Maggie in the Afternoon, acrylic on 24"x36" canvas by Tammy Vitale.

So I actually got a painting done yesterday.  I forwent finishing the play painting, which I’m not all the way happy with at the moment  – even remembering it is a play painting.  It opened the way for this, for the new torso and for a new wall totem, Three Women Dancing, which I can’t show you a picture of because it’s still in the glue drying stage.  I’m pretty pleased with it.  I have another totem that is ready to be finished and glued…hopefully all of that today.  Tomorrow will be a day in D.C. with husband so I can watch the Tragically Hip tomorrow night at the 9:30 Club where he works.  I may hop over to ArtOMatic and mark my last sale, or not since I will be there this coming Friday for Artists’ Night.  Which is to say I won’t have time after today until Monday to finish things up.  Then it’s the part-time job Tues/Wed/Thurs and load in for the show Friday a.m.  You can see how time fills itself up.

So here’s the torso.  You will note she is very slanted.  The picture is straight up  so you can see the slant.  At some point the back piece I added on for stability scrunched up; hence the slant.  So I will make a stand for her and glue her to that.  Am thinking some collage.  The holes are for wire and/or ribbon.  The chest cavity (I think I already said) will hold a bird’s nest with a broken egg.  That particular addition has lived on a shelf in the cottage for 8 years and this torso is the perfect place for it.  After I figure out how to make a platform for it to sit on – wire probably.  You will note I did not get around to making the head part of this.  She will go as is to the show, with the intent of making a head to fit in later.

Am thinking Maggie in the Afternoon might need some pastel applied to it – or did originally, but like the strong color blocks pretty much as they are now.  So maybe not.  everything is up in the air.  Nothing has told me it is finished yet.  And today I will also plant flowers that I bought yesterday for the garden pots around the pond.  I have been ever the happy gardner since I discovered garden pots.  That way I don’t have to worry about moles and hard clay soil.  Just pots, potting soil and water and everything is happy.  Including me.  That picture tomorrow.

thought for the day:  If an eager child presents you with her masterpiece, her blotchy purple drawing, you could say, "What a mess.  You need to improve your composition and lines."  Or you might say instead, "What a free picture!  Such lush color!"  Both reactions honor the truth.  Which comment will make the child more likely to race back to her crayons….Support will not leave us naive or inflated, or with blotchy drawings all our lives…Experience teaches…Real creativity takes us beyond ego.  but first we have to get beyond fear.  We have to want to go back and pick up our crayons…

Develop and ply what you have instead of what you don’t have.  Feed your strengths.  Pet the tigers.  Don’t worry about the amoebas.  Because they will develop in their own time.

Meanwhile, light small votive candles on the altars of your gifts.  The worship of your strength will make you strong.  Please do not cut yourself to shreds in the name of improvement…

Grow wild and woolly before your prune.

Have faith in the living wisdom of your talent, and it will light your way as surely as the moon.  Tama Kieves, This Time I Dance