SACRED: Zen Suite Mask:  Serenity, 14"t x 11"w x 6"d, one-of-a-kind, hand built, mixed media wall sculpture finished in bronze patina, with feathers, pyrite and desert rose natural stones, and fresh water pearls, by Tammy Vitale, $250.00

Serenity  will go up on my Sacred website tomorrow, with her blurbs.  I’ll do a drawing for her then too, for her booklet.  I have another torso in the Zen Suite to finish, and then I’ll be on to different works.  Am not sure if all pieces will be part of Suites or not.  Perhaps that will reveal itself over the coming year as the pieces are created.

I was listening to a meditation from an on-line class I took with Tama Kieves over a year ago.  I have it on with my affirmations from One Coach and listen to both a lot.  This particular Kieves’ meditation says:  "I am not defining my journey, I’m discovering it."  I like that very much.  I like the idea that I don’t have to worry and work and wonder, I just have to wander down the pathway of my life and discover all the marvelous things that have been sitting patiently waiting for me.

I am pleased to report that I have hired an independent contractor to start assembling information on shops in several states.  We are looking for those which buy wholesale.  She will be creating a sheet for each shop and then an overview list.  If all this works out as planned, I will be offering those lists for sale as I have not found anyone anywhere who has lists at the level of detail I want to help me discover places to sell my work.  I believe there are others out there who will want this same information (not everyone will want just wholesale, and not every shop will sell at my price point – someone needs to use this great information once I’ve collected it!).  The next step, after she has worked at this for 40 hours (we are targeting the month of January for that), will be to start advertising for someone to sell my work for me using the information she has gathered.  In the meantime, I will be working on my USP for business to business as opposed to my USP already worked on for business to client:  Distinctive sculpture for your hearth and soul.  I’m thinking I want to use:  Distinctive sculpture for your discriminating client, but need more information on what shops are looking for before I make up something that I hope will appeal to them.  I also have to design postcards for follow-ups.  I like Serenity a lot and think she may be my postcard piece for starters.

I also met with artist friend Heather Bartlett.  We are putting our heads together to come up with a grouping of work called "The body Politik," based on society’s unhealthy messages to women about their bodies, the politics of women’s bodies, and things which we hope will be provocative and thought-provoking.  My inner Wylde Woman is delighted with this opportunity to stop just thinking in terms of retail and start creating work that pushes the envelope.  I’m really looking forward to this work with Heather, who is the perfect partner in this endeavor.

2008 is starting off to shape up nicely!  I’m very excited to discover what comes next!

thought for the day: Life will break you.  Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning.  You have to love.  You have to feel.  It is the reason you are here on earth.  You are here to risk your heart.  you are here to be swallowed up.  And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness.  Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.  Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum [note: I have just discovered Louise Erdrich.  After I read this book, I went and ordered all of the used copies of books by her, including her book of poetry, that I could find on Amazon.  She is an amazing writer!  And prolific – which makes me happy, because now I have a pile of books just waiting for me to read!]