Paul Chenoweth

I am not stressing over the idea that each of these musical instruments needs a title, but it is something that I am considering  more seriously after reading Allyson Stanfield’s post,  5 Reasons to Title Your Art .  Looking around at different online shops that sell ocarinas, there are few that do more than identify the key, the color, and perhaps the shape…and that may be enough for someone looking for a utilitarian device.   For someone seeking a conversation starter or a pedestal piece, I believe bestowing a title to each instrument will deepen the interest level.

About a year and a half ago, Terry Holiday on the MyCreativityBlog posted an article, “Giving Your Artwork a Creative Title“.  Terry’s suggestion for brainstorming ideas are noteworthy.  I particularly appreciate the idea of including place, emotion, and color into a creative naming convention.

As I work through the processes to get these things beyond a fragile greenware state, the mental exercise of generating titles must be tempered with an old adage , “Don’t get attached to your pots until they are out of the kiln.”  For ocarinas, I’ll go with, “Don’t title your toots until they’re toast.”

I spent the best summers of my college days on the staff  at Camp Ridgecrest for Boys herding campers from one fun activity to another.   One of those activities involved a trip to the crafts lodge where Frances Clark set up shop to teach the basics of clay construction.  With amazing patience, Frances demonstrated to the boys how to roll out a slab, join pieces of clay together with slip, and ultimately how things would turn out once glazed-and-fired in this shiny contraption called a kiln.    Not to be outdone by a bunch of 8 year-olds, I  picked up the mud and made my very first mug…the one pictured on this post.

It was Frances who cheered me on as my simple mug transformed to a mustache mug, to a mustache mug with my last initial decorating the side.  As best I can remember, that was the only pot (mug) that I made at camp that year and yet the memory of that experience stays with me some 40 years later.  The very nature of ceramics is permanence, but I wonder how often we consider how important it is to sow the seeds of creativity like those that Frances shared with so many campers (and staff like me).

Over the years since camp, one of my greatest joys is hearing from a former camper who reminds me of some event or interaction (that I rarely even recall), but that made an impression or impact on his life.  Well, it is my turn to return the favor to a fellow staff person.  There are many Thank-you’s that never manage to get spoken.  To Frances and the many others who sowed seeds of creative energy in my life (and undoubtedly the lives of others) I say, Thank You!

Most artists that I know are partially powered by a high level of curiosity and adventure (the rest are powered by caffeine *just kidding*).  Those powers inevitably show  up as some aspect of the creative work regardless of the media.  But how far into geekdom does that artistic energy run? This morning as I was adding Google Analytics to “M” is for MugPhlute and for the MugPhlute Etsy store, I asked myself if that sort of activity is something that most other artists even consider?  As an old experienced blogger, it used to be enough to add a SiteMeter to a blog or web site to measure visits, page views, etc.  Now, with Google Analytics, the level of sophistication for tracking traffic, ads and marketing efforts is almost beyond belief.  It is a lot to consider for an artist these days.

That is all. You may now return to your regularly scheduled mug of coffee *slurrrp*.