Feeding the soul

                                                 We had a big weekend last weekend!
                                        A wonderful Saturday evening of 'Music and Poetry'
                                 with my amazing brother Chris, his equally wonderful wife Anne
                                                         and all their beautiful offspring.

                                                     Chris is a piano teacher as well as a
                                                              fabulous art photographer
                                                          if you haven't seen his website
                                                  indulge your self with his poetic images.

                                                     http://www.chrisdonaldson.com.au/


                                               He composed a gorgeous clarinet duet
                                      to perform with his soon to be daughter in-law, Alex.
                                       It was full of whimsy, delightful melody and harmony.
                                            He then read a beautiful poem he had written!
                                         OH MY what and amazingly talented person he is!

                                                My husband sang the scarecrow song from
                                                                  'The Wizard of OZ'
                                                    and delighted my little grand nieces :)
                                                 

                                

                                          ........ and we sang a little ditty together too ;D
                                     We decided to go to singing lessons a couple of years ago
                                                      so that we could work on duets together.
                                                      Family and work take up most of our life
                                    and we felt it was time to make room for special time together,
                                          something creative that was just for us....so we sing :) 

                              There was music and laughter everywhere on Saturday evening!
                                          How wonderful to spend an evening rejoicing
                                                        in music and words with family.

                                           I am so lucky to be part of this wonderful family! xxx

                                                    Home again late that night to find my
                                            eldest son and his little family who had come to stay
                                           and we had a lovely Sunday morning enjoying them.

                                                       Then Sunday evening off to the city.
                                                         Korean food with my step son
                                                          and the Sydney Opera House
                                                             for a Kraftwerk concert.

                                                                   Too wonderful!

                                                         What is it about city lights ?
                                               I have loved them since I was a little kid....

                                           
                                             All this wonderful stimulation of the senses
                                                 is now food for my studio work.
                                           I think it is time for me to 'sing' a pot or two
                                                  like Lee, Kang Hyo dances his pots.

                                                  It is cold here now and my throwing water
                                          definitely needs some hot kettle addition these days.

                                                        Here is my latest favorite tool ...
                                                          my wrist band from 'Clay Push'
                                          It makes a lovely rim smoother when throwing :)
                                     
                                                 I am getting ready for some raku fireings
                                                         and hopefully a pit fireing too.
                                         So bowls and sculptures are my focus at the moment.
                                           I have been recycling some of the Darling River clay that
                                                        I collected from out back NSW
                                                          I find it very nice to throw with,
                                                       although my goodness IT STINKS!!!!!
                          I am sure the clay is full of the essence of feral cat, pig and goat ArrrrGH !
                                             I hope the result is worth the full body sterilisation
                                                             that I need after working with it.
                                          Many years ago, my teacher Margaret Tuckson,
                                                used to call her recycled clay 'Old Smelly'
                                          I think I will start calling this stuff 'My Rank Ol' Darlin' '.

                                                         So here are this weeks raku bowls drying

   

                                        and I have also been making some thrown and altered vessels
                                                                 ....that started like this...

                                                      
                                                             ..... a bit of mix and match.....

                                             

                                                       and this is what they look like now....
                                                a bit lumpy and bumpy yet, still working on them.

                                             




                                                               Now I am off for a peek at what
                                                       the Mud Colony bloggers have been up to.

Working working working and loving it!

 

Working away, still driven by the inspiration of Clay Push.

I used to think that I liked to make big pots

but after watching Lee, Kang Hyo in action

 I have decided that they are just little pots...

this one is approx 80cm high.

                                                 Back to work ... it is cold and rainy today
                                                      I think I will do a bit of throwing.
                                              I wonder what the Mud Colony potters are up to?

Where do your inspirations come from?

                                        This is a question that I am often asked.....
                            particularly in regard to some of my off beat costumes
                              like 'A Couple of Nice Fresh Snappers' and 'Tea Party'

                                         I often answer with..."I have no idea!"
                                                  which is absolutely true.
                                      However I have been pondering this question
                             since my return (bursting with inspiration) from Clay Push .

                                                I came home from my week away
                                           with various things singing in my heart.

                                      One was Lee Kang Hyo's freedom of expression

                                  another was Jeff Mincham's connection to landscape

                            and there were lots of technical tips from a variety of potters

                                                                           So......

                            How does this all fit into the idea of inspiration and the creative mind ?


                                          Well the thing is that when all these inspiring people,
                                                   events, things, places and works of art
                                             are put into the soup that is brewing in my mind,
                                 (which comes with its own history of experiences and tastes)
                                                                 anything can manifest!
                                             It is sure to be a unique and tasty combination of flavours
                                       that are all about my experiences with those events.


                                                              My pet hate is to see
                                                one artist copy another artists work.
                                                                   UGGGHHHH!
                                                                 It infuriates me!!!!
                                             There is no excuse for it but laziness
                                           and an inability to be true to their own journey.
                                                  I love to be inspired by other artists
                                                     but I like my work to be my own.

                                                   As you may know I was very into yoga
                                                          as a teenager and young adult
                                                            and although, these days,
                                        I am not the dedicated practitioner that I was back then,
                                         it does subtly inform my thinking and my attitude to life.

                                                   There is a teaching in yoga that says
                                         we all have samskaras ( impressions in the mind)
                                           and while I'm not convinced about the past life stuff
                                                        connected with this philosophy
                                        ( as I am very much a here and now kind of person)
                                                          I do find that I get moved by things
                                                              I see, hear, feel and read about.
                                                  Those impressions do hang in my head
                                and they blooming well grow until I HAVE to make something
                                            related to that experience or they wont go away.
                                          In yoga, meditation is used to get rid of these samskaras.
                                                   These days my art is my meditation
                                               and the samskaras I regard as my inspirations.
                                                              Just like the breath
                                                         * I breath them in (inspire)
                                                        * turn them into a creative thought
                                                        * then breath them out as my (h)art.

                                                             YES.......????  And..............????

                                                           OK ... Enough of the esoteric stuff!



                                            What have I started working on this week?

                                        Well....inspiration can come from unexpected places.

                                              I found this lovely basket in an old wares shop
                                              in Gulgong and I thought I might allow myself
                                            to be influenced by its form in a series of work.
                                           I love that it starts out square and becomes round
                                                     it reminds me of how life changes us.
                                                              

                                                   So here is the first in a series of work
                                                         inspired by all of the above.
                                                    Can you see the cross fertilisation?
                                                       And is it mine? And not theirs?
                                                                         

 

                                                              'A Whisper in the Trees'
                                                                by Sadhana Peterson
                                                         hand built and wheel thrown
                                                         stoneware with coloured slips

                                            not fired yet.... still wet .... hope it comes out ....
                                                               ummm ... interesting.

                                     

Yuri Wiedenhofer cooks Lee Kang Hyo's BIG pot.

                                         
                                         This pot was made as a piece of performance art
                                and the only right way to complete an awesome week at Clay Push
                                                         was with a spectacle like this.

                                            The Kiwi potters had cooked a spectacular feast
                                            for the 400+ potters that had stayed until the end.

                                                 It seemed fitting that the pot broke down
                                                   in the fire in such a spectacular way
                                             (it waited until after after the glorious meal too!)
                                                 and that we would return to our own studios
                                          to create our works full of inspiration the next day.

Oh for the love of CLAY PUSH !

                                               I have returned from a week away
                                   at a clay convention, 'Clay Push', in Gulgong NSW
                                                  There was so much going on!
                             It was great to meet some of the Mud Colony members too.

                                 Below is a series of videos showing one potters work.
                                    I found Lee, Kang Hyo's approach to his work one
                               of the most exciting ceramic experiences I have come across.

                                   As many of you know I come from a background in
                                             performing arts, textiles and pottery and
                                        it is wonderful when I find events that touch on
                                          a combination of these loves in my life.
                                    Lee, Kang Hyo is a performer, dancer and potter.

                                                  I hope you enjoy this series of videos.
                                           I found his freedom of expression very inspiring.

                                        

making the first pot

                                                  dancing the decoration onto the first pot

 

decorating the 2nd pot

 

For those new comers to this blog and who have not seen my work 

here is my website

http://sadhanapeterson.com.au/home

If you go to the 'Works' page you will find my ceramics there

Preparation Inspiration Relaxation

It was great to farewell my WOW entry this week,
although watching the truckie hurl my three boxes
filled with my somewhat delicate costumes
onto the back of his open tray semi was a little spine tingling.

I have had a delicious week of setting my home and studio in order.
It all gets VERY out of control when I have deadlines with my work.

Eeeeek what a patient family I have! xxx

This coming week I will be attending  Clay Push in Gulgong for a week of inspiration.
Hanging with potters is a wonderful experience
and there will be potters from around the world for this convention .
A true gathering of the clan.
It will also be a time to meet up with some MUD COLONY members.
YAY!
Yes, look who I found today!

Fresh from Melbourne, Mrs Adriana! YAY!

And  my sister, Karin, after a 12 hour bus trip from Wilcannia.

I will feed and water them and off we will go
on a road trip to the sacred pottery site where we wallow in mud :)

What fun!

We will miss those who won't be able to make it
but I am sure there will be lots of other occasions in the future

My studio is all ready for my return
so that I can delve into my clay full of inspiration.

Cheers

Taking a trip across the sea

Well my WoW entry is now all ready for it's adventure.
Monday it will be picked up and shipped out.
I hope it is good enough to get through to the next judging.
I find when I work intensely on something it is very difficult to for me
to look at the result with fresh eyes.
As my wise old Mum would have said,
"look at what you've got and not at what you expected to have"
500+ hours later I am ready for anything ( particularly a break from the sewing machine!!!),
 I think I like it... but you never know if its what the judges will like or not.

Bon voyage my babies!

I have just finished this years Contextart Forum
I had booked into a jewellery class with the lovely Vicki Mason 
but unfortunately life didn't quite let me do much of it this time.
The great thing about Forum is that there is still so much to absorb
apart from the classes , even when things don't go quite go to plan.
I caught up, ever so briefly, with old friends like
Kath Wilkinson , Sandy Webster and Adele Outteridge
made new friends and met some great textile artists
AND found out about some really cool new materials...mmmmm!
So it was all worthwhile even though I didn't get to many of the classes :(

I bought this glorious hand spun wool from my friend Michelle Snowdon

and I plan to use it in my next project - a combined textile and ceramic work
that celebrates living in the Blue Mountains.

So now to get ready to go to Clay Push.
It will be so cool to have a week with some of the MUD COLONY mob,
thinking and talking mud ( and eating Marian's Texas BBQ brisket)
around the camp fire. Woo Hooo. Tell us what we can bring Marian :))

My sister will be coming too!
It will great to have some sis time, we have not had much time like this together.
It is all a bit special.
.

A Busy Life

YES!
I AM BACK IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING!

I have been very very very busy ...
way too busy to write about it ....until now.

I feel very fortunate to be an artist..........mostly.
It doesn't pay well but I love it.
Art gives me a great sense of my own space in my busy life.
It is a place to express sadness, love, confinement, frustration
and transform it into a positive form.

I am feeling like giving you a brief outline of how and why my life's creative path
has taken the road that it has.
So here is a little bit of my history.

I grew up with a mum who was a painter/artist/art teacher.
My dad loved to play the piano but he was not interested in art really.
When I was born my siblings were 17,15 and 13.
So they were almost like aunts and uncles in my early years and I looked at them in awe.
My sister, Karin, is an artist and I grew up watching her and my mum at the easel painting.
 

Karin doing a portrait of a family friend 

photo by my brother Mike

Both my brothers had a passion for photography
so mum created a bathroom that could transform into a darkroom for them.

My older brother, Mike, was always pretty adventurous, getting into canyoning,kayaking,archery and more as a young person so it is not surprising that he is now the author of an amazing set of books that required him to walk the Kimberley taking photos of the land and the art.
Wildrocks

Chris,the youngest of my three siblings,was and is a pianist, photographer
and an all round awesome person.
At one stage in his late teens / early 20's his passion for his music was such that he had a grand piano AND an upright piano in his (only modest sized) bedroom and had to crawl under the grand to get into his bed at night.
He also loved film making and there are some classic little films in the family archive
that he made as a 13year old.....haha so good.
He is and has been working for many years a wonderful photographer
and a much loved and sort after piano teacher.
http://www.chrisdonaldson.com.au/

It was a very creative environment!
With all those awesome siblings to follow....What was I going to do when I grew up?! 

Well one thing I knew was that I was going to be ME and different from them.
I didn't know how not to be creative, they had taught me well!

When I was about 10 years old mum was teaching at a school in Sydney.
The pottery teacher gave me some clay and I made a little pig with flowers on its back
because I was inspired by that ancient sculpture of the hippo covered with waterlilies
that looks as though it had just come up out of the water.

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/100000444
 
So it was at that moment that I decided that pottery was going to be for me.

I started classes with Margaret Tuckson in 1975 on Saturday mornings and left school 1976 to work with her on more days as I couldn't get the art and chemistry combination I was wanting for the HSC.
She encouraged me to get some more teaching from other potters to expand my practise and so I spent a year at Brookvale TAFE and then applied for East Sydney Tech in 1978 and submitted this pot along with some other wood fired pieces.

However after being accepted I had to pull out as my first son was on the way.

A growing family slowed my ceramic work down.
While I was having my next two boys and we were renovating our house
I began making lead light windows.
When the windows were in place it led to a fair bit of interest
and commission work for stained glass windows followed over the next 10 years.

As time would have it big changes happened in our family
and I found myself as a single parent needing a secure wage.
So I did a B.A. in Performing Arts with the aim to become Art/Drama/English teacher.

Set design was a joy for me and it satisfied the inner artist in me.
Yes, that is me with the pony tail and genie pants...hahaha...in a production of Kaspar.



I made those wire animals you can see at the back on the posts too.
Inspired by Picasso's Monkey and Goat sculptures.

 

An interest in mask and costume developed during my degree.

I created these masks with moving mouths
as part of my graduation year for a production of Antigone.

This lovely Frenchman, Claude Tessier, was introduced to me through friends
and he generously taught me his mask making technique.

 

 Here is Claude in one of his crocodile masks.

 

Now, you would be forgiven for thinking that mask and costume were miles from pottery
but I sculpt my masks in clay and the finished form is in muslin and tissue paper,
so it's all connected really.
Claude uses a cardboard to sculpt with but for me it is always a return to clay.

After uni I worked as a high school teacher and did a bit of stilt walking on the weekends.

I was introduced to stilt walking by my dear friend Deb Lisyak.
I had the joy of making several pieces of costume for her company Flair L'Gair.
I thank her not only for teaching me to stilt walk but also for her approach to costume making.
She had great integrity and a very high standard of workmanship in everything she made and everything that she commissioned to be made for her company.
Great times!

As time went by I met my now husband.
He also had a son who was 5 years old when we met, so cute!
My three boys were 12,14 and 16 by then
and a couple of years later we had a daughter.....awwwww.....
So you see motherhood is a BIG part of my life.... my kids and my family are my inspiration!

As life would have it over the following years I needed to be a mother and a carer
as my parents became elderly and one of my sons became unwell.
Life was too full and I was not able to return to my work as a teacher.

Art has become my life but it is along side and entwined into my family life.
I am very lucky.

I am now a doting grandmother with a studio space that allows me to return to my beloved pottery,
make costumes to appease my frustrated inner thespian and also room to make mixed media constructions to satisfy the recycler in me.

I have just finished a piece of work to enter into this years WOW
and I am very much looking forward to spending the rest of the year potting.

So that is me....at least for now. 

P.S.
So why does a white Australian woman have a name like Sadhana?
Well I got into yoga at school when I was about 14 in the mid '70's
and became a swami by the time I was 19, Swami Sadhanamurti Saraswati!
Yep ... shaved head...orange robes the whole thing.
But things change and I decided it wasn't for me by the time I was 27 and left it all behind.
However my name stays with me...I never felt connected to my birth name anyhow.

So there you have it in a rather full nut shell.
Happy creating!





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