Great Teapots

Going through some old files on my computer, I ran across these teapots made by various artists.

I love to look at these and, fortunately, the creators' names were included in this resource.

Enjoy!

Clary Illian

 D'Angel-Wing

 Ester Ikeda

 Fong Choo

 Linda Bloomfield

 Lloyd Hamovit

 Margaret Patterson

 Matt Wilt

 Mathew Hansche

Thinking Without Words II

This is what it feels like sometimes when I really want to have some alone-time for thinking.

Everyday Stuff - Those things you have to do.

The bottom section represents interruptions, stuff that comes up, sidetracks, new problems that have to be attended to, you know…….

And sandwiched between it all is new ideas, old ideas you want to get back to, segways you want to take, continuing themes, etc.

Thinking Without Words

It's a question I used to ask my classmates in grade school, "Can you think without using words?"

Usually I got a quizzical look and something like, "You're crazy." Pretty soon, I quit asking.

I forgot about this until recently when, while watching a program about the Museum of Modern Art in New York, I suddenly had a vision for a piece of jewelry using a new plaster mold I had made for something else.

The program had nothing to do with jewelry. But my mind was in what I call, "Open Mode" meaning Receptive, Soaking it All Up, Free-flowing. A great variety of images from the museum collection were being presented in my head.

I think lots of artists do this. And it's not recognized as a 'normal' or prized ability; it's usually linked with autism or other 'abnormal' brain functions. Thank heavens there is more research being done about how the brain works.

If you are familiar with either the Temple Grandin book or the movie about her early years, you will know what I mean by thinking in images or pictures.
(www.templegrandin.com) 

I highly recommend reading The Autistic Brain; Thinking Across the Spectrum by her and Richard Panek. 

I'm not saying all artists are Autistic! There's even a test at the end of the book that you can take to see if you are. I just believe artists have functions of the brain that are different then others. And thank heavens for it.

Nobody really understands how artists think. I did talk about this subject with my art and Spanish students because I've always been very interested in how the mind works.

Sometimes, I would get some amazing answers from them. One girl visualized each month of the year in a different color as well as each day and number was a different color.  This would drive me raving mad, but it worked for her.

As a child, I had a lot of difficulty remembering which day of the week it was. Drove my mother crazy with my asking every day.  I finally came up with a visual I could remember:  I pictured the week as a ring. The ring was divided into halves. On the right hand side, were the 5 days of the week with Monday at the top, Friday at the bottom and Wednesday in the middle.  The other half of the ring was the weekend. Well, Saturday and Sunday were all my own; they were long days to me. Time traveled around and around the ring, so I always knew where I was and what day it was by visualizing myself on the ring.

The same technique worked for me when I rode the Seattle/Kingston ferry for work during the week a few years ago. I could leave my car on one of the two car decks, go up to the cabin and read or snack and return to my car without getting lost because I had pictured where it was in my mind. I had created a two-deck 'graphic' and a 'you are here' pin for where my car was that day.