Birthday Totems and Fond Memories

March is my annual birthday collage time.  I have certain themes and totems that appear in many of these birthday collages, but naturally, it's always a different mix. Totems are evocative and perhaps some of these will speak to and for you as well.

Birthday Totems Collage

My cousin Marianne sent me a 1950's photo of our Uncle Carmen with her, my sister and I and cousin Marguerite. I don't know exactly where or when this was taken. The saturated colors were in the original photos.  I often include incongruous elements in my work, but the train here actually has meaning to me, as Uncle Carmen had a large model train layout in his basement. 

Uncle Carmen was my favorite uncle; I always felt close to him. It was interesting working on this collage, as all the feelings of closeness and tenderness would flow, but very few actual memories of events or places with him. I'll happily embrace the feelings sans memories.

Uncle Carmen and The Girls collage

    Till another time.

Owl Sisters and Crow Solstice

The nadir point and the wheel turns

 

Downsized! New Studio-Office and a White Crow Guardian

So my husband and I have continued apace with our 2014 changes - downsizing from a house to a new, modern, maintenance-free apartment. Now it's  'just call Peter' for any problems and easier to lock-up and hit the road.

And even though all feels in alignment, some changes were bittersweet, even as things came to a natural close. My monthly Art Girls get-together, 6 years in all - has come to an end.  First we celebrated with a big give-away, as I passed on many of my art supplies to the girls and others to my gallery, Shenandoah Valley Art Center.

  

On our last time together, we did a group collage, which was a neat process.  And we ended with our usual wonderful pot-luck lunch.

It was a bit odd to downsize my art pieces themselves, but it was very interesting to discover which pieces were my favorites, which no longer held energy and could go on and which I choose to deconstruct and keep some key elements.  The process just followed the energy and I was suprised at how easy the flow was.  I also learned which pieces were favorites of my husband's that I hadn't know. The empty house studio is ready for someone new to find it's purpose.  Maybe it will stay as an art or craft studio!

My new studio is also my office.  Yes, much less space, but I think all will work fine.  We also have a garage where many of my well-packed and well-labeled supplies are now living.   'Space' does have it's effect and I am curious to see where the new smaller space will lead me in my art.  I sense a change will evolve but as of now, have no vision of it.

The furniture in this space is designed as craft furniture.  It is a line by Martha Stewart, which I find very funny.  But it is wonderful.  All the drawers and cabinets are designed for art supplies.  Kudos galore to my husband who designed the space, chose the pieces with me and put all of it together.

The wonderful couple portrait on the top shelf is my son and daughter-in-law, by her.


Art in the garage!

And lastly, I created a Guardian collage for the new space.  I am quite enamored of the all-white theme so the white background holds the 'white' energy.

White Crow Guardian - digital collage 

The key element is this collage - the wonderous Crow woman is an amplified and altered image of an art doll I have loved and used for several years now.  Alas, I do not have the name of the artist and a google image search has not revealed it.  I recall at the time that this was a fabric doll and that it was sold, so perhaps it is not longer on the web.   Should anyone know this magickal artist, please let me know.  

Now that we're all settled in, we're going to hit the road.  Posts from our travels in 2015.