Eric Klima

|| The Earth Itself || I think it’s fair to say that all art is in some way at its core about the way we interact with the world and the stories we can tell in that interaction. But I have to say that, for me personally, doing ceramics has been the purest form of the interaction.

In the almost 10 years I’ve been doing pottery off and on the biggest facet of progressing is learning how to communicate with your clay. Learning to feel the consistency and homogeneity of the clay when wedging. Fighting it as you force it to be centered on the wheel. Feeling the thickness of your walls and how it does and does not want to move when on the wheel. Knowing when it’s dried out just enough that you can trip and finish the piece. Harnessing fire to take it to a state that is fully hardened and functional. Every moment intentional with understanding and connection to Earth.

The whole process is just me communicating with clay. A conversation with the earth itself. And sometimes that’s the most beautiful and meditative thing about the whole process. Each one Carrie’s a life and personality as a try to understand it and see if the piece maybe wants to become something not even I could have visualized. When I sit there and hold a mug, or bowl or anything else I make I have a moment where I am holding a story of intimacy I had with the earth. One that adds life, usefulness, and hopefully beauty to mine or others lives.

It’s why I love to see these pieces find new homes where they become used or appreciated in other lives. While much of our world has become industrialized it’s beautiful to hold something wonderful that is the result of nothing but man and the earth communicating together to create something that becomes either an extension of us or at least the home we live in. ☕️.

||Thursday|| Here are a few great Thoreau quotes for your Thursday morning. Because I haven’t posted in quite a while haha.

“It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.”

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.