THE QUEST CONTINUES LLC FAITH DAVIS FERRIS ART GLASS ~ ~ BEADS ~ SCULPTURES ~ WEARABLE ART ~ CLASSES ~ ~

NEWSY BITS :-) 

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  THE STUDIO WEBSITE OF
THE QUEST CONTINUES LLC

Still, even now, tho decade upon decade has passed, I find the song of the flame and glass calls me....  The magic of the molten flow that riveted me as a child peering over my father's shoulder as he worked glass behind his roaring Carlise is mine. Within the fire of dragons I coax colored and crystalin cylinders of glass into shape and form. Pieces with purpose, pieces of art.  Each created with the whisper of my muse, the skills learned from my father before me. The fire, the glass, the second generation traditional skills meld and merge and I create. 

Myth & magic, heart & soul, fire & glass, 
dance within these studio walls. 

Welcome to my world...  
                                                      
Faith Davis Ferris

~

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Enjoy wandering amid the various pages of the studio website! If any questions or suggestions come to mind please know you are very warmly welcomed to contact me!

It's a great life if you don't weaken

It was a hot, humid scorcher of a day in the studio. My students and I stepped outside under the shade of a tree intending to sit for a moment or two in the old green lawn chairs. Slugging down water and laughing while sweating (in the way only glassworkers do in the summer**) we began to talk of long term creative inspiration.

One student asked me how I, as an artisit, continue to to be creative. Creative over long periods of time. Creative thru adversity. Creative when no one seemed to notice (or to care) what you were creating. When no one noticed (or cared) if you were creating at all...

Keep in mind that, myself, I think of creative 'juice' and creative 'motivation' as two entirely different things. But as I began to answer her questions about long term creativity aka 'juice/inspiration' I realzied two things:

My reply in regard to maintaining motivation has changed, dynamically, over the decades.

But interestingly, my reply in response to maintaining creative 'juice' or 'flow' or 'energy or inspiration - whatever label you like - has never varied. Not once. Not in all these decades.....

The souce for me in keeping a steady creative flow comes from the words this writing begins with - it's a great life if you don't weaken.  At first blush it seems a very old, tired, often spoken phrase.

They (the studnents) looked at me as tho I'd lost my mind (lol not unusual if you know me and the way my mind works - a way which is far from the 'norm').

Creative flow is part of who you are. Almost without fail everyone is able (from the time they speak and walk) to sing, dance, draw, paint, make mud pies, built stick castles, (well you get the idea) competently. It's always seemed to me that the difference in those who go beyond the basic are those who don't weaken, don't let worry or fear of failure or embarassment stop them. They don't weaken. That strength opens the door to creativity. And early on I think every living being can easily see the possibilities, the jazz, the joy, the beauty in life - the things that make it a great life.

Fast foward to the point in time the student asked about... The years (how ever many) that follow, one after another in which you create, and create and create yet again. Where do the ideas come from? How do you create thru bad times? Thru poor sales? Thru personal sadness?  Thru societal stress. Thru society not acknowledgeing you (or worse). Easy. You don't allow yourself (or your muse) to weaken. You remember that all experience to the contrary at times, life IS great (amazing actually). 

You remind yourself that: It's a great life if you don't weaken. 

But you can't cheat - your muse knows if you believe it or if you don't. She's no fool and if you mess with her she'll mess with you in return. Trust me. I've seen her teach people the truth of this concept. On the other hand if when things go wrong or the going is tough in your art, your life, your sales, with your peers, your family, your friends, your health, your lovelife, your pets if you can (and do) from flat on your back look around and still see the great beauty life (still) holds you'll never be without creative flow. If you don't weaken from dealing with things being tough in your chosen field of art, your life, your sales, with your peers, your family, your friends, your health, your lovelife, your pets your creativity won't abandon you.

The muse draws from all the things life doles out, both good and bad. Painful and sad as well as joy and acclaim. But you have to have the strenght to see the good thru the bad, the real inherent (or internal) beauty in the world. Not always something that drops itself in your lap. Trust me on this one. There are times you have to go looking (in your head and heart) to find the beauty in life, the great happiness in small things amid the bad times. It's there. It hides (sometimes). Just don't weaken.

The students and I bantered back and forth for a while about all of this, we sprayed each other with water in prep to face more studio heat (don't be fooled, we don't suffer, we lunatics of glass - we'd never give it up)! lol  We headed back in to the torches and kilns.

The rest of the afternoon they were quiet....

Either I gave them something worthwhile to think about - or I gave them a headache....

Maybe they learned something useful from me that day under the trees. I learned from them. That's the great thing about teaching - your students teach you too. They make you think about the 'why' and the 'how'. They remind you who you are. Why you do what you do. They make you think about how you do what you do. They help you see what parts of yourself have changed over the years and which haven't.

Life lesson that day under the trees? Or a headache? 
Only they know for certain.
They only thing I can say for sure (in defense of my longwinded response, lol) is, well,

                                                      They asked  :-)

                                                           ~~~

**Before anyone who works hard (inside or outside) and sweats writes me offended that I seemed to say only lampworkers sweat/suffer in the summer heat, that's not what I said...
I said we seem to be some of the only ones that do that and LAUGH about it*******