I don't consider myself a photographer at all, but occasionally when I use the good camera, I get lucky. This is probably more due to the photogenic-ness of my kids than to any skill. Here is a pensive Nimue:



I'm entering this into a contest, thanks to my friend Barb, a really talented professional photographer who often shares things like this.

The contest button:


And Barb's photography website:

Perfectly Natural Photography

Whew, 3 posts in a day! I must be trying to make up for lost time! If posting regularly is what makes a good blogger - then I suck! Hey though, have to comment on a few books of interest - one is a novel I read recently. Sky Bridge is set in Eastern Colorado, and I bought it because I like to support local authors. This book is literally an award-winner, though, and I have to say that having read it, I can see why. Gritty, romantic without being sentimental, well-characterized, and gripping. How funny was it that the author showed up in my daughter's classroom on Back-to-school night, and then again when I was walking with friends in my rural neighborhood. It IS a small world, and this IS a book worth reading!

One of my all-time favorite kid photos. I think I'll call it "joy". It's actually several years old.

If you're in the area, stop into the Birth Art show at Catalyst Coffee and Wine in Fort Collins - starts this weekend - and my "Motherhood" will be in it. Also, some of Barb's beautiful photography (see Perfectly Natural Photography), and lots of other stuff. Check it out at one of their events, including a waffle breakfast on Sunday. Their website: Catalyst Coffee, and who could not laugh at the photo of Isabel at the bottom of this page?? (I don't know Isabel, but I wish I did!)

Happy Mother's Day to all my mom friends, sisters, nieces, step-daughters and other important women in my life! If you have not read this lovely GraceNotes column by Natalie Costanza-Chavez, treat yourself to it, and you'll be glad you did: http://www.fortcollinsnow.com/article/20080509/GUEST/732531743

Hey there, so I'm posting, but it's not art stuff - had to share this short, very appropriate video:

What good could you do in the world with this kind of money? I can think of another few things that would improve the situation in Iraq more than what's happening now - rebuilding hospitals and water supply, for starters. I can think of huge things that could be done in other third world countries - providing clean water systems (did you know that preventable symptoms like diarrhea are a major cause of death in children in many countries?), stopping human trafficking, getting corrupt, puppet politicians out of power. For starters, let's develop a system for finding and imprisoning all the westerners who travel to 3rd world countries to victimize children. At the same time, develop cottage industries that can help the children and women in slave labor and the sex trade earn a living that doesn't destroy them. Let's open schools in impoverished areas where there is no opportunity for education? Let's provide positive means for folks to earn livings in areas where deforestation is one of the only occupations. Let's find a way to help 2nd and 3rd world countries stop gang activity BEFORE it enters our country. Deal with the real problem (gangs and criminals) rather than blaming all immigrants, many of whom are just trying to earn a living for their families. Let's find a way to make it ONLY make sense to do things for the greater good, and not for destructive, evil purposes.

Hey, I made it into the exhibit despite the lousy photo I took of the painting! WooHoo!



A friend shared this great quote with me recently, and I wanted to share it with anyone who happens to be reading:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that
we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most
frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented,
fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing
small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so
that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as
children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light
shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are
liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson

Okay, I'm learning several things here... today I went to drop off an entry at the Loveland Museum for the Foote Gallery Art Sightings: Regional Art Exposed Exhibit. I was running really late getting this in, but made it under the wire.

Here are a few things I learned during the process, and also, since I've gotten home to look back over stuff.

• Try not to finish a painting the day the slides are due.


• Use a camera that will convey as close as possible to the true colors (which mine did not)


• Have at least a generic Artist's Resume and Artist's Statement on hand, rather than trying to scrape one together at the last minute (which I did)


• If you're going to pay an entry fee, you may as well be prepared to submit the maximum number of slides/pics allowed for that fee, rather than paying it for just 1 painting when you could have entered 3.

At least most of the mistakes I know that I made were more related to logistics than to the work itself. I learned a few things during that, as well, but was mostly able to adjust those as I went along. This is a juried regional exhibit and I would be thrilled to be accepted into it.

Here's my entry: Voices in the Earth, acrylic & mixed media

In reality, the colors in the upper part of the painting, and of the mouth, are more intense - going from a purple-ish on the left into a fairly intense teal.

Here's a fun late summer craft for you. You could include the kids, too, if you're feeling so inclined:

Make cornhusk dolls with this easy tutorial from the State of Michigan.
http://www.michigan.gov/mikids/0,1607,7-163-15941_20571---,00.html

Once again, I haven't posted a lot, because there was no new finished work to share. Now I have photos to share of my entry into the Body of Art Challenge at The Artist's Nook in Fort Collins. My piece is called Motherhood. There were already several truly beautiful entries when I dropped ours off today - almost enough so to be intimidating! I am determined to retain my confidence, despite the very "collage-y" look of my entry. I find altered art, and collage-y, assemblage-type stuff to be very relaxing to work on, and more kitchen- table-friendly. My upstairs art space is not too welcoming when the weather is close to 100, although I love it during more temperate times. In addition, collage can be purely visual imagery, purely thematic imagery, or some combination of the two - very freeform and unrestrictive. It can be quick or time-consuming, silly or serious, and even (and frequently) therapeutic.

Here is Motherhood:

I was tickled that my girls were also interested in altering a form for this challenge. Here are their pics, titled Mother Earth (by my 8 year old) and The World of Fear (a collaborative effort between the 12 and 6 year olds):

I'm not sure how the exhibitors will feel about including children's work, but I hope for the girls' sake that they won't be left out. After all, they are potential customers - they go through a lot of my art supplies!

This particular challenge involved the altering of plain, clear swimsuit forms like they sell suits on at Sam's. It was fun.

I enjoyed including a lot of motherhood symbols and messages on my piece, as well as some humor. Since being a mom is my most important role right now, I put baby faces of my 3 "babies" in the belly of my figure. My oldest asked, "Why do I have to be by the crotch?!" and I said, "Because you were the first one out!" Then, being a little sick, I suggested we start calling her "crotch baby", which she thought was quite funny.

Because of the many months/years I spent as a nursing mother, I put "got milk?" logos on each breast. Behind one breast is a fortune cookie fortune which reads, "Your heart is your greatest asset." Behind the chest of the figure are 3 quotes, two brief, and one a full Emily Dickinson poem - "Hope is the thing with feathers..." Not sure if you can see on the photo, but on top of the beaded and inked heart, I put a tiny feathered bird.

The other two quotes are:

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." ~ Elizabeth Stone

and

"Moms are like pack mules of love."

(I admit, a little sheepishly, that this quote stuck with me from an episode of the cartoon Rugrats: All Grown Up. It is so true! Years of carrying diapers, wipes, bug bite cream, sunscreen, water bottles, changes of clothes... it is quite liberating as they get old enough to remember, pack, and carry their own stuff!)

Thanks for reading! Until next time.... You never can tell if I'll wax artistic or political, I guess!

I just realized with some chagrin that it has been months since I've posted. It doesn't seem like that long, or like long at all, but the older I get, the faster time seems to go. That sentiment was confirmed for me by my mom a couple of years ago, who told me that even when the kids are out of the house, time just goes faster and faster. Since that time, my mom has died.

Here's the thing. I have spent too much of my life being the peacemaker. Wanting everyone to get along. Wanting everyone to like me. It just isn't possible without giving myself permission to be a total hypocrite, which is something I've never wanted to be. So be prepared, because a blog that was never intended to be full of opinion or politics may begin to be full of it. And my whole audience of 1 and a half or so is bound to be shocked.

I get e-mail messages, like everyone probably does, which contain religious and political sentiments. Often, these don't agree with my beliefs. I find this interesting, because it means that the people sending them don't know me well enough to know whether I will agree with them, and so they either assume that I will agree or they don't care if they offend me. The fact is, that I am rarely offended by their mails, whether or not I agree, but it does occasionally piss me off that they assume I agree. They are all welcome to their opinions, but shouldn't assume that I share them, especially when their opinions fall into a range that I would hate to be associated with.

Here are some good tips for forwarding sentimental/religious/political emails to others, especially when you don't really know what they think about the topic in question.

1. Don't send anything to everyone in your address book, unless it's a notification of a change in your contact information. Instead, hand pick a few people that you are pretty sure will enjoy the sentiment.
2. Don't assume that because you live in the USA, and are sending your mails to other people in the USA, that they are necessarily Christian (or whatever) and will appreciate or share your religious beliefs. Some, like me, will read and think it's fine that you sent it, whether or not they share the beliefs. Others might genuinely be bothered that you are making such assumptions.
3. Don't assume that everyone will appreciate the "all of our soldiers are heroes and you are unpatriotic if you don't support every war our administration decides to wage". I fully appreciate what our young military men and women do for us, but I know that the entire country should be shocked and ashamed beyond belief when instances occur such as the gang rape, shooting and burning of a 15-year old Iraqi girl and the subsequent cover-up of the situation. If you are truly a patriot, you should be even more ashamed that unfortunately, there are a few soldiers out there who NO ONE should want to represent or "protect" our country in any way, shape or form. I'm not the only one who thinks that our current administration has made a record number of dunderheaded decisions (and believe me, I'm being very, very polite to use that wording) and I, for one, was pretty sure that there were no WMDs in Iraq before we ever invaded. (And yes, we INVADED - and anyone who thinks that there was a bit of truth in the label "Operation Iraqi Freedom" should be protected from all home shopping channels because they are clearly addicted to and unable to resist even the most blatant and idiotic of propaganda.)
4. Please remember that one of the things that makes our country great is that we DO have the right to express our dissent, supposedly and hopefully without threat of repercussion from the powers that be.
5. Don't send me any of your racist, "we poor white men are victims of this society which gives all them colored folks every advantage". It's bullsh*t and I don't want to hear it. White men are dominant in every high-wage profession, every country club, every major university and virtually every institution over 60 years old in our country. White men are the only people who had reasonable voting rights in our country before 1920. White men are not and have never been disadvantaged in this country. Get over yourself. And if you think all those Mexicans are taking your jobs, maybe you need to think about working a little harder for your paycheck, so your employer doesn't want to give those enviable jobs away to the Mexicans.

I don't believe in a suspension of anyone's civil rights. The erosion of civil rights is a scary thing and should worry any good patriot. Without the protections afforded by the constitution and Bill of Rights, we are in danger of repeating some of the worst events ever experienced in the history of the world. Do we really want to be a party to that? And for that matter, do we want to be the only nation in the world that calls itself civilized but won't rule out torture as an acceptable means of "acquiring information"? Can we possibly consider ourselves world leaders when we are not setting an example that we would want other countries to follow?

No one should consider it okay to invade a sovereign nation under the guise of "liberation", without the support of the populace.

No one should consider it okay to continue the occupation of another nation when that nation has shown, under vote, that the occupation is not desired, and when such occupation has resulted in reducing the country to civil war.

No one should consider it okay for people to be detained off-US soil for the purpose of not allowing them the rights that they would have if they were prisoners on US soil. i.e. they should have the same rights to sentencing, attorneys, speedy trial, decent treatment, etc.

Everyone should be considering the sort of things that are going on in their government, everyone should take it upon themselves to be informed, to question those things that don't add up, and to VOTE! Voting is a privilege, and SHAME on you if you have time to keep up on celebrity gossip, but not on issues or candidates that will affect the lives of people you actually know. Make it more of a priority to keep up on what's going on in the world than to keep up on who is in rehab or getting a divorce.

Question Authority. And keep questioning it until you are confident that everyone is doing their job to your satisfaction. And then question it again.

I've added a few new links to the site - check out the lower links in each category on the right of the screen.

Here are a couple of pics of the matchbox shrine I made for my sis this Christmas.

This tiny shrine is made from a small matchbox, a little fat goddess image - she's made of polymer clay (by myself, without molds) and is propped on one elbow. The words in the back are a bit of a definition from the Sanskrit-English dictionary my 3-legged dog partially ate when I brought it home from a thrift store. If that isn't the best excuse I've ever had to scrap a book for collaging, I don't know what is. She ate most of the cover, and separated the pages into chunks, but left the text mostly intact, just gnawed around the edges. I really love books too much to tear them up for no reason, and was planning to use the dictionary in an effort to learn Hindi and/or Sanskrit, which are fairly similar in written form. Instead, it's become some of the best collage material I've ever had.

Other materials used were multicolored pastel seed beads, acrylic paint, some bits of gold leaf, acrylic medium, powdered pigment and fibers.

Hohoho! Merry Christmas and Happy whatever other holiday(s) you may celebrate during this time of year!

Watch for a new website selling the book of my friend & collaborator, Shari Blackman. I designed the cover of the book and also did some small interior decorations. I'm currently designing a website to help promote this and some of her other ventures. Check it out, it should be online soon, at: www.crazydanceproductions.com

The book cover is modified from my painting, "The Beauty Myth", and here it is. I scanned a photo of the painting, hand drew the crown of leaves and scanned, trimmed and pasted them, then added text, and picked up the colors from the front to carry around the back of the cover.

I'm currently working on some matchbox shrines, but won't include photos of those yet, since *shhhh* a couple of those will be Christmas presents... maybe I'll remember to upload those after they won't ruin any surprises.

We are busy with holiday preparations and family activities. I've found that the show "Creative Juice" on DIY and Home and Garden channel is one that my kids enjoy at least as much as I do. Their projects are very manageable, and they had a great show "Creative Juice for the Holidays" which got the kids all wound up today. My husband ended up running to the store and then whipping up an "experimental" (and I call it this because we all know that it will not make it into anyone's gifts - instead, it will all quickly disappear into US) batch of Peppermint Bark. Only 5 ingredients and it's pretty and yummy and would make lovely gifts. You can check out their website at: http://cathieandsteve.com Or go straight to the peppermint bark recipe at: http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_holidays/article/0,2025,DIY_13761_4250391,00.html

Here's a fun link for the kids (or yourself, of course!) for carving a virtual pumpkin:

http://www.cubpack81.com/images/carve_pumpkin.swf

No pumpkin seeds to roast, but no mess or slime to clean up, either. Click on done and your pumpkin will light up with a candle! Thanks Aunt Barb and Uncle Bill, for sending us this one!

I wanted to add something since I haven't posted in a while... a few cool/fun links:

For the kids, some neat coloring pages in several categories at:
http://www.barbsgalaxy.US/coloringpages/index.html

How about lots of cool mermaid artwork, categorized by era?
http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/mermaids/

More, I promise, when I finish my History of the Holocaust class. Three weeks to go!!