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FROM AN SP READER

This month we are excited to include a mini article from potter blogger Emily Murphy. Emily chose to write about her experience as a blogger which is a great preview to the ucoming isse: BOUNDARIES & The Digital World We encourage you to write in with your own thoughts on past or current themes from issues of SP. We would really like to hear what YOU are thinking!

A New Community of Potters

By Emily Murphy

In the past year, I have gone through a lot of life changes. Exciting but disruptive.  After 10 years of living in Chicago and being part of the large, vibrant community of artists at Lillstreet Art Center, I moved to a new city, Minneapolis, bought a house and did a top to bottom renovation, built a studio, got married. One of the scariest parts of moving was leaving an incredible community of artists that I worked with on a daily basis. Lillstreet was the place where I taught classes, it was my social outlet, and it was a huge part of my professional identity. It was also how I sold the majority of my work.

Now I have a studio in my basement. A really wonderful studio, but there are no studio mates outside my door to ask for help when a kiln is acting up, borrow a pound of feldspar from or to have a coffee break with. And I definitely don't have customers wandering through.

But, surprisingly, I don't feel alone, I'm still in the presence of a large community of potters. When I needed help figuring out what kind of exhaust fan to get for my the spray booth I'm building, I have people to ask. When I'm asked to be in a show or had an image that was accepted to be published in a book, I have colleagues to share in my excitement. While I'm still without a kiln, I have people offering up space in their kilns so I can fire my work.

This is all because of the online community of potters that I have gotten to know over the years. I have been writing my Pottery Blog for nearly 7 years. More recently, I started a Facebook Fan Page to share more of the day to day thoughts, questions, events and interesting links. When I write, I try to put my truest self out there. Successes along with failures. Lots of technical information with a more personal side mixed throughout. The community of potters that I have come to think of as "my community" has grown and evolved over the years. We have daily interactions. Advice is shared and critiques are given back and forth.  I recently posted a question on my page asking people what they think "success" means in the pottery world, and within a couple of hours got a dozen thought provoking responses. I had my afternoon coffee break while reading what others wrote, and sharing my own thoughts. When I don't post to my blog for a while, I usually get some emails or even a phone call from people who I've never met before just checking in to make sure that I'm still out there. 

But it's not confined to the virtual world, it's has spilled over into daily life too. I've been visiting studios, having coffee and firing kilns with new pottery blog writing and reading friends. Many times when I meet someone in person that I've been writing with back and forth for years, the meeting starts with a hug and it feels like I'm spending time with an old friend.

It's easy online to present just one facet of yourself: to look like a professional, an artist, to use fancy language and to edit everything so it's just right.  But if you do you won't find a community, you'll just have a "presence".  Everyone talks about going overboard in putting yourself out there (the cliche "In line to get coffee" update) but the opposite is also true -- you need to also get personal, to be off-topic sometimes, and if you don't make mistakes sometimes then you aren't doing it right.  If you over share, or put out boring updates, or use language that is so casual as to be confusing, then be reflective and recognize and adjust; but don't worry too much about exploring those boundaries. When you put yourself out there, you're more likely to find a community.

Emily Murphy is a potter and blogger living in Minneapolis, MN. You can see more of her work on her website: http://emilymurphy.com/ or read more of her writing on her blog: http://potteryblog.com/

YUNOMI SUCCESS!

We at SP would like to recognize and thank the artists who contributed some or all of the profits from the sale of their yunomi at AKAR this year. Almost $5,000.00 has been raised to benefit SP so far!

Tom Abel                    Dean Adams                Ted Adler

Stanley Andersen        Christa Assad               Mary Barringer

Hayne Bayless            John Beckelman           Nicholas Bivins

Karl Borgeson            Wayne Branum             Cynthia Bringle

Robert Briscoe            Lisa Buck                     Chris Burd

Trent Burkett               Kyle Carpenter            Steven Cheek

Victoria Christen         Sam Chung                  Bede Clarke

Steven Colby              Mark Cole                    Elaine Coleman

Scott Cooper               Jim Connell                 Michael Connelly

David Crane                Bernadette Curran       Israel Davis

Josh DeWeese             Malcolm Davis            Charity Davis-Woodard

Susan Dewsnap           David Eichelberger     Marty Fielding

Mary Fischer               Jill Franke                   Bruce Gholson

John Glick                   Steve Godfrey             Silvie Granatelli

Chris Gustin                Amy Halko                  Doug Hanson

Samantha Henneke      Don Hedman               Sarah Heimann

Mark Hewitt                Stephen Heywood       Chuck Hindes

Alisa Holen                 Bryan Hopkins             Harlan House

Michael Hunt              Matt Hyleck                 Shawn Ireland

Marlene Jack               Sarah Jaeger                Nancy Halter and Greg Jahn

Cathi Jefferson            Julie Johnson               Brian Jones

Peter Karner                Gail Kendall                Kristen Kieffer

Jeff Kleckner               Michael Kline             Mark Knott

Barbara Knutson          Mary Law                   Jill Lawley

Todd Leech                  Dick Lehman              Brenda Lichman

Suze Lindsay                Peggy Loudon            Elizabeth Lurie

Ruchika Madan            Peg Malloy                 George McCauley

Jennifer McCurdy        Linda McFarling         Ryan McKerley

Kent McLaughlin         Lorna Meaden            Alleghany Meadows

Blair Meerfeld             Jenny Mendes             Matthew Metz

Ron Meyers                 Sequoia Miller            Lynn Munns

Dan Murphy                Karen Newgard           Lindsay Oesterritter

Ben Owen III               Pam Owens                Travis Owens

Lisa Pedolsky              Don Pilcher                 Brenda Quinn

Donna Polseno            Don Reitz                    Davie Reneau

Matthew Repsher        Barry Rhodes              Rose-Angeli Ringor

Steve Roberts             Guss Robison               Kathleen Stephen

Elizabeth Robinson     Tim Rowan                 Mat Rude

Judith Salomon           Brad Schwieger           Laurie Shaman

Ellen Shankin             Jeff Shapiro                 Mark Shapiro

Joe Singewald            Collette Smith              Gay Smith

Kevin Snipes              Stacy Snyder                Baumann Stanhope

Chris Stacey               David Stuempfle          Will Swanson

Karen Swyler             Elmer Taylor                 Sam Taylor

Sue Tirrell                  Michelle Tobia              Kurt Weiser

Ann Tubbs                 Wynne Wilbur               Tara Wilson

Rosalie Wynkoop       Shumpei Yamaki

YOU CAN STILL GET YOURSELF A YUNOMI AND BENEFIT SP WITH YOUR PURCHASE! CLICK HERE!

  The Studio Potter: http://studiopotter.org

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