Mayan, Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, slab and hand built clay torso by Tammy Vitale
I realize that in all the huff and puff of trying to get something posted yesterday, I forgot this new torso, created for the Bronze Door Day Spa. She asked for Aztec, all I had was Mayan references, so I’m hoping this works. Jaguar Man and eventually, if I can keep one, a Bronze Age series mask will go with this piece.
Ok – I’m going to try to write a little bit about the North Carolina galleries I’m now in.
First, Sandy Bay Gallery in Hatteras. Owned by Linda Meekins Hilton, this gallery brings together local and national artists who work in all media. It’s the kind of gallery that’s large enough to keep you looking for at least an hour, and small enough not to overwhelm. And Linda is one gutsy lady! Hurricane Isabel destroyed this just finished paying it off gallery. Linda notes wryly that when the insurance people ask if it was "water or wind damage" be sure you know the right answer – otherwise you lose it all. Did she give up? Nope! She took out another 30 year mortgage and marched onward.
I went into this gallery 3 years ago (just before Isabel) and fell in love with it. I was only a year into my work and wanted badly to be in this gallery – thought perhaps I might try it. Thought about it some more when I got home and cried while I watched Isabel ravage all of the Outer Banks. Ocracoke went under (the whole island!) but the true wind and wave damage was in the Hatteras area, even cutting a new channel of water through the island.
You have to admire someone who’s willing to stay in place undeterred. Many of the OBX folks are like that. From the outside it looks like that "everyone together" community I dream of from time to time (that usually means small town, too, and the reality is I don’t know that I’m ready for that kind of microscopic living).
Kathleen O’Neal of Island Artworks remembers Isabel too. She is married to a native Ocracoker and has been on the island herself for about 25 years. The small, lovingly created gallery she calls home to her jewelry design work was built by locals and is designed to have parts of the floor pop out so that water can drain. Island Artworks is smaller than Sandy Bay but no less a wonderful place to be. Kathleen has collected an outstanding array of mostly women-made art, including some wonderful craft dolls that I drool over every time I’m there. Arriving at jewelry from an eclectic background, Kathleen has worked in clay (thus understand raku intimately) and does awesome large collage wall pieces. She says that Isabel cut Ocracoke off from the mainland and while she walked the beaches for something to do, was reminded of why she came to and fell in love with Ocracoke in the first place.
I am so excited to be a part of these galleries and the wonderful women (who also happen to be friends) who run them.
While on this trip we also made it through the Silver Bonsai Gallery in Manteo. This gallery is worth going through just to see the bonsai, which are a hobby of the married proprietors. Set up in rooms in a house, the gallery offers all kinds of 2 and 3D work as well as a fabulous array of jewelry hand-made on the premisis.
Manteo is a cute old fashioned town that boasts of its adopted son, Andy Griffith, who apparently says that if there is a Mayberry, Manteo is it. He fell in love with the town while starring as Sir Walter Raleigh in the "Lost Colony," a production about the first settlers in Virginia that has been running longer than I’ve been alive, I think. I remember going to see it with my parents when I was about 5.
It was a wonderful trip – short, but didn’t feel like it. Very sweet (anytime away with Husband). And to the point (great sales and a new gallery added to my list). Am looking forward to more! Had some grand ahas while sitting on a porch, we the only customers in a big old inn….if I want a spouting fountain in my little pond out back, I can have one, probably for a small amount of time and very little money. And I can use it for an excuse to make something cool to house the hose from clay. Something slab built and columner/totem like. And I can check into how much it might cost to create and maintain just a small perennial English-type garden. Not a big space, a small space…just for now. I can do that instead of saying, all the time, I wish….Not a bad aha if you ask me!
thought for the day: We have a choice (ALWAYS!): to end up with the satisfaction of going for it, or the regret of letting it slip away. Making it a priority to take action on fulfilling our dreams allows us to keep the momentum moving forward. When we act on our priorities, we become an example for others, especially our children, who learn by watching us. We also connect more deeply with Spirit within because we are allowing it to express through us…
State an intention regarding a dream of yours…then, using stream of consciousness writing, write two pages without stopping. Don’t be concerned if your writing doesn’t appear to be connected to the intention. Katherine Q. Revoir, Spiritual Doodles & Mental Leapfrogs: A Playbook for Unleashing Spiritual Self-Expressions
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And the reason we love the spiral – it's the pattern most found in nature and indicates movement away from stagnation into creativity; from the mundane into the divine. Shells are a reflection of that, that's why we humans love them so, adorn ourselves with them, put them on our clothing.
We're always just so far and yet so close to the ocean – mother of us all.