I have not written for many months, and things have progressed a lot.
A letter from Andrew Bryant yesterday encouraged me to post this piece I had prepared a month ago.
What happened was that I realized I needed help and first I went to a therapist for few months and I discovered with her help where some of my blocks and recurrent problems are .
I also had few sessions with a life coach who helped me to find targets for my practice. This was a much more practical input than the psychologist and with her help a lot of things have moved.
• I threw away all my seconds and I started making pieces only for myself: this brought the amazing discovery that if a cup is for me I know how I want it and it has to be perfect, so now I will keep only things that I would be happy with.
• I started to try new shapes and develop new ideas. To do this I decided to join a pottery class run by en ex Harrow colleague, just to have use of a different studio and a place to throw stoneware without contaminate my wheel. I find this liberating and I met another mother artist in a similar life stage and this friendship has given me the feeling of not being alone in the struggle.
• Making a new body of work gives me also enthusiasm to continue making my stock for the summer shows, and having paid for the studio place, I have to go every week to commit to the new work and perfect it.
• Reading books on the fear of creating and in particular Trust the process An artist’s guide to letting go by Shaun Mc Niff have helped me realize that the uncertainty I feel is normal that all artists feel lost and insecure during the work and often satisfied only for a very short time at the end of a work. Basically the uncertainty is the norm and the only way to proceed is to just doing it.
