Archive for Links & News
Fantasy Photos and Ethereal Portraits
I am going to be applying for several festivals next year. I’ll let you know which ones I make it in to. For the faerie festivals (Maryland and Pennsylvania) I am working out a way to set up my booth to take photos on-the-spot to then collage as a fantasy portrait. If you always wanted to be a faerie, this is a way to do it and a great way to display your otherkin side.
I also enjoy doing simple portraits that have a bit of a dreamy feel to them. This also lends itself to boudoir photography, which I will also be offering.
I would like to try to get into Unique Boutique. I don’t know if they have room and I’d still have to be juried in and I’d have to decide which medium I want to submit for – 3-d or paintings.
I also may do River Artsfest this year, which is non-juried.
Of course if Artomatic is around I will be doing Body Politics there.
Anyway, I was thinking of offering these both as a service and for some of my photos, offering them as prints and card, etc.
I am working on a webpage devoted to my photography and will list prices and scheduling availability there.
I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date!
Tracy and I met for “Full Afternoon Tea” at The Royal Tea Room in La Plata on Saturday. It was a lovely, long and relaxing lunch where two high-class ladies spoke of only the road conditions and the weather, as is proper.
Okay, part of that is true. We did go for tea, but we talked about ALL SORTS of stuff! Even stuff ladies aren’t supposed to talk about, especially when they are having a proper tea!
Our server was great. Also very clean and pretty. Recently, at Olive Garden (in Waldorf), I had a waitress who had a filthy shirt on – it was FILTHY – and her hands looked quite dirty as well. NOT HAPPY about that. I was distracted the whole dinner and wanted to get up and leave. If we hadn’t just waited over an hour to be seated and if I’d had anything in the old ice-box at home, we would have bolted. I was worried all evening that one of us would get sick. Also, everybody else was starving and I didn’t want to be the one who said, “WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!” I won’t be eating there again.
Anyway, as for The Royal Tea Room, it’s very neat and clean looking. The owner seemed stressed the day before on the phone, when she asked if I was sure we would be prompt. Then again in the throws of putting together an event that was to start at two, she seemed rather rushed. I guess it’s good they are getting a lot of business, I just hope that she meditates a little before each big event.
You can go there and order regular meals, such as lunch. We opted for tea, though, to get the full tea experience.
Not for vegans, that’s for sure. I gave up my dairy-ban for the day and also ate some chicken and ham for said tea experience. The chicken salad was very good and so was the tiny tuna melt. There was a lemon blueberry triangle of something sweet that I enjoyed. And of course, the little pink cake was the icing on top. I just adore pink icing!
The best thing I ate, and totally worth the dairy ban lift, was the cream of crab soup. Succulent chunks of crab in a creamy sauce of a soup that my arteries will be working on for weeks. It was a dainty cup of soup though, so I didn’t feel too bad about it!
Our lemon, honey and cream was brought out on the dainty tray. We were able to choose our tea cup from a shelving area with various sorts of tea cups and saucers on it. Tracy opted for super-dainty. I liked the teal flowers on mine.
The server (whose name I neglected to request) smiled for the camera along with Tracy.
Below is an image of Tracy – pinkie out. I insisted. We were putting on “airs.” You’d have to be a Spongebob fan to understand.
See the cute pink one on top? YUM!
Me with my pinkie out!
Twinkle Twinkle
Robert took the bity star icon I gave him and made it so it appears on the browser tab and in the address bar! I love it! Thanks honey. xoxo
If you are still seeing the red flower thing instead of my little star, just clear your cache.
The Sexy Writer Type
My Billy Boy got one of his poems published- again! YAY BILLY!
You can read his poem “Moving Again” at Perigee.
Also, I’m fairly certain you will love “Flowers” by Michelle Webster-Hein. A lovely morsel of erotic tension thick and heavy behind a veil of innocence.
I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but Will wrote me a story for my holiday gift. A story just for me. “The Hound and the Hedgehog.” He bound it in a Harry Potter cover that had fallen off of the book and was in with my altered art supplies. He printed it out and sewed it into the hardcover himself. He has read it out loud to me no less than three times. I just adore it. It’s just long enough for a bedtime story. I hope dearly that he will submit it to someplace that will publish it because it’s just too adorable to keep all to ourselves.
Under My Umbrella
When Jade got into the car this morning she realized she’d forgotten her umbrella. I said, “I wanted to remind you about it, but I felt I’d reached my reminder limit with you.” At 15 she doesn’t like to be reminded not to forget things. Then, she sometimes says, “Why didn’t you remind me?” This particular feature of my little angel is something that must be genetic, because her daddy is the same way. She said, “I hope Courtney didn’t spend too much time on her hair.” This perplexed me since Courtney was not in our vehicle and nor did she even ride the bus home with Jade. It turns out that Jade shares her umbrella before a certain class in which she has a trek from the school to the outside classroom. I say “outside classroom” but they are trailers. I know there probably isn’t a school in America these days that doesn’t have one. Anyway, I thought that was sweet. I imagined her holding the umbrella as she and Courtney walked together to class.
I’m slightly miserable today. Each time I cycle I think it can’t be worse the next time, but sometimes it’s worse. Heating pads and ibuprofen – the badges of a real woman. Oh, and don’t forget the chocolate. I’ve already be-headed a darling dark chocolate Dove bunny. Will also got me these adorable bug truffles. Aren’t they just the cutest?
The bugs actually had little molded faces, which was a kind of neat surprise. They also had little crispy bits inside and it made me wonder if Lindt did that on purpose for a nice light buggy crunch? HAHA!
I am playing Chocolat in the DVD player. It’s in the other room, but turned up so I can hear it. Sometimes it’s too quiet and I am not in the mood for music, but rather just voices. Chocolat has today’s bloggy themes of chocolate and gypsies, which makes it a perfect choice. When it is over, perhaps I will listen to the disks from my “Enchanted” collection I got for my birthday.
I am wishing for sunshine. It’s been raining so much here.
I often wonder about moving to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona or California. They seem like mostly sunny places with artsy towns here and there. I wonder.
I am wishing for a big tree in the back yard where Will could build his treehouse.
And I’d cherish a pond with a koi. Or, I’d settle for goldfish.
I suppose I should find more delights in what I already have. Indulge in the sumptuousness around me, yes? Well, sometimes with the dog holes gaping at me in the back yard and the pile that needs to go to the dump on the side of the house and the evidence of my woeful gardening abilities are so glaring, they are hard to ignore. So, yes, I find my dainty pleasures where I may, but there is still much to fix and do that sometimes can be a joy suck.
Day before yesterday I lay on the hammock, my head hanging off of the side and marveled at the brilliant clear blue of the shameless sky. It made the perfect backdrop for something I had not even noticed the day before – buds on the trees. The trees beyond the rusty chain-link fence. Oh, if I could only learn to love chain-link. But in my upside down position I could hardly see the chain-link and only the peachy-yellow buds asserting themselves on the branch tips against the backdrop of that crystalline sky. Here is a photo of what I saw. I wish you could have been here – it was lovely.
Other wishes: I am wishing for a lovely gypsy tent in the yard as soon as the weather is dry and balmy for two days in a row, and since I will not soon have my dreamy vardo.
Yes, I still have vardo dreams – in fact, they have spawned a new artsy idea. Though some of my research makes the concept seem overly daunting, I can’t help but be optimistic. With some help from Willo (that is the dreamy name I will call him when I speak of art and gypsies) I think it won’t be too technically overwhelming. All of those things will have to wait though, until the Body Politics installation is, well, installed at Artomatic.
Also, the Baltimore Playwright Festival is looming. Gotta clean up Delia and get her submitted. I might submit my short diner play too. We’ll see.
Look at this band of gypsies, they need a little spot to relax, wouldn’t you say?
Clever Girl
I want to be so obviously clever that somebody will call me “clever girl.” It always sounds better with a British accent, too. So, it would be extra special if somebody British said it to me.
I am bubbling with ideas right now. Too many to make happen. It’s frustrating having only this one body and two arms and ten fingers to get all of my ideas out with. There are so many things to create, I can hardly finish one before I’ve begun another.
I love clay.
I love paint.
I love words.
I love love.
There is so much to absorb. There is so much to care about. Don’t you just have to turn parts off sometimes, just to quiet everything long enough to focus? How can I ever get one thing all the way done if I am constantly interrupted by myself? I have managed to knock out a number of things the past two weeks. Some medical tests, lots of photos processed, blogs I’d been meaning to write. Each one is a stone I’ve removed from the bag I’m dragging behind me. They are a burden, but they are also pretty and shiny and cool. They are only a burden because I want so badly to share these things. Then as each idea fires, it sets off sparks and new ones ignite. I write down the ones I don’t have time for now, so I have them for later, when the idea well is a bit drier.
Southern Maryland Woman
I am in the Feb-April 2009 edition of Southern Maryland Woman magazine.
Just FYI, I’m going to add it to the press page.
Peace!
Click the images to enlarge.
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Press Page
Every now and then I get a little ink, so I added a “Press” page to the site.
I’ve just added this:
Below is a May 2008 article about the Body Politics project Tammy Vitale and I are working on.
You can either click on the image below and see an image uploaded on my server. Or you can go HERE to the article at Southern Maryland Online as long as it stays up there.
Studio Inspiration
I mentioned in a previous blog how part of the appeal of the HGTV show That’s Clever, for me, is that I get to see inside the studio of other artists. I have seen many tenacious artists carve out space for themselves in the kitchen or the garage. I had no idea how many American (and Canadian) households have dining-room art studios! In the house we previously rented, my studio was in the dining-room. That was about six years ago. It was my first real dedicated art space.
I would love to peek inside of your studio, no matter how small – or big – at the parts you keep around for inspiration. There are lots of wonderful resources for organizing, but this post is about inspiration. Do you keep shards of your own broken projects on display? Do you display work you just couldn’t let go of? How about art your kids have given you? Inspirational quotes? I am asking folks to post photos of the bits of their studio that are for the simple purpose of sentimentality and inspiration.
If you have a couple of photos of the first art space you made for yourself – all the better!
Please post your blog and photos then come here and leave a link in my comments of this posting so I can come see your studio!
Here are my photos to start things off!
These first three photos are of my dining room “studio” at the house we used to rent.
You can tell this is my dining room because you can see my living room behind me. The dining room table ended up in the living room. I loved that my family was happy to give up the space. They have always been great cheerleaders!
This little chest of drawers was my first supply cabinet. The chest was my baby wardrobe – which makes it “vintage” – lol!
(click to see larger)
The above photo shows my inspiration wall loaded full of flowers and faeries. Mostly Brian Froud, Amy Brown, Jessica Galbreth and some kid art. I also see that the souvenir stuff for “Streetcar Named Desire” is behind me. I wonder where that is? When I had this studio space I only really did drawings and watercolors, so it was much simpler and neater!
I don’t really know what I will ever do with the many bottle caps and corks I have, but I love having them just to look at them. I leave them out in these clear containers, where Will put them.
(click for large image)
This is a cabinet I keep some of my supplies in. It is nearly covered in lots of little bits that I love, such as love notes and birthday cards, to photos, artwork, postcards, fairies, fortune-cookie papers and all manner of fun and shiny things. Sometimes I will just come across a photo in a magazine I love and tape it up there. In this photo you can see the “Deputante” ad – which I’ve had since the 11th grade! There is a napkin from my wedding, doodles I have found around the house, a sketch Will did of me and a picture of Robert kissing me back when he had his mullet a million years ago, and some Amy Brown, Jessica Galbreth and Julia Musengo art as well.
I love having some of my art supplies very visible just because it makes me want to use them all the more. There is something visually tasty about messy paint brushes just waiting to be used!
In this photo there is art by me – the two yonis, the blue woman’s head, horns and crowns as well as mermaid and blue face and goddess. The metal cat was a gift from my friend Sherry. there are art tiles I purchased from Tammy Vitale and Parran Collery – both Southern Maryland artists. I have several pieces by both of them. Also in the background you can see an Egyptian style plaque my daughter made and a mask she made many years ago. There is also a lovely little moon-shaped tin that used to have lavender candy in it. I never even thought you could eat lavender before I got that little treat at Coleman’s Nursery in Norfolk, VA many moons (hee) ago. Coleman’s Nursery was the place to visit around Christmas time because they had animated puppets and lots of cool decorations and stuff. We loved going there!
In this photo there is a sun suncatcher, a mermaid I got a a gift store (you can’t see her tail in the photo) a couple of tiles I made, a wall-hanging my friend Tracy gave me, some cards pressed in glass.
Fairy hanging in the corner with some stars that Will had tucked away from some community theatre production many years ago. Maybe he can fill us in on the details. Anyway, I like having things hanging from the ceiling. There’s something sort of magical about it.
Some origami cranes that my daughter Jade made and a stained glass dragonfly that I traded for at the Faerie Festival a few years ago.
Fairy wings that I never sold. Aren’t they pretty? 
And what can be more inspiring than a clean and organized studio – VIEW HERE.
Ok – you’re turn!
Hello Beautiful People!
Hello all of you beautiful people! I am currently updating my website. I decided to use a Wordpress format to make it easier to do updates.
I have added the gallery images in the right sidebar. Just click on them to launch the image and then click on it again to close it. I will be adding fresh images all week. Then I have to get busy making some new ones!
I will also be adding some of my writing and adventures in that arena.
Hopefully we’ll have my new shop up within the month. I still will have to do inventory and photographs, but it will be interesting and exciting to get things done.
We’re getting ready to watch the Superbowl here. I’m in Redskins country here, but I am a PA girl from the Pittsburgh area so I am rooting for the Steelers.
Have a wonderful day!
An admirer from Belgium
