Friday, October 8, 2010

TGIF?


Working in a studio that is in a home is a blessing and a curse. The temptation to “goof off” is sometimes pretty hard to resist, especially when AMC is playing MOBY DICK or Bogart in SAHARA. Thank goodness for DVR and DVDs. The blessing part of a studio that is always open is that you can monitor the kiln, bisques and drying during all waking hours and if an idea hits, you can run down and throw a form or make up a glaze test all during a commercial break.

The truth of working at home and on a house as well, is Fridays just don’t have that special meaning they did when I was a kid or when I actually have had traditional jobs in the past. Friday now symbolizes a sort of phase two for the week in which my wife Mindy is home, though never far from thinking or working on work stuff and we have a series of prescribed tasks and errands to run before the alarm goes off on Monday morning. “It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is what are we busy about?” Henry David Thoreau

As the normal work week ends and the weekend begins take a moment to enjoy the boundary between work-work and life-work. Some good spirits may assist in this task, kampai!

(Illustrated are a tetsu-yu tokkuri by Yamada Hikaru and an enyu-guinomi by Iwabuchi Shigeya)