My Art

Everyday dulldrums, enter absinthe.

Every morning, every morning
Wake up, darling, please.
What's for breakfast? What to wear?
Get the baby something to eat!
Brush your hair, pack your bag
I love you sweetie, have a good day.
I love you honey, drive safe.
No baby, come back inside,
Sshh, quiet now, have some juice.
Stillness.........................
Dishes quietly demand my attention
Milk carton screams to be put away.
Breakfast leftovers throw their tantrum
to be pitched in the trash.
I rebel and ignore their demands
and think, "Now what?"


My Mother's Day gift this year was overpriced and impractical, therefore it was the perfect gift, right? A very expensive bottle of absinthe. Absinthe is an alcholic drink, It is an anise-flavored spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium, commonly referred to as "grande wormwood". Absinthe traditionally has a natural green color but can also be colorless. It is commonly referred to in historical literature as "la fée verte" (the Green Fairy).

Numerous artists and writers living in France in the late 19th and early 20th century were noted absinthe drinkers who featured absinthe in their work. These included Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet, Amedeo Modigliani, Arthur Rimbaud, Guy de Maupassant, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Paul Verlaine. Later artists and writers drew from this cultural well, including Pablo Picasso, August Strindberg, Oscar Wilde, and Ernest Hemingway. Aleister Crowley was also known to be a habitual absinthe drinker.

With a clientele like that, of course I'm going to drink it! Hopefully, I'll be able to channel these great artists!

Severe Artist's Block

I am so sick of being uninspired. It's as if I only had a limited quantity and I used up every ounce of that reserve back in 2007. Now what?

Maybe I've stretched myself too thin. I get bored easily so I go from paper arts, to painting, to sewing, to writing, blah, blah, blah...

It'll turn around one of these days...right?

True Artist ATCs

Hey, if you are truly a great ATC artist, go to Yahoo Groups and come check out my group, True Artist ATCs.





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Click to join TrueArtistATCs

We're a little strict about membership but it'll be worth it.

See you there!

Snow Day!

We are having a snow day today so it is a perfect day to get the house and the art studio in order. In efforts to motivate myself to accomplish this goal, I'm blaring my music-- everything from Beck to Perry Como-- and admiring some of the ladies' workspaces in "Where Women Create" by Jo Packham.

In addition to the cleaning, I've been so addicted to making more ATCs. Keep watching for those. And hey, if you've got some comparably good cards, I'd be interested in trading!

To Do The Craft Fair or To Not Do The Craft Fair...That Is The Question.

Ah, yes, fall is coming. My favorite season of all. The air gets a little fresher. The days, a little shorter. And, Ohmygosh! October is coming up QUICK!!!

And what happens the first weekend of October? The Ozark Utopia Club Craft Fair, of course. What to do, what to do? I just don't really feel up to it this year. I have plenty of crap I need to get rid of but do I have enough to fill my booth? I could certainly use any extra income and the booth space has already been paid for. So, why not?

I'm sure I'll probably do it. I've just been fairly uninspired lately. Preoccupied with my children and the prospect of buying a new house, my art has really been put on the back burner.

I guess I'll just have to pull some all-nighters till I'm so deliriously tired that I stumble across inspiration.

Yeah, we'll see how that goes...

Why I Am The Way I Am...Childhood Memories Part 1

I don't know why, but I've been thinking a lot about my childhood lately. I think I'm just anxious for summer to get here & most of my favorite childhood memories were during summertime. And most of the time, I was at my grandparents' farm.
One hundred acres full of adventure. I don't think there is any place on that property that I, my sister and my four cousins did not set foot. There were the usual haunts, like the barn, the barnyard, the creek, the fishing pond just east of the house.
Then, there were much more mysterious destinations, such as up by the huge old walnut tree towards the southeast area and the property line to the north which deathly frightened us for no good reason; perhaps it was because of the old bones we'd find and the fact that it was about as far away from the house as we could get. Right on the verge of unfamiliar territory. If we crossed that fence, were we going to be shot by some crazy landowner? As children, we thought the most eccentric thoughts. Besides the fact that we were seemingly miles away from home, when you enter the field on your way to the distant property fence line, you enter into a charming valley with the most wonderful creek on your right side and a beautiful tree-covered hillside on the left. Of course, when you're a child, these woods can be terrifying--you don't know what kind of ghosts and goblins are watching you from behind the grapevine-draped trees. Grapevines that we would often use as a swing set on sunny days that we knew we were safe from whatever came out on cloudy days.
Looking back, we spent so much time outside I can't believe Grandma allowed it. In country that was filled with snakes and snapping turtles and numerous opportunities to break various bones, I can't imagine letting my children wander off for hours upon hours without supervision. But, that was my childhood. And I loved it. And I miss it. We knew what we were doing. We were safe. We were "street" smart, or in our case, "gravel-road" smart. This was true freedom to have the best time of our lives.