Layout for abalone and pearl necklace by Tammy Vitale.

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am totally hooked on beading.  Understand this is practice for Sacred because I plan on including beading in the pieces and as amulets and necklaces that go with the finished pieces.  I know that this will lead to:  but I don’t want this necklace with this piece.  Individualization always does that (it matches:  love the painting, hate the frame).  But I’m the artists so I get to do what I want to do.  We’ll see how it works out.  In the short term it keeps me very happy.  I have a new addiction.  =]

Yesterday was first Friday so I went to the opening at Heron’s Way Gallery – their first First Friday.  There was some traffic, and I spent a nice evening with the gallery owners, eating delicious cranberry-orange bread, sipping wine and water, and tasting other treats.  First Friday’s at Heron’s Way are always a delight for all the senses!

Today is Second Saturday at the ArtSpace at MAC’s (Maryland Antique Center), formerly the Heron’s Way space.  Tricia of the Bead Boutique, she who supplies my addiction to beads, is having her featured artist’s opening and will also be demo-ing her techniques.  I need to watch her do earring wire wrapping again as mine is pitiful.  I also want to go and support her opening, because that’s what artists do for each other.  And friends.  Since we’re both artist and friend to one another.

Lest you think I have given up clay all together, see below.  All of this and more is awaiting glazing and firing, but not today because of Tricia and then the local liquor establishment is having its season party which is always great food and lots of wine tasting; and not tomorrow, because that’s a trip to New Moon in LaPlata, Md, for their annual seasonal party, after which I will bring home all of my small pieces from there.  They won’t be doing wholesale, and haven’t been doing much in the way of sales either.  And while there, visiting with girlfriend Connie, who is the Mom of the New Moon’s proprietor.  So I guess we’ll see if I get back in the studio on Monday.

But actually, this time of year isn’t for nose to the grindstone.  I’m sleeping in until 8 am which is amazing because with the "fall back" time change, it’s actually 9 am and I get up at 5 am during the summer.  My body has decided to hibernate and I’m not fighting it.  We must remember to be kind to ourselves and honor the rhythms of the natural cycles, man-made clocks and schedules be damned.  I’m starting to vision this time as going deep deep into myself (which I am anyways – lots of head chatter happening.  To be expected given the amount of new work I’ve been doing lately), and then Solstice brings back the lengthening days and I can unfold along with the light.  I like that vision a lot.

So here’s some of what’s waiting for me, in order:  Sacred (the first piece): Kwan Yin (torso); Sacred mask:  Kwan Yin; Sacred mask: 2nd mask in the series, no name yet; male torso, not a part of Sacred.  All are drying and waiting for what’s next.  The picture of the Kwan Yin mask looks like she’s winking, which she isn’t, but it has given me an idea for eye position in later masks.  Some people don’t like open eyed masks:  they feel they are being watched.  But if the eyes are downcast, that won’t happen.  Isn’t it funny how creativity happens?

thought for the day:  Artists get better by sharpening their skills or by acquiring new ones; they gt better by learning to work, and by learning from their work.  They commit themselves to the work of their heart, and act upon that commitment.  So when you ask, "Then why doesn’t it come easily for me?", the answer is probably, "Because making art is hard!"  What you end up caring about is what you do,  not whether the doing came hard or easy. 

Talent is a snare and a delusion.  In the end, the practical questions about talent come down to these:  Who cares?  Who would know?  and What difference would it make?  And the practical answers are:  Nobody, Nobody, and None.  David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art & fear:  Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking. 

Note:  this is a book every artist should have in her library.  It is fun, funny and chock full of really really groundingly good stuff.