Shadow Wymyn:  Isis Rising, mixed media by Tammy Vitale

Load out of Calvert Artists’ Guild’s show and need to check and see if I can load into Inner Equinox today – I have a mermaid torso that can be their center focal point that I had forgotten about.  I have three Ugly Fish ready to go, a few Wylde Women and Word Tiles and that should pretty much take up the wall.  But I’m not sure they’re open today – all of Solomons Island seems to close down on Monday.  I hope they are because that will mean I can just go ahead an hang.  Otherwise it will have to wait until Thursday as Tuesday, Wednesday all day and Thursday morning is taken up by the part-time job.

I came very close to selling Balancing Energy to a gentleman who has bought my work before.  That would have made a great show!  I am beyond pleased at the reception my paintings are getting!  And at the direction my painting is taking.  I couldn’t have planned it better – but of course, when you follow the creative energy you really can’t go wrong in the long run.  I’ve been at this full time for 5 years now, and, according to general business wisdom, 5 years is the make it or break it point as a rule.  Looks like I’m making it.  There seems to be a general burst of interest from clients and great burst of energy from the creativity well, both of which are surprising to me and yet, as friends have pointed out, I’ve done the work, it should happen.  Still, I am surprised.  And very happy about this whole being an artist thing.  It makes the Wylde Woman in me cackle with glee!  (really).  And what a nice voice that is to have to add to the mix.  She trumps the Hamster and the A Student hardly lifting a finger.  She just smiles like she knows some great secret….and she does.  She’s the holder of crone wisdom.  I’ll take her for a dominant voice any day!

Okay – we’re getting a bit of the beaten track here – it’s early morning and I really didn’t have much to say, so I guess this is turning more into a journal thought page than a business blog page, but that’s okay too, because it’s all connected, and as far as art goes, it is the magic that makes it all work.

thought for the day:  I think of it this way:  if all humanity is one body, I am one single cell, perhaps residing on a freckle near the left elbow of this universal whole.  It doesn’t seem like one cell has that much influence over the whole body, but each contributes to harmony or disharmony.  If one little cell is malignant, cancer can spread until the whole body is threatened.  This is a lesson very much with us in the world’s body right now.  If one little cell is doing the very best job it can at being a freckle, then well-being can also spread until the whole body is healthy.  This is a lesson we are trying to learn.  I may never understand, or even want to try to understand, why I’m the little cell that I am.  I may never be able to see how my actions affect the larger whole.  This is where faith comes in.  Christina Baldwin, The Seven Whispers

The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.  Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.  Faith also means reaching deeply within, for the sense one was born with.  Anne Lamott

You are called to walk off the beaten track and light upon secret turnpikes.  That means there often won’t be road signs or easy entry ramps.  There won’t be mass transportation or park rangers.  your truth will not be on the evening news.  The creative life is not driven by external cues.  That’s the point.  You don’t need those inferior tools.  You have guidance.  Tama Kieves (September/October 2005 E-Zine)

And the first step, shall be to lose the way.  Galway Kinnell (quotes by Tama in the above E-Zine)