Wood Street Studios

In December of 2019 my wife Valerie and I decided to create a studio space in our backyard for my pottery making. Valerie has an existing studio there where she has become a wonderful watercolor artist. We decided that if I had a studio there also, we could work on joint potter/ painting projects, and I would be able to have my own space to work on pottery. Wood Street Studios was born!

My studio has become my favorite space! I work there every day - with a few breaks now and then! I love the challenges of having my own studio - I can make mistakes (imperfections) and learn from them. I can try new glazes and glazing methods - a new spray booth is just behind the studio building. And the timing was a shocker - for shortly after putting the new studio in our backyard, Covid-19 and home sheltering began! Valerie and I feel blessed that we have convenient and amazing places to work in during the sheltered periods we are experiencing.

My first day using my pottery wheel in my new studio brought this journal entry: “I am fully being who I am - focused on the clay - knowing the focus brings my conscious life to fulfillment!” And again in December I threw 12 new bowls for Empty Bowls and realized that “...I know I can easily create 20+ pieces of pottery in a day – not a goal as much as a determination to move toward mastery of my craft... I want to be able to make anything I wanted to make.”

I didn’t learn until later when a friend shared with me that “when you make your art first for yourself, then I will see no fear.” This made me realize that I was making a lot more pottery than ever before, but I was trying to keep the shelves filled at our local gallery, and several retailers.

So finally, I realized that I was not making all of the art I was meant to make!

I decided to continue making functional pottery for it is a value to those who use it daily. I also created a new area of my art that I titled: “The Beauty of Imperfections: A collection of unusual discarded branches integrated with pottery”. This will be a sculptural approach that joins the wood and clay: two natural elements into one. During the time I began using wood with my pottery I put aside 19 pieces of wood that are very special examples of wood with amazing imperfections.

I am learning about the type of sculpture I want to create which will involve starting with a lump of clay and tearing, twisting and carving into a form that will merge with one of the special discarded branches. I am inside myself in the process, and excited to see what I visualize.