Sometimes I Feel So Upside Down

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 6 Comments
Nora Kate

On my way to doing something totally different …

I know baby boomers are two generations removed from today’s music, our kids and their contemporaries filling the gap between the two of us.

I know today’s music is supposed to be different than “Do Wha Diddy Diddy Dum Diddy Doo,” and I respect that.

I also know music is music, that music is a universal expression of the soul, blah blah blah.

I just have to laugh, though, at the thought that no matter how much I adore music, how disconnected I am from “today’s” music.   I mean — really disconnected. And how long I’ve been disconnected.

Trying to keep this all brief, here are the top 10 of Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1965 (I was in 7th grade) … 

1 . “Wooly Bully” Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
2.  “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” Four Tops
3. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” The Rolling Stones
4 .”You Were on My Mind” We Five
5. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” The Righteous Brothers
6. “Downtown” Petula Clark
7 . “Help!” The Beatles
8.  “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat” Herman’s Hermits
9 .”Crying in the Chapel” Elvis Presley
10. “My Girl” The Temptations

I probably could sing along with every song up there. I sense a  few younger eyeballs rolling up in the head. Understood.

Then let’s move up to the top 10 of Billboard’s Year-End Top 100 Singles of 2000. 35 years later. I was married and had an 18 year old son by then.

1. “Breathe” Faith Hill
2.  “Smooth” Santana featuring Rob Thomas
3.  “Maria Maria” Santana featuring The Product G&B
4. “I Wanna Know” Joe
5. “Everything You Want” Vertical Horizon
6. “Say My Name” Destiny’s Child
7. “I Knew I Loved You” Savage Garden
8.  “Amazed” Lonestar
9.  “Bent” Matchbox Twenty
10 . “He Wasn’t Man Enough” Toni Braxton

Okay. I love the two Santana songs. I’ve heard of most of the other artists but had to Google some to see if I remembered those songs. I didn’t.

Compare these great songs and artists to the top 10 of Billboard’s Year-End Top 10 Singles of 2002:

1. “Heat Waves” Glass Animals
2.  “As It Was” Harry Styles
3 . “Stay” The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber
4.  “Easy on Me” Adele
5. “Shivers” Ed Sheeran
6. “First Class” Jack Harlow
7.  “Big Energy” Latto
8.  “Ghost” Justin Bieber
9. “Super Gremlin” Kodak Black
10. “Cold Heart (Pnau remix)” Elton John and Dua Lipa

Oh man, where have I been? Latto? Dua Lipa? What is a Pnau mix?  I recognize Sheeran and Bieber’s names, but not their music.

I know I should be keeping up with today’s music, seeing as how I’m a  cheering squad for Creativity in ALL its forms, which includes music.

But somehow I find myself getting excited more about an Artie Shaw Big Band hit I’ve recently discovered than any (if not all) the top 100 from 2022.

Sometimes I feel so upside down …

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — David Zinn

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 4 Comments

David Zinn has been creating original artwork in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan since 1987.For more than twenty years, he freelanced for a wide variety of commercial clients while simultaneously sneaking “pointless” art into the world at large.Now, thanks to the temptations of a box of sidewalk chalk on an unusually sunny day, Zinn is known all over the world for the art he creates under his feet.

Zinn draws a range of quirky animal characters in his distinct, cartoon-like style. Each one is cleverly rendered to look as though it is interacting with the surrounding environment.His delightful chalk art features affable aliens, winged pigs, cute tiny dragons, and other wondrous creatures emerging from the ground, peeking through a crack on the wall, or just sitting on the sidewalk.Zinn’s temporary street drawings are composed entirely of chalk, charcoal and found objects, and are always improvised on location through a process known as “pareidolic anamorphosis” or “anamorphic pareidolia.”Most of his creatures appear on sidewalks in Michigan, but many have surfaced as far away as subway platforms in Manhattan, village squares in Sweden and street corners in Taiwan.Zinn’s creations are ephemeral as each piece can only last up to 10 days if left untouched onto sidewalks. Furthermore, the drawings can immediately be washed away in the rain, making their short-lived existence even more appreciated.More of David Zinn‘s magical chalk drawings can be found at https://zinnart.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/DavidZinnIllustration.

 

What Color Are the Sun’s Eyes?

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 9 Comments

What color are the sun’s eyes?
~ anonymous

 

I wrote anonymous because I have no idea if anyone asked that in some poem or short story somewhere.

But the question really came from me.

Fooling around with garden implements, never content with leaving things as they are, I decided to brighten up one of my lawn ornaments with a bit of sparkly silver spray paint and, perhaps, some colorful eyes to reflect the sun.

What color are the sun’s eyes?

So I experimented. 

The radiant golden color of sunshine itself: yellow...

The soft blush of a baby’s breath:  pink …

The pure beauty of a summer sky:  blue …

or the fertile fields of Earth’s cover:  green …

Then I tried my last color set of eyes …
and somehow they turned demon-like …

Sooooooo…. I did whatever a normal, shoulda-done-in-the-first-place artist would do …

Leave … the eyes … alone …

 

 

 

 

Your True Beauty — Rainbow Wave of Light (repost)

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Short, sweet, and inspirational. Just like I like them. Thank you, Denise.

 

 

 

 

Your True Beauty | The Creator

 

 

 

Go To a Fair!

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 6 Comments

Summer means barbeques, camping, beaches,  mosquitoes, and art fairs.

For someone like me who partakes in two arts and crafts shows per summer, I am quite caught up in the hullaballoo of it all.

But more importantly (and wonderfully!), when it comes to art appreciation, summer is also the time to take advantage of your local fairs. County fairs, state fairs, city and town fairs are all places to really get into the heart and mind and pride of artists of all sizes and ages.There is indeed a ton of impressive art at, say, the Louvre or Metropolitan Museum of Art — but there is a ton of impressive art right out your back door, too.

Last week I went to our local county fair, jammed packed with familiarities such as funnel cakes, wild rides, and livestock competitions. It was also a showcase for local artists of all ages.

I happened to walk through the Open (exhibitors must be from the county and adjoining counties) and Senior (exhibitors must be age 62 and older) Exhibit, and was knocked out by the ribbon winners.There was also a Junior Exhibitors Art Competition [8 – 19 years of age and in good standing with the youth organization they represent],  but there was something going on in their display barn.
You could feel the passion that went into a painting or crocheted offering or a wirework necklace.The work was as impressive as any visit to a local art gallery.

So give up some of your free time and wander the barns and stalls and booths of your local art festivals.  You’ll not regret it.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Ashka Dymel

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 2 Comments

 

Jewelry artist Ashka Dymel was born in Warsaw, Poland.

After studies in liberal arts and foreign languages in Poland and Czechoslovakia, Dymel moved to the United States where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Environmental Design from Parsons School of Design in New York City.

All the jewelry is handmade in Brooklyn using sterling silver, 18k gold bimetal, and semi precious stones and minerals.

 

Dymel’s goal is to achieve harmony in modular repetitions and variations on geometric forms.

Her work is recognized by her unique method of capturing stones within metal frames creating negative space as an integral part of composition.

Use of thin wires to hold the elements together is another non-traditional technique allowing for movement and structural flexibility.

The combination of unique materials and methods results in joyful pieces of wearable art.

More of Ashka Dymel’s jewelry can be found at https://ashkadymel.com/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Jon Ching

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 16 Comments

Jon Ching is a self-trained artist originally from Kaneohe, Hawaii and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.Steeped in the natural beauty of O’ahu, Hawai’i, his island upbringing instilled in him indigenous lessons of appreciation and respect for nature, forming the foundation of his fascination with the natural and wild world, which deeply influences and drives his work.Jon’s devoted art practice and detailed realism is inspired by the interconnectedness of nature.His work is a surreal imagining of what limitless wonders and combinations nature can produce.New creatures and symbioses emerge in his meticulously rendered oil paintings, exemplifying the endless potential of life on Earth through metaphor and allegory.Filled with vibrant images of flora and wildlife merging together to create new imaginary figures, Ching’s work invites us to recognize the “unseen magic” of nature..Jon’s ultimate hope is to inspire love and admiration for the universally unique beauty and intrigue of our planet.“One major concept I’m always trying to express in my work is the interconnectedness of everything.

“I think that seeing similarities in shapes and patterns across the natural world is a way to explore our connectedness, and once I started looking at things that way, I started to see it everywhere.”

More of Jon Ching’s enchanting art can be found at https://jonchingart.com/.

 

 

 

In My Life

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 14 Comments
Alan Aldridge

Reflections written on the 4th of July …. No drinking, no drugs. Just reflecting…

 

July 4th evening.

Here’s this old lady in a boho dress, matching pink crystal dangle earrings, sitting at a picnic bench all by herself, listening to a Beatles cover band playing in the park, all alone in my corner, singing along with every song, looking (and no doubt sounding) like a dork.

And, finally, after ALL these years, not caring.

Why did it take over 60 years to get to this place?

I’m not a pretty 70 year old. The willowy, fragile, blowing kind of older beauty groupie that could get away with singing with the band I’m not. This 70 year old is a bit scary if you ask me. There are big bags under my eyes, sagging skin, too many pounds — the whole kit n’ caboodle. 

But I’m one of those baby boomers whose life started with the Beatles. And whose life will most likely end with the Beatles.

It started many years ago with a state of mind not found in the world of 12-year-olds these days. A time when songs reflected the singers who projected themselves as innocent as they shared their hearts with innocent girls of the world.  The circle of love was pure, simple, and forever.

We didn’t know any better.

And that was okay.

I have tears in my eyes as I belt out the words to PS I Love You  and I’m Happy Just to Dance With You. At this very moment my heart hurts and I am short of breath. I am standing here by myself feeling 12 again. 

Now that there’s a break in the presentation I wonder why these days gone by mean so much to me. Why do I feel so much more of a reaction to the Beatle’s A Hard Day’s Night than I do to Purple Rain by Prince (or whatever popular song of the past 50 years comes to mind)?

Why did I come by myself?

At first I thought coming to this fun performance alone was a bad idea. Concerts are better shared with others.

Yet I am so glad I came alone. I travelled back in time, running all over the place, remembering duck taping empty album covers all over my bedroom walls and writing my first ever story about me and Paul McCartney and the Beatles concert I went to at Comiskey Park in Illinois when I was 12.

No one can hold a candle to memories like that.

And that’s why I came.

 

 

 

Fresh Fruit with Suzie Zuzek (repost)

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 5 Comments

What I love about Annie Fisher‘s quirky blog eat with an artist: fact, and fiction is that her incredible sense of art and collages and others’ creative artwork always combine into one fun, beautiful experience. Check her out!

Fresh fruit with Suzie Zuzek

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — David Hockney

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 18 Comments

David Hockney (1937- ) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer.The artist studied at the Bradford College of Art (1953–57) and the Royal College of Art, London (1959–62), where he received a gold medal in the graduate competition. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, Hockney is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.His unmistakable style incorporates a broad range of sources from Baroque to Cubism and, most recently, computer graphics.Perhaps best known for his serial paintings of swimming pools, portraits of friends, and verdant landscapes, the artist’s oeuvre ranges from collaged photography and opera posters to Cubist-inspired abstractions and plein-air paintings of the English countryside.In the spirit of the Cubists, Hockney combines several scenes to create a composite view, choosing tricky spaces, like split-level homes in California and the Grand Canyon, where depth perception is already a challenge.In actively seeking to imitate photographic effects in his work, Hockney is a forerunner of the Photorealists.Hockney’s work transcends expressionism, modernism, and even pop art aesthetics.His colors, subjects, and expressive nature have contributed works that have continued to evolve and expand to this day.More of David Hockney‘s bright art can be found at https://www.hockney.com/ and the culture trip.

 

 

Faerie Paths — Writing

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 4 Comments

Writing ideas travel from the head, where they are born, to the heart, where they are felt, through the soul, where they are understood, and out through the fingertips where they are reborn.

~ The Writing Unicorn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being a Goddess is Hard Work!

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 6 Comments
Tymber’s Thyngs

Being a Goddess is more than a full time gig, let me tell you.

Although we are all knowing, all understanding, and all accepting, when we take on our human guise we realize we ain’t got ### on those who make a living living life.

I am of the older, wiser Goddess group. Which just means I’ve made more mistakes, wrong turns, and embarrassing utterances than those younger in age. I may “intellectually” know and sense that love is all, live each day fully,  and each person interprets the world and those in it (and beyond it) in their own way, but I’m still a working girl at heart.

Having just come back from four days with kids and Gkids over the 4th,  I haven’t stopped running. Between time travelling at an outdoor concert with a Beatles cover band to initiating a “July 4th Independence” movement to improve my health, I often wonder if the human way is worth the energy.

In the swing of my new “glamgardening ” experiment, I was out watering, inspecting, clipping, clamping, and wondering. (When do you pick baby eggplants from the houseplant bush? Am I supposed to cut back the heads of these spent flowers whose species I don’t remember? What are those symmetric black globs by each leaf of my day lilies? Should I let that Russian Sage that snuck back into the side garden stay?)

The other night I watched 13 Hours: the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (fascinatin, true story of elite ex-military operators vs terrorists in Benghazi 2012),  I began wondering, “how much of this true story is true?” 

Also, I recently stopped taking anti depressants (with the support of my doctor), and am finding that I am crankier and crisper than ever. I don’t know if I will have sharp edged impressions and thoughts about the world forever, or if they will eventually mellow into highs and lows that are easier to ignore.

A lot of things to look up.

Now, you would think being the Goddess that I am I would know everything —  the name of the plant that needs de-heading, percentage of truth in ‘based on a true story’ movies — and I suppose way back in the shadowed recesses of my mind I do.

But what fun is just knowing?

Half the fun of being a Goddess is re-experiencing things for myself. Discovering things I already knew. Researching things I’ve already researched. Realizing that the moment of discovery is really a moment of rediscovery.

That is what being a Goddess is all about. Constant rearranging. It’s what a God needs to do too, if your sex demands it. You already are there! Just acknowledge it! Relearn it! Enjoy it!

After all, I need to always Humor myself.

 

 

 

 

July 4th Is Many Things

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Happy Fourth of July!

 

…………………………….Never Forget……………………………

 

and…..

for fun……

 

Show off your colors!

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Il Bronzino

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 2 Comments

Agnolo di Cosimo ( Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano Tori, 1503-1572),  more popularly known as Bronzino, was a Florentine painter whose polished and elegant portraits are outstanding examples of the Mannerist style in the middle of the 16th century.Holy Family with St. Anne and the infant St. John

 

An Italian Mannerist painter from Florence, his classic embodiments of the courtly ideal under the Medici dynasty, influenced European court portraiture for the next century.Portrait of Bartolomeo Panciatichi

 

He trained with Pontormo, the leading Florentine painter of the first generation of Mannerism.Chapel of Eleonora da Toledo

 

Bronzino lived all his life in Florence, and from his late 30s was kept busy as the court painter of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.Cosimo de Medici in Armour

 

He became the official portraitist for the Medici dynasty and soon went to work painting the portraits of the ruling family members, which he is largely known for, and which is Bronzino’s greatest contribution to Mannerism.The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

 

His portrait figures – often read as static, elegant, and stylish exemplars of unemotional haughtiness and assurance – influenced the course of European court portraiture for a century.Eleanor of Toledo and her son Giovanni de’ Medici

 

These paintings, especially those of the duchess, are known for their minute attention to the detail of her costumes, which almost takes on a personality of its own.Portrait of a Young Man

 

His work is clean and crisp, a major accomplishment for his time.Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time

 

More of Agnolo Bronzino‘s amazing paintings can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronzino and https://www.britannica.com/biography/Il-Bronzino.

 

 

 

 

 

This Can’t Be Me!

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 10 Comments
Rita Faes

This morning I was outside at 8:30 am watering my gardens.

Me. 8:30 am. Gardening.

Who is that person?

For many years my gardens were lucky to even see the hose, more or less benefit from the water inside.

I find myself glardening (like glamour camping, glamping) these days. Nothing wonderfully unique and ornate, mind you — I leave that for my daughter-in-law. She has the best  interior decorating gardening thumb around.

Yet I found — find — myself spending a little more time outside these days, arranging pots, picking off dead flowers, transplanting, trimming wild weeds, all of that.

The funny thing is — I’m enjoying it!

It this the retirement thing? The life-is-shorter-before-me-than-behind-me thing? Is it an Old Lady thing to do?

Or am I just not in a hurry anymore, leaving time for all kinds of new things?

I am already putting a lot of extra time into my blog and Art Gallery. And working on my Angel Tears. And trying new summer fresh menus from scratch. I find myself digging this new involvement with the world — as long as it’s at my pace.

Where did this come from?

I have taken a lesson for two from my blogging friend Rita Faes (gwenniesgardenworld.com). Her blog is full of gorgeous flower and plant photographs, ones she captures not only from her garden but places of wonder near and far.

For Rita, it’s not an effort — it’s a pleasure.

And isn’t that what we’re on Earth for? To promote/partake/share pleasure? Along with a bit of black, sandy dirt? 

Do you do plants? Indoor or outdoor? Exotic or every day garden variety? Plastic?

 

 

 

 

TenderTuesday . . . When you remember me…(repost)

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This means so much to me — especially with my special loss  — thank you, Purplerays
 
 

When you remember me, it means you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are.
It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us.
It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart 

~ Frederick Buechner ~

 
https://purplerays.wordpress.com/2023/06/27/tendertuesday-when-you-remember-me/
 

 

 

 

Cool Windy Cloudy Misty Summer Mornings

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 3 Comments

Harold Silverman

There is something about the feeling of a cloudy, cool morning that piques the imagination, especially during the summer months.

I don’t know if it’s the wind blowing a little harder, stirring the trees and windchimes that provide a musical background, or the songs of the birds early on, or the gentle cling of humidity to your skin, letting you know rain is not far away.

But there is something about a turn in the weather that stimulates sleeping parts of your spirit.

Maybe it’s the fact that it’s a different form of summer atmosphere. We are used to hot, sunny, surfing-and-picnicking kinds  of hot days this time of year. We are treated to heat exhaustion, sunburn, sinuses, and sweat, all welcome and all encompassing.

When a morning or evening pops up that is different than that, we often take notice. Maybe its the barometric pressure changing, the temperature drop, or the breeze that cools off our sticky skin that causes us to sit up and take notice.

Maybe it’s the transience of it all.

Short and sweet, relieving, constricted views because of the overcast sky, all make us turn our heads from the daily blinding grind of life for just a moment.

We know it won’t last; many will be happy of that fact.

How very close to our everyday outlook about the ups and downs of life.

Those won’t last long, either.

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Randall Rosenthal

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 9 Comments

Randall Rosenthal (1947- New York, NY) is a sculptor known for turning single blocks of wood into intricately detailed sculptures of ordinary objects. The artist’s collection of work boasts mind-boggling creations that are not only diligently carved and thoroughly painted, but also presented in visually realistic compositions.
He starts with masses of hardwood, and begins the creative process with blade routers, chain saws and angle grinders.The finer work is done with as many as 50 hand tools.Carved from a single block of pine, Rosenthal uses a reductive process, with no adhesives, to create these astonishingly realistic works.The works are then finished using acrylic and ink.His subjects have ranged from magazines to notepads to envelopes and boxes of money.Due to the excellent paint job and perfect sculpting, most of us are completely fooled by his optical illusions.“I get a little frenzied in the beginning,” the artist shares. “I can see it in my head and want to make it appear in real life.”

More of Randall Rosenthal‘s amazing sculptures can be found at http://www.randallrosenthal.com/. 

 

Dumb Questions on a Bright Saturday Day

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 9 Comments

There is a difference between asking a dumb question and a dumb question. Its amazing how often both are confused.

Carl Sagan, in his work The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, said: “There are naïve questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.”

But what if one asks a question that makes no sense? Is one dumb for asking it or dumb not knowing there’s no answer?

I came across an interesting website the other day — Breathe To Inspire, described as “an inspirational blog where passionate individuals like thinkers, readers, feelers, dreamers, bibliophiles, visionaries and aesthetes gather to endure the complexity of this existence and begin to educate their perspectives by thinking better in the aim to create a better future.” 

The topics are wide and varied and quite entertaining, such as,  Can you be your own soulmate?, 100 Dirty questions to ask your boyfriend to make him laugh, and 350+ Never have I ever Christmas questions (winter holidays game edition) for family, friends or office party.

I myself like categories like 500+ Stupid questions on different topics to ask (Funny, tricky, dumb, deep, random), 250+ Nonsense Questions to ask and think about (funny & weird), Dumb and Stupid questions that cannot be answered, and 50 Questions you can’t answer (Thought provoking, powerful & funny).

You know me.

So for your weekend enjoyment, here are a few wonderfully dumb questions I came across:

  • If you sneeze with your eyes open, do they come out?
  • Why is reality real to me but not real to everyone else?
  • Why do we have five fingers on each hand but not twenty five?
  • Do fish fart bubbles underwater?
  • Why do my fingers smell bad sometimes, but my nose doesn’t?
  • Why do I often hear a ringing in my ears, but I can’t find the source of the sound?
  • How can you tell if a woman is wearing high heels?
  • What is the best way to lick an envelope?
  • If you were to ask me something that I don’t know, what would it be?
  • How do you know when the sun is tired?
  • Why is it so hard to make a bird laugh?
  • Why do we have five fingers on each hand but not twenty five?
  • What makes up nothing
  • Which day comes after someday?

And the greatest question of all –

  • What would happen if everyone who lived on Earth jumped up and down all at once?

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Amazing Time Is Yours! | The Creator

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 4 Comments

Not just today but every day ….

 

https://rainbowwaveoflight.wordpress.com/2023/06/23/this-amazing-time-is-yours-the-creator/

 

 

 

Denise's avatarRainbow Wave of Light

Many of you have expressed concern about the new wave approaching…that it will be stronger, more uncomfortable or more challenging. Although the next phase of this shift may be challenging, it will have a different feel to it. Each piece of this upgrade is designed to bring you more knowledge and information. So, rather than anticipating a worst-case scenario, know that you will be receiving what is in your highest and best for the highest and best. You are on a road that has never been traveled before…this amazing time in human history is yours! Instead of viewing it with trepidation, see it as a beautiful reminder of how far you have come and how much further you will grow! ~ Creator

Transcribed by Jennifer Farley, TheraHealing Instructor/Practitioner at The Creator Writings

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Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Erich J. Moffitt

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Erich J. Moffitt is an internationally exhibited painter and freelance illustrator who resides in Seattle, Washington.

Coin Knight

Moffitt grew up in Europe and studied Illustration and Art History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Time Rook

His whimsical, brightly colored paintings are like modern translations of Romantic-era storybooks, clearly inspired by late-nineteenth century art and culture. 

Wilder Bishop

Many of his paintings are fables, featuring totemic animal archetypes and talismanic objects.

Bow Pawn

Stylistically rendered atop real, artisanal chess sets, this particular art series finds Moffitt recreating chess pieces from the dark side of a chess board.

Word Rook

Pawns, bishops, rooks, and knights are all recast as classic animal characters, saturated with the same magic, fantasy, and romantic symbolism for which the artist is known.

Night Queen

“I make art to connect with others and express and explore ideas feelings, and outlooks,” the artist explained.

Flame Knight

“I can’t quite put into words as well as I can paint them. Pictures condense and crystalize thoughts for me in a way that gives them a life outside of my mind.”

Bone Pawn

You can find more of Erich Moffitt‘s amazing art at https://ejmoffitt.com/. and https://www.archenemyarts.com/erichjmoffitt-foolsgambit. 

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Stars

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 8 Comments

 

There wouldn’t be a sky full of stars if we were all meant to wish on the same one. 

~ Frances Clark

 

 

Thoughts and Music From The Past

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 2 Comments

On my way to something completely different — 

I was listening to Perfect Love Songs: Vintage 1930s & 40s Romantic Easy Listening with Ella Fitzgerald, Perry’s Como on You Tube the other night, and my eyes happened to catch this comment from six years ago. The post itself has 4,133,027 views, 117,000+ likes, 2,515 comments.  This was one comment out of 2,515; there were 91 responses to this one thought. These are the ones that affected me.

See if it touches anything inside of you.

 

These songs make me miss the old times I’ve never been to, and miss the person I haven’t met.  ~ Risksa Putri (6 years ago)

Some of the responses….

I remember me and my girl on these times Good old times we were very young and she was pretty and perfect. Walking on the streets of NYC at night on the 1950s. But the problem is that this have never happened. I’m 20y old now. And I dont even have a girlfriend. ~inSanic (4 years ago)

 

We can be sure that we lived in that old time once…. The memories and feelings are real. ~Dora Orban (4 years ago)

 

Me too rizka I just sometimes cry for sometime even my grandmother didn’t exist ~Soufox (2 years ago)

 

Exactly the same feeling … May be there is a time that bodies don’t remember but the souls do! ~Ammonada Zeon (2 years ago)

 

That’s the magic of this kind of long ago music, it’s like nostalgia. A song that can break your heart over someone you never met. ~Clean Water (2 years ago)

 

At 39, I think anything may have been possible, including having a past life/lives. I don’t fit into these current times and have always had an old soul. Only in these songs can I feel connected to my One and Only whom I’ve still never met. I sometimes think we might’ve been born in different eras and therefore I must wait until the afterlife to finally meet him and have that true “old” style love, and that actually lasts forever. ~Laundry Basket (1 year ago)

 

I too share a deep feeling of sadness for all the people I haven’t met on both past and present time periods. All the things I’ll never experience. ~Evelyn Wolff 7 months ago)

 

And finally…(added but not shown…that’s okay…it’s still there)

Imagine, if you would, stopping at this site in You Tube, reading your comment from six years ago. One comment out of 2,515. Time travel is possible – your comment has made it so. Thank you. I am going to write a blog about your comment and give you full credit.  http://www.humoringthegoddess.com.

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery–Starfish

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Despite their name, Starfish (sea stars) aren’t fish.

Australian Southern Sand Star

Since they don’t have a backbone, starfish belong to a group of species called invertebrates, which also includes urchins and sponges.

Basket Starfish

Typically, starfish have five arms, but some sea stars may have more limbs.

Giant Spined Star

Sea stars move using their tube feet and have an advanced water vascular system that they use to fill up their feet with sea water.

Chocolate Chip Sea Star

They do not have blood but instead take in seawater through the sieve plate, or madreporite, located on top of the sea star, and use that to fill up their feet.

Morning Sun Starfish

Starfish are equipped with hundreds of tiny little feet at the underside and end of each of their arms.

Royal Starfish

To move from one place to another, seawater is filled into its tube feet, causing the arm to move just like a foot would.

Sunflower Star

When some species of starfish find a tasty snack, such as a mussel or an oyster, they extend their stomach out of their mouth to digest the soft parts of their prey.

Pincushion Starfish

This creates a soup-like substance that they then slurp back into their body to finish off the feast.

Antarctic Sun Starfish

Starfish can retract their feet using muscles or use them as suction to hold onto a substrate or its prey.

Crown of Thorns Starfish

The starfish is a fascinating and unique form of life that brings wonder and fascination to anyone falling under their spell.

Brisingid Sea Star

Nature is no doubt an amazing artist.

 

 

That Moment … Live & Learn (repost)

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 5 Comments

David’s blogs are always so inspirational, always so human. The words he finds, along with the words he uses, touches the soul as well as the mind. Leaves you feeling better than when you first stopped by.

Do go check him out if you have the time.

https://davidkanigan.com/

 

 

that moment…

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Mariko Kusumoto

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 2 Comments

Mariko Kusumoto, born in Kumamoto, Japan, is an artist known for textile and metal art.

bracelet

 

Kusumoto studied at the Musashino University in Tokyo, and relocated to the United States where she studied at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

earrings

 

Currently based in Massachusetts, the artist prevails upon fabric to construct forms of elegant simplicity and evocative imagery.

necklace

 

Her designs are incorporated into jewelry and sculptural pieces, as well as in collaborations with fashion designers.

bracelet

 

Her body of delicate fiber works consists of sculpture and jewelry inspired by natural forms: coral, mushrooms and flowers amongst other organisms.

rings

 

To create these ethereal pieces, Kusumoto uses the traditional origami-like folding technique tsumami zaiku.

necklace

 

Other pieces use a method of heat-setting synthetic fabric until it holds the shape she wants.

pin

 

The fundamental simplicity of the process creates a stunning contrast with her often intricate designs in order to produce a beautiful piece of jewelry that is both majestic and captivating.

earrings

 

More of Mariko Kusumoto’s innovative jewelry and other works can be found at https://www.marikokusumoto.com/.

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Science

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 7 Comments

Stephan’s Quintet (group of five galaxies whose gravitational forces have locked four of them in a cosmic dance)

 

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

~ Carl Sagan

Sunday Evening Art Gallery –Molly Devlin

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 12 Comments

Molly Devlin is a contemporary surrealist painter based in Sacramento, California.In her exquisitely rendered portraits in acrylic, Devlin instills an aura of dreamlike mystery.The themes in her artwork are highly influenced by her love of nature and yearning to understand our relationship with the nature world.

Devlin’s style is most recognized for considerable intricacies, illuminated within surreal and organic dreamscapes.There is an airy, surreal feeling to her work, achieved often by transparent colors, soft brushstrokes and nebulous shapes and inferences.Her paintings provoke fantastical questions into the secrets of these animal kingdoms; how they relate, resemble, and morph into one another.

More of Molly Devlin‘s art can be found at https://mollydevlinart.bigcartel.com and https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2022/11/molly-devlin-acrylic-paintings/.

 

 

Dreams (repost)

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 11 Comments
Elena Moskaliova

I’ve been doing a lot of vivid dreaming lately — I have been for a year or two. I love the madness, the depth, emotions, and the unpredictable story lines that have been popping up.  Now and then there is a nightmare, payment, I suppose, for the magic of the mind, of the next dimension. 

This is a reprint of a blog I wrote back in 2021 about dreaming, and my thoughts about the messages behind the ones I can remember.

Don’t be afraid to dream. The most wonderful people come to visit you through them.

Dreams

 ~ HUMORINGTHEGODDESS

 

This blog is dedicated to my close friend Robin who lost both of her parents a little over a year ago.

Last night I had a dream.

I had spent the day with my mom at her house. I don’t know exactly what we were doing — cleaning, my guess. And talking. 

I was in the living room watching TV, and I yelled into the kitchen, “Where’s dad? I haven’t seen him all day.”

“He was sleeping in there — you must have missed him,” she replied. Then a deeper voice answered. “I’m right here.”

So I went into the softly lit kitchen and there they were, my mom and dad, sitting at a small kitchen table. There were wood scraps on the table; my dad was a carpenter all his life, and was always working on something.

I remember coming and kneeling next to him. Something didn’t feel quite right. Like neither one of them was supposed to be there.

I had a thought in the back of my mind. 

“What’s it like over there?” I asked. 

My dad smiled and nodded but said nothing. So I continued.

“Is it beautiful? Eternal? Spiritual?”

“Yes it is,” he said, smiling.

I lost my mother 49 years ago, my dad 15. Yet I still dream of both of them.

I don’t care what psychologists and scientists and textbooks say about the origin of dreams. It’s the one world man really doesn’t fully understand.

And I believe dreams are a portal. A connection.

Our only connection.

Dreams hold our fears and experiences, along with our passions and imaginations. Those points in our life never leave us. And even if you say you don’t dream, you do. You just don’t remember them. They are a way to remind us who we are. How we got here. 

Dreams are our connection to those who have gone before us, proof that all is well.

In this world and the next.

 

 

Not As Easy As You Think

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 8 Comments

This article … oh… blog … is dedicated to those of you out there who have been sprinkled with a little A.D.D. dust. You know who you are.

And if you have to ask yourself if you have been, you have been.

I’ve been trying to get more active in my old age, despite the roadblocks my body and psyche keep throwing up to stop me. I am tired of being tired, sleepy, and muddled. I’m talking to my doctor this week about some of my medications, working on the drug angle as well.

We went camping lasy weekend, just the two of us. Oh, and the stink butt dogs. It was to be a couple of days of doing absolutely nothing (except cook and clean up). We were going to walk the dogs, picnic like we were in the wine country of France, and read. We needed to relax. Both of us.

Sitting still in a chair near the woods in the sunshine (or shade) isn’t as easy as you’d think.

You start out relaxed. Feet stretched out, cold drink on the table next to you, maybe a small antipasto to carry you to lunch. The birds are singing away, kids laughing in the distance, a cool breeze tickling your hair. You’ve got a book you’ve been dying to read and/or dying to finish. All is well with the world.

For the first 10-15 minutes.

You find you are a little too hot or a little too cold. The sun has moved and it’s in your eyes. Or the shady spot you’ve found is suddenly filled with gnats or worse. You unconsciously start wiggling you RSL foot (or leg or legs) and suddenly you lose your place in your book. You notice the kids at the campground next door or four sites down never quit screaming while they’re playing.

You get back into your book. This is the part you’ve been wanting to read since winter. And you start wondering what your grandkids are doing today. Or your sister. Or your best friend. 

You come back to the book. Yes! Take a drink of your beverage and the waterdrops on the outside of your glass drip onto your pages. You don’t want to get up just to get a wipe so you use the bottom of your shirt.

Your restless leg or your blinking from the bright sun threatens to take all of your attention. And now that mosquito bite from yesterday right above your ankle is starting to itch like crazy and the dogs are licking themselves with that unbearable sound.

You manage another page, still trying to enjoy paradise, when some weird bird starts screeching from the tree at the end of the campsite, and you wonder — is it a bird or is it a squirrel?

What is going on here? Why are you letting all these minor distractions distract you?

You’re getting antsy and over reactive for seemingly no reason. And the more you fight it, the worse it becomes. It could be a form of your A.D.D. that you don’t have, or it could be your younger side getting bored.

Modern day men and women have a hard time sitting still for any length of time. We always feel like we should be doing SOMETHING. Just ask TV commercials or social media. They constantly remind you that there are tons of things waiting for you back home, and they can help. You know: doing laundry, washing floors, stopping headaches, wiping up spills,  picking out a new cell phone. A thousand other things you should be doing instead of kicking back doing NOTHING.

Well, it’s up to us to work through this distraction of distraction. We work hard, run thousand of errands, work jobs and take care of children and do the dishes every day!  We deserve a break! A silent break!

Let’s make sure we take that break. For our sanity, for our soul, and for our creativity. After all… even God took a break on the seventh day, didn’t She? Making the Earth n’ all that stuff was a lot of hard work. She deserves some quiet time, too.

Find the Lady a book!

 

Bird on a Ladder (repost)

~ humoringthegoddess ~ Leave a comment
(for those of you who might have received an earlier version of this post in email, I apologize. I am flighty and getting old and forget now and then how to repost. It’s really supposed to be posted today….)

 

Ivor Steven is one of my favorite people, along with one of my favorite poets. I love his blog, his flowing emotions, his fun point of view, and his awareness of the pain and beauty around us. I hope you get a chance to check out his work.

 

 

Bird on a Ladder

 

I am a blackbird on a circus ladder

Singing about how the world is feeling sadder

Or should I sing, “becoming madder” →

 

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2023/06/05/bird-on-a-ladder/

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Sarka Evans

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Sarka Evans lived in Prague, Czech Republic, a city full of art and history,  during the first half of her life.In 2015, she retired after spending 41 years in the field of clinical psychology, and began to devote her free time to pursue art.Evans started with stained glass, making multiple large stained glass window panels and Tiffany lamps, and gradually metamorphosed into glass and stone mosaics.The artist hand cuts and places each piece of glass and stone to create beautiful mosaics.She includes not only glass and stones, but also driftwood, tree bark, and clay.Evans’ studio is a sunroom in her house in Door County, Wisconsin, creating peace and beauty in each marvelous piece.More of Sarka Evan’s handmade mosaics can be found at https://plumbottomgallery.com/collections/sarka-evans.

 

 

This Is Your (miniscule) Chance!

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 11 Comments

wild flowers in my yard

Lately I have come across a lot of posts on social media that turn Monday (really, ANY day) into a special attention day. Often it’s a chance to share your poetry, your art, or your website.

I imagine those who host those sites get plenty of traffic, both for their own cause and that of others. I think that’s great.

I, on the other hand, am of smaller scope and friendship base, content to read other blogs when I can and encourage art in its myriad of forms when I can’t.

On this Monday, though, I’d really like to talk about your website. The one you use to sell your crafts, or the one you use to just show off your creativity.

I’d like to show off your site.

I love art sites. Quilting sites. Knitting sites. Painting sites. Ceramics sites. I think sharing your creativity with the world is one of the best experiences you can have. You may be interested in selling your wares, building a following, or finding fellow crafters who can help you advance your craft.

I’d love to hear about your website. I have made good friends here, sharing their art and their inspirations, and I’d like to take a chance with your art as well. No set dates, no set categories — just a note to all my followers to check your unique art out in person.

You may find kindred spirits among the Goddess’s flower fields — or a new hobby you can dig your feet, nails, and teeth into. 

Let’s do this together!! It’ll be a Creativity Moment for ALL of us!!!

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Alexis Auguste Delahogue

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 7 Comments

Alexis Auguste Delahogue (1867-1953) was a French 19th Century painter who specialized in scenes from Algeria and neighboring countries.He was considered an orientalist painter, which refers to a representation of the East in Western art which often blurred the line between fantasy and reality.Travelling with his twin brother Eugène, Delahogue painted landscapes and genre scenes borrowed from the Maghreb (the region of North Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea), travelling in all directions with a predilection for Tunisia.Delahogue was a member of the Société des Peintres Orientalistes and the Société des Artistes Algériens et Orientalistes.Although there is not a lot of background information on the artist,  he was known a prolific painter of vibrant scenes of Algerian life.Delahogue was able to capture the everyday lives of  people from Algiers to El Kantara and Biskra. He delighted in painting  camels, desert caravans, oases, and various personalities he met on his travels.

More of Alexis Auguste Delahogue’s paintings can be found at https://www.artnet.com/artists/alexis-auguste-delahogue/6.

 

Faerie Paths — The Beautiful Lady (La Bele Dame)

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 2 Comments

Walter Crane

 

 

La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
‘I love thee true’.

She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Thee hath in thrall!’

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

~John Keats

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Simone Crestani

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 2 Comments

Italian artist Simone Crestani has been blowing glass since he was 15 years old.He comes from the Venice region, where working with glass is one of the traditional crafts, so this type of art is in his blood.

Crestani creates beautiful glass sculptures that combine his love of glass work with his love of the natural world.Many of his creations can be considered part of a contemporary “Cabinet of Curiosity” where nature is not defaced but respected by reproducing its essence in fragile transparent shapes.The infinite variety of of plant and animal forms inspires his magical world, a celebration of lightness and transparency in always new and original creations of crystalline purity and beauty.Crestani uses the lampworking technique to make these objects out of clear borosilicate glass in a more sculptural manner than is traditional, allowing him to create works that may be large in size but still exquisite in their meticulous representation of the details.

More of Simone Crestani‘s exquisite glasswork can be found at   https://www.simonecrestani.com/ and https://sandraainsleygallery.com/gallery-artists/simone-crestani/.

 

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Twinkle

~ humoringthegoddess ~ Leave a comment
(choose one version… there are so many)

We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.

Everyone’s a star and deserves the right to twinkle.

All we demanded was our right to twinkle.

~ Marilyn Monroe

 

 

Welcome Back

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 8 Comments

I have been running around the past few weeks and am very glad to be back on solid home ground again.

You heard of my camping fiasco — just got done planning it again for next year. Never give up, I say.

Last weekend was my escape to our family cabin up north and participation in my first craft show of the year.

I must say that with all the “North Woods-y” arts that surrounded me this year, my sparkling strings of crystals kinda stood out like a fish driving a van. But they seemed popular, so my first escapade with the buying public went fairly well.

Offering your homemade creations to the public can be a nerve wracking experience. Whatever it is you make, you wonder … does it  look professional? Well-made? Will they fall apart the first time someone uses it? If you knit, are the stitches straight? Do the colors blend right? Painting, maybe you’re an abstract kinda person. Is it too abstract? Too colorful? Does it say anything?

Ack, you did just fine. I know ~I~ did fine. They were homemade, not expensive, and made with love. Just like (I hope) everything you make is.

You may wonder what this “fantastic thing” is that I never shut up about. It’s my granny hobby; my old lady creative outlet. They are called Angel Tears Suncatchers, which are single strings with rhinestones, embellishments and crystals that reflect the sunlight.

This project, this hobby, is what creativity is all about. It challenges my imagination, gives me a scheduled play time that is all my own,  and brings delight to others as well. 

Your art should do the same. Whether it’s sculptures out of old silverware (I saw that at the fair and loved it!) or painting boat oars (loved that too!), you should enjoy what you do.

They say it’s not the destination that counts, but the journey. And I am loving every minute of this journey.

I promise I am working on a website to show you what the madness is all about. I hope you have or are making a site of your own too,  even if it’s a showcase and not a salescase.

Show off your madness! I’d love to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Boris Vallejo

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 5 Comments

Considered to be one of the masters of modern fantasy illustration, Boris Vallejo was born in Lima, Peru on January 8, 1941.Vallejo began painting at the age of 13, and obtained his first illustration job three years later at the age of 16.He attended the Escuela Nacional Superior Autónoma de Bellas Artes on a five-year scholarship.After emigrating to the United States in 1964, he quickly garnered a fan following from his illustrations of Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, Doc Savage and various other fantasy characters (often done for paperback-fiction works featuring the characters).This led to commissions for movie-poster illustration, advertisement illustration, and artwork for various collectibles.Along with his wife and collaborator (and often model) Julie Bell, Vallejo has done a great volume of work for the Fantasy field, having worked for virtually every major publishing house with a science fiction/fantasy line.His classic sense is as much an homage to the old masters as it is to anyone contemporaneously working in the Fantasy genre.Whether the work features sword and sorcery, space travel, pulp heroes, or imaginative creatures, his paintings are often tinged with eroticism.For sheer dauntless bravura, few have ever pushed the limits as does Boris with his beautiful maidens and fearsome monsters.More of Boris Vallejo‘s amazing drawings can be found at https://www.borisjulie.com/.

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Delita Martin

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 6 Comments

Delita Martin (b. 1972, Conroe, Texas) creates large-scale prints onto which she draws, sews, collages, and paints.

 

Martin claims space for her subjects, particularly black women, creating a powerful presence that simultaneously highlights the historical absence of black bodies in Western art.Through her work, Martin aims to create a new iconography for African Americans based on African tradition, personal recollections, and physical materials.A recurring theme throughout Martin’s work is exploring interconnections between past and present generations.She conveys these connections through symbols such as circles, a shape representative of the moon and symbolic of the female, and birds, which represent the human spirit.

Masks, inspired by the Sowei and Ife masks of West Africa, appear in many of Martin’s works, signifying transition between this world and the spirit world.

Expertly layering all of these elements, Martin visualizes the liminal space between the physical and spiritual worlds.More of Delita Martin‘s marvelous paintings can be found at https://blackboxpressstudio.com/ and https://nmwa.org/press/delita-martins-large-scale-portraits-create-new-iconography-african/.

 

 

Plan B

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 5 Comments

How many times have I started a blog, “On my way to doing something completely different ….” Alas, this curse/blessing followed me once again last weekend.

We were supposed to go camping with friends down in beautiful Missouri at Onadaga State Park, with a tour of the caves thrown in for our exercise day. 

Well, you know me and my life. The park emailed me the day before and said the park was closed because of flooding.

THE DAY BEFORE.

Panic. Stress. Ticked Off. You name it, I felt it.

You also know I love a wee bit of adventure, so we made our way to Plan B. Plan B is anything you do that is close to what you originally wanted to do but couldn’t do for one reason or another. And there is always a plan B somewhere.

We decided to drive down to Nashville, Tennessee, spend two nights at our friend’s house, then drive across the state to Cumberland Mountain State Park.

I always try and find another rainbow if the first one disappears. One way or another I was going to see my friends and have a great time.

It all worked out. It turned out the park in Missouri changed their mind and stayed open, but we were already down the road on Plan B. Lots of driving, but also lots of beautiful waterfalls, lush foliage, and the edge of the Appalachian Mountains. It was good food and good times.

It wasn’t Missouri, but it was Tennessee.

Don’t let a change of scenery put you off. If you plan on going somewhere, doing something, find a way to do it. Don’t give up. Make a plan but don’t worry about the plan.

The same is true no matter if you’re painting, sketching, knitting, or writing. Art takes you where it wants to go — you are just along for the ride.

And don’t worry — there are quite a few letters after B you can activate …

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Troy Emery

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 2 Comments

Troy Emery is a contemporary artist from Melbourne, Australia.

Between leaving his regional hometown of Toowoomba and moving to Hobart to attend art school, he decided he wanted to study fashion. Then he discovered he didn’t.Following his instincts, he dropped out of fashion school, but took his love of textiles and haberdashery with him.Emery works primarily with textiles in a sculptural practice to produce figurative forms and imagery.At the core of his ‘fake taxidermy’ sculptures is an interest in humankind’s relationship with animals.Emery works primarily with textiles in the form of colorful polyester tassels.He combines combining these materials with animal forms, a kind of pelt, where the fabric creates a textile mass over the animal.The core structure of the work is an anatomically correct to scale animal model, so the sculptures are, underneath, distinct animals like lions, foxes, and big cats.Through the process of building the colorful textile pelt, that very particular animal disappears and transforms into something less recognizable but still recognizably animal-like.More of Troy Emery‘s amazing sculptures can be found at https://troyemery.net/ and https://ocula.com/artists/troy-emery/artworks/.

 

 

Umbrella Stained Glass (Repost)

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 4 Comments

A haiku, bright colors, daydreams, and Ireland. Who could find a better combination?

A lovely post by a lovely person.

 

UMBRELLA STAINED GLASS
Brenda Davis Harsham

toasties and crumble
beneath a magical sky,
family smiles

 

https://friendlyfairytales.com/2023/05/13/umbrella-stained-glass/

 

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Advice

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 7 Comments

 

Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it. 

~Erin Bury

 

 

 

There are stars you haven’t seen (repost)

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 2 Comments

Always inspirational……

There are stars you
haven’t seen
and loves you haven’t loved
there’s light you haven’t felt
and sunrises yet to dawn
there are dreams
you haven’t dreamt
and days you haven’t lived
and nights you won’t forget
and flowers yet to grow
and there is more to you
that you have yet to
know ..

~ Gaby Comprés ~

Artist Credit : Laivi Poder

 

Purplerays

 

 

Love of the Craft

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 11 Comments
                               Matt Stewart

I cannot tell you that I’m getting ready to go camping in Missouri in a short bit. I cannot tell you that I may or may not have access to the Internet, and if my individual connection works I’ll still be peeking in to read other blogs. I cannot tell you those things in case the bad guys are watching and planning on visiting my friend who is big and gorilla-like and staying here in my stead with his shepherd Turnkey.

But my first priority is to explore a cave or two along with kicking back in the shade sipping cranberry/blueberry wine and feeding strawberry tops to my dogs.

Why do some of us need to tell everyone when we’re going on an adventure? Isn’t LIFE an adventure? Every day?

Somehow I think there is a human need to have fun and adventure someplace other than your home base. After all, exploring places you’ve never been before is like traveling through outer space — you never know what’s around the next sun!

My husband is younger than me, so he will be retiring in September.  Hopefully the future will be filled with explorations we both can appreciate. But sometimes I wonder.

I’d love to spend a month in France or England. He wants to go to Europe for a couple of weeks, visiting 3-5 main cities in one trip.

I want to go to New Mexico and visit Canyon Road, a half mile strip of over 100 of the 250 galleries in the city that feature a diverse array of art. He’d be satisfied with a passthrough with lunch and a couple of galleries.

I dream big, he dreams practical. It’s a good match. It’s a good thing, too.

So I’ve left a few new blogs behind to show you I’m still so into sharing life, love, and Art with you. The love of the craft won’t let me wander far without you.

I’ll be sure to take a couple of pictures of the cave for you, too … I’m sure it looks like the one above  …

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Happy Mother’s Day

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 7 Comments

 

Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.
~ Robert A. Heinlein

The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation. ~James E. Faust

It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful? ~ Mahatma Gandhi

There is no role in life that is more essential than that of motherhood.    ~Elder M. Russell Ballard

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.     ~William Makepeace Thackeray

Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother’s secret hope outlives them all. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Ferdinand Hodler

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Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) was one of the best-known Swiss Symbolist painters of the nineteenth century.Hodler was the son of a carpenter and a woman of peasant stock. His parents and all five of his siblings had died of tuberculosis by the time he reached adulthood.The works of Hodler’s early maturity consisted of landscapes, figure compositions, and portraits, treated with a vigorous realism.Many of Hodler’s best-known paintings are scenes in which characters are engaged in everyday activities.In the last decade of the nineteenth century his work evolved to combine influences from several genres including symbolism and art nouveau.Hodler developed a style he called “parallelism” that emphasized the symmetry and rhythm he believed formed the basis of human society.Throughout the latter part of his career, Hodler’s depictions of Swiss patriotism and historic scenes became increasing popular with his countrymen.More of  Ferdinand Hodler‘s art can be found at https://wooarts.com/ferdinand-hodler/

You Listened to What??

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I never seem to stop amusing myself with my own actions. I always start out in one direction and wind up completely somewhere else.

I listened to an opera last Saturday as I was mowing the lawn.

It was a beautiful Saturday here in the Midwest. Sun shining, slight breeze to cool the body, lots of stay-at-home chores waiting for attention. Especially mowing the lawn.

I often listen to the radio in headphones while I mow these never-ending “yards.” It’s usually either oldies rock n’ roll or classical.

This time I chose classical.

Turning on WPR from Madison, Wisconsin, they were just starting a live broadcast from the Met in New York City of La bohème, an opera composed by Giacomo Puccini.

Now, if you know me (or took a good guess) I really enjoy upbeat classical music, along with smooth jazz, oldies rock and roll, big band, pop tunes from the 80s, and an occasional hairband like Metallica. Opera is about as popular in my repertoire as slasher movies. Like non-existent.

But it was either listen to this hoity toity singing or listen to music with a thousand commercials. So on to La Bohème I went.

You already can guess the outcome of this story. It was beautiful.

The voices, the story, everything was so much more than I was wont to believe. The opera was sung in Italian, so the announcers explained each act before it started. I had a vague notion of the story line, seeing that Nicolas Cage and Cher went to see that opera in the movie Moonstruck.

Now, I think you have to be in a certain state of mind to enjoy something not everyone appreciates. Opera is one of those niches. 

But I was a ready listener, and caught all four acts before I finished for the day. I even went inside after the first act to read the synopsis of the opera before I went to finish mowing.

Another world of Art opened to me on Saturday, one I hope to revisit again soon. We all need to give other forms of Art a chance.

After all, Richard Gere and Julia Roberts go to see Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata!  in the movie Pretty Woman …

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Jan Huling

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Jan Huling is an incredible bead artist who pushes the boundaries of traditional beadwork by using seed beads to re-create the surface design of found objects and give them new context.

A self-proclaimed “beadist”, Huling coats the surfaces of found objects with brightly colored seed beads.

Through surface design and elaborate patterns, she recontextualizes familiar objects, masking original forms to add whimsy and transform the mundane into something special. Inspired by a fascination with indigenous cultures, mythologies, and pop culture.Her pieces often explore the themes of enduring childhood and nostalgia. The iconography and color of her pieces are frequently dictated by the form of the object itself.Huling’s patterns echo tessellating African textiles, Southeast Asian Buddhist architectural ornamentation, and Mexican embroidery..Working with an air pen to place beads, as well as buttons, coins, tokens, and similar found objects, Huling adorns any object that catches her eye, and creates approachable, evocative objects that elevate the everyday.

More of Jan Huling’s beautiful beadery can be found at https://janhuling.com/.

 

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Reading

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… just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul.

 

~Pope John Paul XXIII

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Arno Rafael Minkkinen

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Arno Rafael Minkkinen is a Finnish-American photographer and Emeritus Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts and Docent at the Aalto University School of Art, Design, and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. Minkkinen was born in Finland in 1945 and emigrated to the United States in 1951.Exploring the relationship between the body and the environment, Minkkinen’s photographs inhabit a space between self-portraiture and landscape photography.

This creative photographer dexterously integrates his body into the natural landscape, creating visceral, poetic images that often appear to defy reality.He has an innate ability to frame a picture, to see and pursue a complex and pleasing composition.Minkkinnen has developed the ability to fold his body into the frame.The artist bends, stretches, hides, twists, and somehow manages to contort himself into just the right position at just the right moment to capture that certain magic he is known for.These images seamlessly blend self-portraiture and landscape in a reminder that humans are a part of the natural world, and that mind and body are crucially interconnected, as are humanity and nature.Despite ever-advancing possibilities for enhancement offered by technology, Minkkinen resolutely chooses not to use digital manipulation in his work, relying solely on the beauty of nature and his own physical endurance.Addressing the surreal and timeless quality of these images, Minkkinen has said, “there is no age to the picture when it is just the landscape and the body.”More of Rafael Minkkinen‘s amazing photography can be found at https://www.arnorafaelminkkinen.com.

 

 

 

Mistakes Are Really Only Missed Takes

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 3 Comments

No one likes to be mistaken.

We all like to think that we are always right, always true, always informed. Not in the haughty, I-know-everything  smarmy way — we just feel better when we know what we’re talking about.

But sometimes we are mistaken.

How we take being “mistaken” says a lot about ourselves. It a a reflection of our self confidence and personal strength.

Being “mistaken” may be as complicated as forgetting one of the numbers of Pi or as simple as thinking eggplant is a vegetable (it’s really a fruit), or thinking that chartreuse was pinkish purple (it’s yellow green). Just the tip of my “mistakes.”

The other day one of my readers pointed out that my picture of coleus leaves was really a picture of caladium leaves. Now, that’s a small thing, but I should have known better. I know what a coleus looks like (I own one!) and what a caladium looks like. I didn’t feel bad about my mistake — as a matter of fact I was very grateful for the clarification.

But there are those who take this kind of faux pas seriously, adding another notch to their belt of “I’m really worthless.” That sounds like an extreme reaction, but there are many on this planet who live for extreme reactions.

Don’t do it. Don’t notch.

We all are learners, every day of our lives. And being mistaken is just another skip in your record keeping. I never knew you could make art from broken pottery or band aids or toothpicks, or that if you see a horse laying down it doesn’t mean it’s dead (I used to believe that!)

I appreciate learning from my mistakes. I also appreciate people who take the time to be kind in their corrections. Most times they are helping, not condemning. 

To me, mistakes are stepping stones of self improvement. Of understanding the world around us.

It’s too bad the world can’t learn from its mistakes. What a better place it would be.

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Illusions

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Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you’re going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.

~ Anne Lamott

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Iris Scott

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Iris Scott is an American professional contemporary finger painting artist based in Brooklyn, New York.Graduating from Washington State University in 2006 with a degree in art, Scott was a pioneer in the field of finger painting.Using just gloved fingertips, Scott works with paint like a malleable, nearly clay-like medium.Her vibrant rainbow palette depicts a parallel, but familiar universe, emitting an energetic optimism and a respect for the natural world.Scott stumbled upon finger painting when a serendipitous lack of clean brushes prompted her to finish a painting with her fingertips.In that moment she recognized how fingers could scoop oil paint better than brushes, and overnight she committed to leaving her brushes behind.“I was excited to force myself to stop using brushes because I was learning to ‘survive’ in uncharted territories,” Scott explains.“I recognized that although finger painting couldn’t do some things that brushes could, there were important advantages finger painting actually did have over brushes—and I am still discovering new ones every day!”More of Iris Scott’s marvelous finger paintings can be found at https://www.irisscottfineart.com/.

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Leaves

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In the whisper of the leaves appears an interchange of love.

~ William Jones

 

Butterfly Wing Plant

 

Wine Cup Plant

 

Hardy Tapioca Leaves

 

Oak Leaf

 

Canna Plant

 

Begonia Rhizomatous ‘Escargot’

 

Staghorn Fern

 

Baby Tears Leaves

 

Caladium Leaves

 

Bull Thistle Leaves

 

Giant Rhubarb Leaves

 

Lamb’s Ears Leaves

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Escapism

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Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.

~ Seth Godin

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Guy Buffet

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Guy Buffet was born in Paris, France in the district of Montparnasse on January 13, 1943.

His father took young Guy for walks in Montparnasse to show him famous landmarks where artists such as Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and George Braque would spend most of their days and evenings.

At 14, he moved to the south of France with his mother, and enlisted in the Beaux Arts School of Toulon to study art full time.

Buffet joined the French Navy in 1961 at the age of eighteen, and was assigned to the cruiser, “De Grasse”, headed for a seven month journey around the world.

The French Navy recognized Buffet’s artistic talent and named him their official artist.

Buffet’s famous images depict restaurants, people, landscapes, and cities with a humorous and light touch.

Buffet’s depictions often reflect the everyday working world, along with his love of people and food and exotic locations.

His whimsical rendition of sommeliers, chefs and waiters and other images are found not only in his paintings, but on every day items as dinner plates, napkins, tablecloths, and fashion.

More of Guy Buffet‘s light hearted and wonderful work can be found at https://www.guybuffet.com/ and https://lahainagalleries.com/guy-buffet-art.

 

Cubism and Discovery

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The Weeping Woman, Pablo Picasso

 

I am not necessarily a fan of Cubism. It’s more that I don’t understand Cubism, let alone abstract art.

But I’m learning to take a few minutes and really look at some of the modern art that has made a difference to the Art World.

I was looking through my Pablo Picasso Gallery last eve, cleaning it up, straightening it up, when I came across the above painting. The Weeping Woman.

It  has been described as “an iconic work within the history of British Surrealism” (says Wikipedia).

I didn’t look up the meaning behind the painting, the inspiration, the emotions. All I did was sit and look at the woman to see what I could gleam from its entirety.

I can’t say that most Cubism moves me, but this one did. Are her tears in her Kleenex, or are they just boxed under her eyes? Her fingers near her mouth — is that her chin or another hand? A star in only one eye, two different colored hairs — enough of an abstract image to read pain and/or sorrow or both in her face.

There is a lot of modern art in this world that has a lot of meaning behind it, both what the artist intended and what they intended the viewer to decide. A friend once explained modern art as whatever the viewer sees and interprets.

We all see landscapes and portraits for what they are … recreating the exactness of a scene or a person. I’ve always loved scenic landscapes, precise details, realistic portrayals.

The Crying Woman is none of these.

Or is it?

I hope to explore other artists and their paintings one by one. Not all of them all at once. But to take a closer look at the ones that “call” me. After all, I would not have showcased the artist has something not caught my attention.

Do you ever take a second look at art that calls you in a somewhat different voice?

What do you see when you look at the Crying Woman?

 

 

Nothing Melts a Heart Faster Than …

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On my way to researching something else…….

This was a cute one. Hope it makes you smile this morning!

 

humoringthegoddess's avatarHumoring the Goddess

Google Searches related to nothing melts hearts faster than….

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They just don’t get it, do they?

Nothing melts hearts faster than kittens

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Nothing melts hearts faster than LOVE.

Start melting TODAY!

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Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Raymond Logan

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Artist Raymond Logan paints a wide range of subjects with exquisite depth and color. His layered palette resembles sculpture, crafted of hue and shadow.

Frederick Douglass

The works have reverence and gravitas, coupled with a lively playfulness, born of both the artist’s execution and the connections he evokes between the viewer and the subject.

Benjamin Franklin

While each portrait is often recognizable, they are not realistic in the truest sense of the word.

John Coltrane

It is as if an explosion of colored confetti had descended from the sky and reshaped itself into the personification of a human being.

Harriet Tubman

Created in oil paint, using both palette knife and brush, all the elements are there, but it is those many disparate pieces that form a realistic whole.

Charlie

“My work is born through solid draftsmanship plus a liberal application of paint via a brush or a knife or anything I can get my hands on, plus plenty of color experimentation and the carving of my medium,” Logan explains.

Charles Darwin

“It is truly gratifying when a viewer, while being up close to my work, stares in wonder at the surface, then, while backing away, witnesses all that texture and color (that an art textbook tells them shouldn’t work) and abstraction somehow mysteriously develop into a recognizable subject.”

Ernest Hemingway

“That ‘somehow’ is me.”

Frank Sinatra

More of Raymond Logan’s wonderful paintings can be found at http://www.raymondlogan.com/.

 

High recognitions . . . The Little Flower Fairies

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My thoughts on faeries exactly …. Thank you for the post, Purplerays

purpleraysblog's avatarPurplerays

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The Little Flower Fairies

The little flower fairies have the same radiant beauty as their great guardians. Their size varies according to the size of their flowers. However, they are hardly ever over six inches tall. Since the enteallic nations are also subject to a development process, the daughters of the flowers fairies are consequently very tiny little creatures.
All flowers, without exception, are under the fairies’ care. This, however, does not mean that there is a fairy in every flower; only especially protected flowers are directly cared for by the fairies. It is not too hard to spot these flowers, for in their luminosity and beauty they surpass all others. The flower fairies do not live in flowers of gross matter, but in the somewhat finer layer, which still belongs to the world of gross matter, and permeates Earth entirely, enveloping it as if it were another…

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Faerie Paths — Poppies

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Debra and Dave Vanderlaan

 

 

I write, erase, rewrite
Erase again, and then
A poppy blooms.

A Poppy Blooms, Katsushika Hokusai

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Naoki Onogawa

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Japanese artist Naoki Onogawa has been fascinated with the traditional art of origami since he was a child.

 

Now, he incorporates the popular craft into his own artwork.

Using nothing more than his hands, the artist folds hundreds of tiny origami cranes that are small enough to fit on the tip of his finger.

 

Inspired by the legend of the 1000 cranes and the story of Sadako Sasaki, Onogawa folds hundreds of miniature origami cranes that later become bonsai trees of various colors and styles.

Those minuscule paper creatures are used as leaves on the delicate branches of his asymmetrical tree-like sculptures.

 

“Origami cranes sometimes feel like a solitary ceremony filled with prayers, entrusting the feeling of having nowhere to go, and going back and forth to places other than this world,” Onogawa explains.

“I can’t express it well in words, but the paper cranes I’m folding up now may be the result of such ‘prayers’.”

 

“By layering paper cranes on the threads and blessings of nature and such things and incorporating them into my work, I have created a “place” for paper cranes.”

 

More of Naoki Onogawa’s inspirational work can be found at https://naoki-onogawa.com.

What Happened April 18, 2011?

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April 18, 2011. It was a Monday. A partly cloudy day, the temperature peaking at about 46 degrees. It was before the tragic events of 9/11 and my personal loss of 2/22.

It was a few months before the Royal Wedding of William and Kate and long before the terror of Covid-19.

I was still under 60, still working as a catalog coordinator, and still dreaming of being a writer.

And it was the date of my first blog. 

Originally called Humoring the Goddess: Managing the Madness Magic of Middle Age, it was supposed to mingle a bit of magic with the madness that surrounded us as we eased away from the dreams of our 20’s to the realities of life past 40. 

In my first blog called Even the Universe Chuckles, I toyed around with the sections called Momentary Musings and Quimsical Quotations and Frivolous Facts and Falderal. 

My first response was from my good, good writing friend Boyd, who passed away much too young, and my best friend Jillian, who is with me still.

It was working.

As I got older I grew up (just a little) and wrote about all the things that bothered/affected me/made me laugh as I got older. I followed other blogs and found inspiration in many of them, some of which are no longer active. 

Eleven years ago I started on a journey that I’m still on. I found I enjoyed discovering and sharing unusual, unique art, whimsical quotations, and unique pictures and gifs.

I discovered I am no different than anyone else who reads and writes and feels, and I have made special connections with those who have commented on my blogs through the years. I found that I love encouraging others to find their creative muse and run with them to the ends of the earth and jump off at the end and follow that spirit through the stars.

I have come a long way from that young (under 60) woman looking to entertain and be entertained. And I have a long way to go, still wanting to entertain and be entertained.

Thank you all for 11 years of creativity.

Thank you for reading me, listening to me, and being a part of my life. It has been amazing. And full of love. Lots and lots of love.

Here’s to 11 more years of everything — for you and for me!   

 

 

 

 

 

Movies Ad Nauseum

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 5 Comments

Godzilla Raids Again, 1955

I wanted to  chat with y’all this evening about movies. But I’m not quite sure what it is I want to talk about.

Our family got rid of cable a few years ago, substituting the paid outlets of Amazon Prime and Netflix as our entertainment kingdoms, along with an every day antenna that pulls in local channels like Grit and ME-TV. I’m sure you all have similar guilty pleasures as far as movies and old TV shows go, too.

The other day I thought I’d wander through some off the free, off-channels that are offered on various networks.

Holy Smokes, did I find the movies.

I would say I discovered hundreds — nay, thousands — of movies that I’ve never heard of. Movies I never dreamt existed.

All genres were represented on a number of free movie streaming services: drama, horror, comedy, documentaries, the black experience. I imagine the time frame stretched back ten, maybe even twenty or thirty years.

That’s a lot of movies…. a lot of movies I’ve never heard of.

Who made these movies? Who were these actors and actresses? Who wrote these stories and how did they ever get funded and made?

The world of movies is vast. I mean universe-vast. Like any other topic you can think of, us mere mortals usually only watch the tip of the iceberg. For every Titanic or Top Gun that steals the attention of the media, there are film names like Pete’s Meteor and In the Fade and Evil Bong 666 that make you add several question marks after the title.

It’s almost scary.

Like the bazillions of microbes that exist on earth (Dr. Universe says there are about a billion microbes in a teaspoon of soil), there are stories upon stories that have found their way from some obscure movie studio to a movie screen somewhere to today’s free movie land.

That doesn’t even cover the dozens of episodes on hundreds and thousands of old television shows you can watch, too.

But I digress.

There are dozens of free movie channels at our fingertips; if you don’t mind watching commercials, these avenues are wide open for you to explore.

Not that you will want to, mind you. We all have a million other things we’d rather do — and should be doing — than waste brain cells watching movies that probably never saw the light of day.

I know I won’t be exploring those worlds any time soon.

But still … like the billions of microbes floating around in our soil and air, they still exist. Waiting silently for you to click and watch.

Doesn’t that give you the creeps? Just a little?