Life's a river
Sometimes it floods
How will these look?
I’ve always thought that the course of a river is a fairly good analogy for the course of our life.
From time to time, the river will change its course. It never goes back exactly to where it was before. A good flood can cause the river the burst its banks, scouring out a new course.
In our lives, things happen that we may think are temporary, but when we’ve worked our way through the experience our lives are inexorably changed, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in major ways. We seldom go back to where we were.
That’s the way it’s been with the great pottery revival, which edged its way into my life about a year ago.
At first, I’d throw a few things one day, finish them the next day, go for a swim, read a book, come back a week later and make a few more pots.
It seemed that the occasional dalliance with clay wasn’t going to make a major difference in our lives.
Somehow, this little trickle has become a cataclysm of pots. I’m up at the crack of dawn, out there in the workshop finishing off the previous day’s production and getting on with another round of throwing.
A bit of transformation from the pot at the top of the page.
Two events in particular threw the river of my life off on a new course.
The first was the decision to apply for membership of the collective at Wall to Wall Art in Nelson. The members were kind enough to accept me. It’s not arduous and the other members are wonderful people. The democratic process at its best is evident in every decision that’s made. In fact, it’s even better than democracy, as the members all bend over backwards to accommodate the opinions and preferences of the others.
We have to make enough pots to keep the space looking good though.
The second big event, and the one making the most dramatic short-term changes to our life, was the invitation to exhibit at the Refinery ArtSpace in Nelson.
The space is huge. It was an unexpected offer, which we accepted with a snap decision taking all of five seconds.
With a limited time frame and the need to make more than a few mugs and bowls, we’ve been working like crazy.
It really is we. Cathie has taken on a huge load, changing her life too. No longer the retired swimmer, walker and gardener, she’s built a website, become a social media dynamo, a studio photographer and takes the turn running the Wall to Wall space that I should be looking after on a few half days a month.
She’s honing her pottery skills with a crash course in throwing and glazing, not to mention a myriad of tasks around the workshop.
We still stick to our stereotyped roles around the house. I cook, and very little else, while she looks after cleaning and washing (and gardening).
It all works wonderfully well.
But my life has changed in a few short weeks.
Kermit the Frog has a lot to answer for.
I no longer have periods of reading or dozing in the afternoons. I’ve been a bit lax about keeping up the swim Facebook page (Nelson Sea Swims) and very lax about any swimming at all.
I hope to remedy that once the Refinery show gets underway on December 4. Not long now.
Although the opening is on the 4th, our big day is Friday December 8, floor talk day, when we give away 100 wine beakers together with wine from Riverby Estate and fruit drinks from Chia Sisters. If you’re in Nelson, please come - 5.30pm at Refinery. I won’t talk for too long.
In the meantime, I’m energised and enthusiastic. There’s not enough hours in the day. We’re firing almost daily, so have the chance for frequent glaze evaluation and new inventions in that department.
Life at 75 is not much different to life at 25. I just look a bit older.
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