Whatever happened to...

those Personal Ads with the wonderfully cryptic messages that used to be in the classified section of the newspaper? I loved reading them and used to search the paper in hopes of finding them.  Then I could dream and imagine what their story was.

"Looking for Joe from the Dew Drop Inn. Call me. Wanda." Or "We met Sat at matinee. Call me. Blond in green." Or "Uncle Joe dead. Come home at once."

Seems there were a lot more of those when I was a kid. No email then and no google search for finding just about any one I guess. Do you ever see these in your local paper anymore? I'm curious.

Anyway, because I have a very demanding friend who has whined and complained that I mention every one but him in my blog, I will leave him a message. "Ken, Sun ten am at wallys is on."

He claims he reads my blog.  We'll just see, won't we?

More later.  Gotta go pay bills, even though I'd much rather play here.

  

Fish and Frogs

While I have been painting and visual journaling for only a short time, I have kept written journals and crafted stories and poems for years. I am working on posts of a trip to D.C. and a recent flight on the Goodyear Blimp, but for today, here are two poems inspired by my fascination with fish and frogs. These poems, by the way, reflect actual events. I have lead a most magical life.

Fish Talk

One cold and rainy night,

exhausted from a long
day at work then hours of class

at the University

in the City, I boarded
the very last bus to
my home in the suburbs.

Sometime into this long

and miserable journey,

I looked up to see a

disheveled and wild eyed

young man standing at my seat.
He asked, could sit with me?

Surprised, a bit mesmerized
I moved my coat and books

from the seat beside me
and he sat down. We rode

in silence, shoulders nearly
touching. Then, quietly,

"Do you dream in the night?"

Though uneasy, I nod yes.

"What did you dream last night?"

So intimate, this question,

I tremble but answer, "Fish."

"People who dream of fish are
sensuous", he mutters.

We traveled on in silence

to my stop. I saw him

often. He always saved me
a seat on the empty bus.

I always took it though
we never shared a glance
or spoke another word.

lm 2007

Amorous Amphibian

I shine my flashlight in the pond

and search for the monster who

makes such a big noise.

Sometimes he feels most generous.

His gift, allowing me to see him

all puffed up.

Quite confident in his courting best.

Small in stature, but

large in voice, heart and lust.

His throat grows and he exhales
his longing. Some nights he is joined

by fellow bachelors

and the patio resounds

with their hopeful serenades
of passion and longing.

Flirty fellow,

I miss his ardent love songs

when romance wins and he has a date.

lm 2007

And the husband and I had breakfast this morning with Ken! I knew you would want to know. The food was awful and over priced but the patio seating is very pleasant and it was good to see Ken again. He is an accomplished Executive Recruiter (aka headhunter) who has moved to Arizona. We have been friends for 20 + years and he likes to say that he's taught me everything I know. (There, Ken, you are now properly mentioned on my blog. Enough with the complaining already!)

Hello! It's hard to believe how long it's been since I've blogged. But, I haven't forgotten about any of you, in fact, I've been secretly visiting. My days have not been idle. I'm sure by now you have noticed the new header. This is a posterized version of a photo taken of the house at Trails End shortly after it was built in 1915. Notice the lack of vegetation? Over the years, it seems that nature and owners have been busy planting. If it still looked like this photo fires would be of little concern.

Art! Art! Art! I have been having wonderful fun with paints and photos, journals and friends. This first offering is unfinished. I want to put something symbolic and wonderfully mysterious in each corner near His Angelness. Still cooking that idea. He is my rendering of a wonderful wooden carved santo with metal wings that a friend gave me. I love him.


Although I have been traveling and having great adventures, these journal pages seem to suggest a bit of the shadow hanging around. Don't you love it when you start painting and cutting and pasting and writing and suddenly realize that you have just set free something that has been shivering, unseen, in the cellar? That and playing around with image altering software gave me this. Here, the muse dipped her brush into a deep well of angry frustration. I love the way it looks backlit.

A few days later, I was playing with some wonderful pages out of old, old books that an antique dealer friend brings to me. The quality of the paper and printing is absolutely transporting. And the smell, ummmmm. I know many of you know exactly what I'm talking about and are smelling it right now. Here's what came out of that. Don't ask me about the eyes on the finger tips. I have no clue. But it sure feels right. Oh, just a warning, don't read the little paste ups if you are feeling a bit down. This piece came from the basement!
Then there is this. I have been dreaming of snakes for over a month. Snakes are a common dream theme for me and usually represent wisdom that comes from taking risk. Snakes stand for wisdom in many mythologies, and while they are often portrayed as the enemy of woman, they are also befriended and tamed by women. This rings true for me and carries an enormous charge. Since we have moved to the ranch, I have had to learn to live with rattlers. Somehow, as much as I'm not crazy about this, it feels like something that needs to be in my life. This is the representation of a dream image that came complete with the instructions and explanations written. I actually dreampt this entire page.

P.S. I've always had great dreams. Back when I had my consulting practice, I used to dream entire seminars complete with illustrations and workbook lakyouts! I'd jump up in the morning and get to the computer before I lost it.

Looking this over before hitting the "publish now" button, I realize this post is a bit bizarre.
I hope I don't lose any of you. I'm perfectly safe, really.

Ok, I've been working on this post all day. Between blogger's unwillingness to cooperate and my weakness for distraction today, I'm surprised it's up.

Peace and wisdom to all.

A GREAT day

is what today turned out to be. I went to bed last night feeling not well at all. The alarm went off early for my Kiwanis meeting and I just didn't think I could get myself out of that nice soft bed. Several of us take turns writing the weekly newsletter, and today was my turn. Of course all it would have taken is a phone call and someone else would have done it. And, even if no one was available, in the course of human events this newsletter would rate pretty low. But every now and then my old Catholic training sets in. Words like commitment, promise and responsibility began to swirl about my sleepy mind. Of course, I got up. The first promising change was brought on by a shower. Then I wore a new top, remembered that the program today was by a group that reported on a humanitarian trip they took to India. Complete with wonderful slides of amazing photos.

I was already feeling better as I went out to the car and was greeted by this on the patio
Then this
This is the second round for both of these. Reminds me of an old cowboy song, My Adobe Hacienda. Phrase is "cactus blooming on the patio."

Then I saw the last of the water Iris. Looking pretty good for a straggler. The pot this is in is full of tadpoles.

Then, as well as 'things' looking up, 'I' looked up.



Throw in a cup of coffee, lots of hugs and laughs with friends and things were really turning around.

I did promise that I would take it easy today. So, I came home and planted myself in the den and cut, pasted, wrote. Made cards, journaled, drank lots of green tea and played with the dogs. Snuck out for a brief out to lunch with the husband and came right back to play with photos I've taken recently. That brings us up to right about now and feeling pretty good.

The husband came home the other day very excited about an angel statue that he saw at the store. He insisted I go back with him and see it. Guess what? We bought it and she looks great in the yard right outside of the den. She begged to have her picture taken and I obliged. Here is a two page journal entry using her.


Then I made a transparency transfer that came out better than any I've done so far. I glued it to cardboard and think I will make it into mail art. I just need to find someone to send it to. Hmmmm.
This next journal page is one of a couple I've done around a Nun theme. I am a product of these mysterious women and for some reason find myself thinking of them a lot lately. My first page was a bit of a juvenile rant that turned into a very different and mature perspective.

This is the power of journaling. Over the years I've filled composition books with my thoughts, dreams and fears. I've worked out a lot of difficult issues on paper as well as discovering that my daily writing could be seed for poems and prose. But I have to say that art journaling has had a much more profound effect on me.
On this page, I found myself thinking not of myself but about them; young women who stepped bravely into the unknown taking no familiar comfort with them. I have lots of Nun Stories for another day.

These "Nun" entries brought my internal housecleaning to life. I wasn't aware of any connection in these two pieces until today. Quite the experience having my Self point something out in the concrete to myself.

So, how can a day that started out reluctantly, evolved to angels and nuns and ended here with all of you be called anything but "great!"

Peace, Love and Mystery to all.

Potpourri

A most amazing week has just passed for me. A mixture of sweet and difficult moments. The biggest sweet is that I have had the delightful company of my youngest granddaughter, nearly 3. So smart, so pretty, so wise, so good!!! I have learned many great things from her.

And today my other daughter came to visit us with my 7 year old granddaughter. The two girls played and played. The 7 year old is soooooo good to the little. She helps her on the swings and even helped give her a bath tonight. They are constant reminders of how blessed I am.  The phrase on this journal page about grandchildren is stolen from someone, but for the life of me, I can't remember who to credit.  I think the actual quote was:  Grandchildren are your heart walking around outside of you.


And, this week brought a bit of a disappointing surprise. Seems my intentions were completely misunderstood and someone ended up feeling very offended. 'Impugned' is a word that was used. I was horrified. But I do believe, along with Rob Bezsny, that the universe is conspiring to shower me with blessings (otherwise known as Pronoia-the opposite of paranoia) and that was certainly true in this misadventure. I'll spare the details, but I have had several positive exchanges over this, which I sincerely appreciate, and I am hopeful that a relationship will be mended and this can be left behind. Even my home page horoscope on the day of the affair felt like a personal message.

Daily Scorpio horoscope:

Don't try to force your ideas on anyone, dear Scorpio. It is important to maintain a point of neutrality so that you can act from a stable state of mind when someone confronts you with an issue that needs to be dealt with right away. The key is to act on a situation instead of reacting to it. If you know that you are right about something, keep it to yourself.

Back in the day, I did seminars on discovering The Beloved. One exercise I devised was to have the participants look at their horoscopes in the daily paper and view them as personal love messages from The Divine.

I have been working on myself for years and have begun to see the fruits of my labors, but this event helped me see real progress and that encourages me to keep working. I want to leave the planet calm and at peace with myself, with others and the world around me.

Then, more sweetness. I got mail art from that crazed woman, Randi. Fascinating art and supportive messages. And, because the age of miracles hasn't passed, I finally finished a piece to send back to her. Ahhhhh.



The gods smiled upon me again by sending me all sorts of hidden messages in the reading I did this week. Here are just a few of the phrases and image makers I've picked up. The first two are from Poe Ballentine in this months issue of the Sun and the third is from a friend.

the thunder of migrating butterflies
the dust of dying stars
reflect the spiritual image of the Creator in the closet

All in all, a week heavy with growth, riches, light and love.

Wish me luck as I strive to walk with open hands, giving no offense and taking none.

Where have I been?

Time sometimes passes in such a blur or fog or whatever and one day you realize that a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

I am working in two journals right now, depending on my mood and how much time I have. The skinny little pages, in a journal my daughter made are usually done in a jiff with garden variety markers, pens and a handful of items chosen at random from the overflowing box on my work space. I also work on this when I am on the phone with someone who just needs me to listen. These pages interest me because they seem to represent the entire process of letting someone into your head then taking them into your heart and letting the experience come out of your hands. The square pages, from a journal I made in a class with Kelly Kilmer, can also happen spur of the moment, but usually these are more leisurely put together with paint, specific images and the use of technique.

This page was painted and the images pasted in at Kelly's class. I had no idea what to do with it until I wrote this quote in response to feeling like I needed to spare others my...lets just say emotional release.


The next one is different for me. I just used a black and a red pen. I read about Barron Storey on Kelly's blog and looked at his site. I think I was under his influence with this one. I have given up trying to find "my" style. I'm pretty much all over the place at this point, and having fun trying everything out. My daughter tells me that she can identify me by the colors I tend toward.


First attempt drawing with charcoal pencil. I love the trees that Katie of joyouslybecoming puts in her spell binding paintings and did this under her spell.
Just some quick fun one day after hearing "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?" sung by Ray Charles and Bonnie Raitt on Genius Loves Company. Made me thing of a long-lost young love.
Waiting for a verse. I made this while clearly still under the romantic spell of that love song.

I am a struggling, fledgling drawer. I feel like this is a bit of a mess and very primitive but I read about this in Eat, Pray, Love and had to express the impact it had on me. Not the best book I've ever read, in fact a bit annoying. But the chapter with the shaman really spoke to me.
And I can post this here because of my wonderful friend Randi who when I told her I couldn't draw held up one of my attempts and said, "Yes you can. You draw like this!" See, Randi, see what you have unleashed on the world?

I love this page. The text comes from a good friend who is kind enough to save me pages from the old books he deals in. Yumm! I love this type. And I have hoarded this image for a couple of years waiting for the right piece to put it in. I think I will type some journaling, cut it out and paste the strips over the text.
This page is an example of being ready to accept the gift of something gone wrong. I was attempting a transparency transfer of an image I really liked. Ink was still too wet and it smeared all out of recognition. My initial disappointment vanished when I really looked at this. I love it, so mysterious and all. Reminds me of a map to a hidden kingdom. Then I found this blue feather in my stash. Serendipity, such a comfort in a rigid world.

Keep reading if you can stand more of me. These are some photos of koi that I took at a shop we visited to try and get snails for our little fish pond. Out back they have several pools of all sizes of koi for sale. You will recall, from earlier posts, I love taking pictures of fish in water. None of these will ever win a prize, but I like the play of water, light and flashing colors of fish. I was happy with them. Then, while cropping etc. one of them got enlarged and holy schmoly! take a closer look. Does anyone else remember, back in the late 70's I think it was, that subliminal advertising was on every one's mind. (So sorry, I just could not resist) There were books and articles urging us to beware the "hidden" images in things like photos of glasses of beer, for example. If you studied them closely, the ice cubes and bubbling brew contained grotesque and sexual images. And they did...well, if you closely and long enough.

While my fish photos have not been deliberately encoded with subliminal anything, just look what chaos brought us. Click on them to make them larger, let your eyes go "soft" and have some fun finding the "hidden" pictures.



The next one has the most obvious magic. Can you see the little sea sprite, who actually looks a bit like Daffy Duck, petting the black and orange fish?



Got to get going now. The husband and I are off to a board meeting for the rehab we are involved with then to an installation dinner for the officers of Key Club, the high school Kiwanis Club that our club sponsors. I love these dinners. Seeing the kids in this environment gives me hope for our world. Peace to all.