Singing for the happiness of Moose

Yesterday morning I was listening to CBC Radio (Canada's equivalent of NPR) and to a story about a potter - Pat Webber - who lives on Salt Spring Island - one of the islands between the mainland and Vancouver Island. You can check her out at this website:  http://www.patwebber.ca/

For twenty-five years she's been making pottery and often - if not always - includes images of animals. If you check out her website, you'll see that the kinds of animals she uses are those we all see in our neighborhoods - frogs, fish, dogs, goats, rabbits and foxes. They're familiar to all of us, whether or not we see them on a daily basis.

She also often uses boats - Goat Courting Rabbit being one of them. Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while will know that I'm also addicted to boats. I love these pieces and I'm definitely going to see if I can buy one for my desk.

But right now I'm waiting for her to finish Singing for the Happiness of Moose. This is one of the pieces she talked about on the radio. Her granddaughter - whose favourite stuffed animal is Moose - was with her one day and asked Grandma to sing for the happiness of moose. Ms. Webber fell in love with that title and is working on it right now. I want it.

I want it because, like Ms. Webber, I'm an artist who often (if not always) begins to create from a phrase. Singing for the happiness of moose is a phrase that might start me writing a novel or a story. I get that tickle, that little zing in my brain that says, ah, there's something here, something much bigger buried in this short phrase.

Kate