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It's an effortful and uncertain journey from the clay dig to the dining table or ceramic exhibit. A 30,000-year-old human endeavor transforming the essential formlessness of clay into artful, usable and meaningful vessels and sculpture.

And profoundly, the most common ceramic form on earth is the shard.

An ironic metaphor for everything -- Creation Myth and Creative Process -- clay both fascinates and daunts. If it were too easily explicable, we'd be on to something more mysterious, right?

There are others out there with my name -- and maha blessings to them!-- but I'm the Liz Crain who's a ceramic artist, sharing my individual version of ceramic art's saga with you.

To reveal this ever-unfolding tale, I use images and writing of not only my work and whatever/ whoever else in the world affects it, but hold conversations with my readers as well. Together we'll explore as much as we can, stretching from formlessness to the ultimate shardy end.

Why Art is Vital, Once Again

Oh c’mon now….you’ve heard this for years: The Arts are always the first thing to get cut….and why? From Mr. Holland’s Opus , 1995: “Well I guess you can cut the arts as much as you want, Gene. Sooner or later, these kids won’t have anything to read or write about.”

Combine that with [...]

Why Soul?

Living in a major surfing community as I do, the sights and sounds of its culture are wallpaper to my day. I have to admit to not having much to do with it directly, (Get in THAT cold water? And do WHAT? Eeeeep!) but just by being around here for 20 years, I have [...]

Three Cups of Tea

Photo by Dan Coryo, Santa Cruz Sentinel

Well, I need to tell you about the photo in my previous (first) blogpost. And about the one at the top of this post. Nothing like a good narrative!

I made the cups in the photo in response to a request for local (Santa Cruz County, CA) [...]