new year

Judging from the amount of noise last night and it’s duration, it seems that a great number of people are happy to see this transition from one year to the next, from one decade to the next.  I saw this last decade in starting a new one of my own, and I am poised to do it again with this one.

At the beginning of the ‘Aughts’, I started my 6th decade (years 50 - 59) on this planet and for the first time in a long time, my internal self-image underwent a revision.  The picture of me that I carry in my head aged altered to accommodate my actual years.  It was a time when I felt I knew who I was or perhaps, better said, I accepted who I was.  Now that probably does not convey all the threads that are attached to such a simple statement, but I don’t want to get bogged down here.

Now, ten years have passed.  I’d have to say it’s been a decade of change.  My awareness of being on the down side has increased, not only through the marvel of mathematics but also through the marvel that is my body.  My thyroid went wacky, my cholesterol went up and my bones thinned out.  I’ve also begun to think of the rest of my life in finite terms.  What I still have time for, what I still want to do, still can do.

But beyond the inevitable physical changes that come with not dying young, I also entered a new phase of accomplishment with the pate de verre technique that we had started working with and in.  Into every juried exhibition (with one exception) I entered, our work was accepted.  We attracted the attention of several very good galleries that started showing our work at the national and international major shows and while our work was not a quick seller, it was starting to get picked up by some collectors.  And we started to travel to teach as guest artists at different studios.

We also decided that we wanted to move out of the city during the last decade, spent several years searching off and on and finally, gripped by a ‘now or never’ fever, bought a place outside a small town about an hour from the city.  We have been in transition for a little over 2 years.

The nation also saw a lot of changes.  The twin towers fell, another shuttle was lost, we went to war (with our son caught up in it) and the population became dangerously, hatefully polarized.  And then the house of cards that our economy had become came crashing down.  All forward motion screeched to a halt.

This last year of the ‘Aughts’ has been a tough one for most everyone, uncertain at best.  We fared better than I would have guessed back in November of ‘o8.  When the stock market fell, with it fell our rising star as our gallery, struggling to carry on stopped taking the less sure sellers to the shows.  In retrospect, perhaps a blessing in disguise.

The drive to ‘make it’ as a gallery artist, to shift our income from the commission work to the gallery work was not making me happy, it was too hard on me to go to those shows and not have the work sell.  We were in debt from traveling to the shows, from the purchase of the glass, raw materials, kilns, time away from paying work; a debt which we expected the momentum of our rise to take care of.  So...

This past year, we are fortunate to have been busy with commission work and glad for it.  We are getting out of debt and are glad for it.  We are getting moved, home is moved and glad for it.  When I finally get back in the studio, it will be fun and I will be glad of it.  So, where was I?  A new year, a new decade.  Changes have been absorbed, new incarnations conceived, the past is getting tidied up.  


The overcast cleared up several hours before midnight and the full moon shone down full of promise.  The welcome was long and loud.