Tag Archives: pottery therapy

Mindfulness, Perfect Moment

Perfect Moment Monday: Process and Product

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Perfect Moment Monday is more about noticing a perfect moment than about creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.

We gather here once a week to engage in mindfulness about something that is right with our world. Everyone is welcome to join. Details on how to participate are at the bottom of this post, complete with bloggy bling.

Please visit the links of the participants at the bottom.

Here’s a perfect moment from my week. I hope you’ll share yours with us, too.
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This past week was a perfect moment sandwich. It started with an afternoon of pottery painting with old and new bloggy friends and it ended by retrieving my artwork from the kiln of the pottery studio.

The Casual Perfectionist, Denver Laura, The Unknown Blogger and Mary Beth (who also documented the session via her camera lens) joined me for a combination of creativity and camaraderie. MB’s son and Tessa also put their painting skills to work.

Here’s the process (courtesy MB):
The Casual Perfectionist‘s spiral design; Denver Laura‘s endless loops, The Unknown Blogger’s sunflower bowl, my cityscape theme.


And here’s the product:

We’ll definitely be doing this again sometime. It’s wonderfully relaxing and fulfilling — just ask my painting buddies.

Edited to add: Click here to see the Casual Perfectionist‘s post about the day, as well as her finished product.

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Once you make a Perfect Moment post, you are qualified to place this button on your blog.

Now. What Perfect Moment have you recently been aware of? Be sure to visit these moments and share the bloggy love.

Mindfulness, Show & Tell

Show & Tell: Cityscape

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Mr Roads gave me a C in Art in 7th grade. Ba$tard.

Being an otherwise straight-A student, I took this as a personal affront. It stung so much that I decided I had no artistic talent and I would never again put myself in the position of being judged in this arena (perhaps I am a person of sweeping generalizations?).

My moratorium held up until 5 years ago, when I was invited to a baby shower for MaryBeth. I almost didn’t go because it was at one of those (scrunch-up my nose) pottery-painting places, for those, you know, artistic-type people.

Which wasn’t me, according to Mr Roads and the message I’d played in my head for decades.

But my affection for MB was greater than my fear of being judged (really. like anyone would care) and I went to the celebration.

And I found a new passion. I LOVE painting pottery! And I don’t stink up the place when I do it.

I don’t take the time to paint pottery very often. Which is a shame considering how much satisfaction it brings me.

Today I’m sharing pieces of my cityscape series, which I did in 2004. This was a very stressful time, as Tessa was in the Terrible-Threes (much worse than the fabled twos), Reed was mobile yet fully dependent on me, and Rob was in grad school. I soooo needed this outlet.

The serving plate:

The serving bowl with a tortilla chip: (I could point out that I ran out of time and didn’t have a chance to do a third layer of color so it’s not as vibrant as I’d like, but that would be Mr Roads talking):

The jumbo coffee mugs (there are only 2, but I took them pix from different angles):

I think it’s time for me to hit the studio again. Any locals want to join me? (Anyone who isn’t Mr Roads, that is.)

To see what the rest of the class is showing and telling, go to Mel of Show & Tell.

Mindfulness, Show & Tell

Show & Tell: The Divine Feminine

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I painted this plate four summers ago while in the midst of my energy work classes. Because I consider myself not very artistic, I am fairly pleased with how it turned out.

My favorite touch is the earth-as-her-belly-button (you may have to click to enlarge).

The Divine Feminine is the energy of love. She is the being rather than the doing. She is the earth mother, the shelter, the abundance, the compassion, the love beyond reason.

By the way, she looks NOTHING like me. Witness the bounteous chestal area. She looks like some of you, I suppose. And like Ethel (my teacher).

Aren’t we all divine?

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Want to see what the other kids are showing and telling? Visit Lollipop the Headmistress. (Don’t tell her who put the tack on her chair.)