This morning I sat for awhile in our upstairs area in the pottery looking at my partner's work. Since we have moved out of our house and our regular offices while the construction is completed, we have set up temporary offices in what is really our photography studio and the place we put back our own work for collectors, exhibitions and the preservation of our best work. The idea is that we keep work around to gain perspective on what it is we are doing with our work. A kind of contextual compass. There are 30 or more of Daphne Roehr Hatcher bark textured pieces that are the best from recent years. As I looked at these works of hers, I once again realized the temporal aspect of working as an artist or doing anything creative which goes along with another theme I have been turning around in my mind. The idea of ones last pot. The very last pot I will make. The day will surely come, no one really knows when. So this is a feeling of finality, sadness, and one of knowing that the day will surely come. So, how do we prepare for that day? One way is to retain the best work for yourself. This is hard to do. Of course working as an artist is a life, not just a way to make money. But, we do have to sell work so selling work is built into the game. So when someone comes along (collector or appreciator) and wants to pay good money for your work, the impulse is to sell and believe me there are many pieces I would gladly buy back. So as that ultimate day arrives, the last day to make the last pot, I need to remember to keep the best. Early on in my career, I kept the best work like seed corn. You never eat your seed corn. That is for growing the new crop.

The creative life is filled at times with self doubt and it is those pieces (seed corn) in ones private collection that help you through that doubt. You can look at your best work and say, damn, I'm not that bad....in fact I am really pretty good. And then you pull up your boot straps and once again go into the studio and clear away those obstacles (mainly in your mind) and make a new body of work. When teaching, I have often encouraged students to create an alter, a shrine in there living space that has the very best art they have ever made. This is the seed corn we all need to retain. It gets us through the inevitable hard stuff. So, I started this post out really to remind myself to insist on keeping Daphne's best work. She is an amazing ceramic artist, and her last pot will be a very, very sad day. So I will resolve to add to my collection more of her work and more of other good work when I find it because life is short and art should be very, very long.