Torso – Creation, on different backgrounds, 22.5"t x 13"w, hand made, unique slab and hand built ceramic/clay wall sculpture by Tammy Vitale, $450 retail

Isn’t it amazing how different this piece looks when you change the background?  I’m guessing the lighting must be different, too – and I can’t say either one looks more or less like the piece when it’s in front of you, although on the dark background you do get more of a feel for the shape of the right, light side.  I was heading toward an abstracted piece with this and am pleased with the outcome.  I did not emphasize the "body" quality of the piece by cutting more definitive lines on the edges to emphasize that, like I did with  Torso – Made With Love here on the right.

I made a mask that sort of goes with this – they would look well together; however, they aren’t a set.  The picture here is the general idea of how it will look when complete – a hanging mask, like Contemplation, pictured after Mask:  Myth.  Myth  (the mask itself is 10.5"t x 6.5"w and will retail for $145) will hang on the driftwood and I plan to use some amethyst or other colorful stones from my Asheville trek in the nooks and crannies of the driftwood. Contemplation‘s driftwood came from a macrame piece I made in the mid 1970’s that finally fell apart.  Never throw anything away.

Thought for the day:  …despite cultural definitions, the soul still renders its own evaluation.  We can dress in Armani and drive a Ferrari and yack to our cronies on our cellular phones.  Yet we all answer alone to an arbiter within – not of society – but of the bone.  when we close our eyes at night, our contributions in the world will either make us fee hallowed or hollow.  The real measure of success is not in our possessions, but mingled in our marrow.  our spirit either feels empty or full, depleted or alive.  It doesn’t matter which toys we can buy.  It matters what we buy inside.  Tama Kieves, This Time I Dance