1.  I love walking in my yard with the dogs in the early morning (okay, that is a function of the fact that it is not cold, not hot, and too cool in the a.m. for mosquitoes which have made their unwelcome presence known during the day now. I do not love mosquitoes).  Husband hates that he is always running into spider webs when he is out hanging clothes or working in the yard.  And I'll admit the little single stranders make me think of spiders in my hair.  But that always makes me think of Robert Fulghum's book All I Need to Know I learned in Kindegarden or maybe it was another of his books, which took the viewpoint of the spider, who has now caught a human in its web, and what it must be thinking, which always makes me laugh.  Anyways, I love walking in the early morning and running across perfect webs like this one, spider ensconsed, sun coming up enough to make a rainbow on the lower edge of the web.  The leaves on the trees make it quieter than in the winter when I can pretty easily hear the main road a mile or so away.  Now it's like being the only person around, with my companion animals.  A magical way to start the day.

2.  I love allowing myself to keep a piece of art that I fall in love with.  Women V is a piece that I put out for sale for around a year at different places then decided she was too wonderful to allow to depart.  Her lower left skirt looks like watercolors – this is raku.  I have never since managed to get this look on any other piece.  That could just be my technical impreciseness, lack of experience, whatever.  She fits perfectly here on the little wall space next to my kitchen counter (I have a counter that goes through from the dining room to the stove area and I live at that counter when I'm not living at the computer.  Or the studio.  Or out in the yard).  The addition of the peony and the blue wine bottle (which I may getting around to figuring out how to slump into a cheese tray one day) just made the perfect vignette to share.  I have had peonies planted for years (about 10) and they are just now getting around to blooming beautifully – probably because they don't get enough sun.  And their smell takes me right back to 2nd grade when I would take peonies in during the month of May for Mary's altar.  My peonies are exactly like my Mom's.  So here it all is, and everytime I go by it or sit at the counter, it makes me smile.  

3.  I love reading.  Husband never did but ever since we went on the Rock Boat in 2006 and he had time to relax and read since we were out for days and he was only mixing one band, he has been reading more.  First I was buying him books that I thought he would (and did) like and now he's branched out on his own.  Which brings in this lovely eclectic bunch of books for me to read when I'm tired of reading everything currently falling over beside my bed.  My stack:  The Well of Creativity ed by Michael Toms (interviews including Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg, Isabel Allende), Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (fighting terrorism by building schools in Pakistan, focusing on girls' eduction – pretty amazing), Steering by Starlight by Martha Beck, recommended by Leah on her blog.  Better than The Secret because it's grounded in real life…I still want a book that tells me how to live in today's economy while following my art.  I guess eventually I'll have to write it (I may start with a short version, an ebook, since I took Alyson Stanfield's telecourse on writing ebooks which she has made available to everyone here  via CD or MP3).  Storycatcher by Christina Baldwin – I'm a big fan of hers.  haven't started this yet, but my MA is in story and social change so anything about the power of story entices me.  Sea Change by Jorie Graham – poetry.  Love her work.  Anna Nicole by Grace Cavalieri – poetry.  Love her work and her – Grace has been her name in my creative life. The Story of English a companion to the PBS television series.  On my wish list forever, I got it for a penny (plus postage).  His stack: The Heroin Diaries:  A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star by Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue); Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be:  A Rock & Roll Fairy Tale by Jen Trynin (Love her music and she's also a great writer if you can handle f**k on every page); I'm with the Band:  confession of a Groupie by Pamela Des Barres; The Unnatural History of the sea by Callum Roberts.

4.  I love making stuff:  clay, paintings, vision boards, plants in the yard, occasionally a clean house, less often a clean office.  I do keep up with the kitchen and the counters there.  I love having a nice clean kitchen when I come down in the morning – it starts my day off well.

5.  I love collecting reviews of ArtoMatic 2008.  Here's the latest gathering, starting with Lenny Campello's – if you don't do any, do his.  If you don't want to read, scroll down to his video.  It gives a huge sampling of a lot of the work (including about 1/2 second of mine if you watch closely).  All of these have pictures.  Many are "my favorite" lists.  And most picks are not of the folks I have and will show you.  So if you are persistent, between my interviews and sharing, and browsing the reviews here, you will see almost as much as the whole show.

Lenny Campello's Art-tistics

Erin Antognoli's Halo in Reverse, May 28 (I can't find a permalink so scroll if your must) (I interviewed Erin here)

Dcist.com

Thinking About Art – Stacy's list, the blog author's list

Nicholas Schiller's Daily Render  (I actually made this list, but my name is crossed through.  And the title of the blog is crossed through also so I don't know if that's a highlight or a change of mind.  But my ego liked it a lot.  Even though my mystical mind knows better than to let outside influence mean anything.  But my ego likes it a lot.)

Finally, don't forget to keep checking in on Body Politics for comments we're getting there.  Eventually I'm actually going to post all of the photos I've taken of the torsos.  And here's another blogriffing on skinny jeans – one of the interactives at Body Politics.

thought for the day:  With every experience, you alone are painting your canvas, thought by thought, choice by choice.   Oprah Winfrey quote in margin.

Neolithic artis a kind of language…And if we let that language speak for itself, without projecting onto it prevailing models of reality, it tells a fascinating – and in comparison to the stereotype, a far more hopeful – story of our cultural origins.  Raine Esiler quote in margin.

  Christina Baldwin, Storycatcher:  Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story