I snapped this picture of an old chair with a wonderful surface patina (such a great contrast to the sunny orange and gold pansies) in front of an antique shop in our town of Bath, Maine the other day. It is true that we usually have to wait a little longer for spring to arrive here in Maine…our normally quite prolific lilac bushes are just now beginning to unfurl their leaves. But it somehow makes the warm weather just a little sweeter when it does finally arrive!

These first warm days see all the little towns along the coast of Maine begin to wake up, dust themselves off, and prepare to charm the socks off of the residents and tourists alike…and Bath is no exception. From the wonderful array of locally grown produce that will soon be available at the Bath Farmer’s Market to the dazzling selection of kitchenware available at Now You’re Cooking, Bath has something for everyone interested in eating well. Not into cooking? Then sample some old fashioned candies or even a lobster dinner (made entirely from chocolate…of course!) at the quaint little Bath Sweet Shoppe or try an unbelievably delicious cookie from Marnee’s! No matter what you’re looking for, Bath is a wonderful destination for a day trip in Coastal Maine…and a lovely place to live.

I have been looking forward to the completion of my new website for such a long time (Thank you to Tracey of Tracey Miller Designs for such an awesome job!) However, now that the moment has arrived, the task of posting a blog for the world to see seems a bit daunting. It is rather like a blank canvas…there’s just an awful lot of white space there.

For this, the first of what I hope to be many posts, I want to talk a bit about what inspires me. Pictured at right, is a shot of what I like to call “my inspiration board.” It’s simply a piece of sheet metal to which I affix images of anything and everything that I respond to in some way. As you can see, I am very drawn to beautiful cakes, candies, and desserts…I especially love the more modern styles of wedding cakes. But I also like to include things like a handmade thank you card given to me by the artists at Spindleworks, wonderful architectural source images, and snippets of text that get my creative juices flowing.

However, as Leonard Bernstein said “Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time…The wait is simply too long.” I believe this idea applies to all artistic endeavors; simply entering the studio, shutting the door, and getting down to the business of making pots is my biggest and best source of new material.