Responsibilities and Choices

Adulting is hard. Making decisions completely for myself and my life. Car insurance, loans, health insurance. Trying to figure out what to do with my life. What can I do today to make tomorrow or next week, next month or next year better, happier, more productive, and more successful? What can I do with my business to make that better, happier, more productive, and more successful?

Crocheted monkey

When I get one thing figured out, it's a relief. For some reason everything that needs doing happens all at once and I can't focus on one for fear of forgetting another. Even if I make checklists of all the little and some not so little things, I still have to decide which are more important, more pressing and need to be solved right now. Some things take time to work out. Some things take time to complete.

Beaded Suncatcher

I've started working on secondary art, things that you may not think of when you think of Katlyn Koester Designs work. I started out trying any medium put in front of me. Paints, pencils, beads, yarn, fabric, basketry, jewelry. I collected many sets of tools and supplies to work in any medium, and over the years most of those tools and supplies have been relegated to the closet, under the bed or the basement. At some point I decided that pottery was the way to go for me. I don't know why or when exactly, only that it all started with my first pot when I was 12.

Moon phases watercolor

In high school I took every art class I could fit in my schedule. Painting, drawing, sculpture, jewelry and pottery, but mostly pottery. In college I tolerated the other classes because they were required for my art degree. Except for photography, I loved photography, being in the dark room all by myself for hours at a time appealed greatly to me. But it was always pottery. I wonder if pottery had no longer been a choice, what would I have focused on? Or if I hadn't gone to college would I have focused on something else entirely?

Night and Day watercolor

16 years doing pottery almost solely, and I've found myself frustrated with it. I began crocheting again a couple years ago to sell instead of only for myself and now I've pulled out my watercolors and beads and I'm thinking about selling those things too. I'm enjoying them both, but inspiration for painting comes and goes. The beading is more fun assembling, and less creative to me. I suppose I could make it more creative and unique to me, but right now it is assembly work.

Mountains watercolor

I wonder if I had focused on one of these other things early on, would I be happier with my choice than I currently am with pottery, or would I have reached the same emotional roadblock? I also wonder if college was the right way for me to go. Could I have gotten a similar education by going to intensive classes like those offered at Penland, Arrowmont, and Haystack Schools? Would that path have been more beneficial with less money spent? Or would I still have stalled out? And now that I'm wondering this, should I try to take another of those classes to boost my pottery making or would I benefit more by taking a class focused on another medium?

So many questions and I don't have the answers. I hope I figure some of them out before I have to start my next season of shows.