“We have no place that we can claim without contention”
- Moses Sumney, "Boxes"
Loss is visceral. The pain we experience around transition is profoundly human. Our need to create and maintain stability and routine often drives us to ignore the work that must be done and the necessity of change. Our grip on control is as fruitful as holding onto grains of sand. Some things must go.
We are no strangers to the concept of loss. It goes hand in hand with ceramics. The fruit and toil of our hands are often at the mercy of our mobility, mishaps and chance, and the kiln. We work until our bodies ache, creating pieces that deserve to survive, only to find that it was just not meant to happen. How often does a piece with potential become reduced to a test tile or is fated for the bin?
Many of us are drawn to clay because of its capacity for creation, but it also humbles us. We can never be entirely certain. To be committed to ceramics is a commitment to the ebbs and flows in our life/studio balance, with our bodies, with our facilities, and with the tools and materials that are precious to us. We are in a field where we must embrace flexibility as a necessity, but over time it becomes an element of our resilience and strength as well.
