a day off

l-r: Joanie, Martha, Mary Beth, Cathy, Linda, Rayna's purse. Finally, time to blog about yesterday's trip to Baltimore to see Linda Colsh, who is here visiting family. Linda lives in Brussels and gee whiz - what a treat - this is the second time in 7 months that we've seen her! Joanie SanChirico and I met at exit 4 on the NJ Turnpike (if you are from NJ, you always define where you live by the exit # on the Turnpike or the Garden State Parkway) and drove to Cathy Kleeman's house and then to a wonderful Wegman's where we met up with Martha Gilbert, Mary Beth Bellah, and Linda, and spent the rest of the day. Can you imagine spending a day in a supermarket? It was fabulous!! We bought lunch and found a private alcove upstairs, where we ate and then shared work, gossiped, did critique, and generally had a wonderful time. What a treat! Uh - here is the kind of picture you should never enter in a juried (or any other kind of) show. This is Cathy's latest piece, which is really wonderful if you can ignore Martha's legs at the bottom. I had charged my camera's battery but then discovered that my CF card was full and there is something wrong with the delete function on my camera. So, by the time I had deleted stuff, I had missed most of the action. Nevertheless, here is Joanie, looking very trendy and very happy to be healthy and out with friends and kindred spirits.

I know just how she feels. This was a true break for me, too. No doubt, she is probably enjoying looking at Martha's whimsical piece, which she made after having been at QSDS this past June. It made us all smile. .

The question is: is it necessary to have a 'big idea' before you make a piece of work? I personally do not think so. We each have our very individual styles and while some people know in advance what 'big idea' they are going to be exploring, others of us simply let the materials and the mood lead us in a direction. Either way, it's okay. Life is too short to worry about it.

Sorry I didn't get a picture of Linda's wonderful piece, Joanie's new work, or Mary Beth's amazing 3-d in progress. But you can catch everybody's work on their websites &/or blogs.