Renee Watts

Who am I?

I am a creator, created by the Creator, to create.

​I am a lifelong learner: growing, changing, transforming, impacting.

My first pottery lesson: Centering the clay.

"Did God tell you why I am here for 3 months instead of 2 weeks?" That was what I asked the pastor when he picked me up from the airport when I arrived in Santorini, a tiny little island of Greece. "I just see you doing pottery," he replied. Woah! Throwing pottery on the wheel, actually making stuff and firing it, was a lifelong dream that I had never told another human.

I was always supposed to be a potter, a ceramicist. I was created to play in the mud all day long. I just didn't know it. I allowed logic, reasoning, and fear to hide my deepest desires and to choke my dreams. "I could never do that," I would tell myself when my spirit would show interest and offer an invitation into the unknown. Then, I would come up with excuses. "It's too expensive." "It's too messy." I settled for painting. I love painting and the process of painting! But I was made for more, different.

Then, I began to follow God into the unknown. I began to abandon logic and reasoning. I broke partnership with fear. These steps led me to a three month internship with Christian missionaries in Greece. God brought me to Greece to teach me about clay and who He created me to be! On my 58th birthday, I met the Greek, 5th generation, master potter Andreas Makaris who would tutor me several times each week for a month. Since then, I have continued to take classes, to observe my new pottery friend in action, and to work/play for as long as I can!

Be fearless!