Rhythm of Life

Ah, yes, it has been over a month since my last post. Mom spent 8 days in the hospital and ended up having a stint installed in a collapsed vein in her heart. The week following her discharge she was tired and weak of course and hardly wanted to leave her room. I am happy to say the last few weeks of her visit we were finally able to relax and spend some quality time together. Although we did not get into making journals as we hoped (except for one I gave her to keep up with all her meds), I was able to share some of my painting methods and she showed me her bead and jewelery making skills. We had a couple of nice sunny days that she sat in my yard and talked to me while I tackled all the weeds that seemed to have appeared from nowhere. She is back home safe and sound and I miss her already. The first 3 days after her flight, I finished tackling the weeds and doing some late spring cleaning and now I am finally getting back to art - hooray!
As in life, it is important to find rhythm in and when we tackle creative pursuits. My sister wrote a compelling article about rhythm as it pertains to the written word in her blog here.

Painters Way To Rhythm


Now I am off to find my muse and get my rhythm back.

Mom on Life

Copyrighted 'Mom at 18'

I will be forever grateful that my 80 year old mother was determined to travel so far to visit with me for two months. We had visions of making jewelry (her passion - she brought a huge stash of beads), art journals, quilts, and of course some trips to the casinos for a game or two of Bingo. She has been here for 2 weeks and 4 days and we have done some of that although most of the time she has been gasping for air and taking to her bed. I had to take her to emergency yesterday and they have kept her overnight for 'observation' just as I and my brothers and sisters have done so many times in the past. She suffers from COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder), CHF (Congestive Heart Failure) HBP (High Blood Pressure) , Diabetes and Leukemia. Throw in Diverticulosis and allergies and yes, it is amazing she is still with us. She looks ten years younger and most people are unaware that she has so many health issues.

I leaned on the window frame, above the curtain, where she couldn’t see me, and watched the sun dapple on the balcony and her. The lake below sparkled and danced; at the horizon the sky swelled up behind lazy sails. Sea gulls were soaring and screeching, searching for breakfast washed up from the night before. Two white butterflies wafted up to the balcony cavorting and spinning, seem to say, “Look at me, look at me”! Yet still she kept to her multi-task of working the morning’s crossword and searching for a recipe for tonight’s dinner. She moves her head up and down, finding the right spot through her bi-focal. The bright light on her unkempt hair shows not a strand of gray, but is shocking nonetheless. A soft breeze floated the cheap polyester fabric with its huge red poppies from her shoulder to expose the smooth plump flesh hanging just below. She calls it her calf-a-tan and I can’t remember a time when she never wore it.

I watched her head bob for a few more minutes, when she looked at the window I was standing, then off towards the lake. After 30 seconds, she was back to her crossword.

A long time ago, I remember being a part of the scene I was watching; her gently holding a bird that had flown in the window and was injured. The sun shining on her then made her look as if a high priestess while she tended to the fallen sparrow….. excerpt 'Remembering to Forget'  Journal CAEden 2001 

I hope mom will be with us for years to come. There is still so many layers, so much to learn and remember. On my way to the hospital where I hope it will be good news that she is stable and can come home so we can start our journals.

The Angst of It All

Here is a scan of the first ATC's I have ever made. I think am calling these finished and have quite a few backgrounds ready to go. Maybe I am ready to join a swap but feel I have to experiment a bit more. The background for 3 of them are painted baby wipes. They stayed soft after the paint and have a fabric feel to them. All are done on playing cards - I have a never-ending supply of those here in Las Vegas. The metal circle with the painted 6 was made from the cover of a coffee can.
As I was making these and thinking about starting some altered books and art journals, I came across a 30 year old fabric covered sketchbook of mine that had many unfilled pages. Some of the drawings and notes that I had done where near and dear to my heart so I have vowed to complete the entire thing. Problem is I will have to give up on a theme but I have decided it will have only my own drawings with maybe a few embellishments here and there.

This is the first pages I sketched yesterday from a flier of the Phantom of the Opera which is playing here at the Venetian. It is done with gesso and water-soluble graphite pencils. Drawing in ink is a favorite technique of mine with the pencils coming in second.

One of the drawings from 1983 that I liked were of clowns so I did a sketch (on the left) of some others from a magazine clipping that I have kept for as long.

And finally, this one done in 1984 with brush and ink is a self portrait. Maybe not so well-done but expressive. It expresses some heavy-duty angst I was going trough at that time of my life. Although I am quite happy to not be in that place again, I want to be able to bring back the 'feeling' that I had in my sketching so long ago. When I get to the last two pages I will do the Phantom of the Opera again in the hopes that with all the practice more of my hand and style will be gained again.