Letter From the President

What are you grateful for?  This is the question at this time of year.  I was thinking about this as I was pushing my way through the grocery store trying to shop for Thanksgiving dinner.  The buzz in the air was tense, if not downright hostile around the meat counter, where I picked up a tag that was 18 numbers away from being called.  I looked around at the people surrounding me and noticed my body was showing physical signs of panic: shallow breathing, fluttery heartbeat, stomach tightening, my face pulling into a tight ball of frustration.  I thought, "Why don't these people go home so I can shop in peace?"  I know people were looking at me and thinking the exact same thing.

Melting down in the grocery store while trying to pick up a turkey suddenly seemed like the worst kind of holiday cliche: Woman Having Holiday Nervous Breakdown in Public.  Why, exactly, did I need to shop in peace? I live in Oakland.  Shopping in peace is for people who live somewhere else. Why was it a big deal to wait 10 minutes for one of the harried meat counter people finally get to my number?  What is the point of getting all upset because I can't have what I think I want-- a world emptied of people getting in the way--  which is impossible to have anyway?

These thoughts, which I pondered while waiting my turn at the turkey counter, led me to this: It's not all about gratitude.  I have a lot to be grateful for, but that doesn't help me in moments like this.  It's also about being of service to other people.  Helping others is something the has some action to it, movement, and focus.  Giving people your time and attention is the most valuable thing all of us have to give.  Whether that's volunteering your time at a non-profit or showing more patience and kindness to annoying people getting in the way in the grocery store, taking the time to help other people get through life is a contribution almost all of us can make, every day, in every interaction we have.  I'm working on it.

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with edible food, annoying people we could practice being patient with, and also, people we love and care about.

Whitney

Letter from the President

Every once in a while I have to write a president's letter that is not about studio practice or creative philosophy, but tends to some straight up ACGA business.  This is one of those times!  What's on my mind right now is gathering up some willing and warm bodies who are interested in serving as board members.  Why serve?  Because the only thing that keeps our sweet little organization humming along are the people who take the time to make it happen.  We need voices from our group to help decide how to spend money, where to hold exhibits, what new projects we should undertake, and most of all, how we can improve.  Being a board member is mostly about showing up once a month to our board meetings, paying attention, and caring about our glass and ceramic art community.  Who can serve?  Anyone who is an ACGA member, exhibiting or associate.  Meetings are usually not an artist's favorite thing to do, but we try to make it painless by meeting for dinner beforehand, and keeping the meetings focused, and occasionally hosting at different locales. Thinking about it?  Give me a call or send me an email so I can talk you into it!

Some other news:  I'm happy to announce that Forrest Lesch-Middleton has agreed to step in as ACGA's new vice-president after Cynthia Siegel recently stepped down.  I want to thank Cynthia for her sure-footed and practical point of view, which I deeply appreciated when I needed her opinion or advice.  You may have caught Forrest's beautiful work on the cover of Ceramics Monthly magazine recently.  It's an honor to be working with Forrest, and I hope you will take a moment to check out Forrest's work at flmceramics.com http://www.flmceramics.com/FLM_ceramics/Welcome.html.

Letter from the President

Plant, tend, harvest, repeat.  This mantra was going through my head recently as I tore out the last of our summer beans, which were so prolific this year I had to spend a day canning dilly beans back in July, or face being totally overwhelmed by more beans than me or all of my friends could eat.  I'm just learning how to garden in the past couple of seasons.  After years of planting a bunch of stuff in my yard that quickly died of neglect, I finally figured out how plants thrived with a bit of attention and consistent watering.  It's become my habit to check in on the garden daily and make sure everything is coming along, and I'm rewarded with flowers and good things to eat.  In the winter, when the garden is basically fallow and rains take care of the plants that are there, I make plans for next year's garden, and always hope for better results.

Gardening is really not much different than being an artist and running a studio. You come up with your ideas, you run with them for a while and make work, you (hopefully) sell it off or place it in loving homes, and then you start all over again.  Plant, tend, harvest, repeat.

Of course there is the fallow period, the time where you are ready for new things, new ideas, new work, but it's not quite there yet.  If you're like me, and I tend to think I'm like most artists, I get a bit anxious when I'm in that fallow time.  I start copying myself for lack of anything better to do, I question why I'm even an artist, and I have dark thoughts about my longevity as a creator.  It's can be a challenging period of time, and I have no quick fixes.  I try to feed my brain with inspiring art, get lots of sleep, and don't get too invested in any one thing I may be working on in the studio, but treat it all as practice until I find that vein of gold again.  Practice is all we're doing anyway, nothing is really done or final in our work until we can simply no longer make it. What do you think?

Happy Fall!
Whitney

Letter From the President

I want to say "thank you" to all of our exhibitors and support staff who participated in the Clay and Glass Festival in Rinconada Park this year. Special recognition goes to our Festival producer, Mary Lou Atkins who made the transition to the park seamless, and to our publicist, Sharon Poyner,  who drummed up press attention for our group and individual members. Any remaining skepticism that they show would suffer from being in a new, temporary location was vanquished by strong sales for many exhibitors, and good attendance by our loyal customers. I think everyone agreed that the park was a wonderful place to hold the Festival, and many attendees did not even notice the new location!

So, what's next? As I'm writing this we are in the waning days of summer, which always brings mixed feelings of sadness and dread, a holdover from the many years of attending school and the loss of freedom it brought every September. Even to this day I cannot look at a yellow school bus without feeling anxiety. Maybe it's time for me to get over that. Now that I run my own life without much interference from outside authorities, September is a time to feel a renewed sense of energy after summer vacation. There is the holiday season coming up, which always holds promise for lots of sales and an opportunity to introduce the new work I've been rolling around in my brain. Then, there's also the recognition that I was just here, a year ago, and the holiday season is going to be over before I know it, as will the next year, and the year after that. Maybe that's what fall does to all of us. It reminds us that everything is temporary, even 12 years of school, time goes by so fast, and it's all going to be over before we know it. Dang, can I have just one more month of summer... please?

Letter from the President

July is just a few days away, and for many exhibiting members of the ACGA, that means the Clay and Glass Festival. For me, the Festival is one of the most enjoyable shows I do every year. It's a time to re-connect with ACGA members who I otherwise do not see throughout the year, as well as some of my customers and collectors. I put on the best game face I have for the Festival: my best work, my best display, and hopefully, my best self.

The show also signals that high summer is here, which means some well-deserved time off from the everyday production at my studio. I've been thinking lately about how the American work ethic is so ingrained in me that I often burn myself out at the studio, so when vacation time rolls around I don't even want to think about clay. It often seems like I'm going from one extreme to the other, working so hard that I hurt my brain and well-being, to working not at all to recover. I'm thinking this approach lacks balance, that magical state of being I hear people talking about. Is your studio practice balanced? If so, what are your words of wisdom for achieving balance, if only temporarily? If not, what practices do you think would help you have a more balanced approach? I often hear "balance" as a prescription for many things that ail us in our modern, fast-paced Western culture. What do you think?

I hope to see you all the Festival!

Palo Alto Preview

Here is a small sample of the amazing artwork to be seen at the Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival. All of the pieces pictured here are from ACGA member artists who have shops on Etsy.com. Click on a piece you like and you will be taken to that artists shop on Etsy.

Letter from the President

It's countdown time for the artists participating in the Clay and Glass Festival in Palo Alto this year. The Festival is my biggest retail show of the year, and I'm sure the same is true for many others. It is also the ACGA's largest source of revenue, which allows us to not only put on the show again next year, but do all the other things that we do to make the ACGA a viable and useful organization. Each member plays a vital role in making the show a success, by making fabulous work that people want to purchase year after year, and by promoting the show to your community and customers.

Promotion can get overwhelming, especially for artists who are busy being creative in their studios. I've put together a "Promotion To-Do Checklist" for artists to take some of the guesswork out of it, so you have a little bit of extra energy to actually get it done!

• To do today: edit ACGA member web page with recent images and updated information.
• June 1-7: send a "save the date" email to customers with a digital postcard, links to the ACGA website and your website.
• Week of June 21: mail show postcard to customers.
• June 14-21: Post the event to your Facebook page, along with an album of recent work.
• June 27-July 1: send an email reminder to customers with your booth information and pertinent links.

A word about email: sending a regular email with lots of recipients will often wind up in people's "junk" mail. I strongly encourage you to check out many of email services that are available today so you can send out an email that is formatted for images and links, and will go straight to the inbox of recipients. You can also track who is opening your email! I've tried many of them, including Constant Contact, iContact, and Vertical Response. I use MadMimi, which I've found to be the most cost-effective and easiest to use for me. Most of these services offer the first month free, so take some time and check it out.

A final piece of business: in the ACGA's continuing quest to save money on printing costs and be more green, we've moved the Member Directory online. You can download it as a PDF if you want to keep it stored on your computer or even print it out, or simply log in to the ACGA website to access the member directory there. If you are now still receiving the newsletter in print form, we will be sending you a hard copy this time. But please be aware that member contact information is readily accessible by other registered ACGA members online now, and the ACGA "phonebook" is going the way of the Yellow Pages... onto the web!