the Dancer, acrylic on canvas by Tammy Vitale

Here’s #9 for art everyday month (AEM) – I finally got the acronym correct.  I went through 3 water colors to get to her.  I think my problem with watercolors is overkill.  I can’t just lay down a layer and leave it alone.  And less than great paper.  I can see why paper gets to be so important with beautiful watercolors.  Mostly I think yesterday’s watercolors will become tear-ups for a collage.  I’m also feeling my broken camera lens – this shot is a bit blurry, but it’ll have to do as the day beckons and I must get moving (coffee first – decaf, but it’s the idea of the stuff.  Gotta have my coffee!)

Spent time in the studio getting work ready for A Step Above drop off in Berlin before I go to Joie de Vivre opening Saturday night.  Found a place to stay overnight.  Was going to give it a go at driving home, but they’re calling for rain.  I simply can’t do that at night anymore, so I’ll just let Husband have the house to himself Sunday morning.  He’ll love it.  And I’ll piddle my way home.

In the studio I permanently glued Mermaid (no official name yet) together.  My original  thought was to join it impermanently for travel, but she fired so off kilter that permanent presented itself as the only way to make it look right.  Her tail still needs staining and her waist and the area that blew out will be covered with found shells from the Outer Banks.  That’s today’s first task.

Worked in clay and played with more Women (IV and V) for raku and a smaller piece called Women Friends – smaller than I initially saw it, but I outlined by hand instead of using a square, so I didn’t have a size to go by.  I did the raku Women by hand too, deciding that I like the organicness of hand cut as opposed to ruler cut sides.  These Women do not have detailed faces like the first ones.  I will have to see if I want to go with the more abstract over the long haul.  I’m still working these out as a line.  And of course I have to see if they sell for a price that makes sense for me to continue making them.  And I made a new torso for raku – maybe I’ll get it bisqued and rakued next week while the weather is holding – we’re having Indian Summer.  I’ve only built one fire this season! And then a torso and mask set who don’t yet have names – got them undercoated for patina.  Will finish them today after the mermaid. 

Then I unpack the car from Monday’s load in – see what I still have that can go back out, and repack the car for tomorrow’s trip to A Step Above Gallery, and pack myself for an overnight and be ready to drive on out of here at 9 a.m.  Which means the other thing I have to do is get two more pictures posted for Saturday and Sunday AEM since I won’t be around to get that done.  Busy day – but yesterday just rolled on through – it was the easiest work day I’ve had in a long time.

thought for the day: Whether it’s in the Florida Keys, along the rocky Maine coast, within the Gulf of Mexico’s warm curves, on the brave Outer Banks, or, for those  who nestle near inland seas such as the brinesteeped Great Salt Lake or the MIdwest’s Great Lakes – water is alive and in relationship with those of us who are blessed with such a world-shaping, yet abiding, intimate ally.

Every day, I am moved by the double life of water – her power and her humility.  But most of all, I am grateful for the partnership of this great body of inland sea.  Living by water, I am never alone.  Just as water has sculpted soil and canyon, it also molds my own living space, and every story I tell.  Brenda Peterson, Singing to the Sound:  Visions of Nature, Animals and Spirit

p.s. I live between the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay.  Do you know where the water in your backyard runs to?  Mine runs down my hill into Helene’s Creek and on out directly into the Patuxent.