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Happy New Year in Art
Category: rain
Slipping Back 10 Years
Ten years ago. Ten. I was healthier, more optimistic, less focused on age and all that goes with it. Reading this blog has shaved a layer of non-commitment off my hard hide. I couldn’t read tarot cards back then and I certainly can’t translate them now. But I’m looking forward to reading this blog ten years from now and being healthier doing it.
I hope you’re here reading along with me.
Unicorns and 2015
December 29, 2015 ~ humoringthegoddess
Well, here it is, December 29th, 2015. Two more days/evenings until New Years Eve, three more days until we roll on over to a new year.
Soon our favorite bloggers will be writing beautiful prose and poetry about letting go of the old, embracing the new, Father Time, memories, love, sentimentality washing over us until we feel bad about feeling so good about feeling so sentimental.
What I want to do now (seeing as New Year’s Eve I’ll probably be playing Gauntlet (video game) with my kids, I’ll play my Tarot cards now.
Two of Pentacles. My two grandsons came to live with me/us this Fall, the pentacles of love and childhood. Soon they will be off in their own house, but, I tell you, as much as I adore them, I understand why childbirth and childrearing is left to women under the age of 50.
Queen of Swords. I admit I’ve gotten sucked into Game of Thrones, including the hype and spoilers (after I’ve watched the episode). I raise my sword in salute of poisoning, White Walkers, the God of Many Faces, Sand Snakes, incest, dragons, wights, High Sparrows, and the Wall. A bit of mania wherever you look.
The Hermit. Can’t tell you how many times I just wanted to burrow into my bed and not come out until a week later. I take the role of Drama Queen seriously, you know.
Nine of Wands. This reflects the number of edits on my novel. Nine wands now, twenty wands tomorrow. The wand is the pen/typewriter, and the nine is the number of times I gave up and went to my Art Gallery instead. Next year is the year.
Wheel of Fortune. Riding the highs and lows of work, I look forward to the days of getting snowed in. Oh darn. Car is stuck in the driveway. Let’s go back inside and write a blog.
Ace of Cups. Got my lack-of-sleep thing under control this year, cut back on some meds, and generally back on the middle-aged road to energy. The Ace of Cups toasts my clean mammogram. Did you get yours??
Two of Dreams. Not a real Tarot card, this card represents the continuation of my two favorite blogs. I love writing, I love unique art, I love magic and I love the shadows between the stars. I love my family, my music, my books, and my followers. And the blogs I follow. And sunrises. And warm summer breezes. And IrishFest in Milwaukee. And cats. and spaghetti. And chocolate.
Wait — that’s more than two dreams.
Hope you are thankful for more than two dreams, too!
Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Door Knockers
Knock Knock …
Who’s There?
–
Repeat of Gates
An oldie but goodie while I finish recovering from Christmas….
Now Watergate does not bother me..
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth…
…..Sweet Home Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 1974
I must admit that about the time Watergate came along I was working my first job as a linofilm typist, and politics did not really concern me overmuch. Today’s generation looks back fondly at Watergate just as they do the Battle of Gettysburg or the Boston Tea Party. Just another history lesson.
The suffix -gate derives from the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, which resulted in the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon. The scandal was named after the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. What I find really funny, though, is that the “gate” part started a whole slew of scandalous escapades. “Gates” abound everywhere.
There are Arts and Entertainment gates:
* Closetgate (2006); controversy after the TV show South Park aired a parody of Scientology
* Nipplegate (also known as Boobgate) (2004); Janet Jackson’s famous “wardrobe malfunction” during half time of Super Bowl XXXVII
There are Politic gates:
* Billygate (1980); Billy Carter, younger brother of then-President Jimmy Carter, creates a media firestorm when he aligns himself with the government of radical Libya.
* Bridgegate (2014); Lane closures to the George Washington Bridge create major traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The bottleneck is seen as a political incident ordered by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, who did not support Christie’s reelection.
* Hairgate (1993); Controversy surrounding a haircut given to U.S. President Bill Clinton
There are Journalism and Academic gates:
* Hackgate (also known as Rupertgate) (2011); Allegations that the now defunct News of the World had hacked into the phones of celebrities, politicians, and members of the British Royal Family
There are Sports gates:
* Deflategate (2015); Did they or did they not under-inflate the footballs?
* Bumpergate (1982); During the Daytona 500 race, drive Bobby Allison allegedly modified his car so that his rear bumper would fall off, giving him an aerodynamic edge
Funny thing is that these scandals aren’t limited to U.S. soil. Just listen to the names and places:
* Portraitgate (2009, Ireland): Two oil paintings depicting Brian Cowen, Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, in the nude, were briefly displayed in Dublin art galleries in March 2009 as an act of guerilla art
* Toiletgate (2006, Elista, Kalmykia, Russia); The allegations by Veselin Topalov and his manager Silvio Danailov during the World Chess Championship that Topalov’s opponent Vladimir Kramnik was visiting the toilet suspiciously frequently during games
* Pastagate (2013, Canada); Controversy in which an Italian restaurant was investigated by the Quebec government for using words that do not comply with their language laws, such as “bottiglia”, “calamari” and “pasta”
* Porngate (2012, India) Three members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in India resign from their offices after accusations that they watched porn during government proceedings.
* Bottlegate (2001, Ohio); Rowdy fans of the Cleveland Browns threw plastic bottles and other debris on the field after a controversially overturned call in the final minute of the game led to the Browns losing the game to the Jacksonville Jaguars
You get my drift. So I figured, if there’s so many scandals out there with gates on them, why not create a few of my own?
* Grannygate: Busted for keeping grandson up way past his bedtime and offering him sugared drinks
* Catgate: When coaxing live cats to lay on the toy train track didn’t work, I offered my collection of stuffed unicorns as test subjects
* Employeegate: There are enough infractions in this scandal that this blog cannot list them all. I am on double secret probation until I am 85
* Flippergate: numerous violations of the “put the TV flipper back on the end table where you found it” rule. The scandal is that I never remember the rule — until I lose the flipper
* Irishfestgate (2012); I boasted to my 6 foot, 225-lb. son that I could keep up with him beer-for-beer at Irishfest. Guess who won, and guess who was sick for two days
There are a whole slew of gates for those who are curious — check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_with_%22-gate%22_suffix. I’m sure if you scoured your past you’d find a lot of gates, too.
But thankfully, since most of us are just regular guys/gals, the media won’t be knocking on your door — er, gate — any time soon.
Just be smart, and keep your gate locked.
Just in case.
Cookie Traditions
Cookie Mania has hit the snowy Midwest!
Saturday was make-cookies-with-the-grandkids day. My mere two cookie contributions — kolackies and oatmeal raisin — were but a drop in the baking bucket for future Christmas parties.
Actually only a couple of grandkids contributed time and energy, but there was enough assistance to give granny a break between cookie sheets.
Sometimes it’s hard to really get into the Christmas spirit. Like I said in a previous blog, Christmas Again?, it’s not always easy to get into the Christmas spirit. Energy and social security and other excuses often put a damper on my Deck the Halls nature.
But baking cookies with someone else makes all the scroogeness disappear … not to mention how I love eating the results.
We always bake the weekend before Christmas. It’s sort of a tradition. As is wrapping presents on Christmas Eve late at night for the next day. We add boiled shrimp and a glass of wine to our routine, and even though the wrapping date has changed through the years, we still try and keep the tradition we started when our kids were babies and we worked all day Christmas Eve.
I think you can make a tradition out of anything you do more than once. As long as there’s heart and togetherness mixed in with whatever you’re doing, you’re creating a safe place for laughs and love year after year.
And as you get older that becomes more and more important.
Do you have any traditions you try and keep with family and/or friends?
If so, Share! Share!
Sunday Evening Art Gallery — John Atkinson Grimshaw
John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836 – 1893) was a Victorian-era painter, notable for his landscapes, usually known as Atkinson Grimshaw.
Self-taught, Grimshaw started exhibiting in Leeds in the 1860’s with minutely observed still life paintings.
Grimshaw experimented with a looser technique and with classical subjects — historical subjects and contemporary ladies — that were particularly successful.
He was interested in photography and sometimes used a camera obscura to project outlines on to oil canvas, enabling him to repeat compositions several times.
He also mixed sand and other ingredients with his paint to get the effects he wanted.
Around 1880 Grimshaw suffered some unknown financial crisis and retrenched, returning to Leeds and boosting his output to around fifty paintings a year.
Certain elements of social realism come into his paintings around that time, night being a good time to record less respectable forms of life.
More of John Atkinson Grimshaw’s inspirational landscapes can be found at https://johnatkinsongrimshaw.org/.
Who’s Coming Now?
Are you watching out?
Are you crying?
Are you pouting?
Knock it off and I’ll tell you why
You-know-who is coming to town.
I heard he’s making a list
and double checking it
to see who’s in trouble
and who is off the hook.
You-know-who is coming to town.
He knows if you’ve taken a sleeping pill
He knows if you’re up watching tv late
He knows if you’ve gained or lost five pounds
So behave, for Pete’s sake.
Are you watching out?
Are you crying?
Are you pouting?
Knock it off and I’ll tell you why
You-know-who is coming to town.
Faerie Paths — Paths
The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.
Today and tomorrow are yet to be said.
The chances, the changes are all yours to make.
The mold of your life is in your hands to break.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Inked (repost)
As some of you may know, I lost my youngest son four years ago. Last Saturday I finally got a tattoo honoring him and my love for him.
My friend Tiffany at Tiffany Arp-Daleo Artworks had lost her mother, someone who meant as much to her as my loved ones do to me. Today she posted a lovely post about the tattoo she got to honor her mother.
Tattoos are not for everyone. But for those who get them, each one is special and magical. It takes a special person to share their grief and connection both in body ink and in a blog.
Here is hers.
I wanted to do something special to remember my mom, who passed away on December 9th. We often joked about getting matching mom/daughter tattoos, but it never happened.
When she was first diagnosed with dementia, she went through her things and got rid of a lot. Besides being a great artist, she was also a writer and wrote poems and stories, but sadly, most of that she threw away. While I was going through her remaining belongings, I found this poem on a small piece of paper and decided to keep it. She probably wrote it after my dad passed away.
It took some effort to find someone who was willing to do the tattoo on the specific date, and someone who could do the lettering exactly in her handwriting. I found my guy at Seventh Serpent Tattoo, and I couldn’t be happier with the final tattoo, he nailed it. 😊
”
Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Maarten Vrolijk
Maarten Vrolijk is an Amsterdam-based artist and designer who considers it important to elaborate on the simple, unequivocal nature of a product or art work and has been creating his works for over 25 years.
His aesthetic and ‘art language’ is particularly unusual because it consciously plays with shapes, colours and materials in an uncontrived way.
He also believes his pieces should also make people’s everyday lives that bit more beautiful through the many little details that evoke the unexpected.
Vrolijk is perhaps best known for glass vessels with their outgrowth of colored glass fragments.
The volatility in accomplishing the exceptional thickness of his vases creates a risky balance between strength and delicacy.
The thermal stress caused when trying to equalize the interior and exterior temperature of the cooling vessels, is fraught with the threat of breakage.
To create each piece, a meticulously patterned bed of broken glass pieces is strategically laid down and heated to a specific temperature in order to be properly fused to a nascent blown glass form.
The temperature and timing must be precisely in tandem. It is a high-stakes process that results in a kind of frozen sense of chaos.
More of Maarten Vrolijk’s unique glasswork can be found at https://www.maartenvrolijk.com/
Additions to the Family
Say hello to the two newest additions to our family. Darth and Vader.
I need two cats like I need a hole in the head.
Having just turned 73, I find myself with less patience for disruptions in my daily life. Art and Crafts and laundry are done at my speed, not the world’s. As my productivity has slowed, so has my organizational skills.
And you can’t organize two little black kittens.
Don’t get me wrong — we lost my cat Mysty last Fall, and as you can see (Caturdays) I do love cats. We just put our 14-year-old dog down two weeks ago, and my heart was heavy.
This is the way of life. I get it.
We have a year-old lab, who is still full of energy and curiosity. Match that with two 10-week-old kittens, and you can imagine the chaos it brings.
We were told that, if possible, take two kitties, for they will keep each other occupied, keeping the stress away from you. But with all the clip clip clip from one side of the house to the other, they do indeed keep each other busy.
And even though I complain like an old granny half the time, it warms my heart to see life start all over again. Life and laughter and discovery of new friends, even though the friends are of the feline variety.
Don’t let life slow down for you too much. Two kitties might not be the answer, but make sure there’s life around you — life that’s full of life. Life that brings hope to your open heart.
Even if they meow louder than a thunderstorm …..
Faerie Paths — Tattoos
Tattoos are like stories – they’re symbolic of the important moments in your life. Sitting down, talking about where you got each tattoo and what it symbolizes, is really beautiful.
~ Pamela Anderson
Faerie Paths — Passions
When you start to do the things that you truly love, it wouldn’t matter whether it’s Monday or Friday; you would be so excited to wake up each morning to work on your passions.
~ Edmond Mbiaka
Always a Little Sadness Around the Corner
No matter how happy we are one day, there is always something around the corner waiting to cut us down a notch.
That’s life. I know. All the philosophy in the world doesn’t change the world of pain happening or about to happen.
My chocolate lab is almost 14 — a record in some ways. She had a fall a couple of years ago and her back legs don’t work quite right. The other day she slipped climbing out of her cage (she goes in all by herself… I leave the door open) , and pulled a muscle. She’s not eating a lot, and defecating around the house almost every day.
She is on her way out.
I know this has happened to very many of you — possibly over and over again. This isn’t the first dog for us that we will eventually have to put to sleep.
How do you make that decision?
Many say it’s only a dog. This part I get. But the dog is my friend, too. Listened to me crying in my beer and walking the paths exploring the woods or fetching till she almost falls over.
Like you, I will know when it’s time. I will hate it with every bone in my body, but I will know. I won’t let her suffer, I won’t force her into a life of pain and confusion just to hug her one more time.
I really didn’t mean to share this today, but it just goes to show you that you are not alone in your confusion and pain. It’s something pet owners agree to do the moment they take those puppy eyes home.
Give your cat and dog an extra hug today. Make new memories.
Creativity Is Alive and Well!
Over the weekend my daughter-in-law and I stopped by Hobby Lobby to pick up a few crafty things.
For those who are not familiar with H-L, it’s a craft store that carries everything from stamps to beads to paint to t-shirts you can dye and more. It’s the kind of store where you’d better have something in particular in mind when you pass through the doors, or you will suffer from crafting overload.
The point is that Hobby Lobby was packed. The aisles were full of grannies, moms and dads with kids, and couples. All buying crafting materials. Usually when I stop by there’s a mere scattering of customers.
A lot of carts were filling up with Christmas decor (the lady behind me was buying Christmas placemats), but just as many held plastic flowers, diamond paintings, and acrylic paints.
I was tickled to see so many crafters at one time. It didn’t matter what they were going to make. They were holding beads up to the light, reading backs of boxes, and comparing hues of yarn.
I would love to think that people are getting back to making gifts by hand. Trying a new craft. Making scarves and t-shirts with grandkids’ handprints and crystal bracelets both for themselves and their family.
I know crafting is not for everybody. It certainly wasn’t much of a past time for me my first 50 years hanging around on Earth. So when I say “crafting” it can be anything that touches your soul and makes you feel good.
It’s crazy out there. What better way to find your calm center than putting on music and spreading out your materials and CREATING?
Dream Food Part Two
Waaaay back in June of 2017 I did a fun blog about Dream Food. It was a stimulating, mouth-watering, magical blog about (what I thought) were the most delightful photos of the most delectable food on the planet.
I came across another amazing photo of food and thought I should share it along with more delightful vittles.
Enjoy!
.
Faerie Paths — Halloween
You can call us pumpkins
Cuz we’re soft and round
We chase each other
All over the grounds.
We hiss and bark
Yet love to cuddle
We want your food
And are not subtle
We are your pumpkins
lovable as hell
Happy Halloween!
Wishing you well!
Faerie Paths — Some Days …
Help, I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far?
George Kooymans, Golden Earring
Faerie Paths — Overflow
Fill up your own cup, and let them fall in love with the overflow.
―
Faerie Paths — Rain
Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.
~ John Updike
Faerie Paths — Rain
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.
~Vivian Greene
Faerie Paths — Cats
“I
think that the
world should be full of cats and full of rain, that’s all, just
cats and
rain, rain and cats, very nice, good
night.”
― Charles Bukowski, Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories
Faerie Paths — Rain
The evening’s rain had woken a hundred sleeping smells and made them ripe and strong again.
~ George R R Martin
Humoring the Goddess 