When world goes insane....    
 
The Alabama Clay Conference was a trip a I will remember for years to come. Why........... Val Cushing. There are few I would spend time, money and gas to see but there are those rare few. Once in a great while you look at someone’s work and it stops you in your tracks; Val Cushings pots do that for me. He is 78 years young and still potting, engaged and amazing. After two days of watching this guy and slowly feeling the embers start to fire up again I was ready to return to the studio and really get to work. I made the 12 hour trip home feeling refreshed with new ideas dancing in my head. New tools and studio stuff to try out, new mugs traded and ready to fill with hot coffee and time with friends, wonderful nights sitting up and talking about pots and potters until you can’t hold your eyes open any more. Pots, lots of beautiful pots; David Shaner, Karen Karnes, Voulkos, Hamada, Leach, Rie, Cooper....... Notkin, Reitz, Audio, Turner........ too many to list. Thought I would check my email before I drifted off to dream land when my heart sank. Several emails alerting me to devastating news. Rachael and Annie’s friend and Peace Corp replacement in Benin was murdered while sleeping on the front porch of her house. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. We had never had anything but wonderful news from the Peace Corp. There are not enough words in the English language to talk about this tragedy. We did not sleep that night or the next day. We are still reeling from this senseless act of violence on someone so young and full of life. I saw my first turkey vulture of 2009 today and I thought, it doesn’t get much uglier than a turkey vulture but then I watched it catch the thermal drafts over the Grand River and soar...... I couldn’t see the details of the ugly bird only the gift of flight and weightlessness............. an ugly bird that can take rotting stuff on the side of the road and turn it into living flying beautiful wing beats........ It doesn’t get any uglier than what happened to Katy and my only wish for her .......... Soar Katy, soar high............ You can read about Katy at the following link: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2009/03/murdered-peace.html http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2009/03/murdered-peace.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0
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Thursday, March 19, 2009