Three Women, (drying) hand made and slab built wall sculptures by Tammy Vitale

Watch the creative process.  Several days back when I started one a day art with Kat’s Paws, I had a go at a collage with 3 women.  This is an image that has been with me for a very long time.  I did another one for yesterday’s post.  And here’s the start of a new clay series.  These are done in low fire white clay, and the next batch will be for raku.  The are in two pieces because they are about 16 – 28 inches and two long to stand up or lay down in the kiln.  They will mount like the totems to a thin strip of wood.  That gives me the option of making them as long as I feel like (and I feel like making them really long – in a bit).  These are in the garage which means they’ll dry very slowly.  But that’s good – I’m trying for very flat so the pieces where they join won’t warp too much.  Then, that’s as much about firing as drying, but I can give them a good start drying flat.  Why did it take so long to get them into clay you might wonder.  Well, I wonder that too as easily as they rolled out yesterday.  But the last time I made them I hadn’t drawn them twice or done totems yet.  All experience lends itself to art!  I’m really happy with them and see lots of possibilities for changing them as I go.  It’s good – I need a fresh line in my work. 

I did two pieces for today’s one a day art.  You will see from the first here, The Musician, acrylic on canvas. that I am developing a theme there too (see The Artist).  Went to bed and woke up with more of these dancing in my head – so I’m all set with ideas for one a day art probably for the rest of the month!  I may just have to keep going (now – what am I going to do with all this art?).  Also, I am scraping the bottom of my tubes of very old acrylic paint so I’ll have to go buy more (gee, and I just bought all that watercolor, only to find I’m still in love with acrylic.  Well, you live and learn)(I’m sure I’ll find a use for it).

Here’s number two, The Bird, acrylic and pastel on canvas.  I figure as long as I’m doing these I might as well bow to the Southern Maryland tradition of blue herons.  I might even be able to sell this one at Heron’s Way Gallery.  They let me put any of my art in, not just my clay.  And they have a customer base that likes birds and barns and boats, i.e., traditional SoMo subject matter.  Which I am not a fan of.  But hey, I was sitting at the kitchen bar, listening to the election news, and so giddy with all that good news pouring in that I figured "why not?"

It took me until 2 pm yesterday to get out of my pjs and that was so I could go work in the studio.  I did get a lot of admin stuff done and/but I was also pretty much glued to the internet and tv news channels.  I especially liked watching W’s press conference yesterday.  Have to say it’s the first one I’ve ever enjoyed.  And I learned that he can speak without a smirk.  Good for him.  Old dogs, new tricks and all that.  There’s hope for the world.

thought for the day: The spin, the amplification of conflict, the indiscriminate search for scandal and miscues – the cumulative impact of all this is to erode any agreed-upon standards for judging the truth.  There’s a wonderful, perhaps apocryphal story that people tell about Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the brilliant, prickly, and iconoclastic late senator from New York.  Apparently Moynihan was in a heated argument with one of his colleagues over an issue, and the other senator, sensing he was on the losing side of the argument, blurted out:  ‘Well, you may disagree with me, Pat, but I’m entitled to my own opinion.’ To which Moynihan frostily replied, ‘You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.’   Barack Obama, the Audacity of Hope:  Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream