrote about inspiration, and the importance of filling up our creative tanks. This week in the valley, I spent time thinking about the role vulnerability plays in the life of an artist.

green_valley_pinky_and_maurice_ceramicsIn China last month I had the good fortune to hear Professor Brian Snapp speak about our grey matter – he spoke about how we learn, remember, and make. In his talk he quoted scholar and author, Dr. Brene Brown, and her words hit me right between the eyes. For Brene Brown, vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation.

Brene Brown, has devoted her academic life to studying courage, worthiness and shame. And after more than a decade of research, and thousands of manilla folders filled with interviews and the stories of real people, she says that vulnerability is the hallmark of humans who dare to live wholeheartedly, and while it’s not comfortable, it’s necessary if we ever want to make anything authentic as artists.

She says, by nature we are vulnerable, we live in a vulnerable world, but we do our very best to numb it, and when we do this we also cut off the potential to be truly creative or to experience deep joy.

We numb vulnerability because we want everything that is uncertain to be certain, everything that is imperfect to be perfect, and by numbing ourselves to it, we can also pretend that what we do and say to other people doesn’t effect them.clarence_river_pinky_and_maurice_ceramicsTo be vulnerable is to allow yourself to be deeply seen.

Two years ago my father died. For years we skirted around conversations we needed to have, and we never had them, and then in the end we ran out of time.

My way of coping with it was to throw myself into work, and I said yes to anything that came along because I didn’t want to deal with the intense pain. But, ‘the truth will out’, as my old Grandfather used to say. Shutting down was much easier at the time, but grief spilled out through the cracks and manifested itself in a myriad of ways, some of them destructive, some of them physical – and Brene’s right, it impacts on creativity.

My husband and I bought a property this year. It’s a beautiful valley in Northern NSW with over 200 acres of pasture and bush. There’s no electricity, internet, or phone service, just an old caravan and most recently a dunny. It’s a place we retreat to. Sometimes it makes me cringe that we needed to take out another mortgage to ensure we spend more time just being. But every weekend the valley is opening me up.

And the art is slowly coming back.

The valley tells me stories. Let me share one…the_girls_tabulam_pinky_and_maurice_ceramicsThe sun’s up but still soft, blinking at me through the knotted limbs of an old angophora, and the needles of a casuarina brush the caravan skin like a snare drum. There’s milk warming on the gas stove and suddenly I’m a kid again on school holidays, under the covers, nuzzling into my Nan’s meaty arms. Grandfather’s whistling in the kitchen, jiggling china on the breakfast trolley in his slippers and blue checkered dressing gown. If I stretch my arms up I could almost pop the blisters on the caravan ceiling. But I resist the urge and instead swing my feet to the lino, and step over my youngest son, still sleeping, open mouthed. He takes up the entire length of the kitchen floor.

The sandy loam crushes under my boots, and the valley is green and punctuated with tiny purple and yellow flowers. We can flush the dunny again, but even with this luxury I carry the shovel with me. I haven’t been this scared of a toilet for a long time, but last night, I made my debut peeing for two small brown snakes, their heads licked with a white stripe. I don’t know what they are, but they were a tough audience, and this morning I’m grateful for the dogs at my heel. The kookaburras start up.

My eldest strides past me, up the red track to the highest point of the property to consult Dr Google. Poor bugger, he’s been holding on all night and he wants to know what the snakes are. But there’s no reception. Just flies.

Shovel in hand, poised, warrior like, I stick my head in the doorway. But this time, it’s the dogs turn to watch, and soon they’re on a scent, digging at the earth floor, snorting and scratching at the ply walls. I reach for the shovel.pinky_at_tabulam_pinky_and_mauriceAfter breakfast I ride alone along the southern ridge. In parts the track closes in thick with lantana, and I slowly paddle through in first over the gnarly roots and limestone outcrops, my eye out for the bull. He’s the size of a small shed and even with his big curly face he still manages to scare me to death. The ridge widens out, park like, scattered with bleached hips, thigh bones and jaws filled with petrified teeth. Up ahead a mother is lowing deep and she eyes me big and slow. I cut the motor. Bowing her big creamy head she licks her newborn with her rough tongue. It doesn’t respond. I kick the stand quiet, take off my gloves and helmet and walk towards her speaking soft. She moves and stands awkwardly under a sapling. I crouch before his body. The calf’s eye looks skyward and his perfect pink nostrils trail faintly with blood like wisps of smoke he’s just inhaled. His hair stands up, brushed this way and that, like a child who has just stumbled out of bed. All these tiny deaths. Three black crows hop at my side. She tells me I’ve looked for long enough.

We hear her low mourning as we pull out old fence posts in the valley, and in the purpling dusk I ride along the ridge but when I come to the clearing she’s gone. The birds have punctured his soft flesh, and his innards spill over the clay alive with flies. His face has given into gravity and is already sinking back into the earth. I go to walk away, but I turn back and take off my helmet and look at death and let it fill my nostrils. She startles me stepping out from behind a spotted gum.purple_night_pinky_and_maurice_ceramics‘She’ll be outta sorts for a few days’, my neighbour Cliff drawls softly. Just a few days. And I’m jealous of her broken heart.

Like air raid sirens the dingos howl in the dark and by morning there is no trace of the calf.

Cliff’s bike farts slowly somewhere deep in the scrub. Five cows are walking around the paddocks with bursting udders. He’s looking for their calves. All these little deaths.

When my own father was suddenly sick, we had a week. In his last days, fighting for every breath, there was nothing to do but sit and hold hands in that place where there are no words. Since then I’ve showed up to the studio but I’ve kept the clay at arms length, too afraid of what I might find. Dead things wash up at my feet like a cursed character in a story, and everywhere I look, I see bones. I suck the marrow hard…dingos_at_night_pinky_and_maurice_ceramicsTo be vulnerable is to be alive. 

Having the difficult conversations we’d rather not have, looking death square in the face, peeing in front of snakes, and making the art we’re most afraid to, isn’t comfortable, but it’s necessary.

I’ve pushed my boat a little way from the shore, and I’ll admit, even sharing remnants of my stories requires a certain amount of vulnerability, but I figure it’s only fair that I strip down if I’m going to talk about this with any authenticity. But, I don’t want to stick around on the shore, would you like to push out into the deep with me, because there are pots to make. We’ll both need our passports.fullsizerender-4From October 29 to November 11, 2017, I’m leading 12 clay enthusiasts to Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre, in Ubud, for a women’s retreat called, ‘Birthing Big Pots : Creating Big Magic’.

But this is not just any old workshop about making big pots. In the foothills of Holy Mount Agung, under the tutelage of potter and Gaya Director, Hillary Kane, we’ll take a journey inside ourselves with clay.

Over 14 days in Bali’s tropical ambient, we’ll breathe in inspiration, and with the soft clay we’ll open up to new techniques, we’ll push through comparisons, and bear down on our fears. With the assistance of some loving midwives, and embracing our vulnerability, we’ll give birth to some very BIG honest pots.

If you’re worried that this sounds like a whole bunch of touchy, feely, spiritual hooey – trust me, as well as being transformative, this is also going to be BIG FUN!

Join me next week when I talk creativity and reveal full retreat details with the wonderful and inspiring Hillary Kane!

Sign up for the newsletter here to ensure you don’t miss the workshop and accommodation details as they’re announced. And if there’s something tugging you after reading all of this, respond to it. It’s inspiration calling you to come out and play.

Listen to Dr. Brene Brown’s TED talk, ‘The Power Of Vulnerability’ here.

 

Filed Under: blog post Tagged With: Bali, Brene Brown, Ceramics, creativity, Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre, inspiration, Pinky & Maurice, Ubud, vulnerability, workshop

December 2, 2016 by Claire Atkins 6 Comments

Call me an Amateur!

The American painter Chuck Close, said, ‘inspiration is for amateurs’.

Famously, he’s never had artist’s block, because he simply trusts in the creative process. His advice for artists is to show up and start, and see where the process leads you.

We should draw comfort from this, we don’t need to feel inspired, or be in the mood to create. Art making is not a sacred activity, in fact every mark we make is a departure point, and every face, object, thought, or dream is ripe subject matter.

For example, right now, I’m not feeling particularly moved, but I’m writing anyway in the tiny pea-green kitchen of my clapped-out caravan. The chip-board table has a crook leg and it’s limping on every word. The valley is shrill with cicadas feeding off their own drama, and as if on cue, the westerly sounds along the ridge and a spotted gum drops its crown to the forest floor with a great crack like polar ice breaking. Yet I feel strangely cocooned in here, like a passenger in John Brack’s car. The van windows have sliced the yellowing hillsides into safe cigar-box paintings and stuck them to the ply as if they’re prints from the Heidelberg School. The western sky is rolling darkly on itself, teasing. Summer has arrived, and there’s just enough water in the spring to flush the dunny one more time…

inspiration_fencing_wire_pinky_and_maurice

There’s enough material right here on either side of these fraying insect screens for something…I’m not sure what, but I agree with Chuck Close, we don’t need to summon the muse before we start making, and we don’t need to travel far to find our subjects. Like Miro’s line going for a walk, pick up your pencil, tap your keys, and see where it takes you.

However, like the spring on our property, an artist’s reserves can run dry. I find the words of Australian artist and author, Shaun Tan, encouraging on this. And while he doesn’t like to use the word inspiration particularly, he does suggest that we must live a life that’s open to inspiration and experiences in order to create.

inspiration_dunny_door_hidden_valley_pinky_and_maurice

Our dunny door

In his book ‘The Bird King : An Artist’s Notebook’, Tan talks about the cultivation of creativity like a gardener. He sees the artist as a tree that must draw from a rich compost of experience ‘- things seen, read, told, and dreamt – in order to grow leaves, flowers, and fruit. Art, following the laws of horticulture, can only make something out of something else; artists do not create, so much as transform…’

Tan says, ‘artists need to work hard to make sure their creative soil is well tilled and fertilised. They need to look outward and actively accumulate a swag of influences to bring along with them when taking that line for a walk…’

inspiration_hidden_valley_crackling_hillsides_pinky_and_maurice

This has been my year of travel. I don’t say that to brag, I’m not well travelled by any stretch, but transformative experiences happened, and new opportunities came about because I left the safety of what I already knew. The potters I met this year in the poorest neighbourhoods in India, over a wedging table in Bali, and in the villages and vibrant cities of China, all revealed to me new ways of seeing, and those experiences are informing my work in the most wonderful and surprising ways. 

We don’t need to wait for inspiration. Inspiration is calling us to come and play, it’s courting us constantly. We just need to say, yes. 

In her ‘Conversations‘, American poet Maya Angelou says, ‘Life loves the liver of it. You must live, and life will be good to you, and give you experiences.’

BOOM! I love that. You’ll sure as hell eat some shit sandwiches along the way, heck, you’ll even make some for yourself, but Angelou is spot on. ‘Life loves the liver of it.’ Amen, sister!

Next year, I’m pushing out into the deep, and I want you to join me. 

inspiration_summer_storm_hidden_valley_pinky_and_mauriceIn the coming weeks, I’ll be talking on the blog about plans that are brewing for making big clay magic with you in 2017.

Call me an amateur, but I hope you’ll step outside the caravan with me and fill your spring.

It’s gonna be inspiring, it’s gonna be transformative, it’s gonna involve passports, it’s gonna be JUST FOR WOMEN, and if anything potters – like a Summer storm – it’s gonna be BIG!

Stay tuned, or sign up to the newsletter here and be the first to hear all the juicy details.

xClaire aka Pinky & Maurice

Filed Under: blog post Tagged With: amateurs, australian ceramics, Chuck Close, Claire Atkins, creativity, curiosity, inspiration, Maya Angelou, Pinky & Maurice, Shaun Tan, travel, workshops

September 10, 2016 by Claire Atkins Leave a Comment

Multiply Life by the Power of Two

The ‘Power of Two’ is one of my all time favourite songs by the Indigo Girls. My sister and I would sing it together when we were younger and fantasise about driving around the country in a Volkswagon campervan being singer songwriter rockstars.

It’s a love song, but I catch myself humming it whenever I’m working alongside another artist or working on a community arts project, and if you think about it, all creative projects are labours of love, so a love song is completely appropriate. Like many potters I usually work alone in the studio, and I’m used to it, but there’s nothing better than bouncing around creative ideas with kindred spirits and running with them in full flight together.

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Vicki Grima, editor of  The Journal of Australian Ceramics – my new partner in crime 😉

I’ve been involved in a number of collaborative projects lately, and most recently I worked on The Australian Ceramics Open Studios on The North Coast Mud Trail. It’s a great example of what we can achieve when we set aside our massive egos (let’s not fool ourselves!), pool our resources and talents, and work together. There’s no doubt about it, we’re steadily building a clay community here on the NSW north coast, and it’s exciting to watch it grow. You might like to read arts writer, Jane Denison’s beautiful story about The Mud Trail for Verandah Magazine here, because I can’t say it any better than she has already!

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30 potters shared a meal on the eve of the North Coast Mud Trail, to celebrate the community we’re creating together – on handmade plates of course!

jenn_johnston_emma_walke_potters_dinner

Fabulous Jenn Johnston, awesome Mud Trail Co-ordinator and artist Emma Walke –  two of my Mud Trail partners in crime

And coming up this week is the highly anticipated ‘Cup Collaboration’. It’s a massive project orchestrated by ceramic artist Adriana Christianson. The project has brought together 62 potters across the world to make cups together! Geeeeesus! I think my ideas are mad and ambitious, but Adriana’s ideas are certified CRAY CRAY! And THANK. GOD. FOR. ADRIANA. It’s precisely this sort of creative ‘craziness’ the world needs to make it liveable. She has been our a clay matchmaker, pairing us with potters that we might never have dared make pots with. If you’re in Melbourne, don’t miss the show! The 2016 Cup Collaboration is open from 12-18 September at The Box Hill Art Centre. Check out the collaborations online here. 

American artist Ayumi Horie, my cup collaborating partner in crime

American artist Ayumi Horie, my cup collaborating partner in crime

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During our cup collaboration, two unlikely friends…

cup_collaboration_pinky_and_maurice_ayumi_horie

…happened across each other’s path. Who knows what a raccoon from Maine and a wallaby from Byron Bay might be capable of together!

As I’m writing this, my kiln ‘Woody’ is cooling and I’m willing him to cool faster. As always, I’m full of anticipation to see the results, because inside are hundreds of tiny porcelain plates. However, this kiln load is extra special because the plates I’ve made are singing the supporting line, for on every surface are sweet melodies laid down by the loaded brushes of children, mums and dads, and artists who visited the studio during the Mud Trail to make their mark on clay. Our collaborations will be on exhibition from 24 September – 1 October in the Fantastic Flying Saucer Show at SugarMill Studios in Murwillumbah.

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The future of Australian ceramics is in good hands by the looks!

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Collaborations aren’t always plain sailing of course! Conflicts will and do occur, and I’m the first to admit that collaborations have blown up painfully in my own face. Things don’t always go to plan; my sister and I never did become rockstars, and our first car was a second hand Toyota Camry! Despite all the things that don’t go our way when we come together in Art and love, the Indigo Girls taught me a good lesson; making rich harmonies with other humans (even if the shit hits the fan) is infinitely better than sticking to your old tired tune alone.

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And sometimes the gods can’t help but smile on every aspect of your creative projects. Good luck with all your creative collaborations. Blessings from our family of potters in Ubud this year

——–

About some of the people in this post

The Indigo Girls are Emily Saliers and Amy Ray : listen to The Power of Two on youtube here : www.indigogirls.com

Vicki Grima is a ceramic artist, editor of The Journal of Australian Ceramics and executive officer of The Australian Ceramics Association: www.vickigrima.com.au : www.australianceramics.com

Adriana Christianson is a Melbourne ceramic artist, curator and creative director: www.adrianachristianson.com.au  www.thecupcollaboration.bigcartel.com

Ayumi Horie is an award winning ceramic artist, and social activist based in Portland, Maine. She is also the creative director of the world renowned online community Pots in Action : www.ayumihorie.com Most recently she has launched The Democratic Cup, a collaborative project between potters and illustrators to counteract the hateful rhetoric of the 2016 U.S Presidential Election: www.thedemocraticcup.com

The Cup Collaboration opens Monday 12 September and runs until 18 September at The Box Hill Art Centre, 470 Station St, Box Hill, VIC.

The Fantastic Flying Saucer Show opens Saturday 24 September at 3pm and runs until 1 October, at Sugar Mill Studios, Shop 4, 15 Commercial Rd, Murwillumbah

Filed Under: blog post Tagged With: adriana christianson, australian ceramics, Ayumi Horie, Ceramics, Claire Atkins, collaboration, Flying Saucer Show, Indigo Girls, North Coast Mud Trail, Pinky & Maurice, potter, pottery, power of two, Sugarmill Studio, the cup collaboration, Vicki Grima

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