Tag: telling stories in clay and words

ArtWalk 2025, a Recap

It was ArtWalk this weekend, and as per usual, it was fabulous. I got an excellent spot, on a tall counter (the top of a bank of lockers) in the hallway in front of one of the gyms. It meant that the thousands(!) of visitors all walked by my display TWICE, once going into the gym to look at everyone else’s amazing art, and once coming out again – up one side of the display and down the other on the return trip, and having the counter so high meant that my tiny detail work was right at people’s eye level.

The setup on The Night Before ArtWalk (when all through the school/Not a creature was stirring,/ they’re all much too cool…)

The night before it started, I was lying awake at 3am, worrying (as one does), and I came to the conclusion that I probably wouldn’t get a lot of sales – people would just walk past my display instead of stopping to linger and look. It was a hallway, after all. Fine, I thought, so be it. It is what it is.

Hah! I couldn’t have been more wrong. People stopped, they looked, they lingered, they oooh’d and aaah’d. And they bought. And bought!

“On Top of the Mattress” – the newest in the Fairy Tales Bookends series. And you see that red dot on the card? That means SOLD!

I’d brought a little group of mice (apparently that’s called a mischief?), sitting on cheeses. Last year, I had a cat with a companion cheesymouse, and people kept trying to buy just the mouse, so I thought I’ll try a few mice on their own this time. They flew off the shelf – the first one sold within ten minutes of the opening!

The Cheesymice

Hilariously, the flock of Tiny Gnomes that were so popular last year were, to begin with, completely overshadowed by the Cheesymice – they only started selling once all the mice were gone. They got lots of attention, though (“Look at the tiny gnomes, Mommy!”, “Oh my gosh, so cute!”), so it’s all good.

The 2025 Flock of Tiny Gnomes

The theme this year was “Colour Unleashed”. If you’ve met me in person, you know that that’s right up my alley. I would have worn my rainbow Ali Baba pants anyway, but as is, I looked like I dressed on theme! And it gave me an opportunity to bring my super-bright splashy abstract pieces (I call some of them “Kandinsky cups”), and to my surprise they were really popular.

Sporting my colours and chatting up the customers

Not much more to say. It was a fun weekend, quite exhausting, quite exhilerating. Now to go into hibernation for a couple of weeks, and then back into the studio to replenish the stock!

Life, the Universe, and my third time at ArtWalk. If you’re interested in adopting a Tiny Gnome or getting your very own Mousepresso cup, give me a shout. I’ll be over here on the couch, having a nap.

Mousepresso cups
Kandinsky Cups

ArtWalk: A Recap

Lineups of eager art collectors waiting to get in at ten minutes before opening on Day 1
Little Louis and Cheesymouse led the viewer into my display (and yes, they sold!)
I had a wonderful booth neighbour in Jill of Jill’s Journals
Did I have fun? Yes. Yes I did.
My display in all its glory
My ArtWalk 2024: a Video (if you’re viewing this post in an email and can’t see the video, click on the post title so you can watch it in your browser)

What’s Coming to ArtWalk

Here’s a few pieces that are coming to Lake Country ArtWalk with me this weekend:

And then there’s this flock of Tiny G’nomes that materialized in my studio recently:

They haven’t told me their names yet, but they’re a very friendly sort, and they’ve moved into the village of fairy houses and picture pots. But I’m sure they’d be more than happy to come live at your house, too! Maybe with a fairy house or a picture mug, so they’ll feel at home.

That’s Life, the Universe, and Lake Country ArtWalk 2024! Will we see you there?

Gaeli’s G’nomes

I just sent out a newsletter (are you subscribed yet? You can do so here), and I told everyone about Gaeli’s G’nomes. And then I thought, hey, I don’t think I’ve ever introduced them on the blog, either. So it’s time to remedy that situation.

Gaeli’s G’nomes, as I told my newsletter readers, are the family of gnomes who live on my living room cabinet—well, the ones who are still home. Several of them have moved out already, and all of these ones are perfectly willing to do so, too; give me a shout if you’re interested in adopting one. They’re made of stoneware clay, so they’d be happy to live outside in your flowerbed over the summer. Oh, and all of them are about 8″ (20cm) high/long, give or take.

Their family name is spelled the way it is to make sure it’s pronounced with a hard G on both words. Technically they should be “Geli’s Gnomes” (Geli, prounounced “gaily”, was my childhood nickname), but they’re not “Jelly’s Nomes”, as most people would say it if it was spelled that way; hence “Gaeli’s G’nomes”.

Here’s the current family, all hanging out in my living room. I’m not sure what their conversation is about, but as a rule they get along quite well.

Now, if you’d like to meet a few of them, we’ll start with Gordon. He’s a mellow guy, likes to be quiet and just hang out with his bug, who’s gone to sleep on him.

Gabby is a chatty individual who likes to tell stories, and fortunately for her, her bug likes hearing them.

Gabby’s twin brother Garth is a dreamer; he and his bug like to find pictures in the clouds.

And here’s Goldie, who’s the youngest sister. She’s a busy and cheerful kind of person; I think she’s just spotted a butterfly and is quite excited about it. Her bug, on the other hand, isn’t so sure about it; he likes her to pay attention to him, not to some kind of fluttery thing in the air!

We’re hoping that over time, there’ll be more members added to the G’nome family, and will go out into the world and find new homes.

And there you have it, that’s Life, the Universe, and Gaeli’s G’nomes. They’ve enjoyed meeting you all!

Gaeli & G’nome (Self-portrait assignment from Digital Art Class, done in Procreate)

Why Story?

Reading Nook, 2022. Stoneware, 5x5x5″ (SOLD)

The world has become a bad place in the last few years. So many things are going wrong, so much strife, so much floods and fires and earthquakes and wars and rumours of wars.

But Story can set a counterpoint. Story allows us to escape the trap of perceived reality.

And that’s the key, isn’t it—perceived reality.

Story allows us to perceive a different reality. It lets us experience a different world, one in which plots resolve, problems come to a conclusion. Unlike the so-called real world, where everything is just a muddle, Story brings order to the world. As renowned folklorist Max Lüthi says*, the story world shows us not what could be, but what is.

Why do I tell Story? In order to create worlds and places for people to enter into, worlds of truth. Worlds of justice and joy. Worlds not without problems, but worlds where those problems can and will be resolved.

Story is not escapist in the sense of letting us run away from our problems. But is is escapist in the sense of setting us free from the confines of our perceived reality. It allows us to see the bigger picture, opens our eyes to what is actually there. Even when it is Story about ostensibly “unreal” things, about elves and fairies and little dwarfs under the mountain. Maybe especially then.

We need Story—the World needs Story. The world needs Story to make sense of itself, to keep from sinking into a morass of muddle and chaos.

And that is why I tell Story. Unabashedly and unapologetically, I tell stories of joy and pleasure and home and warmth and family, where tiny people live in tiny homes and big ones get whirled away into other worlds where they find belonging.

Because in entering into these worlds, entering into Story, we can step out of the bondage of perceived reality, and we can find what is really real.

The world needs Story. That is why.

[*Lüthi, The European Folktale: Form and Nature (Philadelphia: ISHI, 1982), p.89. I quoted the full piece in a post on my research blog some ten years ago, here.]

It’s a Newsletter!

I’ve finally taken the plunge and set up a newsletter, to keep my faithful followers updated with some semblance of regularity (no more than once every month or two) on what’s going on in the Clay and Words studio and study.

If you’re interested in being among the first to find out when there’s a new book coming out or an art show in the offing, or you’d like to be introduced to my writing and my ceramics one piece at a time, go over here (the “Newsletter” tab in the menu) and leave me your email address.

There’ll be an unsubscribe link at the bottom of every mail so you can bail out again; I promise I won’t take it amiss!

(Just to clarify, the blog has two places where you can leave your email address: one is in the sidebar of every page and is for subscribing to blog posts, the other under the “Newsletter” tab at the top. The newsletter will only be sent out by email, you can’t read it on the web. So if you’re interested, please subscribe!)

Life, the Universe, and a Newsletter. See you on the mailing list?