Sketch crayon and paper made at Tama Kieve’s workshop by Tammy Vitale
Regular readers will know that I don’t like driving the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland East to West. West to East is ok – the sides are solid, but the bridge East to West has open railings and for 10 years I could not drive it. One trip coming home from visiting Daughter, then at Salisbury State University, I had a total panic attack. Bad enough to quit driving the Bridge for a very long time. Then I discovered I could drive West to East and would use a very round about trip (by way of the Baltimore beltway) to come home, which worked because at that time I was working in Cecil County and that’s about half-way either direction.
In order to get to a Delaware workshop with Tama Kieves (This Time I Dance), however, I had to drive the Bridge. So, heart in hand, I went. At the workshop one of the exercise was to draw – I forget exactly why, but this is what I drew. To me it is very hopeful (oddly enough my partner in the exercise saw it unhappily – as I was trying to escape something). At any rate, this is now my visualization for crossing the Bridge whenever I need to. Yes, I still get nervous, and yes, a part of my body is convinced that me and car are going to go barreling through the sides and arc out over the water (like skiing: don’t look where you don’t want to go), but it helped me over that first time in 10 years and continues to do so (the last time for my trip to open my show at Joie de Vivre in Cambridge, MD). I keep it next to my desk. It is now on one of my new bookcases. It used to hang over my calendar but I have a We’Moon calendar this year with all the phases of the moon (thank you Husband) and I want to be able to see it.
Now, on to my latest addiction. It’s all Leah’s fault. And I wanted to organize my photos anyways, but I was thinking more along the line of my paper photos. I didn’t have a clue about how to organize my digital photos except to use them randomly on my desk top. Leah fixed all that.
Today we have the Making of Chesapeake, my public commission for the town of North Beach, In Maryland, located right on their boardwalk nest to their visitor’s center. Kudos to Peter King for creating great workshops on slab-built, hand-sculpted architectural tiles.
thought for the day: [this one is a downer but needs to be out there. We need to know what is being done in "our" name.] From The Washington Post, January 19, 2007, Page A 11 [not page A1]:
The second of five 101st Airborne Division soldiers accused of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing three members of her family last year in Iraq has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, his attorney said Thursday.
Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24 of Barstow, Calif., is expected to plead guilt to rape and premeditated murder during a hearing next month at Fort Campbell, Ky., lawyer William Cassara said.
Cassara would not discuss specific details of the agreement, but he said that Cortez, who was implicated in the rapes by the others charged, will no longer face the death penalty.
The March 12 slayings of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, her parents and her younger sister were considered among the worst in a series of alleged atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq. Investigators said the soldiers set fire to the bodies to hide the evidence.
6 Comments
Hi Tammy,
Where do I begin? I feel as if I'm in a circle of creativity, with no demarcated beginnings and endings. It feels great! I've savored exploring different parts of your blog, reading many posts, visiting links where you exhibit, and mentally calculating how long it would take me to drive to see your art in real life. I AM going to do it by the summertime. I'm energized by your creative processes.
These wylde women hit me, not only for their design, representation, and names (such an eye for detail), but also because I name my posts after song titles, even though I usually write about visual art or poetry. I was toying with a post about "Wildflower" last night.
Oh, I understand panic attacks while on the Beltway. I'd always been fearless and so independent until a series of events literally wallopped me while in the car…I also avoided because no way would I endanger others on the road!
Well, back to your heart creation: I see that as postive and strong; it's "you" created by your hands, in your hands- BTW, did you ever read Women Who Run with the Wolves?
Oh, wow!!!! I just finally got a chance to watch the video from start to finish!!! How do you get the tiles to fit together that way? Do you cut them somehow?
WAY cool to watch it all come together!!!!!!
I remember looking at your drawing yesterday and meaning to comment about how much I like it… but I must have been interupted. Anyway… LOVE the drawing!!! 🙂 It doesn't look to me like you're escaping at all… but since I share your fear of scary bridges, maybe I just feel your pain? LOL
ohhhhh… I think I know that bridge. Is there a tunnel on it or near it? Many (many) years ago I was traveling in that area; driving; the weather was just cold and gray. Went through a tunnel and when we came out the other side there was a blizzard; semis were jack-knifed every which way and it was a miracle that we made it through at all!
And so right; a downer – they aren't talking and showing the downers enough to shock people.
To answer Dianne's question about keeping track: half way through the video you will see backs of tiles with letters and numbers and arrows and lines – those are codes for where the piece goes, along with a plastic outline of the slab when the pieces were first cut. The whole was taken apart to dry (multiple movements moving from the outside which dries faster to the inside and from top up to bottom up so it can dry completely), assembled to glaze, apart to fire and assembled to transport.
Wow… that was a major undertaking and an accomplishment! Nice work! How did you ever keep track of what goes where and shrinkage issues? Thanks for sharing… you are getting very good with the videos.