Lily Haas: Artist

The surest path toward fulfillment and peace that I have found so far is a very unassuming one.

It looks like allowing for slowness, rather than always pushing for top speed. It can be found in the quiet appreciation of a breeze, loosing one’s self in the swirling dance of lupine and grass stalks as they dance hypnotized by the wind’s song. This path offers the bottomless delight of greeting the first purple irises that bloom in the spring, and the first golden chanterelles to pop up in fall. It welcomes all to bask in the profound satiation of paying homage to the glowing moon as it slips over the ridge tops to drench the world in its pearly, radiant elegance. It is unmarked, slightly overgrown, and the kind of trail you could walk right past unless you happen to be looking for it.

The beauty, as any explorer knows, is that once we’ve found it, we can always return.

My love of clay took root in high school art classes, and I’ve continued to cultivate a ceramics practice for many years since, with growing fascination. The tactile nature of the medium allows forms to emerge absolutely organically, as the result of touch and pressure. I’ve come to appreciate the lesson this effect provides on the relationship between my energy and my reality, as it is similarly true that my own outgoing energy and actions profoundly effect how I experience the world around me. My personal approach to art making is much more intuitive and emotionally driven than it is intellectual. Rather than learning techniques or following traditional methods, I consider the studio a place where my lived experiences and wildest imaginings can be reflected and shared through clay.

As a Humboldt County artist, I am honored to live in this amazing and unique place, where the path less traveled is often the traveled path. Where exploration and appreciation of Nature are deeply engrained in our shared values, and can be easily integrated into our everyday lives. Connection to Nature feeds me in so many ways; it’s full spectrum nourishment for my mind, body, and soul. Returning to the studio allows me to distill this connection and amplify its fruits back into the world through art.

Lily Haas grew up in the hills of Southern Humboldt surrounded by forty acres of forest, mushrooms, and wildflowers. She graduated with honors from Humboldt State University in 2012 with a degree in Studio Art, and has cultivated a professional ceramics practice locally since 2015. Today, she lives in Arcata where she enjoys frequent outdoor adventures including trail runs with her pup, Marco, eating edible flowers as often as possible, and harvesting wild muscles from the Pacific shoreline. Lily continues to walk an ever-evolving creative path by viewing the world each day through the lens of art, cultivating her studio practice, and showing her work in Northern and Southern Humboldt. She is excited by engaging with local arts events, and by her new endeavors into creative entrepreneurship as the incoming owner of Phoenix Ceramic and Fire Supply in Arcata’s Creamery Arts District.

For more on her work and creative process, follow @bloominglilystudio on Facebook and Instagram, and check out www.bloominglilystudio.com