Last fall, during the 2013 Santa Cruz County Open Studios, I determined that I would not be applying in 2014.
For the best of reasons! My older son Roger had proposed to his love Cassandra and they set the date for early September 2014.
Their wedding would be in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a whole wide country away. I knew I wanted to focus on that wedding and not have the pressure of a looming OS season right after.
From the get-go that decision created a heady freedom and rapidly led to taking a conscious Full Year Away from active applying and showing. (I kept two shows: the annual Association of Clay and Glass Artists Palo Alto Clay and Glass Festival in July and an invitational three-artist gallery exhibit in July-August.)
I went deep into my studio practice, redefining my path. I observed the hell out of the year’s cycles and refined my core values to lead me into action again in 2015.Read More >