How to be an artist when you don't have much time.

Lately I've been feeling sad because I haven't been able to make time to be in my studio making the work I want to make, which is a sculpture of Cooper, my grandson, now 18 months old. My idea is to make a clay sculpture of Cooper with tiny figures representing his mother and dad reaching up to him. The idea is to show how Cooper is the biggest part of their existence. I started this sculpture 2 or 3 times since November but never was able to get back to it to develop it beyond the legs and torso.

this feeling worsened when I noticed the participants in the Ceramic Studio Tour included Esmerald Delaney, Al Pace and Tiffany Bailey, all full time ceramics faculty. This brought home to me the notion that all the things I do extra besides teaching take up the extra time that my colleagues use to make art.

Extra things I do:

President of Arizona Artists Guild

Co-director of Veteran's Art Program

Website manager

Eblast sender

Study Abroad coordinator-13 Study Abroad trips

Head of Ceramics program, adding glassblowing

Fundraising for glassblowing

Coordinator of PVCC Veteran's Art program

PVCC Art instructional council campus representative

Fine & Performing Arts division member

Husband

Father

As a strategy to deal with the sadness, and feelings of being a phony artist, in name only, I have thought about embellishing the pottery I make as classroom demonstrations, and for the fundraising sales with images from my own life. I can make cups, bowls and plates very quickly, and what if I drew, carved, painted, glazed images on them of the people, events, things and ideas that cross my consciousness.

I have done this before, but now am devoting time that I might spend making 300 bowls and dipping them in glaze, to making 150 bowls, and drawing, painting, glazing images of my life onto them instead.