Finally...

No, I haven’t disappeared from the internet completely. I have been reading and following the pottery world. I’ve just been hiding from Blogger by spending my computer time on the Kreeger Pottery Facebook page and Twitter. Over the past few weeks I’ve also been working on my new website with, gasp, a web designer. I also recently completed a photo shoot with an incredible photographer here in Austin, Raychel Deppe from Applebox Imaging. She took the photo on the right and a lot of the images on my new site were part of that shoot.

We also recently finished another successful year of the Art of the Pot Studio Tour and we are already onto planning the next one. This marked the culmination a lot of hard work while creating my new body of work. The move to Austin back in 2009 brought with it many challenges but mostly, it was working in a new studio, a new city, a new firing method and with new materials.

This year’s Art of the Pot felt like the official unveiling of my new work. I’ve been showing and selling work the past 2 years at some craft shows and other events throughout Texas. Images of the new work have also been floating around the internet on my Twitter feed and Facebook page. Unlike your traditional craft show or gallery exhibit, Art of the Pot brings a highly educated and eager crowd out to see only clay. In addition, the work is surrounded by 15 other top quality artists who have brought their newest wares to town. My friend and AotP partner Lisa Orr likes to say our guests are the rock stars of the ceramics world. Looking at our guests this year, it’s easy to see why she says that. With all that work in town, it is daunting to see how ones own work holds up among the crowd of beautiful objects.

I was very proud of my work and I truly felt as though it was the most solid body of work I’ve had since our move to Austin back in 2009. It’s close to where I want it to be...not quite there yet but very, very close. I’m in the editing stage in my creative process. I will start subtracting the elements that don’t work and will be left with only the objects that make sense, both on their own as well as with the work around it. This next step is a difficult one and I almost feel like it’s a break with how I’ve worked as a potter for the last 15 years.

I’ve always put my body of work together by creating a series of one form, leading to the next; a run of pitchers, then a run of vases, then some mugs and so on. At some point I realize I’m low on larger forms so I try to scale something up. Then I remember the small cups I wanted to make or that I’ve forgotten the small plates that I wanted to have at the show. I’m realizing that I’ve always approached a show or deadline as a potter trying to fill a kiln. It’s a noble approach and may work for some but with the direction my work has been heading, I’m not sure if it’s the right way for my work to keep evolving.

It’s time for me to change how I look at an object. I need to look more closely at it’s purpose, it’s design and how it relates to the other objects I want to make. I think this simplifying of my work even more will allow even more subtle complexities to be exposed. It’s another big change but I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops within my studio.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be filling orders, finishing the build-out on my new website, shipping work off to galleries and try to get a head start on some ideas that have been percolating for quite some time. In the meantime, I’ll let you know when the new website is ready...it’s going to be pretty amazing...and I’ll be back to blogging within the new site. And hey, for a final blog post on Blogger, this wasn’t too bad, right?

In the meantime, click over to the Kreeger Pottery Facebook page or my Twitter Feed to stay up to date....and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter to get news and promos for the new website.