Beauty Refreshers: Photographer and Noticer Mary Jo Hoffman

Mary Jo Hoffman inspires me. Her book STILL: The Art of Noticing is now out. Look at some of the images here.

It's been more than 12 years since Mary Jo committed to a daily art project where she finds something in nature that inspires her. She photographs it (often in a collage) and posts it on her blog and Instagram. That is more than 4,500 days. She says "the art of dailiness" has changed her so she is often in a state of creative noticing or deep play. She made it simple enough to fit around family life. She found through this practice that the process is sacred, not the results.

Image by Monicelli / Phaidon

She graciously answered my question, What do you want to give the world?

"I would say the most important things I want to give the world are the following:

1) I believe that art is an energy transference from the artist to the viewer. When I share my art, I hope to pass on my wonder and awe at our natural world;

2) I created STILL with an implicit promise that it would be a quiet corner of the internet that my viewers could visit when they felt a need for simplicity and beauty.

3) Finally, I hope to inspire my viewers to see their own environments with new eyes. Nothing makes me happier than finding a new way to present the most ordinary of subjects, so that it catches people by surprise and reminds them how much beauty they are surrounded by every day, wherever they happen to be."

Image by Monicelli / Phaidon

She shares her idea of radical incrementalism and how we can tap into our creativity by doing a little bit every day in a podcast with Julie Berman of Woman with Cool Jobs. Watch a short video from six years ago (when she was only at 3,000 photos) to catch a vision of her vision (and how she shared it with her family).  

Image by Monicelli / Phaidon

Beauty Refreshers: Writer, Photographer, Gardener, "Noticer" Erin Nolen

Erin Nolen s one of the most intentional women I know. She's a wonderful photographer, writer, gardener, and "namer."  But she is also a wife, mother, and friend who's done lots of internal work to be present with and see and advocate for her kids and others. I asked Erin this question: 

What good do you want to bring to the world? 

I want to accompany people on the paradoxical path that going toward our stories of pain is actually the way to experiencing wholeness as beloved humans. I want to teach, show, and embody what it means, in the words of Dr. Hillary McBride, to “go toward what hurts.” In a culture that shouts at us to do more, produce more, experience more, I want to foster a community where we are safe to embrace our limits as fragile but intentionally complex image bearers of the living, moving, playful God. I believe our basic needs of safety, sleep, nourishment, play, time in nature, service, and connection are necessary foundations of what it means to live a beautiful and full life. Simply put, embracing our limitations and needs is the way toward expansiveness. I believe in the power of story work, that a good, kind, creative God pursues God’s people (all of them) and calls them (all of them) toward goodness and wholeness, and that we can know God more fully by honoring the brokenness and beauty in our one-of-a-kind stories. God calls forth goodness in me to offer to others through the means of writing, photography, gardening, and friendship. 

You can read Erin's essays here and follow her on Instagram and if you want family photos, she's your person. 

Beauty Refresher: Beth Smith, Potter

Beth Smith of Mudtown Pottery makes some of the most touchable, whimsical pottery. I asked her how she was drawn to pottery as an art form and what she wants to give to the world through it.

I remember distinctly my first pottery class (January 2017 at Birmingham Museum of Art) because it was way out of my comfort zone. I went by myself. It felt uncomfortable but also freed me to explore this craft uninhibited. I began this creative process in a depression. My children were finding their place in the world and my dear Danny had just lost his job of 31 years. I felt afraid of the future and unsure of how (and who) I was supposed to be in these new circumstances. I knew I needed to find a positive outlet and, while I did try a few other mediums, once I got my hands in the clay, I knew I had found it. I immediately signed up for a more intensive course at Cahaba Clay. I connected with my pottery teacher who was my children’s age and needed some “mother love” as she was away from home and trying to figure out life ( I was, too!), I found a heart friend in my class that has been a strong influence in my life to this day, I was able to focus on my creativity and the process of the craft and that really helped lift me out of my darkness. For reasons I can’t explain, I had an early vision of what I wanted to do with this interest and before I knew it, I had transformed our basement to my studio and equipped it with several wheels, thanks to my dad and Danny coming alongside and funding so much of the upfront costs. I am self-taught. Most of what I know I’ve learned by doing it wrong and making a great mess, but I have never been so discouraged that I wanted to quit.  

Pottery is an ancient craft. Because of that, most potters feel like they are picking up where others have already gone. There is very little that is “new under the sun.” There has been a lot of openness on technique and process from older, more experienced, ceramicists. I have the impression that the craft is what matters, not any one individual.

I have always been drawn to pottery because it feels like each piece has a story to tell. Recognizing that other hands have held, formed, painted, fired, sanded, and loved a vessel that I now cradle in my own hands feels like human connection to me, especially during this time in history where we are losing human connection in so many ways. As I make a pot, I imagine whose hands will hold this? Will they put flowers from their yard in this vase? How will they cook with this piece? I want to put that feeling in the world—that someone loved and cared about that coffee cup you use in your daily ritual, that there is a human behind that pot or vase, someone who considered how the glaze might react or how the handle might feel.

Pottery has taught me a lot about patience, resilience, and grit. But mostly, pottery has taught me to notice how we connect with each other; how our lives overlap and weave together, even in the smallest ways.

Beauty Refresher: Gina Hurry

Gina is an artist who helps me remember Heaven is coming. Through her life and art she helps me have the courage to long for more, love deeply, weep often, and risk much in this short life we have. Besides her beautiful paintings, she has just published The Beloved City, an invitation to awaken our holy imagination, in the “mess” of our daily lives and layers.

She writes, “When I started noticing the beauty of my dropcloths underneath my finished paintings, I began to see the layers and colors my daily life and work had left behind and underfoot as a treasure. The dropcloths began to represent to me vulnerability, community, and being held in a bigger story.”

Gina and I journey together in helping to encourage and sustain Birmingham-area artists, pastors, and city visionaries through InSpero. Beauty matters and so do those who create it.

Order her book here. Check out her website, instagram and Facebook.