When 2020 came around nobody anticipated it to be a year that would define the course of the lives of so many of us.
 
We were all hoping for a year in which opportunities that we might have missed in 2019 would come our way this time around.
 
I was scheduled to teach in Europe once again and my fingers were crossed to become one of the award winners of the individual artist fellowship granted by the Mississippi Arts Commission for 2021.
 
If I were awarded with a fellowship, I would have attended the New Members Exhibition and seminar “New Trends in international Ceramic art development”, a Biennial Congress of the International Academy of Ceramics. This would have been my first opportunity to attend this congress in the presence of a world renown group of ceramic artists.  
 
By May 2020, all my porcelain teaching workshops in Europe were cancelled and I knew it was just a matter of time to hear that the IAC Congress would be canceled too. 

​The congress and show was supposed to start in Rovaniemi, Lapland and then travel to the Guozhoug Ceramic Art Museum in Beijing, China, where it would have been accepted into their permanent collection. The show was postponed, but finally opened in Beijing where it will stay now. The congress is still postponed and will be an online event in September 2021.
 
When I received the news that MAC approved and awarded me with a visual artist fellowship grant and I could not use it for the purpose it was originally granted, I knew that the time came in which I as an artist really had to proof that the honor that came my way was worthy to those who entrusted me with it. Afterall, we as artists are supposed to think outside the box and be problem solvers.
 
Under almost complete lockdown, I realized that the best approach was to look at all the aspects of my life as an artist: creating art, instruct art and as technical author. I wanted to see how I can apply the funds to all these aspects. Ironically, it did not even cross my mind to do motivational speeches and presentations with audiences as I did in the past, but the beauty is that I collected plenty of information during 2020 to use in future presentations, including my experiences and a fellowship grantee.
 

When the opportunity arose to research and write an article for the Ceramics Monthly, Parian ware was on my plate. Composing a Workable Parian Clay Body was published in October 2020
 
Parian ware is a type of porcelain that is self-glazing. The medium, although lovely, is very difficult to work with, since it has almost no plasticity. There are only a few people in the world that work with it.
 
This new information led to new opportunities for me in which I could introduce parian clay into my own work. Anytime when we as artists can connect and learn from our peers, we grow. I had the opportunity to connect with other artists in other parts of the world that was already using a commercial parian clay body or that was working with it in the form of a slip.

​My work is mostly inspired by nature: the nature of people, the nature of animals, the nature of circles, cycles, and seasons.
 
To grow as an artist, it is necessary for me to leave the safety and confinement of my home, my office, and my studio and to see the world through my own viewfinder.
 
Therefore, when the opportunity came, Koos and I packed our bags, traveled south through Alabama, the Northern parts of Florida, circling all the way into Georgia before making our way back home. While I was searching for ideas and fresh content, Koos was documenting my experiences in art galleries, museums, and natural parks with his cameras.
 
Although we had limited access to many of these public treasures, we came back home with lots of written notes and sketches, video clips and images.  
 
Experience taught me not to intentionally push to express myself in art. My impressions always need to go deep into the fertile soil of my subconscious, where it is processed before it comes back as interpreted art. Most of the time, I do not even realize when information bubbles back up. It is only when I begin to analyze it after the fact, that realization hits.

​This time around, I think the concept of birds were lingering in my mind from long before we took the trip around these Southern States. The fact that I was drawn to the wetlands was probably a confirmation of where my mind was already heading for as far back as my childhood.
 
The public often interpret the lines that are seen on my sculpted bowls as leaves, flowers, birds, butterflies, or angels. I simply enjoyed the fact that I could give them the freedom to see what they wanted to see, without analyzing it in more detail. It gives me great satisfaction to give the public the freedom to interpret and after all, my theme was spelled out in statements many times before. 

​Then, with so many people in distress in 2020, I was consciously looking for ideas to encourage others around me. The swallow, which is a symbol of hope, crossed my mind and I began to research them.   With the mockingbird and its melodious tunes, robins that do not fly away when I go near them, blue birds and so many other birds to observe from my showroom window, I am not surprised that people often see birds in the abstract lines of my sculpted vessels. If not full birds, there are always references to bird wings, bird feathers and forms.  

Bird wings are translucent in flight, something that I think are sometimes replicated in my sculpted bowls, especially in the rhythmic lines seen in my translucent bowls.  
Birds has personality, often making me think of people. Therefore, when I was looking for themes to present an online class for schools, “The crow and the pitcher” emerged and I enjoyed it thoroughly! During this time, I did some research about crows, which are certain times of the year taking my backyard over. I ended up presenting the crow in a more whimsical way.
The idea of how we as human can relate to birds often crossed my mind and I think, subconsciously, became an idea to explore. 

​We are social creatures that enjoy relationships, conversations, that enjoy our freedoms, that
make pairs, that love or hate, make peace, make war. We feed off each other and every once in a while, we need solitude. 

​Apart from going to museums and galleries, we visited wetlands, reservations, and botanical gardens. It was the easier places to move around without having to wear a mask all the time or to fear exposure to the Covid virus. Unlike museums and galleries, it was lesser limited to certain hours and it was possible for me to collect a wealth of information, especially since the places was not crowded with people.  

I also had a chance to visit a ceramic supply store. Unfortunately, I could not go into the building and choose what I needed from the shelves, but with their curbside policies in place, I brought some raw materials back home with which I could refine my porcelain clay recipes.                           

​I think many of us would like to throw 2020 “For the birds”, but somehow, I think it is possible to take the situation and learn something out of the year. We all experienced 2020 in a different way. For some it brought opportunity, for other their lives were completely disrupted. Unconditionally of how it affected us, the response that we gave is the factor that will stay. If nothing else, we all learned to appreciate our freedoms better, but many of us learned to think outside the box. 
​
As for me, with the help of the Mississippi Arts Commission, 2020 opened new opportunities. I think “For the birds” came to stay. How it will evolve, I have to see, but for the moment I am using the bird theme to show personality and diversity. 

​I created a more realistic sculpture project with the intent to replicate how I saw 2020. Although the birds are not abstract, they are not completely realistic either. To an extend it was a blend of experimental processes in which I colored porcelain and created Agateware,  which I documented in a blogpost. It was a process that I revisited from many years ago. I was excited about the color play of birds, butterflies, and leaves and even shells that I observed, as we went through different places. I did this mingling of colored clays many years ago and enjoyed the process at the time. This time around I found the process too intentional. In the “For the birds” sculptures I used a variety of clay colors but preferred to use the colored clays separately from each other. 

This report will not be complete if I do not briefly refer to vegetation and other natural elements that normally inspire me. Nature in general will always be part of the cycles of life, and it forms an integral part of my work. Leaves, tree branches, flowers, and any other seed-like material and how it drift through seasons will always attract me. The reference to human life and the flow of events in history, either personal or public is a central theme.  

​It was late Fall when we were in Northern Florida. Many of the plants was already dormant or
dead. That in itself held its own attraction. The deformed and gnarled leaves in some places
reminded me of my childhood, which made me touch onto some deformed bowl forms once
again.

​The most important discovery that I made, is that it does not have to be the "big events" and "big opportunities" from which we learn. Opportunities are all around us, we just have to look for it.
I was very unsure of how to spend the fellowship funds after my plans were derailed. At first I thought to spend it on just one large item for my studio, but somehow that was not a satisfactory idea. I had the notion that I need to do something that would make me grow as an artist. Just buying an object, unless it was something with which I could experiment with, was not attractive.
When the idea to travel and look for places and areas where I can learn dawned on me, I was still unsure, because of the state of the pandemic. despite that I decided that there will never again be a time like that in my lifetime. 2020 offered me a unique opportunity to see the world from behind a mask, from a social distance and in a timeframe when people behave in a different, abnormal manner.
 
I mentioned that birds were always kind of in the background of my work. People often made  comments that I was creating birds.  I saw it as their interpretation of the signature lines on my work.  Even during the documenting  on video, I enjoyed the birds, but  did not pay much attention to them other than their 3-dimentional forms, in the same way as I saw leaves and flowers. It was more a matter of what happens to these vegetation or birds in the cycle of life of nature and how do that compare with human life.  Back in my studio, the bird suddenly had a personality. I started seeing attitudes from these little feathered friends.
I may have had that in the back of my mind from earlier last year when I was doing an online classroom project for the Mississippi Whole Schools program: "The Crow and the Pitcher"
I was also teaching a beginner’s class for potters online last year and the whole project was built on birds, bird feeders and bird houses. Those were strictly craft projects, but I cannot help but wonder if the seeds were already germinating earlier on.
Right now, I do not want to make too much of the bird idea, since it can easily become too intentional, but I will allow the idea to grow by doing more research about these little creatures.

Porcelain has long had the reputation of being a difficult clay body to work with. Much of this reputation comes not from forming the clay, but from understanding the firing process. Porcelain responds very specifically to heat and temperature, kiln design, glaze fit, and especially to the way it cools after firing.
By understanding the relationship between raw materials, firing temperature, and cooling cycles, potters can make informed decisions about kilns, clay bodies, and firing schedules that lead to strong and reliable porcelain work.
Now that we have to established the concept of porcelain and the distinctions between high-firing and low-firing types, and how to determine the appropriate kiln for your studio needs.

Working successfully with porcelain requires understanding more than just the clay itself. Firing temperature, glaze fit, cooling cycles, and kiln design all play critical roles in the strength and durability of the finished piece.
When potters respect porcelain’s need for controlled heating and especially slow cooling, they unlock the remarkable qualities that have made porcelain one of the most admired ceramic materials in history.

I am sure you will know what I mean when I say that decisions can sometimes cause big storms in one’s life. Koos and I put our house in Illinois on the market in late August and had it sold 2 weeks later. In these economic times that is almost unheard of, so when it happened, the storm was on and it came like a tsunami down on us.  We had to move out of the house in less than 2 weeks, because the initial closing date actually happened on time and was not delayed like it so often times happen.

Three truckloads further and Koos and I find ourselves back in the first house we bought in Saltillo Mississippi and that was rented out while we were in Illinois. Now we have to make it home again and my studio needs a serious revamp after termites got hold of it. ​

In 1987 we made a similar move, except that our children were small and I was just past the beginners’ phase of my pottery career.

The University of Pretoria recruited Koos to work for them. We were sad to leave beautiful Malelane behind, but we realized that there were several advantages in moving to Pretoria. We were young and today we know the grass always seems to be greener on the other side.

 I started teaching pottery classes again, but also took the opportunity to attend pottery workshops. It was great to enroll in a pottery class as a student and learn from masters in the field.

Every artist dreams of the day that he or she will make it big, so I was happy that I could sell more pottery. At this stage I did not consider myself as an artist. I was good at teaching and I was good at making pottery. I even got to the point where I started to understand the chemistry of ceramics and could make my first glazes.

One of the things that is often overlooked by artists and which should be addressed more often in college courses, is the art of business and how to work yourself gradually to a place where you can earn an income without allowing that the business to consume your whole life . I was completely ignorant in that field and the perfect candidate to fall into a trap.

My first series of pots were unloaded from my kiln one day and I was very excited about it. When I had an opportunity to show my work at a big show, I got an order within 3 days that was bigger than I could handle. I was totally freaked out, but instead of working my way through the situation, I turned my attention to buy a factory. All signs indicated that I should not buy the factory, but at the time I was too close to the problem to think clearly and after one year, a crooked partner and lots of heartache I was back home with just my one wheel and small kiln.

In looking back at the situation, I learned a lot; not only about business, but also about managing the 20 people I had working for me at the time. I learned how to plan and schedule the production of hundreds of pots per day, sometimes jumping in and working side by side with my employees. The hardest, but maybe the best lesson that I learned was that I loved pottery and not wanted to be a manager of potters.

The aftermath of the factory was difficult. I had a lot of self-doubt. My children, still very young at the time suffered with me and my husband were stressed out to his core. He co-signed for the factory and lost everything because of my crooked partner. With a very demanding job, it was not good for him to worry about me and the children.

As with all things, life went on and soon we were back on our feet. I restarted my teaching studio and our lifes resumed as if nothing happened. I became a very successful teacher and not only did I write my first articles for a newspaper, but soon thereafter I won my first pottery award. As a family we were content and happy.

At the time the winds of change were already blowing viciously over our beloved South Africa. Nelson Mandela was the new president and although everything seemed to be peaceful, thousands of professional people started to leave the country; either because they lost their jobs or because of fear that they will lose their job. Little did we know at the time, that we would soon follow in many other's footsteps. We just had to make a little detour through Namaqualand and Cape Town, before we would, in 1999 also find our way to the United States.

​

• It is very important to know what you want to be. Do not be a potter or artist because you think it is a moneymaker. It is not. It is extremely hard work and if someone tells you that the life of an artist is an easy one because they can get up and play their life away, do not believe that. You have to be extremely disciplined to be your own boss and the hardest thing to do is to find inspiration when you are tired and the money coffer stays empty.
• Find your voice and your own niche. It is difficult to do while you are still a beginner and after all how will you learn if you do not copy others. You have to separate learning to do art work from doing business in art.
• The easiest way to stay on that track is to be honest with yourself. Sit down with pen and paper and write down subjects that interest you. Tear pages from magazines of things that catch your eye and find the common elements that you like in those pages. Incorporate those ideas into a workbook. Keep notes and transfer ideas to your artwork.
• Have the discipline to work regular hours, eat and exercise enough and to maintain a good lifestyle.
• Once you have a style and maybe a series of work, you have to learn how to market it. Bruce Baker offers a series of CDs in which he discusses important rules for the creation of images of your work and things you should know to set yourself up for success at different shows. He also teaches some selling techniques. It is of no use if you make beautiful work and you cannot get rid of it.
• Know and understand your market and do not fall around from one style to the other.
• Make sure that you have a well worked out proposal with business cards, images, an artist statement, resume and biography. It is important that you know why you are doing what you do and make sure that others can learn that by looking at your proposal.
• It is difficult to make money if you do not have money to start with. I want to encourage you to read my blog “The beginning of my pottery career” One of the nice things about artists is that they are problem solvers. I heard a story about a guy that was working off the side of the road………ahmm………. but wait I am jumping the gun here; that story is part of an interview that I had with a fellow potter. I will post that shortly, so check back if you’re interested to hear it…….
• An artist without at least some basic computer skills will survive with difficulty in today’s world, since social networks have mostly taken over as the advertising tool. It is a fast and effective tool to use. Use it sparingly, but wisely.
• I’d love to hear your personal stories of survival and if you have any business tips to share, I’d absolutely welcome that. Thank you for reading and sharing my blog.

The online workshop "AAMAL" (All Artists Making A Living) by Curtis Benzle is available on TeachinArt. In this online workshop Curt explains all the needed information that a small business owner needs to control office administration, promotion of products, design and safekeeping of new products, tax and sales tax information, and everything else to assist artists in making a living with the art that they create, develop, sell, and enjoy.

​​There’s a container with salt sitting next to my stove top. The last time that Linkie, my celebrity chef daughter visited me, she bought me some large chunks of colored rock salt in a gourmet olive tap.

The little grater that was included in the packet made me try to shave the salt once, but then I decided it is enough that it look pretty on the kitchen counter, partially covered with kosher salt, which I like to cook with. Now I enjoy looking at my “rocks surrounded by white sand” and imagine a perfect life.

I don’t know about you, but I use kosher salt all the time, for no other reason than that I like the taste. It is a little harder to put too much salt in one’s food. I add salt in anything; even when I make something sweet, I have to add at least a pinch of salt. I cannot imagine a salt-less life.

As I am standing there, stirring the pot on the stove top, my thoughts trail off. I’m thinking about what Scripture says about salt. Even if you are not a Christian, you have to admit there is beautiful poetry in the Bible. 

“For everyone will be salted with fire.”

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” 

Then there are all the different uses of salt that is totally unrelated to food. There are so many medicinal uses for salt….remember how fast a wound heal when vacationing at the sea…. 

One of my favorite uses is for cleaning red wine and also for fresh blood stains. Pour a heap of dry salt on a red wine spill on a carpet or couch and to let it sit till the next morning. Vacuum the wine saturated salt away and the spot is gone. When blood gets on clothes, let it sit for a while in cold salt water, before rubbing the stain out.

​My musing on salt will be totally incomplete if I do not trail my thoughts through my studio and the uses of salt there. As a young potter I could not believe my eyes that common table salt is useful in pottery and I remember the day that I dropped a pinch of salt in a bowl to see what would happen in the kiln fire. I thought I totally misunderstood my pottery books and had to see for myself and there, as sure as the sky is blue, the pot came from the fire with a darker, shinier interior. 

That was the day that I realized that clay has many more domestic components to it than I originally thought. I also realized that salt is a very basic, but very diverse material.

​As the years went by, I used salt in my pit fire. I arranged the salt and copper around the pots that were nested in sawdust and I put on fire. Once it burned down, the fumes created beautiful reds and oranges on my pots.