How did that happen?  One minute I was revelling in the glory of Potfest in the sunshine, blink and it was Winter and blink again and here I am, at 3.30am in the morning unable to sleep & gearing up for the Spring shows.  Winter is tough in the life of a ceramicist its basically pretty impossible to work unless you have a fully heated studio (which I don't).  I realise I am falling into the pattern that artists often do, much procrastination, navel gazing, panic & lack of clear direction & then boom - full pelt, can't sleep, want to make constantly & can't think about anything else, even sleep eludes me, but I'm used to it, I secretly enjoy being awake when the rest of my corner of the world sleeps. 

This year is flying past, with the majority of the first six months fully focussed on my first Potfest Exhibition at Scone Palace in June.  I enjoyed knuckling down, working solely with one objective in mind.  Usually, there are a number of shows and events to plan for, but I felt that to give myself the best possible opportunity I needed to just let go of all distractions and work towards one goal.  I am happy to say this seemed to be a good strategy.  Albeit with a 'people pleasing' false start; I made three large pieces of work with a 'Potfest Customer' in mind - what a disaster they turned out to be!  A sort of watered down/conservatised version of my aesthetic which made my soul roll her eyes in disgust!  I was lucky enough to have a word with myself after that, and progressed through the rest of the making process being utterly true to myself. 

This year began inauspiciously with the flurry of Christmas over and the cold seeping into my psyche, I wasn't really ready for a New Year and all that those capital letters entail, I don't think I was quite done with the old one yet.

What a year it has been, and it isn't even over yet.