Halloween Approaches...

The witches stroke their kitty cats,

They comb their locks of gray.

Yet when the first faint daylight comes,

The witches hide away!
Me thinketh Halloween doth soon approach!

Note: A few shots I took while babysitting my sisters beautiful kitty cat Holly. She was just yawning in the last image but I thought it looked scary cute! She is the most gorgeous creature and a little pill too!

A Rose by any other Name

He loves me,

He love me not,

He loves me,

He loves me not,

He loves me,

He loves me not,

He loves me!

One of my favorite things to create are flowers.

I love making flowers out of all sorts of materials.

Clay flowers, porcelain flowers, metal flowers and paper flowers too,

flowers were actually the inspiration for one of my books,

naturally titled Fanciful Paper Flowers!

It's interesting to see how a bloom will take shape depending on

the type of material you choose to create it with.

These particular posies I made using polymer clay,

just sort of free forming small balls of polymer into

dainty but lively, ruffled edge roses.

I used various colors of spray paint in pink, taupe, green, blue and yellow

to give them some color and a couple of spritzes of white to create just

a smattering of speckles. The stems and leaves are made from wire I covered with antique silk and green velvet. Then I finished them off by wiring them for light and decorating night light bulbs with glass paints. A few years back I had taken a course in basic electrical wiring, just for fun!

So now I have a funny little story to share with you.

I took a welding course here in town given by a very well known,

talented and respected local artist. I was so excited about it,

I had never really worked with any kind of metal before,

not to mention gas or fire for that matter, but I thought it would be fun and have always wanted to give it a try!

And I was right, it was terrific! Absolutely exhilarating! The first class was designing what we wanted to create.

One student was making a very cool giant metal alligator, another a large globe of sorts and I, of course picked flowers, thorned roses to be exact! I showed my instructor my sketches and he approved, I was thrilled! Now to get down to the nitty gritty!

I throughly enjoyed cutting a flat sheet of copper into pretty petal shapes and I really enjoyed hammering the smitherines out of

them to soften them up and give them just the right amount of curl. And then applying the correct amount of gesso on them to create some interesting texture and color once they were heated up. But...Oh, I forgot to mention the welding class I took was

old school style, you know the kind where you actually ignite your torch by making sparks with a special flint. Well, to make a long story short, I might have had quite a future in this fabulous form of art except for two little things...I screamed out loud every time my torch

lit up and I singed all of the hair off my teachers left arm! Oh, my instructor was so very nice and polite about it, "Thats ok my Dear, it'll grow back, no problem!" I think for now I'll stick to something a little safer like paper and glue!
Until next time my friends!
BTW, I did hear a few weeks later he told all his new students about the "Hit the Deck Girl" but was kind enough not to mention any names!

It Happened One Day

I want to share something with you, a small but large something that happened one day and changed me forever.
Sometimes beautiful things happen when you least expect it, and then those events have the capability of affixing themselves deeply into your psyche,

locking on and in effect setting it in stone. It can even change your course and the way you see people from then on. When I was in my twenties, the market where I shopped was just a couple of blocks away, so I used to put on my backpack and walk over to buy my weekly groceries.

One day on the way there I passed an elderly bag lady,
I know she was homeless because I saw her out on the streets fairly often. Usually I passed by her in my car, but on this particular day our paths crossed directly.

I guess I had been lost in thought and wandered up on her, nearly bumping into her. I found myself face to face with that woman, she was shaking her head and mumbling something I couldn't quite make out, over and over again. At first I was a bit startled as I looked into her yellow green eyes, right at that moment I felt very connected to her, almost familiar.

I saw many things in her eyes, I saw a mother and a father, I saw sisters and brothers. I saw a past, a present and a future. I excused myself to her, and went on about my way, as I shopped I had the notion to get something for her so I picked up a wrapped sandwich, some fresh fruit and a bottle of chilled juice and had them put it in a separate bag so I could give it to her if she was still there.

I finished my shopping and started out the door to head back home. Looked around to see if I could spot her anywhere and yep, she was still out there, standing in the hot sun. I had a few bucks left over and thought I'd give that to her as well.

I walked up to her, held out the bag of food I had gotten for her in one hand and the money I intended to give her in the other. I smiled at her and made a gesture as if to say, here you go... take it. She looked directly into my eyes and violently shook her head "No".

Mind you, she didn't say the word "No" out loud, but it was more than clear what she meant. She continued to shake her head, I was confused, then I noticed that she was pointing at the ground, over and over, pointing down towards the ground.

It took me a minute but I finally figured it out, she wanted me to "drop" my offering...and so I did...I "dropped"/sat it on the ground so she could then "find" it. As I turned and walked away, right at that moment, it broke my heart for some reason, but then as I walked back home and thought and thought about it, I came to understand.

I realized that it was not a sad thing at all, it was a very beautiful thing. While she may not be so well off, she still had one very important thing, she still had her dignity and that was wonderful to me. It taught me a very important lesson.

She may have had a hard life and she may have lost some things along the way, but her dignity certainly was not one of them. I never saw her again after that, I don't know what happened to her but the lesson she taught me that sunny day has stayed with me, and has helped me to be thankful for all of life's experiences and I am definitely better for having had such an encounter with her!

Now, something fantastic to share with all of you...as some of you may have noticed my posts are fewer and farther between, I should probably explain, my new job with Where Women Create is keeping me as busy as a bee and I am enjoying every minute of it! The new Autumn issue is the best yet, it features the amazing Mary Engelbreit on the cover and many more incredible artists in every field imaginable. Be sure to pick up a copy of this gem as it is sure to sell out!

Where Women Create has designed something brand new and fabulous, a place to "find" and be "found" by new friends and artists and shoppes and artwork! It's called *Inspire *Connect *Share and is your online resource for all things CREATIVE! Patience Brewster is the featured artist this month, there will be a new artist spotlighted every month! Visit today to be inspired and be sure to register at *Inspire *Connect *Share (click here) to be part of a community of creative women! Join the ever growing list of talented artists, add your link to the WWC site and share your website or blog with each of us!

Running Down a Dream

I try to make use of my everyday experience and incorporate it into my art, virtually anything and everything can become an artistic feast if you will only allow yourself to really truly, fully experience it!

A formula to exercise your creativity: Experience. Experiment. Indulge. Document. Report.
This is one of those fully experienced banquets I would like to share with you...

Do you have them? Have you seen one? When were you last there? Here...take my hand, hold on tightly now! Come along and follow me...step up to the ride, hand the gentleman your ticket and off we go into a wonderful world of colorful dreams!

Each and every night that comes creeping is yet another opportunity to begin a new adventure. As I have not one ounce of control over my imaginations, I enter sometimes unwillingly. You see, I would really rather sleep but generally am almost always very glad I did.

Go, I mean! Oh, there have been those rare occasions when Mr. Sandman met the Candyman (my secondary muse, btw) and all went awry, terribly, delightfully, frightfully, deliciously awry!

Why, it was just a few nights ago that I found myself squinting my eyes as I walked into a room so bright white I could barely see!

As my strained little peepers struggled to pull themselves open, to my amazement there were giant red and white peppermint type swirls all over the walls!

And let me tell you, it was tearfully, beautifully beautiful! As I'm sure you can imagine!

I slowly approached the largest one, which was on the wall farthest from me,

I stood directly in front of it, eye to swirl, then what do you suppose happened next?!

Well, I will tell you!

The swirl began to rotate and spin and twirl...

Around and around and around it went,

faster and faster, reeling and spinning so swiftly it was making me dizzy!

It revolved so fast that the red stripes and the white stripes spun into PINK!

PINK, I tell you! I rubbed my eyes with tight fisted knuckles, three times and ever so cautiously, slowly, slowly reached out with my right hand to touch it.

Do I dare? I pulled back! I just must! I reached out, yes I will and here goes!

As the tips of my fingers met the surface, suddenly I felt a warm and then sticky, but not icky, sensation and such a strange sensation it was. I automatically recolied and drew back my hand, attached to my finger tips was a long clinging ooey, gooey rope stretching

right back to the center of the swirl, just like taffy!

Was this really happ...but before I could finish my sentence,

the big glop of ooey, gooey pinkness fell from my fingers in a slow motion way and dropped with a plop to the floor! Where it immediately whirled itself back together and proceeded to flow right out of the room, around the corner and down the stairs!

Can you believe it? I know! Me too! What else could I do but run down the stairs after it...I wasn't about to let this sneaky little sucker get away! Running just a few steps ahead, I ducked into the pantry, grabbed the first empty jar I could find and waited.

When I heard it coming, I held out my arm, stuck the open jar under the very last step and swoop, quickly and quietly it flowed right in! Ha, Gotcha!

And just as I was closing the lid, I heard someone say in a low, far away voice,

Sandra...Honey...Are you awake?

Do you know where my socks with the RED stripes are?! What?! You have got to be kidding me!!

Now, I might have mislead you a bit in the beginning, as I told you it was all just a dream, but go as it goes and heaven only knows, least my fingers were crossed in the back! I just made it up, so don't think me silly! But wasn't it fun, aren't you happy you went? Come again anytime, my table is set and YOU are always WELCOME!

Visuals Details:
A variety of mixed media including, watercolors, acrylic paint, cardboard, decoupage medium, and two porcelain dolls I hand painted, one with a red cap and gloves, the other in a black polka dot cap and gloves, their bodies are made from black and white pipe cleaners twisted together and I dressed them both in vintage millinery flowers, with pink tulle ruffles.
This piece is published in the current issue of Stampington & Companies ARTFUL BLOGGING, May/Jun/July 2009. Be sure to pick up a copy to experience for yourself some of the most fabulous places to visit on the internet!