Making Pots During a Pandemic; Finding Inner Peace and Flow in my Studio

Every morning I start my day by sipping coffee from a cup that I made and reading the local and national newspapers. These days, I have found myself savoring every drop of the coffee but not so much the news. The devastation and suffering caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the uncertainties of what the future holds has contributed to an increased level of anxiety, concern and fear about my well-being as well as that of my family and friends. I want to stay on top of the realities of this time, but I’m finding it essential to balance that with a need to find some inner peace and create as much normalcy as possible. 

One place I’ve been going to a lot lately in search of inner peace has been my pottery studio. For me, it’s a short walk of about a minute out my backdoor. I have several potter friends who are members of a nearby community clay studio and more than once during this past year I’ve been resentful of how easy it is for them to make a few pots and then get them into one of the weekly kiln firings. Their start to finish time for making pots is a fraction of the weeks it takes me to fill my kiln. Now, with their clay studio closed and no plans to open in sight, the resentment I felt seems childish and has been replaced with a sense of deep gratitude and appreciation for what I have.  

Since making my first pot when I was fifteen, I’ve always experienced renewal and inner peace after working with clay. During my thirty-five year career as a teacher and administrator, the rare occasions when I was able to spend time working with clay always left me rejuvenated and energized. After retiring ten years ago, time in my studio has been an integral and essential part of my life. Throughout these long and stressful weeks of physical distancing and stay-at-home orders necessitated by the pandemic, my time with clay has become even more critical as a way to cope with the uncertainties of this time. I don’t spend every minute of every day in my studio, but everyday I try to work some. After reading an article by a writer for National Public Radio, I have more insight into why my time working with clay is so important, now, more than ever.

In her piece from January, 2020, “Feeling Artsy? Here’s How Making Art Helps Your Brain”, Malaka Gharib asserts that making art helps you to imagine a more hopeful future. Gharib cites the work of Girija Kaimal, professor and researcher in art therapy at Drexel University who offers several insights into why making art is good for you, especially during times of stress and uncertainty.

According to Kaimal, making art offers us help to navigate problems that might arise in the future by using information to make predictions about what we might do next and even more importantly, what we need to do next in order to thrive and survive.

“Art-making helps us navigate problems that might arise in the future.”

Kaimal continues that when you’re making art, you are required to make a series of decisions and to figure out what those decisions mean. As a result, what our brain is doing every moment of every day, both consciously and unconsciously, is to try to imagine what is about to happen and prepare us to face that.

Through her research, Kaimal and others working with her have discovered that doing any sort of creative art work results in the reward pathway in the brain being activated. This results in you feeling good and the experience is perceived as one that is pleasurable. Researchers also discovered an increase in blood flow to the brain when participants were making art. Further, they discovered that making art can lower stress and anxiety.

How are stress and anxiety lowered? The team discovered that during forty-five minutes of making art, the cortisol levels in participants were lowered. Cortisol is nature’s built-in alarm system. It’s your body’s main stress hormone that works with certain parts of your brain to control your mood, motivation, and fear. They also learned that there were no differences in health outcomes between people who identify as artists with experience and people who don't. So regardless of your skill level, you'll feel all the good things that come with making art.

Finally, the team of researcher working with Kaimal offered that making art should cause someone to experience “flow” or that amazing thing that happens when you’re in the zone. It's that sense of losing yourself and losing all awareness. You're so in the moment and fully present that you forget all sense of time and space.

“Researchers also discovered an increase in blood flow to the brain when participants were making art.”

This article struck me on several levels and explains why I have emotionally, physically and psychologically benefited from the time spent in my studio. The description of “flow” is something I’ve been aware of for awhile and wrote about in a previous blog (Reflecting on the Past Year and Looking Forward to More Flow), but the research about blood flow to brain increasing during art making is new and explains a lot.

With the shop closed where I sell much of my work and other shows canceled, deadlines to finish pieces have disappeared. As a result, I’ve been able to take my time to develop some new forms and pieces that otherwise would have been pushed to the side in my rush to finish.

One example of this is the drip coffee pot design that I’ve been working on, little by little, for the past couple of years. Last week, I was able to make some progress with a design that I think represents most closely my notion of what a drip coffee pot should look like and how it should function.

A coffee pot brings together several components, requiring multiple skills to produce and a combination of technical and aesthetic details to figure out in order to achieve a successful design in terms of form and function. I kept track of the decisions that I made to make the coffee pot and counted twenty five. There’s a good chance that I forgot a few. Examples of the technical decisions include how much coffee should the pot hold, where should the handle be attached in order to pour coffee effectively and safely and how should the spout be applied so it pours coffee well.  These details balance and even help to make many of the aesthetic decisions such as choosing the main form, selecting the handle style, picking the lid type, settling on a spout design and deciding the design of the filter holder. This is not the end of the decision making because after the coffee pot is made, it still has to be bisque fired, glazed and then glaze fired. When all is said and done, there will probably be fifty decisions before the pot heads to someones home for everyday use. I can almost hear the blood rushing to my brain.

When making a pot that requires assembling several parts together to form one piece the end result can end up looking like a pot with individual sections and components slapped together or, with luck, one pot with parts perfectly and beautifully integral to the finished design. I am still deciding which I’ve ended up with, but I’m working on it.

The one thing that seems to be in abundance right now is uncertainty. Unfortunately, it looks like uncertainty is going to be part of the new normal, at least until a successful vaccine is developed and distributed. Engaging in activities that are certain, like working with clay, is essential. It serves as a reminder that while the future is unclear, a short walk away is a place where I can leave behind what’s not clear and create something that is. Knowing that can’t help but make me feel better.