Savannah 2026!

There's so much going on these days. And yet, sometimes we need a little something else. Something fun. A little odd. Perhaps just something in Pink!  Turning one's attention away for the world for a moment, doesn't mean you have turned away. Sometimes we just need to look out another window for awhile before we can find a the way through, a solution, or just how to cope. I share my bit of whimsy in this way.

Savannah is so rich in architecture of all kinds. Always an inspiration to me. Always finding still something I haven't seen before or even if I have, I see it another way. Savannah just speaks to me.

In my inner world, Ocotopi can show up at any time or place.

Octos on Gaston Street collage

Savannah, GA

PINK!  Mia loves pink.  She's a DearHeart in my life. Pink has always been her favorite color, one that makes her happy.  She lived here for a time and I am especially happy when I can send her Pink from Savannah.  Her brother, Alexander, loves pink too. A family trait???

Pink In Savannah collage

Savannah, GA

Walking about every day. More to come.

Till next time.

By the Sea

 Fortunate I am to be spending unstructured days by the sea.  Our lovely rental offers a daily panorama of the ocean. We're in a walkable part of town, so daily meanderings, then back to the sea view with time being off-the grid.

The window is such a feature of our time here. You can be with the sea through chilly, rainy, foggy days. It's presence is ever strong.  It sets me in a mysterious mood, mermaids and madams of the sea.

Sea View collage

Hilton Head Island, SC

Octopi are another totem of mine. Here meeting with my ubiquitous teacups, sea shells and pearls.

Octo Moon collage

Hilton Head Island, SC

Till another time.

Happy Birthday! Happy Spring! White on White!

Our time away was great, but being home is as they say,  it's own kind of wonderful. Many things to attend to to get back in the groove, but happy to be here.

Each year I do my own birthday collage and one of my gifts to myself is that I compile an annual book of my collages and cards.  Both are fun to do and it's always interesting to see what is revealed in hindsight.

e birthday 2022 collage 

Octopi are often an element in my collage and I often use octopi hair on 'avatars' of myself.  This collage was almost finished, when my husband gave me for my birthday an amazing replica of an ancient Minoan pot - famous for their Octopi imagery-  produced by a museum in Greece.  It was the perfect finishing element of the collage.

Crows are another element I often use and I consider the Crow a menaingful totem in my life. But at an earlier time, when I was doing work with Wendy Ashley, an astrologer who anchored her work in mythology, she saw the Hare or Rabbit as a totem.  In some myths, the Hare is seen as the messenger between realms, moving by moonlight between the human world and the Otherworld.  Recently I was moved to add rabbits to some collages.  So I am welcoming Hare into the present.

The idea of this collage came to me in a dream - a Crow-Hare icon.  As she emerged, I felt she was in the fae or fairy realm and her name, Nix,  popped up as I completed the collage.  She anchors Hare, who is the stronger and more wild rabbit and Crow.  Ironically, I completed her on Easter, which I see as linked to the ancient goddess of Spring, Eostre.  

The eggs are Ukranian 'Pysanka' eggs, a tradition going back prior to Christianity.  The eggs are meant as memories or good wishes, prayers. 'Pysanka' means to write upon, and the designs are drawn or painted with wax and then dyed.  I was really drawn to the one on the upper left with the golden symbol. I looked it up and it represented Freedom, so appropos at this time.

Spring - Nix the Crow-Hare Fairy collage

Sometimes themes appear from circumstance.  'White on White' was inspired by the members gallery theme for May at SVAC - the Shenandoah Valley Arts Center.   The background image, the Heritage On Main  restaurant, had apparently recently been painted white and I noticed it just as I was thinking about a white-themed collage.  It's always nice when the Multiverse collaborates with you.  There are some puns on white in this little grouping and some surprise players.  The happy couple are Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter on their wedding day in 1946.

Till next time. 

Two Crows and an Octopus walk into a bar

Ok. I couldn't resist the title - and why should I?? But we do have crows and octopi. These are my last collages [except for cards] of 2020.  Not particularly end-of-year significant, but just a bit.

Crows are my totem, an energy that brings me to closer connection with the 'other' in the world, to more than you can see, to sensing awareness, the interconnection of things.

I find that Crows often emerge in my work when I am feeling overwhelmed, in over my head, too much to bear and they bring with them a integrating effect.  Some collages carry a specific story, others do not.

Two Crows stands as a symbol of Crow energy.  She carries symbols, some personal to me, others not. She stands tall and strong.

Two Crows

Crows Don't Fly At Night emerged from a dream message.  I was lying awake in the middle of the night, thinking about things I needed to do, manage, handle.  I heard the message 'Crows don't fly at night', which I took as a reminder that I couldn't actually take any action in the middle of the night about the things I was ruminating over; to let it go, no flying at night.

Crows Don't Fly At Night

Some time ago my son had an affection for Octopi and I began using them in cards and collages for him, but along the way, I adopted Octopi as my own totem.  They are smart, clever, strong animals who adapt to their environment in amazing ways.  And I like to see them in settings where they are incongruous.   

Retro Octo Girls is just a fun, optimistic collage.  It began as 'anonymous content' collage - no specific theme -  when I found the Retro woman on the left. Other elements caught my eye and then Ocotpi became the cohesive element.

Retro Octo Girls

Cedar Key 2017 - my 'Old Florida' retreat

Cedar Key is a wonderful little town. an island at the end of Route 24 on the Gulf Coast, an area sometimes called the Nature Coast or the Forgotten Coast. We've made it part of our winter retreat for years now. 

Cedar Key is in Central Florida and the nearest city is Gainesville, an hour or so away.  We always make a day trip to Gainesville to the wonderful Harn Museum of Art, with a stop at the Gainesville Artisans Guild gallery, but mostly our time in Cedar Key is being off the grid by the Gulf and walking around town, which boasts two art galleries - The Island Arts Gallery and  Cedar Key Arts Center and a half dozen restaurants, our favorite hang-out is Steamers. 

The "Old Florida' architecture. colorful, vintage with a dash of funky and a smidge of chaos, always inspires me. And being 'off the grid' of doing, creates a wide open space for collage.

Breakfast Lunch - Cedar Key

Snake Plant Cottage - Cedar Key

Carts and Truck - Cedar Key

Live Oak Cottage - Cedar Key

The collages use my own photographs, amplified and altered and many of the elements are also from my photographs, extracted and 'amped', others are found images. The octopi are not from my own photographs - lol, but I do like to use octopi - they're always unexpected.

You can see past posts from Cedar Key by just entering Cedar Key in the blog search box.

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