shards and eggs

Sometimes on my walks I see things that are inspiring. And they ignite a new way of working or looking. Other times I find something that I recognize that I have already been working on, in this case a broken goose egg on the edge of a swampy trail. At first I thought it was plastic. I recognized the edge of my shard plates. These are bowls that began a few years ago when my slip was too strong for the clay body and cracked the edges as they dried. I decided to let go of the  "good craftsmanship" sensibility that said these were a failure and put on my artist hat that said there are no mistakes in art. ... and ask "Now what?." I snapped off the edges and remembered how when I traveled in Japan I loved looking at remains of once whole pots and found them mysterious and often found myself making drawings of the partial patterns and arbitrary shapes.