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Showing posts from June, 2008

Haiku

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for Aunt Grey spirit seeks freedom from the shackles of time on the prison of earth Flower Dreams breath on the night sky fragrant petals drift inside my deep dreams flower Daughter Love my daughter fills the  well with love and her smile waters my heart

Art Giveaway

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Check out A New Angel, the fabulous piece of art that will be given away by Kristin Hubick at Retro Cafe Art. Click here to get to her site. I put my name in the hat because I'd love to own a piece of her work and I find her inspiring. The giveaway is in honor o the angels, unacknowledged by name, at work in her life. What a way to ensure the circularity of kindness and blessings.

Goodbye Aunt Grey

My Aunt Grey passed away this morning. She was a second mother to me. The many characteristics and personality traits we shared bound us tight and kept me afloat during the difficult years of my life. Though her death has been expected it still caught me off guard. I visited her this past Saturday, her 85th birthday, and her body had already become like a shell, a housing for what small part of her remained in this world. In recent days she talked about seeing a beautiful hilltop covered with flowers and a large book that contained all of our name. She had many visitors, some of whom she hadn't seen in years. It made me curious about that part of the journey; the idea that our real destination is what comes after this life is still a bit vague. But I whispered to her that I would see her there one day, kissed her cheek and said good-bye, that it was OK to go, we didn't want her to suffer any longer. I am grateful to God for answering our prayers, I just wish I felt what usually

Fourth panel

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This is the one that had a niche carved and I found a dimensional metal cross that, with some moss, worked quite well; symbolic of the final season...

panel 3, life

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I love using transparencies, especially adding a bit of white to the back, which illuminates the eyes... window of the soul.

Original panel and season 'one'

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This is the panel that represents birth, season one. I got a bit carried away with the flowers and butterfly; I think sometimes that much of my work is a bit sentimental, but for now, it stays:) This is the original panel, completed on day two of the deMeng workshop. I was happy with it, until I realized that the niche I carved in the opposing side, where I'd inserted a really cool little yellow/orange mask was art oxymoron, like Saturday Night Live and the Waltons, like Rambo and The Painted Veil,  Tolstoy and Stephen King, like Pollack and Renoir... like, well, I think that's enough like for now!

Play 20 Questions - Let's Get to Know Each Other

I have only been blogging for a couple of months, but, well, let's just say I'm hooked. I spend quite a bit of time in the Altered Attic (or my bed, just below:) wandering through blog-world. In the mixed-media, altered art world it is gratifying to find bloggers who seem like kindred spirits; through their posts, the comments they leave on my blog, email exchanges, the way their art speaks to me, I feel a sense of greater sense of connection, tapped into that universe of creativity that keeps my world spinning. I saw the Let's Play 20 Questions on Sweet Repeats , the delightful blog of an artist who lives in North Carolina, also where Saluda is located - one of my favorite towns where I've visited twice since spring. The game was part of a swap, but I thought it might be a fun way to tighten those connections, so why don't you play too? I emailed Lucy and she said sure, it's a fun game to play. So, copy and paste into your blog and leave me a comment so I can c

Lazy Days at the Altered Attic

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The Altered Attic has been quiet... it's difficult to mix up a batch of uszzh* in the random, tiny chunks of time I've had to myself, let alone create an altered trading card or other piece of art. Ahhh, summer. Kids. The old routine goes out the door and no new one takes its place.  I love summer; no more waking to the annoying beep of the alarm clock at 6:30, sweeping my sleepy kids out the door at 7:30, for several more weeks anyway. I feel better when I sleep an extra hour or more and I realize how much of my kids' lives I miss when they're gone all day. It's fun doing the things we don't ever have time for during the school year and not feeling like we're in a hurry. But I also realize how much entertainment school provides - my daughter misses her friends and I've been hearing "I'm bored" more than I'd like (frankly, once would suffice). They aren't old enough to go off alone, but too old to play with the hose and sidewalk cha

Frog and Toad Forty Years Later

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Frog and Toad stayed on the island all afternoon, they ate wet sandwiches without iced tea. They were two close friends sitting alone together.        This is one of my favorite quotes, lines rather, from a favorite story. A very simple story, Alone, one of the many Frog and    Toad stories written by Arnold Lobel. As they find themselves in various situations and predicaments, Frog and Toad delight children and impart profoundly simple wisdom about the necessity, commitment and significance of friendship to adults reading the stories to children.      I missed out on Lobel’s stories the first time around; most were written in the 1970s, a decade after my easy-reader days. But twenty years later, my childhood best friend, who worked in children’s publishing and television in California sent me Days with Frog and Toad, the book and cassette tape.       I tucked them away for the time when we had children, five years later, in 1995. Then on one of the many sleepless nights I sat rocking