Slab and hand built torso, Fern, drying for raku firing by Tam of Tam’s Originals

Yesterday I was whining about overwhelm.  Well, I just put myself in the studio and moved through it and, wa-la!, a full day of accomplishments and no more overwhelm.  One foot in front of the other.  That’s the way to climb a mountain:  one step at a time!  Do you sense I am pleased with myself?  Yep!  New day.  Bright sun.  All that.

In addition to my regular list, I wound up rearranging my studio because Husband got all of his stuff moved to his office room.  That was his idea, not mine.  But I was absolutely ready to take advantage of that move and spread out.  I brought in two tables from the garage and put them in the basement.  In the garage they were on top of each other and so mostly unuseable except I could pile stuff on them.  Now they are nice and neat (left) and give me tons more flat space in the studio, plus storage underneath for my moving bins.  And the garage space is also way more organized and I have a 3rd table there for making work (right).  Actually, another table and a half as there is half a table top in the back that I’m using for things that were formerly on one of the two table tops I originally had.

I got all the work just out of the kiln glued with d-rings.  That has to dry 24 hours and today I will wire it all.  I stained all of the word tiles and put bright shiny black eyes on most of the fish (I missed staining and puting eyes on several fish that I had placed on top of the kiln before I moved the studio around and then forgot them until this morning).  This is what all that glueing looks like and also all the bright shiney-eyed fish:

I pulled two full sets of zodiac tiles and two full sets of elemental tiles and 8 designer tiles.

And I made the torso that is at the start of this piece, for raku.  I talked at length with Linda at Sandy Bay.  She is interested in the mask that is on my business card – which of course was sold ages ago, but something like that.  So I have a great excuse for making more masks now.  And she is interested in raku torsos since her source went away.  So I made this torso and will make another and take them with me when I drive down to drop work at Island Artworks in Ocracoke.

I talked with Maureen at the Gallery at Friday’s Creek Winery in Owings, MD, and will take work there tomorrow and we will decide how to set it up.  I will have to sit a day a month for that gallery, but it isn’t cooperative so I don’t have a meeting to go to, and I like all of the folks who are showing there that I know (and I haven’t met everyone, but many are the regular circle of artists from this area).  I am hoping I will pick up a different demographic there.

Today I have to sort through and mail Mary Kay products and do my commission word painting along with wiring all the above work.  Maybe I’ll have time to make another torso, too.

thought for the day:  Art is a personal expression no matter how much or how little it covers of the universe.  Whatever it encompasses, it has to be a sincere vision.  The technical skill with which it is created is essential for its success.  Lee Caplin The Business of Art