Hand-made tiles on recycled furniture stand, currently at ArtOMatic, by Tammy Vitale

What a grand day yesterday was.  Long and very grand.  And to all those blogger friends whose sites I have not been visiting, please be patient with me.  Long days right now and sanity requires that some things give.  I will be visiting as best I can – I need your inspiration!

Drove into Crystal City where the current ArtOMatic is setting up to paint my wall, hang my work and work my first 5 hour shift.  Since the whole show is volunteer run, each artists must work 3 5 hour shifts.  This is a great time to see the art (you have to roam – protector of the artwork) and get to know new people – right now things are a bit slow which gives more chat time.  My next sit date is April 11, 2 days before opening on Friday the 13th (y’all come if you’re inclined and/or close enough: 2121 Crystal Drive, Crystal City, VA – free parking in the lot across the street after 4 pm and all day Saturday and Sunday) and I expect it to be a bit busier.  We artists do tend to leave things, sometimes, to the last possible minute, because we are still creating that one last thing!

Here are more pictures of my space:  long wall views from left and right and wall sections for closer looks.  Some are blurred.  Sorry about that – can’t see it until I get it up on my computer screen.  I am delighted with the way my $5 gallon of premium paint from the "we made a mistake" bin turned out – i was thinking rust, didn’t find any, and picked this and it’s perfect.  Everything looks great on it!The last pictures are of the building itself (that tall thing on the left with lots of glass) and looking out from the front of the building. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to walk around Crystal City which is heavily planted with spring flowering trees that all popped out between Saturday when I was there and yesterday.  The non flowering trees are unfurling light green leaves – in other words – driving to this metropolitan area ($16/day to park in the building that ArtOMatic is being held in) is beautiful!  The concrete canyons mitigated by all the mature plantings.  Gorgeous! (a sun-roof open kind of day for sure!)

thought for the day:  In our time, there is much obsession with spiritual programs.  Such spiritual programs tend to be very linear.  The spiritual life is imagined as a journey with a sequence of stages.  Each stage has its own methodology, negativity and possibilities.  Such a program often becomes an end in itself.  It weights our natural presence against us.  Such a program can divide and separate us from what is more intimately ours.  The past is forsaken as unredeemable, the present is used as the fulcrum to a future that bodes holiness, integration or perfection.  When time is reduced to linear progress, it is emptied of presence….The eternal is not elsewhere; it is not distant.  There is nothing as near as the eternal.  John O’Donohue, Anam Cara:  A Book of Celtic Wisdom