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By Sarah Wells Rolland
I love clay. It moves so sweetly in my hand. It is as if the clay wants to take on a new shape. And me, I am connected, whole, present.
I suspect most of you know this moment, having found it in your own way. And you too, once you have found this moment know that we need to find it again and again. It is a blend of passion and contentment, a holy place.
I am blessed to have made the pursuit of this place my work.
Here at The Village we are committed to the dreams of others. We want all who work and study here to find their path into their creative purpose. So, we have created an environment that facilitates just that. A couple of years ago we developed and implemented an advanced ceramic study program that is designed to foster dreams and plans “for a wild and precious life” (quote from Mary Oliver’s poem, The Summer Day).
I am writing to those of us who are now in the season of our life where we can reflect, give back, and pass the blessing forward. I’m talking about taking the culmination of our joys, our mistakes, and successes by sharing them with the next generation.
Will you partner with us? If you have been blessed and love the creative spirit then I invite you to our special day, Saturday, October 14th from 12:00 – 5:00pm. It will be a day of celebration. A day where we honor creativity, risk-takers, and most importantly the next generation of potters who believe that making ceramic art is a noble pursuit. We believe that the world needs creatives and we want to sustain this glorious part of our culture.
I am personally making work for multiple kiln firings to opened on that day. Pots for the purpose of Dream Building! Come and watch demonstrations in throwing, shaping and firing. Bring your friends and family! All are welcome. I will demonstrate and speak at set times throughout the day about this wonderful community and all the dreams that flow in and through The Village Potters. Sculptures, pots large, and small will be for sale with all the proceeds going to our Independent Study and Mentoring Program, and our new six incubator studios and co-op gallery for students, “The Egg.”
I would love for you to join The Village Potters in this big dream!. We can build dreams together. We can encourage and support this next generation, with whom believes that theirs is “one wild and precious life.”
The Summer Day by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?