This year's Crosby Festival has its usual array of artists from around 

the country, in Ceramics, Fiber, Glass, Graphics, Jewelry, Mixed Media, 

Painting, Photography, Sculpture and Wood. The festival is a nice one, 

held every year at the Toledo Botanical Garden. It's a lovely place with 

little houses (formerly part of the neighborhood) now housing artists 

guilds, herb society, glass blowers, photographers and the Toledo Potter's

 Guild (where I ride my bike to teach adult classes every week.) So guess 

who got the blue ribbon for Ceramics? Clayart's own Richard Aernie. 

He and his potter/partner Carolyn came to town Thursday night and set up 

an artful display of elegant pots with those delicious, complex glazed 

surfaces. Molly and I got to chat with them Friday night after the 

members-only opening show (Richard sat patiently with a chinchilla on 

his shoulder, listening to Molly go on about her pets.)  Yesterday Jeff 

and my boys got home from a week away at scout camp. They were sunburned, 

mosquito bitten, pungent and filthy. Once they were all showered up, and 

the hazmat team had transported all dirty laundry into the washing 

machine, they settled in and Jeff made a nice dinner (chicken piccata). 

Richard and Carolyn joined us when the show ended for the day.  They 

were tired and steam-broiled, after a long day of heat and rain. Jeff 

and the boys had gotten up at dawn in canvas tents 50 miles away, and 

were a little weary themselves. I had spent a lot of the day in a hot 

parking lot with the girl scouts -- (and then dealing with the EZ-up that 

went up-up-and-away, Mary Poppins style), so I was also a little 

sunburned and thrashed. In spite of it all, we had a lovely dinner 

together, and shared some interesting beers.  Molly found a fellow 

animal lover in Carolyn (whose ceramic handbuilt dogs just exude 

personality, and who works in animal hospitals -- Molly's dream job!) 

Richard was very patient with my "academic" questions (lol) as I hauled 

pot after pot from my cupboards for him to look at, wanting to know 

what he sees, what he likes, what he thinks. Several clayarters were 

on the dinner table after dessert... several more were discussed, even 

if I didn't have a pot we could hold in our hands.  Today was the last 

day of the sale, and we rode over for a last look at the show. The 

quality of pottery there was (IMO) uneven, from the awkward to the 

sublime, but Ann Tubbs and her majolica are always a joy, and Tom Marino 

from our guild had a booth not far from Richard's.  It feels marvelous, 

this week, to finally have my life organized, my refrigerator and pantry 

full, my house clean enough for entertaining, and my garden burgeoning 

in the rain. It has been a very long time since I've had the breathing 

room to enjoy good company, time to read, and morning coffee on the 

deck. The constant nagging feeling that I need to be doing something 

(at home, if I was at school, or at school, if I was at home) has 

dissipated, and I'm hearing the strains of my long forgotten favorite 

song.. "Summertime.. and the livin's easy"...  (And I'll be darned, my 

daddy's rich and my mama's good lookin'...)  This weekend, for the 

first time, I kind of felt myself turning a corner in another way. 

Maybe it is because my taxes are done and my house in order, or maybe 

enough time has passed after the round-the-clock-pressure of making 

for my show that I have caught my breath. But for the first time in 

over a month, I am actually wanting to get back to the studio. I have 

been taking care of business, catching up on bookkeeping, planning a 

soda kiln and buying the guild's displaced Skutt... but I have not 

even been able to THINK about making pots, except for my guild class 

demos on Thursdays. I think I had a potter's version of post traumatic 

stress ;0) Even just the smell of the EMU studio's newspapers I'd 

used to wrap my show pots made me feel a little nauseous.  So this 

week, I will begin the process of reclaiming my studio, which is 

currently piled with unpacked boxes from school. I hope to begin 

reclaiming a sense of fun in my work, which was rare in school with 

so much to master and so little time. I look at color, pattern, 

different media, and think, "What would I make, if I could make 

anything I want?"  because I can... now...  Life is good, potters 

are friendly and supportive and marvelous and inspiring. Like the 

bumper sticker on an artist's trailer said, "People are wonderful, 

Business is great.. Thanks."  Yours, feeling blessed by long days 

and good kids, big bowls of backyard currants and cherries, and an 

on line community that brings me friendships with people I have 

never met...  Kelly