(Saturday, February 2, 2019) Groundhog’s Day, waning crescent moon Capricorn, tarot Moon
I awoke early this morning and thought I had not dreamt. This one sifted up slowly, vibrantly in some scenes. The very end fades so I cannot be completely certain of the final episode.
I sit in the middle of a tiered lecture hall that is beginning to fill with people. The narrow, vertically rectangular room is attached to a huge, beautiful art history museum that is world-renowned, at the same plane as the Louvre or the Rijksmuseum. The structure is made from refined stone walls with an elegant sheen. Granite? The building is many stories tall and acres wide. Perhaps infinite in size.
The lecture hall is the place where people bring their entries to the NCECA exhibits (National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts). Everyone is carrying cardboard boxes full of ceramics. The room where the judges sit is between the hall and the museum: a connecting space, a bridge, located on the second floor over the top of the large ground-level entry door. A skyway between the two-story lecture hall and the museum.
I am the newest member to this group of ceramic artists. My pieces are small and raw. Primitive. As I sit awaiting my turn with an art juror, I sense the incredible wisdom-energy of the museum and am grateful to be able to enter it soon.
I wait and wait. I begin to feel uncomfortable that my level of expertise about this process is flawed, so I enter the jury room to ask some questions. A stern older woman judge sits on a wooden chair in the middle of the room, interviewing applicants. The room is full of boxes of accepted work. I see that my sculptures are not properly packed. They have no foam protection. I suggest to the judge that I wrap them in paper, but that is not good enough. I leave the room, dejected.
The dream shifts to a resort-style area on the edge of an immense, blue Minnesota lake. The sloping, grassy shore is populated with large deciduous trees. Boats float on the water. I walk and walk on the green mound.
I end up in the kitchen of my grandmother’s farmhouse. The industrial designer from work, John B, is sitting on the wooden chair my great-uncle John Sheehan used when he visited during lunchtime meals.
John has made a large white porcelain or stoneware teacup with a matching white saucer. The dishes are refined yet roughly hand-hewn at the same time, with a vibration that reminds me of Alice in Wonderland and the big cup slurped by the Mad Hatter at tea-time.
The cup has a delicate black matrix pattern and also a few spontaneous, colored brushstrokes. I ask John if the grid is a decal. He says yes.
The dream shifts back to the lecture hall, which is now nearly completely full of artists who will be exhibiting in the conference shows. I search desperately for a chair. I end up at the top of the room, at the very back row. Second story. The dream really fades. I think I get the last chair in the far corner of the room (right to me, left to the professor presenter).
Day notes:
The NCECA conference is at the Minneapolis Convention Center this year. My ceramic-artist friend Anne is coming from Chicago with her professor and studio mates. We both applied for a ceramic show at the MCBA and were rejected. I then joined the Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists and applied for their show called “Unapologetic: Women!” That deadline was yesterday. I’ll find out February 13 if I make it in to their gallery at the Northrup King building. There is also a show in New York that I am going to apply for called “The Emotional Animal” juried by Crystal Morey. I have seen her porcelain sculptures of white wolves and other animals at Northern Clay.
The designer John B used to work at Kohler in Wisconsin, so he is familiar with white porcelain! Potters do not normally make saucers for cups these days. That is quite formal.
I follow a YouTube channel called “Jon the Potter.” He lives near Lake Waconia and owns a coffee shop called “Mocha Monkey.” The shop sells his pottery, using his ceramics for customer beverages and treats. Jon is lovely, energetic and fun. Maybe he will be at the conference. One of his videos was about packing pottery safely. Scenes show him throwing boxes of cups off of the rooftop of his house.
The tiered lecture hall is a recurring theme for me. This time I dream of an art conference, not a dream conference.