At the risk of outgushing Lani, I offer these rlecfetions:I went to North Lands for the first time in 2003 to work with Jessica Loughlin, who was teaching a BE master class focused on kilnforming. At that point in time, the studio was not as well equipped as it is today, and as a result, we were up at all hours monitoring and adjusting kilns to get tests (and then later on pieces) pushed through the process.This was at a time of year when the far Northeast of Scotland doesn’t get particularly dark, and I experienced a lot of amazing atmospheres, forms, and textures that were new to me. These were not only in the land and the architecture, but also in the classroom. Jess did an amazing job of guiding our group deep into conceptual territory while also providing them with the language in material and process necessary to express the ideas with which they were working. It was a revelation.Since that time, I’ve been back to coteach and/or lead four more sessions. I go back for so many reasons (beyond the obvious fact that it’s part of my job). I go back because it speaks to my sensibilities in so many ways, and provides opportunities to have a learning experience that is radically different from so many others for both student and instructor.One is energized by what can be learned and seen outside of the studio, and what can happen within the studio. In the best experience, the two things are interwoven beautifully. Such was the case in Loughlin’s workshop. And one need not be a devotee of desolate landscapes, country air, or agriculture to find points of illumination here.There are so many forms of water present in the changing clouds, the fog, the moist ground, and the sea, that the air is saturated with shifting light that makes the otherwise seemingly immutable land ever changing. This land is a study in both subtly and extremes. To walk in it fills me at once with a sense of stability and drama.I am interested in physical and mental territories that give me the sense that I am discovering something important, an unexpected type of beauty, perhaps one that I might easily overlook, or one that is normally far beyond the scope of my daily life. North Lands is exactly this kind of territory.Cheers,Ted