A Day of Fullness and Loss

Since returning from New Orleans, I have been religiously going to the studio to work... Putting my creative work first is good for my soul, but it also can also leave me less energy and time for blips. Then I try to catch up a bit, but I never can. I admire the faithful so much, but how they live their lives so thoroughly and also blip and comment daily is beyond me. I can't seem to stay at the computer for very long at a time. My legs become restless and my eyes become tired. At night my bed calls. Oh dear... This was really not what I intended to write. Truth wins out.

I feel so alive these days, and hungry to make the most of the energy while it is present. Yesterday was such a day: The music, the dance, the drawing, and finishing touches on the sculpture before I put her to dry. I photographed her, not quite sure if I have finished the shaping and smoothing work, and photographed the last two drawings, and Leif on her walk with Music. (The light in my woods was so beautiful.) And, later in the day, when the pink light of late afternoon was spilling itself, I photographed an elegant young night heron in the Inner Harbor Park.

But in between my studio time and the letting down time in the park, I received sad news. A friend (truly a friend of our family" had died unexpectedly after returning from a brief hospital stay. This very gentle and lovable man was one of those people who make art-making possible for those of us who must live as well as create. D was an appreciator, a collector of art, a lifter up of beauty. I knew him as a supporter and board member of The Walter Anderson Museum of Art, and also the maker of a book: SHEARWATER POTTERY is a book full of glorious photographs of Pottery made, glazed, and decorated at Shearwater over the years. To me, and to others in my family and beyond, this lovely man was someone you know is your friend, no matter that you see him infrequently. Just seeing his dear face when you least expected to warmed the heart and lifted the spirit to a place where all things are well. May the angels rejoice to welcome his sweet soul to the heavenly realm.

I shall publish three extras because they reflect the fullness of the day. A day when even loss turned into a kind of fullness... 

Blip has done it again; turned one of my extras on its side. Does anyone else have this problem? Ideas?