Throwing clay in church

For most churches having an artist paint on stage during a service is a special and unusual event. But at The Stirring, it's just a typical Sunday night.

In the nine years that I have attended The Stirring, we have never had a ceramic artist throwing on stage. To be honest, I didn't think it could be done. There's the potter's wheel to lug up onto the stage. How could you see anything? Wouldn't it be messy and noisy? Years ago, I had even consulted with a couple friends who are potters and they agreed that it was not practical. 

Then along came Ally Guscette. She asked me if we'd ever do pottery on stage. I told her all the reasons we couldn't. She kept insisting that she could. So a little dumbstruck and amazed, I found myself scheduling The Stirring's first guest ceramic artist.


I still had my doubts as I stepped into the sanctuary last Sunday. But as you can see everything worked out perfectly. 

My beautiful artist's assistant, Katie, took a few shots for me (in addition to helping me carry in my supplies and set up). I chose to have a painter on stage in addition to a ceramic artist because I wasn't sure that we could get a camera angle on her. Again, things worked out better than I thought and we could have probably just had Ally up there working. But it is kinda neat to have two artists on stage.

Please come join us Sunday July 29th and/or Aug 5th at 5:30p as we throw some paint and clay at The Stirring.