Every had a scattered week? Well that was me this week, lots going on. And it is wet here in Vancouver. We don’t have to shovel but the endless grey takes it’s own toll.
Maybe some one just HAD it with their kids playing inside for days on end … I hate to think
… this was by the trash bin in the alley
as I mentioned, it’s been raining ….. lots
spotted by Bettina Matzkuhn on her bike ride home
but work I must, I am going to make some more of these guys, They will focus me
This is how a Gathering Bowl begins ~ Owl always comes first, the owl is the knower, the one who grounds the others. Then the conversation begins.
A mouse starts up a bit of a nervous conversation with owl. “Ya know I’ve been thinking, maybe I’m not so tasty after all.” The owl just listens, but the owl is Listening, so that’s a start, a new beginning.
Another owl flies in to add an opinion. “What! are you crazy! That mouse looks delicious, we can’t stop what we’ve been doing for, for… For ever!” “Well let’s think about this” says the first owl. Mouse is looking nervously at this new developement, mouse doesn’t like the second owl enthusiasm. He has a point … The mouse, I mean.
“What are those 3 talking about over there?” Fox muses to himself. Fox could catch them all in a second, he knows, but Fox is too interested in their apparently urgent discussion…. He finds it rather interesting and even a little amusing that they are talking to each other. He will listen for a while.
Little bird wonders what fox will do.
Little bird’s cousin is dying to know too!
More join the conversation and the great thing is … is that they are All taking. They have all stopped going about their everyday business of surviving and are exchanging ideas, listening, and speaking with one another.
This is how it goes in my head as I build my Gathering Bowls. Everyone one has something to say to each other and everyone listens. It grows and grows and becomes a grand conversation. And I like to imagine …. towards a new paradigm.
We have a lot to learn from them.
I am compelled to make what I call Gathering Bowls. They are simple white porcelain bowls that have a flurry of conversation and connection between all sorts of different animals. They are all Talking and Listening on the Edge. That’s it isn’t it … Talking discussing, debating, and Listening which is probably more important than talking (but someone does have to be talking to be able to listen) and on the Edge because as we can all feel in our bones, we are on the edge.
I always start with the owl. Owl grounds the conversation to come.
This one is thinking, listening.
and now there is the beginning of a discussion. A between.
The Finished bowl is ready for the kiln. I had many more figures to place on the rim but these 5 little owls whispered “enough now, all we really need is a window”
Listen closely, can you almost hear what they are saying?
Nancy Walker Studio 