song du jour: Felicidade, Buscemi

mood: So Much to Do, So Little Time...

The Sunday Night Blog A Few Random But Important Things Catch Up

Cosmic Quote of the day for all us nocturnal artsy types:
I have seen the enemy...and it is the sun.

I just made my 27th batch of Chocolate Gravy since Matt gave me the recipe last spring. I got all caught up in Jean's blog and left it on the stove too long, so I sort of made chocolate caramel, but it's not bad. Hey, it's chocolate after all...and speaking of Jean, not only did her current post of photos make me laugh so hard I've only just now stopped coughing (fall allergies), wow, it takes my best gal pal to remind me I need to blog that my work is featured in the current issue of Art Jewelry Magazine. [V bows.] They shot the work back in the summer, and the plan is to show it in the next few issues in the Gallery section. You can see it online by clicking here, and it's available at Borders and Barnes & Noble, hint hint.

1000 thank yous also to Jean for saying what she did about my work. Yes, it's a tough place to be. Naively, I always believed that one's goal as an artist was to manifest artifacts with as much creativity as one possibly could, thereby pushing the boundaries and riding that edge of consciousness. Unfortunately, being ahead of the curve means that it takes a while before people catch on enough to jump on the collectors' band wagon. What's tough about selling work isn't letting go of my babies or maintaining artistic integrity in the face of commerce but living with one's authenticity intact and living on less. It's tough...I mean really tough, but then when I manage to forget all that stress and just let myself make what I WANT to make, checks show up in my mailbox. I don't quite understand the Mystery, and I don't want to pick it apart too much. I just have to remember to take care of myself in a way that I'm not too exhausted, too worn out, or too paranoid (as the price of gold and silver sky rocket) to take my cup of tea and park my backside at my bench with mental carte blanche and GO.

In other news (I did promise the near weekly Sunday catch up), for the first time since I declared my salsa intentions last May, I went salsa dancing on a Saturday night. No lesson, no one yelling at me, just a fun (and sexy!) partner. Well, I could tell you that I truly didn't suck, or that as time went by I could feel myself improving exponentially (at least until my knees started screaming at me), but instead, I'll tell you the most important thing of all: I had FUN! I even learned to maringue and cha cha cha. It's really something to be spinning around (and around and around) and not notice anything or anyone except the person I'm dancing with and the music. Fortunately, it is the leader's job to watch for and steer clear of other couples on the floor.

The other top story for the week is that my son, Munchkin Einstein meets Da Vinci meets Bill Clinton, in his OBSESSION with clocks, is dressing up as one for Halloween. I'll post pictures for sure. Officially, he is a 'haunted grandfather clock,' which means an old grandfather clock with a crack in it like you find in a haunted house. Well, if you're curious as to how I pulled that costume off, you're not the only one. He wore it to an Unschooler (un)fieldtrip to Chick-fil-a an the Fernbank Observatory this past Thursday, and when all the moms, who'd heard about and wondered the same thing, jumped up and came to see, my normally NEVER-meets-a-stranger-extrovert hid behind a garbage can. "They're all looking at me, Mom. Make them stop." It was like he was living out the hell of that dream everyone has of being naked at work or school, despite being covered in overalls and substantial amount of cardboard.

I tried everything to help him cope with his feelings. We talked about how much everyone liked his costume. We talked about times I was dressed up and then freaked when people starred at me. Still a nada on the ok response meter. Finally, I exclaimed "SKYLER! Do you know why everyone is looking at you? Because they want to know what time it is, and YOU ARE A CLOCK!" "OOOOOHHHHHHH," says my child. "That's ok then." and he was fine the rest of the night. Here I am thinking I'm helping my child develop emotional intelligence in a tough moment, and no, it's Skyler-logic that is required to work thru the situation. I keep wondering which one of us it is that I'm educating. It seems to go completely hand in hand.

Happy Monday. Sorry about the Sun being even earlier. ;-)