Katie O'Connell's Serendipity Moment

Breathe in...

Breathe out...

Slow down.

You are doing just fine.

Sometimes stress can be too much. We just need to take a step back and just let it all go. Katie O’Connell a fifty-three-year-old woman from Firestone, Colorado knows this very problem.

As a purchasing agent at an office job, she tends to bring on a lot of stressful work on top of dealing with other life situations. Katie needed an escape, a happy place, a place where stress was out the window.

Serendipity should be the word that is used to describe the life of Katie O'Connell. Serendipity is all about chance. It is the literal idea of finding something beautiful without looking for it.

On her forty-ninth birthday, everything changed forever. Katie and a friend decided they wanted to go out and celebrate the special occasion. Wanting to try something new they decided on a place called Crackpots.

Katie was a bit nervous since she had never been there before and did not know what to expect. "I have been to places like Color Me Mine, but it is just not the same," she said. "Crackpots doesn't feel like a chain like the others do."

She walked into the doors that very first day greeted by the delicate chime of the bell hanging above the door. When it chimes it feels like all eyes are on her. Nerves run through her body because it is not only a new place, but her shyness takes over.

Having her friend there helps, however. An employee explains to them what they can do and how the whole studio works. Searching through the shelves to find the perfect thing to paint Katie finds a luminary to paint.

Luminaries are those lanterns that have tea lights in them and in movies like Disney's Tangled are tossed up into the air to float up to the heavens.

She sat down and had fun with it. She let go of all her stress and just wanted to mess around with paints. When she was all done with the piece, she handed it off to an employee and paid for her piece.

Around five days later she came back in to pick up her piece. She was so excited to see how it turned out. Painting like that you never actually know how the piece until it comes out of the kiln.

Walking over to the tall shelves stacked full at all times of art from tons of random people an employee picks out her piece and wraps it up for her.

Finally sitting down and looking at her first piece of work from Crackpots she loved it because while it was not the best thing in the world it was what made her want to go back.

"It was interesting but terrible," Katie said. "I wanted to give it another go."

From that moment on Katie has been going to Crackpots for four years straight and about two times a month. She was hooked.

While she could not come in during the pandemic, she still tried to paint but it was not the creations that she craved.

Going in is her stress relief because she can sit there and get lost in the atmosphere as well as the piece. She loves to listen in on other people's conversations, talk to people or sit there and listen to a podcast.

Her favorite thing to do is to eavesdrop on conversations had by others. One of the most memorable ones from the past four years was one time in which around 3 to 5 teenagers tried to explain what spin the bottle was to each other.

She watched as the teens bickered back and forth with each about what it was. They never seemed to get it right and by the time they left they still had the wrong idea as to what it was.

She got a kick out of them but loved that people felt free to speak about things without being afraid of being judged for who they were, and they could even create and get the same reciprocation.

"Being here and creating adds color to my life," Katie said. She does this type of stuff to relieve stress but also to be herself in a way that she cannot be when she is at work.

People get lost in music, running, reading and so much more. For Katie, it is all about painting pottery. It is her spot to be social while also being creative. Her shyness still gets to her but with the calm welcoming atmosphere of the Crackpots studio, she lets it drift to the back of her mind.

If Katie had never gone here four years ago for her birthday, she may never have found this amazing place that has provided her with lifetime friends.

This event she faced four years ago not only provided her a way to connect to more people and get out of her shell, but it also helped her grieve.

Losing family can be hard and when Katie lost her grandma, she never knew how close she would become to her through painting pottery.

Painting can let us grieve because we can express our emotions that we have a hard time saying in words. While Katie does not paint to grieve her grandma through emotions when she paints but instead, she uses it to connect to her.

When she started to go regularly, and paint tons of different pieces Katie learned that her grandma used to do the same thing with painting pottery.

Wishing she could have known sooner so she could have spent the time with her grandma doing this fun activity it became a thing where she acted as if her grandmother was actually there.

"I sometimes pretend that my grandma is there with me when I paint," she said.

Katie sees a range of people when she comes into Crackpots every time. There is family, friends, couples, grandparents, and people by themselves.

Everyone is welcome and that's what she loves. While she goes alone, she enjoys all the time she can get lost in the work of painting.

This place has become her home and her safe haven for when she becomes stressed. " Sleep does not fix the stress but painting pottery does."

Over the years she has collected an abundance of pieces and has created three categories for what to do with what she creates. She either tosses them, keeps on display in her house, or gifts them to others.

She keeps coming back and will continue as long as she can. "Everyone treats you like you are the most and there is no rush for creation," she said.

Katie encourages everyone who is thinking about coming to Crackpots just try it once because you do not have to be good you just have to let go and have fun.

"Go once and you'll love it," she said.