ORIGIN STORY
"Art imitates Nature, and Necessity is the Mother of Invention."
-Richard Franck
A dream is a wish your heart makes.
Except this one won’t be best served while fast asleep.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an artist, a teacher, and a writer. Of the three, “artist” is the identity that has always felt most elusive. I have always loved making things, but considered myself more of a crafter than an artist.
As an adult, I built a career negotiating purchases for large companies. Over time I felt myself drifting further away from the creative life I imagined as a child. I wanted making, not just managing, to become part of my daily life again.
Today, that dream is taking a new shape. I am beginning a PhD in Organizational Behavior with the goal of becoming a professor, a path that brings together many of the things I love most: research, philosophy, writing, and teaching.
Field Notes Ceramics is the result of honoring the child who took her first ceramics class at Mesa Arts Center all those years ago.
The name comes from the practice of observation. Field notes are records of what we notice when we pay attention.
I may never call myself an artist. But I can take note: of the beautiful, the simple, and the mundane. These pieces are small records of those observations—made by hand, one note at a time.
May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
-Shea
ART AS PHILOSPHY
"The true aspiration of art should be to reduce the need for it. It is not that we should one day lose our devotion to the things that art addresses: beauty, depth of meaning, good relationships, the appreciation of nature, recognition of the shortness of life, empathy, compassion, and so on. Rather, having imbibed the ideals that art displays, we should fight to attain in reality the things art merely symbolises, however graciously and intently.
The ultimate goal of the art lover should be to build a world where works of art have become a little less necessary."
-Alain de Botton
Meet the Maker
(Along with help from her mom and sister!)
Shea
Shea is an Arizona native and maker behind Field Notes Ceramics. Inspired by gardens, literature, and everyday life, she creates hand-built objects intended to be used, loved, and woven into daily rituals. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Arizona State University and believes some of the best ideas begin by paying attention. She can be found reading, practicing yoga, or walking her Cavapoo, Millie.