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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.

My Big Fat (Only Partly Confusing) Artist’s Life Mind Map, Part IV

If you’ve been with me in the previous three posts on this topic, you’ll know that the bottom half of my Big Fat Artist’s Life Mind Map is my terra incognito. (And, to save yourself some head scratching, if you haven’t read MBFAL Posts I-III, go ahead, I’ll be here.) Ultimately, any understanding I [...]

My Big Fat Artist’s Life Mind Map Part III

Here’s a peek at part of the Learning “arm” of MBFAL mind map. (As you know from the previous post, the whole thing just happens to be an OctoMap with eight arms, and this Learning area is, to my thinking, one of two ur-arms because of being an artist in the first place.) Learning [...]

My Big Fat Artist’s Life Mind Map Part II

Alrightythen, read all about it: the eight very movable parts to MBFAL. A mind map is meant to be non-linear, associative and interconnected. Even so, it was good for me to do the thinking needed to come up with definite artist’s life areas which I considered large enough to have sub-parts. I expect over [...]

My Big Fat Artist’s Life Mind Map Part I

Since last November I have gotten serious about finding exhibition and sales opportunities for my ceramics pieces. After a couple of go-rounds with annual pottery sales and open studios, I decided I would love for my work to be ‘out there’ all the time. I have begun to study the specifics of being an [...]