so so inspired by Hilma af Klint

My latest obsession is swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) whose work, despite being created in the early to mid 1900s, has only recently hit the art world, as she “wanted her art hidden from the world until society was ready for it”.

Her work has inspiration from various spiritual symbols, and I find myself looking up some of her sources of inspiration like “Secret Symbols Of The Rosicrucians” and learning what the heck theosophy is.

I studied art history when I started college, and it’s my first love. So it’s excited to become newly immersed with an old artist, especially a female artist, which history books forget about all too much.

I was even dreaming about how to take my wee 6-month old baby to New York to see her exhibition at the Guggenheim, but unfortunately (and perhaps luckily for my family) the exhibit recently ended. Hoping to see af Klint’s work in-real-life one day (soon!)

I’ll leave you with some of her pieces that have particularly resonated with me..but I encourage you to look more of her work up yourself!

(All images above from wikipedia)

Morgan Fraser
Mindful Making
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“Mindful Making” - it’s a concept that I’ve been thinking a lot about. How do we make things mindfully? How do we consider all the materials and resources we use when we create anything and how can we be most responsible doing so? For me, this question has lead me to learn a lot more about glazes and clays and where everything comes from. It’s a lot more chemistry than art, but I love that I get to work in a medium that so heavily relies on both sides (even though I feel like I’m back in a high school science class sometimes).

I struggle a lot with the consumerism/capitalism related to the act of making. I want to sell my pieces so people use them, and so I can continue to make more, but as this passion of mine becomes more and more of a business, I feel an obligation to do more marketing, more social media, more things that are outside of the act of making, and that’s really hard to make that switch.

One of the things I love about pottery is how meditative the act of making a vessel can be. More than anything, I just hope I don’t lose that. And I hope to teach others pottery skills so they can feel that sense of calmness too (soon?)

Morgan Fraser
Colours of Mexico

This winter my partner and I got to spend close to a month in Mexico. We were staying in Mexico City and Oaxaca City, and explored the nearby areas. The thing that impressed me the most was all the colours. It makes me realize how much my own home is really different shades of neutrals. I loved the people and culture, and all the handmade goods. Oaxaca is a place that I really miss and felt at home there. Sharing this photos for future inspiration to maybe even add some more colour into my own work.

 
Morgan Frasertravel
Inspiration from Eindhoven

This is one of those things that's been on my mind for months to post about - I've been wanting to share all the truly amazing things I got to see at Dutch Design Week last year. So, in the awareness of 'better late than never', here's photos of (mainly ceramic-related) things that inspired me on this trip: 

 
Morgan Frasertravel
slowly getting better

I feel weird about calling myself an artist - it has this quality of having something important to say to the world and that everyone should stop and pay attention. I much prefer the term ‘maker’ - like, yes, I make things, and if you like them, please take them home with you. I try to make things that I would be happy to have in my home, and in the same vein hope that others might appreciate it too. But if not - that’s okay - we’re just not a match. Plenty of other pottery fish in the sea. Or something like that.

 

I’ve been thinking about Malcolm Gladwell’s theory that to become an expert in something (err is it master?) you have to do it for 10,000 hours. I remember reading that book when I was 19 and thinking that 10,000 hours felt soooo long. Like, an impossibly long time that if you hadn’t started as a small child, you weren’t going to master anything. Today I did the math on how much time I spend a year at my full-time job - at the very low end not including overtime it’s around 2,000 hours/year. So in theory, you just need to spend 5 years doing the same full-time activity that you wanted to master. And that seems totally doable. Like, almost too easy.

 

I guess the hard part is surviving and making money off of that master-able activity. If I wanted to become a master potter, a whole bunch of this time would need to be spent selling all these non-mastered pots, which complicates that 5 year plan. And there’s so many other things I want to explore and think about and try that I don’t know that I could be so single-focused. I might not like doing it anymore, which would be the worst way towards mastery. Striving for (personal) greatness is complicated sometimes.

 

It’s summer time and so so beautiful outside. The heat makes me slow and want to read books about creativity on the beach, not really be creative myself. I’m just hoping I can collect and hold on to this inspiration until the fall, when it’s time to cozy inside the studio and work, work, work. 

Morgan FraserComment