Memories of Solitude, Tammy Vitale

The “what ifs” are the walls of our psyche.  It is the definite language of the hamster who spins in her wheel worrying about what happens if she just stops – the world might fall apart if she doesn’t keep spinning!  Not that she’s getting anywhere, but it *looks* productive.  What if is sometimes about failure.  About working really hard toward something and having it not work.  And what if you succeed?  How does that change the world and your relationships?  What if they don’t like the new you?  (Let’s face it: change is always hard.  It’s hard enough when you initiate it yourself, but when you’re forced into it through being in close relationship to someone who is changing, it can be very hard.)

Change happens.  This is what I have learned about overcoming the what ifs:

1.  Allow yourself the possibility of failing.  Re-story failure from a falling down to a stepping-up toward where you’re headed. Yes.  You can.

2.  Play.  Play all around what you think you want, ignore what you think you want, make something that doesn’t have to be sold, be beautiful, be useful.  Open to your inner child – the one who could play for hours because she didn’t have to think about paying bills, what was in the fridge, running to the grocery store, or a job that wrung her out.   All she had to do was present herself and play with what was in front of her.  We can still do that.  It’s a choice.  If you need a child to help you remember how, I’m sure there’s one who needs someone to play with.  Find her. Yes.  You can.

3.  What calls to us is what we love.  In our deep heart we know exactly what that is.  We don’t allow ourselves because we are not worthy of loving what we do.  We must put our nose to the grindstone, meet the expectations of everyone around us.  We make ourselves last on any priority list because that’s how our culture indoctrinates us. You do not have to listen.  You can carve out space.  And don’t worry – what you love is patient and keeps waiting, and keeps putting little reminders in your pathway, throws books into your hands, throws people (and sometimes angels)  into your path.  After a while it gets really hard to ignore.  What we love loves us even more.  Open to that love.  Its power of possibilities is absolutely amazing.  Yes.  You can.

4.  Be afraid.  Admit you’re afraid.  Draw or dance or sing your fear.  Then do whatever it is anyways.  Yes.  You can.

5.  Find a community.  There is NOTHING like good friends to bring out the best in you.  If you can’t find one, make one.  It takes just one other person.  And you may be surprised at who finds you!  Yes.  You can.

6.  Don’t give up.   Yes.  You Can.

7.  Rest when you’re tired. Yes.  You Can. (go ahead, get off that hamster wheel!)

8.  Know that you are not alone.  Everything here on this website was something I was afraid of.  Everything.    Yes. You can.

9.  Begin.  YES.  YOU CAN!

Yes.  Oh Yes.  And Yes again.  You can you can you can!

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

What am I doing?  does it resonate with who I am?  Who am I?  Am I listening to my intuition and following my heart or am I listening to old tapes and “shoulds” that I have yet to let go?  Am I living in integrity with my beliefs?  What are my beliefs?  How does all of this manifest in the world?  What is being born?  How does that change all of this?  Tammy Vitale

Technorati Tags: angels, building community, change happens, don't give up, Hell Yes!, re-story, story

Dancing with my shadow

When I’m training other folks to organize – to attract like minded folks to thier issue – the statement that brings them up short is always this:  You have less than 3 minutes to keep the attention of someone you are trying to attract.  What question must you ask them that will give them the curiosity and impetus to join your movement?

It isn’t as easy as it sounds.

And it is not easy to ask your own self the right question to encourage yourself to persevere in pursuit of your passion.

So when you are in the midst (“when” not “if” – not everyone takes a nosedive in the middle of winter, but everyone does take a nosedive sooner or later), do you have backups in place?  And do you have a way to prod yourself to that first babystep to move toward the backup?

As you might guess, I’m in the midst of my nosedive.  This week is better than last.  Last was very very rough.  It was the kind of week when you wonder why *everyone* else is making it as a coach or an artist or in their career and there you are: dead in the water.  That is called all or nothing thinking and it is deadly.

Name it:  Why, Tammy, that is all or nothing thinking.  Then gently say something along these lines, “Self, you are entirely loveable.  No one else can do the work that you are doing.  You are SO lucky!  You are following your passion.  You are creating things no one else has ever created.  You have opened paths for other women with Wylde Women’s Wisdom – just look at ALL the GREAT emails you get from women you have inspired.  Lighten up.  Take that step!  You can do it!”

And Self replies: “Phffffffffffffffbbbbbbbbbbbbbtttttttttttttttt!” or something along those lines.

You are dancing in the dark with your shadow, and the lizard brain and hamster are singing the tune to which you dance.  When the strobe flashes often you can see a glimpse of the world you see in the daylight when life is tripping along, but the dark returns.  And so do the voices.  I am not going to describe them.  We all know them when we hear them.

At the moment I cannot pick up a paint brush.  I cannot even get myself to play in my art journal.  I can get my hands into clay – but up until today, it was for rote lines that I have already created.  I did try out some new glazes and that was great fun and had great results.

Guardian Angel 9" high $39

Tip 1: Do something you don’t have to think about (art journaling requires thinking and designing.  The kind of clay work I was doing doesn’t). At the end of the not thinking add a touch of spice (new glaze).  It can be a jump start.

Yesterday, instead of beating myself up because I wasn’t accomplishing anything, I read a book about zombies all day long in front of the wood stove, and then last night watched DVDs of  Boston Legal which I only caught just before it was going off the air.  Brother-in-Law lent us all the seasons.  And I did not once tell myself I should be doing otherwise.  It felt like being on vacation! Tip 2: When you talk to your Self be nice.  Berating yourself will only make the demons, the lizard and the hamster join in.  Self may not reply in kind.  That’s okay.  Be nice anyways.  Tip 3: Take a break.  Not the kind of break where you clean the refrigerator and scrub the bathroom.  Take a vacation break.  Imagine what you would do if you were not in your house but you were on vacation.  Do it.

Today I did not get out of bed until 10 a.m.  Still on vacation.  But while I was laying there, visions of the jungle mosaic I want to create which has stymied me (for no good reason; for reasons like:  you can’t possibly do that! ) danced in my head.  In the light where I could see them.  I did not jump out of bed and immediately start to work on the visions.  I am letting them stew.  I ate breakfast, played Words with hubby, son, and girlfriend, drank coffee, read Facebook and emails and am typing this.  But Self is getting excited about the possibilities of Jungle and getting impatient to get on with it.  That is a good sign.  I still cannot pick up a paintbrush.  That is okay. Tip 4: Attend to your rhythms.  Do not fight them. Pay attention when Self stops pouting.  Follow, do not force, the energy that is emerging.

I also read my regular inbox mailing from Stacey Curnow who is a really good coach, who writes from the heart, and who I admire for finding her way with great integrity. I also get great input from Ruth Davis at Spark the Heart, coach and artist and MAC expert-person.  Tip 5: Create your support group.  It is mandatory.  It can be just one person.  It can be just one single great blog.  But create a connection somewhere that comes to you regularly and gives you energy.  Or, some days, hope, especially when you’re bumping into things in the dark.

The final tip is ask the question:  Self, what is it that you are so afraid of?  If you’ve done all the rest, Self will blabber it all out.  Write it down.  Because the answer you are looking for is what is driving the fear.  Once you have named it, it becomes smaller.

Here is what I’m afraid of:

1. I have no way to get the things I love to make out into the world where they will sell. Wrong.  I have Facebook, I have shops, I have this blog, I have juried and unjuried shows I am already signed up for.  I did great in December with my ornament show.  I DO have to do more of whatever works best.  First I need to identify.  If I can’t identify I need to move back through my own discoveries in Sell Your Art Keep Your Soul.  Persistence is the key. Why am I afraid to persist?

2.  After all this work I’ve done, I will have to get a job to supplement my income because of the economy.  Maybe.  But not yet.  I can stop worrying about this until “maybe” becomes “definitely.”  It may not become definitely in which case I will have worried for nothing.  It may become definitely in which case I will have wasted the maybe time when I should be focusing on new work, new lines and more of what I list in item 1 above.  Why might I fail at making a living at doing what I love?

3.  I am not as good as I think I am.  Wrong.   I may even be better since I tend to be my own worst critic.  Success is not what the outside world thinks and says (or doesn’t say) about my work.  Success is being true to that creative spark in me that drives me to be a conduit for energy that wants to present concretely in this world.  It is my gift to the world AND to myself – that creating.  I can play small or I can grow into who I came to be one step at a time.  What if I am successful by this definition and yet can’t pay my monthly bills?

You get the idea. There are more, but I don’t want to overwhelm you, just give you a taste of what we all experience in day-to-day living.  I want you to see that you keep asking questions and keep answering them.  Yes, it’s time consuming but otherwise you’re off fighting with shadows.  Bring them on into the light and see how they shrink.

Good luck!  Persist!

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

1.  If you aren’t failing at anything, you aren’t trying anything new.  You’re playing it safe.

2.  Playing it safe will feel comfortable until you wake up (or are startled awake by something the ever generous Universe sends your way) and start paying attention to the fact that you’re being pinched and scraped and bruised daily and have numbed yourself out to it.

3.  You came here for a reason.  Are you living your reason?  Have you even bothered to think about what your reason really is?  Not the one that will make you money, the one that makes your heart sing, and gets you out of the bed every morning with a “Hell YES! Can’t wait to meet this day!”

4. Can you tell me, without thinking hard, 5 things you’ve failed at in the past six months?  (and New Year’s resolutions don’t count).

5.  We don’t begin.  We reason there’s a better time, we need more money, someone else can do it better.  Maybe yes to all that.  But maybe they’re waiting  just as we are and so nothing changes because none of us will just face the fact that tho we might fail, we might also create the space where the next person, riding on the energy that comes through, succeeds.  We owe that to the world (see 3 above).

6.  If you don’t begin, you can’t finish.  You haven’t lost because you haven’t run.  But you ARE lost.

Ready, Set, GO!  Fail at something.  You just might find yourself along the way.

Tammy Vitale

Technorati Tags: artist, failure, fear, persist, success

Artist Date Botanical Gardens, DC, Jan 5 2012

Being an artist is a 24/7 occupation.  It requires being your own coach, your own administrative assistant, your own PR expert, your own idea and design and implementation person.  You must be a top sales person, be willing to be assertive and be able to play the role (on days you aren’t really feeling it) of the self-possessed creator.  And you have to smile when a potential customer says:  you want how much for that?  I can buy it at WalMart for half that price.

Just so you know, the proper response to Ms or Mr WalMart buyer is:  ”Yes, my work isn’t for everyone.”  Big smile.  Onward.

Some days I look at that list and it is thrilling!  It means that I will never get bored doing the same thing over and over again.  It means relishing the experience of taking abstract ideas to concrete actualities.  It means seeing the final product and being able to say:  ”I did that!”  It means seeing potential and possibility everywhere and realizing that you have to focus or much of that potential and possibility will never come to fruition.

Thus, being artist also is taking baby-steps in pursuit of the yet unmade, falling down, getting up, falling down, getting up and falling down again.  It’s about dark nights of the soul when you wonder why you were given this “gift,” this driving need to create when all you want, some days, is to have a regular 9-5 job, with a regular paycheck, so you can pay your bills.

Yes, even we full-time artists, following our dream, have days of yearning for something more steady and secure and not so out there all the time.  Because the truth is that being an artist full-time means all those things named above along with making art,  which means making art is still only 20% of your time.  That’s an average.  Sometimes it is non-stop art around the clock and that makes it all worthwhile!  Even 20% is better than not making art at all because you have given your energy over to safety and security.

Here’s a secret: there is no such thing as security.  Ever.  Things happen.  Most of them outside of your control.

So being your own coach is important.  As your own coach you will make sure you have a support group or at the very least one support person to whom you can turn when it gets really dark out and you’re sure you’re the only one in the whole world who is trying to make art and not making a living. You are not the only one and you are not alone.

First and foremost the ArtGalPals or whatever we’re calling ourselves for the times being are the rocks of my art making.  There are about 9 of us now that come together as a whole or in varying arrays and numbers to play at art.  If you don’t play, the serious stuff will never happen – or you will repeat until you can’t stand the sight of it.  We go to shows together, experiment together (safety in numbers), borrow each others ideas and technical skills and tools and enthusiasm (there can be no room for squinchy in this kind of group).  I absolutely could not do what I do without them. And yes, they are required before “the supportive partner.”

Still, it is good to have a supportive partner.  These are not necessarily born, they are created – formed through years of bumping up against each other.  It is good to have helped them, at some point, follow their dream.  And, a real partnership works for both partners, not necessarily at the same time, but in the same way:  each gets to be who they are with a promise of baby-steps toward their own dream for as long as it takes and for whatever it takes.  Hubby is awesome when it comes to setting up and tearing down and driving long distances in a van that is quirky and needs love, bubblegum and bandaids to reach its destination.  Oh, do I have stories!

I am an introvert.  I like long stretches of being by myself.  It helps me think.  But sometimes thinking isn’t what I need.  I need communication and access to diverse and generous communities.  Blogging and Facebook both have created communities for me that take me outside of myself, inspire me, and remind me that I am doing what many others are still only dreaming of:  I am running my art business full time.  On days when the bank account is dwindling (and oh, there have been many since 2008 when the economy took its nose dive thanks to folks who are so insecure they have no concept of “enough”), and new ideas are starting to feel like banging my head against a wall, I have a mantra that goes like this:  It is better to make $10/hour being my own boss than $25/hour harnessing my energy to someone else’s dream/star/regular paycheck.   It is on-line that I can niche down to others who are in the exact same space, who are writing about it, and whose words I turn to when it’s midnight and very dark.

Keep reminders of how to get from here to there, “there” being “the Wylde Way.”

This is my confession:

On days when it feels as if everything is conspiring against me – the economy, my age, people who name Andy Worhol, Thomas Kincaid and Jackson Pollock as artists and not cults of personality -I start thinking that hiring myself out for a regular paycheck is the easy road.  I forget that I like to lead or at least walk beside – I do not do well following unless the person I am following has earned my respect (and there are plenty that have.  But most of them are doing the same solopreneurship thing I am.  My admiration comes from their tenacity which I desire to emulate).  As it happens, today I am in the midst of the dark winter days when that regular paycheck looks very enticing and I have the Sunday paper’s job list with individual jobs circled.  So I am writing this to remind myself that when one goes for security, one gives up much.  Life is lived on the edge where every day we learn how to think bigger because we fly higher, where we can see the possibilities that persistence will yield.

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

(if you’d like to see daily Wylde Women’s Wisdom, you are welcome to my FaceBook fan page:  Tammy Vitale’s Wylde Women’s Wisdom where I share a daily quote and art)

Technorati Tags: creative communities, full time artist, Solopreneur, Wylde women's wisdom

Being, a collage by Tammy VItale

This is a great time to pause and decide what “luggage” we wish to keep carrying with us.

We can do this at any time of the year, but the approach of the New Year seems to give a cultural pause and a physical change (the new calendar) that is useful for stopping if only once a year from our mad rush to [you fill in the blank].

It’s also a great time of year for blogs about pausing and reflecting on what we’ve accomplished, setting intentions for some period of time coming up, making an assessment of whether or not we’re where we want to be – and deciding whether or not this is the year we’re going to do something about that (since we are the only ones in control of exactly what we let in and let go of in our life).

Before I sent you tra-la-la-ing around the internet, I’m going to give you the benefit of some of my own reflecting:  a coaching special for January and February 2012.  I have been looking over last year (see?  I even take my own advice!) and find it was a good year indeed.  Time to give back to my community (what better way to celebrate a good year?!).  So for January and February, I am offering 5 hours of coaching for $375.00.  My regular  hourly rate is $125, with a special of $500 for a block of 5 hours paid up front.  So for two months I am offering close to 50% off my hourly rates.

Why?  Because every client I work with changes my life in ways I don’t always anticipate.  So in making this offer I am opening myself to adventure and at the same time sharing my talents with folks who need them.  Win-Win!   Read more here.  Contact me:  info@TammyVitale.com

Here’s my gift to you:  some of my favorite blog posts!

Step Into Your Power

Push, Shove, Exert, StopIT!

Project vs. Process:  Do You Know the Difference?

The Way It Is Supposed To Be

UnCharted Territory

8 Practices to Manifest Your Dreams

Leap!

Resources to support your journey:

My list of books I love

Sell Your Art, Keep Your Soul (my art coaching class in affordable packets)

(and of course) Wylde Women’s Wisdom (where you can also see the journal I created especially for Wylde Women!)

And since this is the quiet period of the holidays when everyone is recooperating, getting organized, reflecting, chatting with close friends about things that matter, as promised above, here are some of my favorite folks to read and chat with on-line.  I know you will enjoy them too!

Endings and Beginnings by Ruth Davis at SparktheHeart.com

Stacey Curnow – Midwife for Your Life

Purplicious Passion Path (because I just love Mo’s energy!)

Creative Every Day (because Leah is an unending link to creativity and beauty – I should know, I live with pieces of her artwork! and because every November she runs Art Every Day Month, a month of creativity that has an amazing community of people who participate – including me!)

Alyson Stanfield’s ArtBiz Blog and especially her questions for the end of the year post.

Of course there are many many more – much of them connected to FaceBook.  That will be another post.

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.  Charles Kingsley

Technorati Tags: dreams, goals, planning, resolutions, setting intentions, vision boards, Vision masks, word of the year

"Leah Dancing" by Tammy Vitale

It has not escaped my notice, as I look forward to 2012, that it happens to be a leap year (in addition to the end of the Mayan calendar – but that is another story).

In fact, the work “leap” has entered my consciousness so many times I thought perhaps it would be my word for the year.

Yes, it seems this year is a word and not a phrase year.

But no, “leap” is not it.  Very clearly not it.  In fact, the word came to me in November so clearly and so different, really, in feel than previous years that it surprised me and also made me very certain I was on the right track.

This morning, while I was ranging for quotes for my Facebook Fan Page, Tammy Vitale’s Wylde Women’s Wisdom, this quote sort of jumped right out at me – but not for today’s Fan Page quote.  It jumped out for reasons like synchronicity and a message from The Universe, or my angels, or maybe just a really good reminder.

So here’s my weird bit of advice:  If you’ve lost your life’s true passion (or if you’re struggling desperately to find passion in the first place), don’t sweat it.  Back off for a while.  But don’t go idle, either.  Just try something different, something you don’t care about so much.  Why not try following mere curiosity, with its humble, roundabout magic?  At the very least, it will keep you pleasantly distracted while life sorts itself out.  At the very most, your curiosity may surprise you.  Before you even realize what’s happening, it may have led you safely all the way home.  Elizabeth Gilbert

Did you see the word?

Curiosity!

My voices immediately said:  ”killed the cat.”  Which must mean I’m truly on the right path since if my voices don’t raise a ruckus it usually means I’m retreading something I know that feels safe to the lizard brain.  So I laughed.  Which is also usually a very good sign!  Brian Andreas says it just right:

I used to wait for a sign, she said, before I did anything. Then one night I had a dream & an angel in black tights came to me & said, you can start any time now, & then I asked is this a sign? & the angel started laughing & I woke up. Now, I think the whole world is filled with signs, but if there’s no laughter, I know they’re not for me.

Along with curiosity and laughter, I think, come compassion for our human imperfection and love of ourself which always leads to love of others.  And if there’s anything I hope for in 2012 it is the rediscovery of love of ourselves and our neighbors – pink tights, purple polka dots, different culture, different god, shaved heads, bushy beards, spiked hair notwithstanding.  I am curious to see if and how that might happen – after all 2012 has been foretold as the end of the world as we know it – and what if, for once, instead of fear about what we might have to give up, change brought us all curiosity about what must die so that we all might live (I’m including animals and the Earth in  ”all” since I am always hopeful that the human species will come to the acknowledgement that we are not the only occupants of this blue blue planet – and if we keep fouling our bed none of us will have a place to sleep in peace!).

Not a year for caution – it’s advice is clearly described in it’s designation.  So won’t you join me and Leap?!

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

The heart knows.  There’s nothing to choose.  Just something to set loose….The vagueness will clear when you decide to embrace whatever you hear…You came with instincts and imperatives and they will thrust through the mud and bud in their own glad season.  It’s not your answers or ideas that you need to worry about.  It’s your resistance to your ideas, any immediate reaction to choke the strange and uncomfortable…the heart always knows.  You have everything you need.  Tama Kieves This Time I Dance

Technorati Tags: 2012 leap year, compassion, curiosity, end of mayan calendar, phrase for the year, word for the year

Balancing Energy by Tammy Vitale (2 24"x36" canvasses)

You are Sacred. Handle yourself with love.  Give yourself permission to be who you came to be.

The life you came here to live is Sacred.  Handle it so.  Do not fill it up with distractions and worthless things.

The love you have in you is Sacred.  Let it burn brightly.  Give it away freely.

Your friends are Sacred.  They mirror back to you what you consider important in life.  Honor yourself and them by choosing wisely.

Animals are Sacred.  Treat them with respect. They guard the interstices of the web and we do not know what they hold back.

Earth is Sacred.  Get back in touch with Her.  Raise your voice on her behalf. 

Everything is connected and Sacred.  Anything is possible. 

Believe. 

Act.

(this is Wylde Women’s Wisdom)

May the celebrations of the Season in whatever form bring you serenity and joy and sustain you in the New Year!

Technorati Tags: honor the animals, honor the earth, honor yourself, Sacred, Wylde women's wisdom

[if you click on the picture once, it takes you to the full picture - I don't know why it isn't showing up here.  Then click on that picture for a full sized close up of the picture - you can almost see my fingerprints in the clay!]

Bravery isn’t going fully loaded into battle.  Bravery is being kind to the person who gets on your very last nerve, with a smile and a heart of generosity.

Bravery isn’t standing up and going it alone.  Bravery is reaching out, sharing your story and creating a community of people who do it together.

We have defined “bravery” as such a warlike thing, when in fact it is, some days, just getting out of bed and facing the day.  Or loving yourself where and how you find yourself in this very moment.

Bravery is looking at a piece of work that didn’t quite go as planned and trying again.  I think artists are wonderfully brave because, by definition, they know that they must answer the next question if the work is going to be done.

Here is Beautiful Swimmer finally and at last.  I loved her in her first incarnation that died in the fire.  I loved her in her 2nd incarnation: pristine white. 

As I started painting her, I did not love her much.  I started to feel like I was ruining her.  But I kept at it.  And I LOVE the way she turned out.  It took longer and I thought more about it than originally intended, and it was worth it.

So join me in welcoming her into this world because she seems pretty pleased with her Goddess of the Chesapeake self !

(Yes, she’s for sale:  $650 plus shipping:  info@TammyVitale.com)

And if this post sounds a bit like I’m pleased with myself for facing the fear of failing to bring her to life, it is because I am!  And I’m not afraid to say so!

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

To meet your passion you must jump naked into the deep waters of the unknown.  M. Cassou and S. Cubley

(Want more Wylde Women’s Wisdom and art?  Join Tammy Vitale’s Wylde Women’s Wisdom on Face Book)

Technorati Tags: Beautiful Swimmer, ceramic wall sculpture, Chesapeake Bay, goddess art

Beautiful Swimmer, fired

For you who have been following the saga of Beautiful Swimmer Take I and Take II……

TA-DAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Here is my ceramic wall sculpture, Beautiful Swimmer Take II (who now becomes, simply her goddess self:  Beautiful Swimmer) fired and ready to finish (here is the original.).  I can actually see doing one of these pieces and just leaving it clear glazed over white with maybe the crab colored blue (with “red fingernails” since the sooks (she crabs) have red claws)….or maybe just red claws.  That would be kinda cool.

But this piece is going to be cold finished; that is, it will be finished with acrylics and then mosaiced.

I took a short trip this past week to Chincoteague Island, and a walk along Virginia’s section of Assateague refuge provided a lovely clump of oyster shells that will be added, too.

The neckpiece I made for her, so I could add the head piece should I so desire, broke, but may actually work better that way if I decide to use it.  I’m thinking, at this moment, probably not.  But wil acquiesce to whatever Beautiful Swimmer requires as she comes into herself.

Stay tuned – I will keep you updated as she progresses.

I’d also like to invite you over to “like”  Tammy Vitale’s Wylde Women’s Wisdom page on Facebook, where I am posting Wylde Wisdom quotes and my own art daily for your enjoyment!

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

Be open to opportunities and help that present themselves, even when they’re different from what we thought we needed.  We can follow the energy of “Yes!” rather than accepting defeat or getting stuck in a plan.  Margaret Wheatley

Technorati Tags: Beautiful Swimmer, goddess ceramic wall sculpture, Maryland blue crabs, Wylde Wild Women's Wisdom

Wow – A full month of art every day…and some of it still isn’t finished!  Which is good.  I won’t get bored over the dark winter months.  And for sure I’ve got several new directions to explore which may leave the half finished projects half-finished while I channel the new energy!

Here’s the face part for Beautiful Swimmer Take 2.  I don’t know if I’ll wind up using the mask with the torso – I don’t usually, but I thought I’d try something different this time – an experiment – stretch a little because that’s what I use Art Every Day Month for.  If not, it can always stand on it’s own as a wall hanging.

Another thing I tried new is acrylic paint for the finish…I’ve done it once or twice before but I did this with underpainting to see how it would turn out and I’m happy.  Then I visit with an artgalpal yesterday and she had Mayco Stroke and Coat – which I’ve never run into before…you can use it just like paint!  The colors combine, you can layer.  I’ve been looking for this for the past 15 years I’ve been doing ceramics and somehow it slipped right on past me.  It took GalPal who is totally new at ceramics and experimenting to find this!  She also introduced me to stainless steel mesh for firing on:  no stilting.  The glaze doesn’t stick to the stainless steel.  Opens up a whole new world!  I’m so excited!

Beautiful Swimmer Take 2 is going to dry for 2 full weeks.  I expect to fire her the week of December 13 if you want to drop back in and take a look.

Thanks to everyone who dropped in to take a peek and took the time to chat in the comments section!  Been lovely seeing old friends and making new ones this year, as always.  And as always, I cannot say “thank you” enough to Leah Piken Kolidas, new Momma that she is, who nevertheless not only hosted but participated:  Leah, you’re the best!!!  AND, I expect to see a designer line of children’s clothes from you after your posts this AEDM!

Some things aren’t meant to be.  As noted previoiusly, Beautiful Swimmer didn’t make it through the fire.  Things happen.

After a day or so to mourn, and another to clean up and sort through and see what there is to keep (a few pieces for the remake bin), I finally got around to Beautiful Swimmer take 2.  which of course wasn’t the same as Take 1 because the enregy was different:  some “I don’t want to make the same thing again,” some pouting, some internal argument that I was hardly aware of and a refusal to print out a picture and try to make it exactly the same.

This time around I was extra careful about poking steam excape holes under *everything* added on.  Examination of detritus showed that the explosion happened at the crab level, so there was definitely a trapped bubble some where.  And this time she’s going to dry for a couple of weeks instead of one (which should have worked, but didn’t).

Meanwhile, her face came through losing the seahorse on her cheek and part of her neck, so this go round I made a kind of collar where I will attach the head – I may or may not end up using it, but I’ll have it if I want it. (it doesn’t seem to be showing up on the post page, but if you click the picture you can see it…WordPress must have changed something again.  I also note I can’t post a picture separately from the gallery post, so you’ll get the “extra” picture of jewelry in two places, not just one).

Commission, Tammy Vitale lampwork focal with crystals, seed beads and that pretty glimmery grey stone whose name just escaped me

Finally, I hope those of you who have been following the saga will continue to come around to see her when she’s finished.  Which won’t be in time for the end of Art Every Day Month.  I realize I have several pieces that aren’t going to get done for AEDM, but do give me things to work on in upcoming days when the dark comes too early and I have a tendancy to get depressed and unable to focus.  Enough hanging around that I can just pick something up and go:  “Oh!  Time to finish this!”  which will keep my mind off the short days and long nights.

Here’s a bonus creation from yesterday – a commission for a friend.

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

Every bit of progress in consciousness, every creative process, every widening and changing of the conscious attitude, first destroys a primitive original totality and a certain balance within the whole system.  Marie Louise von Franz

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