… are amazing.  I can’t wait to make the Uncertainty Principle piece, including the Mind’s Eye with Astigmatism.  Here’s what I think it looks like. I’ll post pictures as soon as it’s done.

I picture the points of measurement- the measurement of place, and the measurement of velocity- as single shapes but with different sides, kind of…  Like the points will come to points, within a sea of chunky clay and dark colors, but out from under them will come these stretched waves, pulling up from underneath, encasing the sea.  I hope they come out looking fast and embodying urgency and maybe just a little overwrought.  I want it to indicate immense speed and force.  But not without control/grace.

Shapes are completely bewitching.  And there is some kind of obsession that happens chasing them.  I know when I’m close to the ‘right’ shape, but usually have to stop and come back, because you can keep pushing it and pushing it, and get somewhere.  But if you come back fresh, chances are you’ll see the exact point that needed to be pulled under or curved up to make it live.

This thing with control reminds me of something I spent a lot of time thinking about a few years ago, and I think finally became part of life after a while.  Which is:  Without strength you cannot have control/grace, and without control/grace you cannot have skill, therefor, strength and skill do not equate.  I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I know the best pieces I have made have included shapes based from that strength, both inner and physical… To make what I consider a decent curve or shape takes strength to hold the precision, and grace to perceive the fine points, to pull out the tiniest details that make a piece sing, and skill to bring it to completion.  It takes more than brutish effort to make a piece that has its own being.  And that’s what I’m after, hopefully without being brutish.

Actually, upon further thought, my little ‘line’ I thought about was, “Without strength you can’t have control, and without control you can’t have grace, but just having strength doesn’t equate to grace, and just having grace, doesn’t equate to control.”  So there’s that, but right now I have to go check the kiln, so the parallels are yours to draw.