In 2007 I packed up and moved halfway across the country (from NY to Colorado).

The first week I was there, I hiked up to 11,000 ft.
At the time I was in really good shape, but even so, my lungs were about to explode!

As I looked around, I realized that I was meant to be in Colorado. Not because I was born there (moved away when I was almost 3), but because of the incredible energy the flows through the mountains. They call to me. They pull me.

Even though I now live in Scotland, and am trying to relocate here more permanently, Colorado has a very special place in my heart and I often miss it. I know I'll visit as often as possible.

Is there a place like that for you? Somewhere that pulls you?

I decided that every once in a while I'm going to have a short post like this that showcases an image from my past, and a quote that it makes me think of.

I'll call them Memory Lane days.

Let's go way back.

In 2005, I did a ceramic internship in Japan. It was located in the Nagano prefecture, in a tiny town called Yugashima. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and one of the most trying. Not a day goes by that I don't remember something about that summer.

My sensei told me "Don't make the clay into what you want. Let the clay show you what it wants to be."

That is still one of the most profound things anyone has told me, and I think about it a lot when I draw and paint these days.

047. Memory Lane: First Week in Colorado

031. Memory Lane: Japan, 2005.