Model and artist Katharina Kaminski is no stranger to the creative process. Expression through the arts - whether that be modeling, photography, working with her hands or writing - is a need, not a choice. From isolation Kaminski sought to find use of her time and communicate with her hands through pottery. In a series of self portraits she shows that there are more ways to speak than with words.
You are creative on so many levels. Through which medium do you feel most able to express yourself?
I am someone who is always exploring new ways of expressing myself, my soul needs to create always and I like to seek for innovation within. Pottery gives me the chance to set a mood, to manifest physically a feeling or emotion and it’s very satisfying. I have passion for all kinds of visual arts. I would say visual is my thing…
But I feel that my soul is able to shine brightest when I express myself with words. I can have a very analytical mind and I am a humanitarian, so my mission is to collaborate with what I can on elevating humanity. And I feel the best I can do it’s by sharing what life means to me. And because it can be spiritual yet very logical sometimes, words will never fail me.
What did you learn through the process of making this pottery?
To me art is a big metaphor for life. When I am working with the clay, there are many variables of things that can go wrong. And it’s just like what I was saying before... When I do a mistake, or when the clay doesn’t look exactly as I imagined, I could:
A) annoy myself, feel sad, disappointed and maybe even stop doing it...
B) trust in the process, embrace the mistake and keep working on my goal of creating something that feels beautiful to me.
The magic of option B is that every time I choose this path, I end up creating something that feels even better to me than what I had imagined before.
It’s very clear when you put this on arts, but it’s the same in every aspect of life. Whatever you wanna create in your life, you will stumble and maybe fall sometimes, but it’s the faith, the determination in your goal and the detachment of what the mind says something should be that will make anything possible.
Life has slowed and smaller moments have become bigger. How have you processed these changes?
On one hand it’s very sad what’s happening because so many lives have been affected negatively in so many different ways but on the other hand every negative thing has its positive side if you are open and you believe. Beyond my sadness and fear, my intuition tells me many positive aspects are going to result from this moment in history.
For me it has been very healing. To be present. I took so much weight off my shoulders... I am not saying that every moment has been easy but I do feel that in the big picture I needed this pause for my body, mind and spirit. Taking time for myself, exploring my creativity, resting, exploring who I am when I am not defined so much with what I do, becoming who I wanna be from inside instead of pursuing something out there... There is nothing out there for you unless you first find it within!
Life feels so much clearer when you slow down a bit... And you begin to appreciate more what really matters. In a world where we were very much used to satisfying ourselves with external stimulation, it’s a beautiful journey to come back to the essential and find joy in just breathing and being grateful to be alive. There is so much power on this.
