Kalispell potter Sherry Wells is our featured artist during the month of August. Sherry's studio, Free Flight Studio, is located at the base of the Rocky Mountains close to Glacier National Park. She has been working with clay for over 30 years and has a degree in art education. Sherry has taught classes to all ages. Her goal is for folks to transform their kitchens and household items used in day to day life into works of art. They then can take a moment out of their day to stop, interact, touch, enjoy, and appreciate a piece of art made by someone's hands. They can stop to appreciate art at unexpected moments throughout the day to hopefully enhance and improve their day and possibly even their outlook.

Sherry's pieces are individually thrown on a potter's wheel and/or hand built using white stoneware or porcelain. Most are a combination of wheel thrown work that has then been altered. Nothing is wasted, all clay is recycled, what does not get fired becomes another piece. The pieces not meeting selling standards can be found as garden art, mosaics & stepping stones around her studio grounds. All work is fired to 2400 degrees F and is oven, dishwasher & microwave safe, except Raku which is intended for decorative purposes only.

I was in a conversation this week about the relevance of design concepts. One of the most important for me is form follows function. Whether you are trying to decide on a type of flooring, the furniture arrangement in your living room or designing a new kitchen the decisions and planning are easier if you think first about the function.

For instance, ask yourself how you use your living room. Do you entertain? Do you like to sit around the fireplace? Do you read at night? How many people use the room on a daily basis? Do children do their homework here? Is there are TV in the room? Do you need one seating area or several? By determining the function, the form unfolds naturally.

Once you answer all these questions the room arrangement begins to take shape. You know what sorts of lighting you need, what kind of tables and their heights, how many people will need to sit in the room and where they need to sit. By concentrating on the function of your living room you rule out options and ideas that aren't relevant and the planning process is greatly simplified. Next time you need to make design decision remember that form follows function.

A middle aged woman has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she has a near-death experience. During that experience she sees God and asks if this is it. God says no and explains that she has another 30-40 years to live.

Upon her recovery she decides to just stay in the hospital and have a face lift, liposuction, breast augmentation, and a tummy tuck. She even has someone come in and change her hair color. She figures that since she's got another 30 or 40 years she might as well make the most of it.

She walks out the hospital after the last operation and is killed by an ambulance speeding up to the hospital.

She arrives in front of God again and asks, "I thought you said I had another 30-40 years?"

God replies, "Sorry, I didn't recognize you."