When you are a maker
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When you are a maker and creator all your life …but also have a career like science and education…you sometimes get swallowed up trying to solve problems and making things better. Your passion and creativity drive you forward with vision and commitment yet, your creative soul can get left behind. You might start creative projects, take a weekend to get into the flow…but Monday arrives, and you are left dreaming about it. Your art lives inside your head, and you just can’t find the time to get back to it.
In 1998, I was awarded the NH Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical and a dear friend told me to do something for myself. So, I did. That year, I went to art camp! At first, I was all thumbs, and nothing seemed to flow. But at North Country, I discovered I wasn’t alone. There were incredible teachers and many happy campers sharing their ideas, skills, friendship, and sometimes even their tools!
North Country provided the art fix I needed. It was like a mini vacation during the Vermont winter. I could unwind, dream out loud, and get into the arts I needed to explore. I recall the great artists that I learned with, and the wonderful friends who attended with me over the last two decades. Bob Ebendorf and Linda Darty to Andy Cooperman, Harold O’Connor, Megan Corwin, and Nicole Ringgold; all assisted my love and experimentation with metal. Then I discovered metal wasn’t my only muse…because your creative soul gets intertwined with other media and artists during a North Country experience. Adrian Arleo, Michael Sherrill, and Lana Wilson all contributed to my love of ceramics, Leonard Ragouzeos, Daniel Essig, and Erin Sweeney injected paper, ink, and bookmaking. All of this contributes to a very full life, and of course my ADHD! But I am so happy when I am making!
After a decade, I started to serve with the Planning Board to give thanks and help solidify North Country for future generations. As I recently retired to just part-time work in science education, I find that all the experiences at North Country have shaped me as a mid-career artist. My work in metal shows a little bit of everyone…but it is starting to be just me! My experiences were integral to being awarded an apprenticeship with Jayne Redman in Maine (2020), which gave me a year to focus and define my direction as an artist. My studio is getting more organized as projects still dancing in my head are finished and escorted to new owners. I can see how clay has helped me to understand 3D shape and to seek volume from flat sheets of metal. I sketch almost daily and find that line and paint helps me to imagine new forms. I continue to learn, experiment with new materials, and most of all play! But it is my North Country learning, friends, teachers, and experiences that push me forward with confidence to grow and become. Thank you!
By Barbara Hopkins, NCSW Planning Committee Member
