Choosing

Some change comes by choice. New Year’s Resolutions are an easy example. At the end of each year, many people examine their lives and choose to make adjustments. We can also choose a new job or move to a new city to have the conversation that’s been hanging over our head. We have agency over the places we want our lives to be different.

In my experience, choosing change has been either really easy or really difficult. I moved several times in my 20s and with each move there were things about my life I wanted to leave behind-pet peeves, things that embarrassed me, new habits, etc-and I found these changes really easy. But other choices can be so difficult-going to bed earlier, doing the dishes immediately, speaking up.

There’s a lyric from Beauty and the Beast that has always struck me. “Barely even friends, then somebody bends, unexpectedly”. The word choice of bending to demonstrate change was always really interesting to me. That’s why I decided to express this concept with a bend in the clay. It’s not always easy to get the clay to maneuver this way which seems all too metaphoric. But with a little intention and a lot of patience, the clay (and humans) find a new shape.