Tonight is another of Martha's openings. I'm going with bells on. This is an image from the show called "Tangerine Dream". It should play for about 3 weeks but the opening is tonight. Wine and cheese and all that. It's called The Square Foot Show and benefits a local shelter, Alpha House. Martha joins about 100 artists from around the world who were given 12" X 12" blank canvases and told to do what they do. It starts at the Lyssa Morgan Gallery on Henderson Blvd at 6:00 p.m. Phyllis is going too, along with some of our friends. You've been introduced to Phyllis and her outsider art already.

Demi Wilson will be there. She's a poet camoflaged as a School Administrator. That's "Principal Wilson" for those of us who had visits to these all-powerful folks in our tempetuous youths. I was a frequent flyer. I never could shut up.

I adopted Demi in a class at the University of South Florida titled Third-World Women Writers and we took several more together exploring women's voice with some damn fine professors. I encouraged her to come out about her poetry, networked her where I could, prodded her to perform her work in public. She adopted me as a second mother in return. I like that about her. It appeals to my Cancer sun sign. I'll share some of her work with you. It's raw and edgy and pulls no punches. You can taste a sampling of who she is here.

Tary and Karole Peace will be there, too. We love the women of Peace House. Tary is a poet - you'll find some of her work in the Deepwater Journal as I publish both old and new issues, makes the most bitchin' glass beads and lampwork you have ever seen, and sings like an angel with a voice that should have been famous. I met two Tary/Terrys when we moved back to Florida almost 20 years ago. I always differentiated between the two by saying 'beautiful Tary'. Everyone knew who I was talking about with her red hair and startling eyes.

Karole Peace is a jewelery artist who makes extraordinary peices using some of Tary's original beads: Necklaces that glitter with imagination, brooches that feature outrageously jewelled and wire-wrapped tiny women, earrings that ring of glass and silver, bracelets that embrace your wrist like history. Karole is also my spirit mother. If you ever wanted to see the Goddess Gaia walking, it is Karole with her black and silver hair and beautiful face.

Tary's daughter is Angelina Gualiardo and she is a model, artist, musician, song writer and all around wonder. You can see her modeling some of my past creations on my website Deepwater Trading Company in the gallery. She's the tawny blond creature who looks like she was plucked out of a Renaissance painting in all the dramatic shots. She is also a denizen of Peace House.

I've invited the two Nunnery women to come as well. These are Paula and Darla. Darla is an artist who studied in Paris after her obligatory stint at school. She teaches art to students of all ages. She's my punk Diva Other Chile and I'm her Othermother. We hang together sometimes going to trendy young venues. She wears black, with her silver-spiked Doc Martens high top boots and I wear my Florida Cracker Lady camo duds. She puts out an occaisional 'Zine featuring Gothic images, radical views on virginity, art and poetry. She's also a renowned henna artist with her Starlight Menhndi Studios. The local Indian gentry hire her for their traditional weddings. She's that good.

Mother Paula is a certified legal assistant and also certified in Florida law. She has a doctorate in history, writes, and is President or main wahzoo for whatever local legal conclaves and a few state level ones as well as teaching seminars for other CLAs and attorneys. Both women are decended from French royalty, are genteel Southern to the core and are perfectly charming, even when they cuss you out for a transgression.

I adopted Paula and Darla as sisters when they attended a lecture on ancient Goddesses presented at my house. The presenter was Willow LaMonte. Willow publishes an international newspaper/magazine on all things Goddess called Goddessing.

See. I'm trying to introduce you all to my posse'. These are the women I hang with, who inspire me. I want you to look at all your friends in a creative light as well. We all have a muse that gifts us with special talents. While we may 'be' a housewife, lawyer, banker or teacher, there is always something that we do well that makes us soar. It can be baking the perfect apple cake and writing about the Swedish mother who shared the recipie with us. It could be inspiration that we find when we go back and read our personal journals. Share yours.