Hello friends and citizens of LIL republic!

It has been like a month since my last newsletter, and for that I apologize – I did a lot of resting (and getting the flu) and traveling over the holidays, but now I am back in the pocket.

So, updates: LOOK AT WHAT IM WORKING ON:

She is the prototype/the first in a series of pieces that I throw on the wheel as a closed form, in the shape of a matryoshka/Russian nesting doll, then I sculpt with this phrase in mind: “She is creating the landscape of her body.” These pieces are about Mother Earth, and how each one of us has the power to sculpt our inner landscapes. Repeated thoughts create pathways, pathways can deepen into rivers, rivers can pick up sediments when they speed up or deposit sediments when they slow down. You can’t really control your thoughts or the events that happen to you – like rain – but you can control your internal landscape, and that determines what happens when the rain falls. Does it fall into a lake and stay still, does it fall onto a mountain and travel downwards, etc.

Anyway, I’m SO EXCITED about these pieces, working on them fills me with energy. I’ll be making bigger ones, but wanted to start small. I also love fractal designs, and how river patterns mirror the branching patterns of trees, mirror the branching pattern in our lungs, etc. My inspiration for these pieces came from poking around on google earth and finding landscapes like this:

Also, my coworker found it very silly that I made this image as a guide for throwing my doll forms, but sometimes you forget what an egg looks like!!

Another update: I have pieces in my first art show apart from college, so my first real-world art show! There are the two pieces included, and the show is called The Art of Narrative at the Avondale Arts Alliance in Atlanta, GA. If you are in the area and want to check out all the cool pieces in the show, the opening reception is Saturday January 24th, 6PM-9PM, and the Closing Reception is Saturday, February 21st, 6PM-9PM at Avondale Arts Alliance, 84 N. Avondale Rd., Avondale Estates, GA 30002.

Lastly, to sum up 2025, it was cool––I moved to a city where I didn’t know anyone and got an apartment and got a job and got an artist residency and made friends, I’m not like super duper proud of the work I created in 2025, honestly I feel like I got too caught up in trying to make money and forgot about the art. So now, in 2026, I’m focusing on the art baby, and I’m excited for what ideas will come to light through my little hands! (My hands are small for my body, and that’s a scientific fact) I’m taking fitness seriously and dancing every day, so if you follow my dance account @lilianallines there will be more videos on there, and I’m also taking content creation seriously on @lilpotteryy, I’ve already made a lot of progress since the holidays so definitely give @lilpottery a look/stay tuned this year.

Wanderlust has taken over my soul again so I created a CV, and I’ll be applying to residencies abroad in 2026. I already heard back from a castle in Kenya that they would be interested in hosting me!

Update 5: After this month, I’m transitioning to teaching at Mudfire instead of Pottery with a Purpose –– while I absolutely love traveling around the city, getting free drinks and food while teaching for PwaP, I want to teach wheel classes, so I’ll be doing that at my resident studio Mudfire. It’s important for me to understand how their system works for when I have my own studio one day.

Lastly, I’d like to transition to Substack, so you will be receiving my emails from there… and I would like to start writing stories: I came up with a series called Sediment Stories, where I tell the stories of sediments as they start somewhere on the earth in a distant era, travel through rivers and time, and eventually someone collects them and turns them into pottery! May sound silly, but it will be a way for me to learn about pottery in different cultures, and seems like fun stories to tell. So please stay tuned for that, hopefully weekly –– if this all sounds like a lot to you, I agree, but don’t worry I have a detailed time management plan <3

Oh also, it's my birthday tomorrow!!!

In summary: in love with the new pieces, 2025 happened, 2026 is here, excited to keep creating, love you all!

Best, Liliana Isa Lines