Profound words by Peter Altenberg . . . and a calling, an awakening to something so much more in this experience we call living. This art of life captured me at a young age growing up in a small town in Iowa. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood were riding my bike weekly to the local drug store to pick up the latest comic books. I was captured by the colors, illustrations, and stories. I remember spending hours drawing my favorite characters and play acting out new scenes and stories that I would write. These experiences ignited a joy and a passion to explore more and more throughout my adolescence and secondary education years. This exploration led to piano, guitar, poetry, photography, jewelry making, acting, and cooking. I was a jack of all trades and a master of none, jumping from one curiosity to another. Each experience shaping and influencing how I saw and experienced the world around me. Robert Fulghum’s quote, “All I really know I learned in kindergarten,” resonates true as I think of my childhood.

Childhood for me was something that I suppressed when I started my career in management. This was not about age, but a state of mind. Gone was the carefree exploration and creativity of childhood. Now was a time to work, to establish a career, and to make a living. I did not yet have the maturity of experience and wisdom to realize making a living was more than punching a time clock and climbing the corporate ladder. I had set aside my path as an artist.

Corporate life was not completely barren, though. There were always spurts of the artist coming out in me. I saw it show up in my insatiable curiosity on how systems, processes, and organizations worked. I saw it in my eagerness to jump into chaos at work – tackling the hard problems no one wanted to work on or designing new systems that would challenge the way we work. In fact, I would say that curiosity and the ability to embrace chaos have underpinned much of my success in my corporate career. And there were those times where my childhood state of mind would flash itself and demand to take the center stage. I remember the first presentation I did for a large retail company. After a few hours of power point presentations from my peers, I decided to pull up a stool and guitar and to sing my presentation. These flashes were joyous and invigorating.

It took the wisdom of years and the introspection and reflection that came with the turning of the clock on my 50th birthday, to reconnect with my childhood state of mind. I love Alex Shakar’s quote: “Childhood and adulthood were not factors of age but states of mind.” I wanted to reconnect with ART. More importantly, I wanted to live life artistically.

Which brings me to today. I am still in corporate, but gone is the state of mind that underpinned much of my corporate career. I am embracing living life artistically. I have learned the importance of vocation and marrying it with my occupation. I love the word vocation. At its root is the Latin word VOX, which means voice. I am using my God given voice in all that I do, from the corporate world to my artistic pursuits with Shards of Clay Studio.

I hope you enjoy my pottery and this website. But mostly I hope you take the time to live life artistically.