It’s hump day and I’m recovering. Recovering from a crazy week last week including two trips with William to the hospital (all is well) and a trip with William to the Fearrington Folk Art Festival this weekend.  (See yesterday’s post for more info on the Masking Tape Guy. I love his work!) We got back yesterday evening in time to unload our stuff, pick up the dogs, and then sit down until bedtime.

My house is a wreck, I’m scrambling to meet deadlines today, invoices, blurbs, job apps, blog entry, scheduling follow-up doctors appointments, and so on, putting me online long before 1:00 PM.  I’m contemplating not stopping at 17 things this afternoon; instead I may just throwing out everything I own so I don’t have to clean it ever again! What is the purpose of cleaning? You just have to do it again in a day or two. Is that efficient use of time in a life you only live once?  What did Einstein say about doing something over and over and expecting different results?  Okay, okay, chop wood, carry water, yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah.  It’s one of those days.

Have I worked on my novel or written any fiction or poetry today? NO. But the day isn’t over. It’s not even supper time. So I have hope. Cary Holladay, author of Fight in the Doctor’s Office, says you can build a career out of writing at least two pages a day. (See the interview with her in the March issue of The Writer.) I have two pages in me this afternoon. I think I’ll post this blog, go write my two pages, and then start vacuuming. Just start in one corner and see how far I get before it’s time to make cornbread.

Speaking of cornbread and folk art, someone asked this weekend why William’s birds were part of the Fearrington Festival because they expected all the art to be primitive. His birds are sophistiated, all right. See them at www.rustedbirdstudio.com. Yet, it’s gets dicey when you start putting labels on any kind of art, from painting, to music, to writing. At the same time, categories can be useful, can help evaluate a piece of art in terms of context.

William’s work isn’t primitive, but he was asked to participate because he is considered by some to be an outsider artist based on the facts that he’s untrained (meaning he’s never had art lessons) and he uses recycled materials for his sculptures. He has a vision, and his natural talent give him what he needs to fulfill that vision.

What does it meant to be a visionary artist? Aren’t all artists visionary? Folk artist Lonnie Holly, in the documentary film All Rendered Truth, asks the question, “When you look at a piece of art, are you looking at art or are you looking at the artists’ mind?” He goes on to say that ART stands for All Rendered Truth and that ART IS, meaning art can be found inside the self. In a panel last Friday night at Fearrington, artist Peter Loose said that we all have art in us, but most of us are too embarrassed to try it and show it to anyone else. All of these artists are brave and have a passion to paint, or carve, or shape something out of what other folks would likely take to the dump. 

Spending a weekend in the Fearrington Barn and on the patio of the barn has filled my well with color, image, story, and a wide notion of what constitutes artistic materials.  If you have a chance to visit a folk art exhibit or gallery, do it.  Meanwhile, check out three important sites: Ginger Young Gallery at http://www.gingeryoung.com/ where you’ll find the work of Peter Loose and my new friend Sarah Rakes, and Southern Visionary Art at http://www.southernvisionaryart.com/index.htm, where you’ll find the work of  John “Cornbread” Anderson. Also check out the Folk Art Society of America at http://www.folkart.org/. And check out Outsider Art at Beverly Kaye Gallery at www.ArtBrut.com.  Beverly Kaye has invited William to bring his birds to CT for her June exhibit! More on that as the the trip nears.

EVENTS

If you live near Richmond, VA, consider coming to the15th Annual John Tyler Community College Literary Festival next week held at both the Chester and Midlothian campuses.  I’ll be there Wednesday and Thursday and would love to see you. For more info, go to: www.jtcc.edu/events

JT Ellison’s new Taylor Jackson thriller has hit bookstore shelves this week.  If you live near Nashville, JT will be reading at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville tomorrow night, Thursday February 25 at 7:00 PM. 

I don’t really read many thrillers. I tend to save thrillers, mysteries, romances, and espionage stories for movie time. But I thoroughly enjoy JT Ellison’s Taylor Swift character. First, she is a woman protagonist fighting and breaking the glass ceiling, like her creator who has done the same in what has traditionally been a man’s genre. Taylor’s in love with the FBI liaison in Nashville and he loves her back, and the stories are based in a city I call almost home. Top that off with quality storytelling and you can’t go wrong. So…I’m sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for JT’s reading at DK tomorrow night! Come on out and be thrilled by The Cold Room and take a copy home to keep you warm in bed before you turn out the lights.

 JT will also be at the Virginia Festival of the Book on March 18^th. For more info about the VFB, go to: http://www.vabook.org/index.html/.

And for more info on JT Ellison and The Cold Room and other Taylor Jackson novels, go to: http://www.jtellison.com/jt-ellison-front-page/.

For a great conference at a reasonable price, consider The Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference on March 25-27 in Oak Ridge, TN. For more info, go to: http://www.tmwi.org/events.html.

Sue Orr is still taking registration for extended and one-day workshops in aspects of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction—including memoir—at Learning Events in Sweetwater, TN. For more info, please contact her at theorrs@usit.net.