Last week I took a trip to Cambridge, MD on the Eastern Shore to visit with Joy Staniforth of Joie de Vivre Gallery.  If you're ever in the area, you must top by.  Joy not only has the best art gallery shop in the area, she also knows everything artsy that goes on in the town. 

I noticed wonderful panels of ceramic and glass murals on the back of her building.  She took me out front to point out more and then down the street to this 85 foot long, magnificent work in progress on Cannery Way.

The mural is paint and lots and lots of pieces of glass – the glass being put up freehand.  Breathtaking!

That's Grace and Ben Reed above, and Grace and Patricia Hayes to the right here.  Further down is the other end of this wall:  all by itself a reason to just drop into Cambridge and browse the panels now up in the main downtown area.  From whence all this lovliness?  Once of the main buildings on the main street, Race Street, burned.  Fiercely.  To hid the charred shell while work on rebuilding began, these panels came into existance. 

I don't have any pictures of the panels because my camera was sitting at home on my desk where is was doing me not a lot of good (note to self:  stop leaving that camera at home.  Just bring it!).  These pictures were taken with Joy's camera before it ran out of space.  I guess I was meant to travel back there soon and take more pictures!  Or perhaps you will go, say hi to Joy for me, and take pictures to share with me!

And here's another reason to visit with Joy – mosaic aartist Jen Wagner makes her new studio in the back store area of Joie de Vivre, and Joy can get you into the new gallery in Cambridge, Main Street Gallery, now showing Pieces of the Path:  Exploring the Art of the Mosaic.  "Mosaic" is stretched a bit here, at least to my understanding.  Many pieces are hand made tile and tile shards that have heft, not the tiny little pieces I always heard defined as mosaic.  It is most definitely worth viewing and is literally just around the corner from Joie de Vivre at 413 Muir Street.  I fell in love with pieces by Susan Stockman, and immediately recognized local to me Parran Collery's work too.  Other artists participating in the show are Carol Gordean, Anna Grace Harind, Deborah, Coffin Kennedy, Joyce Fritz Ritz, Mary An Schindler, Craigie Succop and Jen Wagner (none seem to have websites).

More mosaics can be seen at:  Maris Elaine Gallery, 520 Race Street; Scoot Station at 400 Muir Street; 447 Studios and Gallery at 447 Race Street; Ave Salon Spa 501 Poplar Street; Dorchester Center for the Arts, 321 High Sctreet; and Bella Luna 305 High Street (full wall of mosaic in the ladies' room).

I wish I could say there is that much art in my whole county!  Cambridge is becoming quite the arts center.  Put it on your list of places to see! 

thought for the day:  When we were infants, we ONLY used the voice of our inner child.  This voice made our needs quite clear to all those around us, and we saw the world through the eyes of a ppurely expressive being. Katherine Q Revoir, Spiritual Doodles & Mental Leapfrogs: A Playbook for Unleashing Spiritual Self-Expression