Vessels of Intention: Ant meets Cat

Local photographer Adam Nash wrote a nice piece about Vessels of Intention.

When I was driving onto Mike’s property I was alarmed by a white sign pronouncing ATTENTION: CHAT LUNATIQUE

I laughed a little inside thinking about how Mike is a ‘chatty’ guy. A few days ago, as I was working on these images, my brother was looking over my shoulder. He asked, “Did you see the crazy cat?”

Me: “What are you talking about?”

Brother: “Chat lunatique. Crazy Cat.”

Me: “Ha! I obviously don’t know french. Glad you told me before I blogged about him being ‘chatty’ or something.”

My visit with Mike Kaminskas yielded no cat. It did, however, open my eyes to his zenful approach to creating a practical drinking vessel that inspires its user to give a little extra pause and thought to their drinking intentions.

In his quiet living space, once a day he creates a vessel. It has become his meditation. Like a surfer on a long curl, everything else in the world disappears for the moment. The first one was created out of necessity: as a way to stop his drinking jars from clanging and breaking while sailing on his boat.

Everyone who sees one, wants one. They are beautiful. Color choices and the patterns of weavings have held sacred meanings for thousands of years. Mike uses these powerful design elements to remind the vessel holder to take pause, give thought, or maybe be inspired.

I had asked him to create me two wine glasses from two small Mason jars. Sharing a glass of wine at the end of a day is one of my favorite things.

For designing mine, he mainly wanted to know WHY it was one of my favorite things. It took some time to answer that. After enough thought, the answers came and the vessels were born.

And now, every time they are used, I hold a reminder of my intentions and it makes that glass of wine experience all the more potent and enriching.

Contact Mike and collaborate on creating your vessel at www.vesselsofintention.blogspot.com