3 Seahorses, ceramic wall sculptures by Tammy Vitale
I think the Seahorses here are going to wind up on a totem, but I only just now made that decision as I was posting them, realizing they really aren’t finished.
I have a kiln load that just clicked off and I should be able to raid it by this evening or tomorrow morning. That will let it cool at its own pace, something I rarely do. But I have a busy day planned – of pampering and play. This morning a haircut and perm. Then I have to go load my work out of Friday’s Creek as that run is coming to an end. But I’m timing it so that I arrive to play at The Bead Boutique’s girls’ night out at 6 pm. And also getting there a bit early to switch out some work for them too. I had thought for 5 minutes of switching out Room with a Brew, and I may still depending on how long the perm takes. But they’re calling for 100 degrees and humidity here today (apparently just a one day blip before more weather blows in to take it away) so I don’t want to run myself ragged – this is play day.
In honor of play day, I am going to share with you another ArtOMatic artist whose work I love. Serenity Knight digs into the red clay and pulls up powerful images. Her ArtOMatic site notes: "Ten years ago I discovered terra cotta (red earth) as an engaging material. It is the oldest and closest medium that has served to leave the imprints of our passage. It is only earth and water, formed and manipulated, to later be solidified and burned in the fire. Much like how the life of an artist is…My (ART) sculptures are images – materialized emotions that are not sustained in reality and free from any complex intellectual pretensions. I allow my inner self to let go, with the help of my hands, those spirit beings that reside within me, with all their own strengths and personalities. They emerge claiming and creating their own space. My hands are only the door to their physical existence leaving my spirit free." (She lists no personal email or web site. )
Mostly I had a hard time finding titles or matching titles to work, so the first two I don’t have titles for. The third is High Priestesshood and the 4th is Stuck in the Muck of Life.
thought for the day: But I am no artists, you may protest. Yet is your life any less a canvas because you do not paint? is your voice any less potent because you do not give it pen? Is your soul barren of song because you compose no notes? No, a thousand times@ Life well-lied is the greatest art of all. The art of your life is not a matter of talent. It is a matter of MOUNTING THE COURAGE TO LIVE.
It’s mounting the courage to SEE what you really are, to be dazzled by the Radiance that is You. Mounting the courage to imagine what this world could be. Mounting the courage to die a thousand deaths to LIVE one life to the fullest. Translate the pains of hell into a new song. Lovely apparitions of possibilities as yet undreamed await those whose hands are strong and steady enough to hew away the rough walls and make their creative vision a manifest reality.
Making visible the glorious inner life in the everyday world of form is the creative process. Neurosis is but expression denied….your hands are worthy to chisel out the divine image. Live in openness to the possibilities. Laurence G. Boldt, Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design
