Totem:  Secrets.  Clay shards and found objects mounted as wall sculpture by Tammy Vitale

Totem: Secrets is my next to the last new thing to post here.  I have a painting for tomorrow, then, hopefully I’ll have some pictures of our, ta-daa (horns, confetti, cheerleaders), finished cottage floor.  It’s all glued down, only grouting left to do.  We finished the heron wall yesterday, including grouting.  Husband was the impetus.  I’m wandering around in a bit of a fog right now, for no reason that I can ascertain.  It was helpful that he wants to get that finished because it gave me something to focus on and we’re meandering through the job, taking our time, listening to music on his iPod, so it’s actually relaxing instead of stressful and at the end of the day something tangible has been accomplished.  I’d give you a sneak preview but I keep forgetting to take the camera.

You will notice on Totem:  Secrets some of the same shards of my paintings as on  the torso My Secret Self  that I posted earlier.  That’s because I have 3 cups with random pieces of paintings.  Well, I did; now I have 1.5 cups left to keep playing with.  This particular totem is really layered.  Sometimes they are very spare, like Totem:  Rebirthing Myself to the right here, and then sometimes they wind up really full. 

I’m still not up to speed on feeling like writing (my myspace readers must think I’ve been abducted by aliens.  I haven’t even left a note there to come visit here, which I usually do).  But I have been reading other blogs so will leave you a few here for inspiration.

Shan at Thick Paint is starting a course in color theory.

Karen, at Art in the Garage, posted a great lesson on gel medium transfers, after I left a query about her work there.  Since the Lazertran paper isn’t going to work quite like I hoped, I’m all excited about trying this method (although it doesn’t work with inkjet, it needs toner and I no longer have a toner copier so that’s a trip to Staples, I guess.  But hey, anything in the name of art.)

Paper Napkin notes that this is de-lurking week, so you’re supposed to post a comment on any blog that you visit instead of just passing through, reading and going on your way (lurking).

thought for the day:  To lose focus means to lose energy.  The absolutely wrong thing to attempt when we’ve lost focus is to rush about struggling to pack it all back together again.  Rushing is not the thing to do… sitting and rocking is the thing to do.  Patience, peace, and rocking renew ideas.  Just holding the idea and the patience to rock it are what some women might call a luxury.  Wild Woman says it is a necessity. 

This is something the wolves know all about.  When an intruder appears, wolves may growl, bark, or even bite the interloper, but also they may, from a good distance, draw back into their group and sit together as a family would.  They just sort of sit there and breathe together.  Rib cagecs go in and out, up and down.  They’re focusing themsleves, regrounding themselves, returning to the center of themselves and deciding what is ritical, what to do next.  They’re deciding they’re ‘not going to do anything right now, just going to sit here and breathe, just gonna rock together.’….women tend to be surprised by fatigue.  Then they wail, they mutter, they whisper about failure, inadequacy, and such.  No, no.  this losing of energy is as it is.  It is Nature.  Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves