Shoo Fly

I know it's been a bit since my last post.  When starting this blog, I made a commitment to myself to post at least once a week.  I felt this was important in order to keep my blog fresh and build an audience.  But I found myself stuck on what to write about recently.  I had quite a few ideas and a few false starts, but none of them felt "right."  So I sat back and waited, knowing that Divine Intervention would set in when the time was right.  Too New Age-y??  Sorry :(

Any-hoo, here I am, and I'm inspired!  I've been working on lots of cuts, both as stock for upcoming shows and commissions that have come my way.  I must say I've been quite blessed in the amount of commissioned work that continually comes my way, especially when you consider I only went public a little over six months ago! 

Along with my cuttings, I've been doing a lot of spiritual work on myself.  Yes, getting New Age-y again!  Deal with it!

I journal on a regular basis, but I've since been inspired to write myself a manifesto.  It's different from my general journaling in that I start each piece by addressing:  "This is what I know..."  I know I'm not alone when I say that there seems to be so much confusion in Self.  We all struggle with it at one time or another.  So I figured the works I record in my manifesto would help ground me and keep me on track during those times when I lose sight of the horizon in my life journey.  Some thoughts I had recently on Beauty have really been inspiring me in a profound way so I decided that needed to be the direction of today's post.

I'm committed to Beauty -- to seeing beauty in myself, in my life, in those I surround myself with, and in the natural world. 
I'm committed to sharing in that Beauty -- by sharing myself with the world, by my actions, my choices, and my treatment of Self and others. 
I will create Beauty -- by bearing witness to it, by exposing it to others, and by creating my art. 
I express the Beauty of my Soul through my creativity and I perpetuate Beauty through how I choose to live my life.

I was recently asked to create a piece for a charity event that was auctioning off homemade quilts.  The money raised is being used to help rebuild homes for those affected by Hurricane Sandy.  I was honored to be asked to create a piece for this worthwhile endeavor.  In making this cutting, I feel I was fully embracing that which I wrote of above. 

Here is a picture of the finished product, framed and ready to go.  The pattern is called 8-Pointed Star & Shoo Fly.  This popular quilt pattern is seen a lot here in Berks County, where I live.  I may not have the mad sewing skillz needed to make quilts...but I am pretty handy with a scissors, if I do say so myself!  ;)

Reminiscing

Today's entry is going to feature another Victorian house cutting.  It's a very special cutting to me as it triggers lots of memories from my youth!  Please join me at this time for a trip down memory lane.

Queen Anne Victorian

I grew up primarily in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, which is where I also currently make my home.  Wernersville is a rather small old town with a typical main street called Penn Avenue.  Along Penn Avenue are quite a few of these beautiful Queen Anne Victorians.  All are privately own, are in relatively good condition (some better than others), and are quite a feast for the eyes -- all except for one which was just demolished, quite sadly, earlier this year.  Incidentally, the one that was demolished was owned by my childhood piano teacher.  From what I'm told, it was one of those sad elderly couple situations where the wife died and the husband remained in the home, alone, living as a recluse, while the house literally fell down around him.  Heartbreaking indeed, in many ways...

Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I have quite an unnatural love/obsession with old homes, particularly Victorians.  Maybe it's a reflection of my love of all things old or all things spooky.  Maybe it's a mutation from my childhood fascination with ghosts and haunted houses.  Or maybe I'm just an "old soul" and my ancestral memories whisper so strong to me that I mistake the old as something current.  Either way, I love it O-L-D!

One of Penn Avenue's Queen Annes used to be the local library when I was growing up.  Throughout my teens and into my early 20's, I had a volunteer job at this library and Oh what a glorious time that was!  It was a quiet library, as all libraries generally are, but beings this was such a small town there was not much action going on during my work nights.  So to entertain myself I spent the majority of my time getting lost in all the faintly lit rooms, perusing the dark wood bookshelves for anything that caught my eye, or fantasizing what it would be like having this place all to myself as my home.  After all books were checked in and returned to their rightful places on the shelves, I would retreat to a darkened window seat in one of the front rooms and lose myself in whatever story struck my fancy.

Our town's library is now located in a newer building and the Queen Anne is once again a private residence.  The home has been beautifully restored (for the most part) and I get to feast my eyes on it daily.  And every time I drive or walk by, I'm transported back to my days in that front room on the window seat, lost in my imagination, creating new worlds to explore...a habit I have yet to break.

"On the Road"

"...they danced down the street like dingledodies and I shambled after as usual as I've been doing all my life after people that interest me, because the only people that interest me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yearn or say a commonplace thing...but burn, burn, burn like roman candles across the night." ~ Jack Kerouac

I have come to learn that all the weird interests I obsess over -- little snippets I stumble on and then get a hair up my ass about and must immerse myself in fully, digesting every speck of dirt I dust off as I search to "uncover the truth" -- it's all inspiration of some kind.  I'm winding my way through a maze of artistic inspiration, and these "things" shall all culminate in serving as illumination as I make my way to the prize -- my authentic creation. 

I don't know what that is to be just yet, and I'm impatient to know when exactly I shall stumble upon that "a ha!" moment.  But I don't give up.

Some may call it a "waste of time," while I myself for years thought of it as "passing time."  It used to be a distraction for me.  It was my way of creating an Alternate Universe, some place to flee to that gave my days purpose (not to be confused with meaning), even if that purpose was just to amuse myself until tomorrow comes.  But every day continues to be an endless stretch of the evening before that ever elusive tomorrow.

Why am I writing this?  Can't rightly say.  It just crossed my mind and I felt the need to put it to paper...er, computer.  There might be something important in here, ya know!  Some secret...some elusive filament.  Or maybe I do it just to please my hoarder heart.  Some may say I'm a collector of crap.  I prefer to see myself as a sleuth of stimulus!

In the meantime, feast your eyes on the following...

Commissioned Wedding Piece

Once again, very poor quality photo!  But I needed shaded light in order to show the gold-leafing of the butterflies in this piece.  I'm delivering this commissioned work to its new owner tonight.  The finished piece is framed in a simple black frame, size 8 1/2" x 11".  Being a wedding gift, the couple's name and wedding date are written on it as well in simple cursive italics (done after this photo was taken). 

I must admit I'm quite partial to the imagery in this piece, or at least my interpretation of said imagery.  I love the idea of the tree as roots, or the foundation, of a newly-forming (or already existing family), with its leaves turning into butterflies that are flying off (or have flown off) into different directions in the world.

And here are the last few completed pieces for the American Indian series to be available at Artifest in June.

I will be mounting these pieces this weekend on black backings.  The reason why the backgrounds looks wavy on these is because I photographed the cut-outs, pre-mounted, on the black leather ottoman in my living room.  Sloppy, I know.  For shame!