Traveling Assemblage Girls

So where did September go?? An impromptu trip to Virginia Beach, a day in the studio with the Art Girls, this and that and studio time for me.

My assemblage ‘girls’ have been traveling and I find like the travel theme for my boxes. A conversation with my childhood best friend Jan, brought up so many memories of our summertime haunt – Wildwood, N.J. So naturally, I sent the Alpha Girls to Wildwood, using vintage images of Wildwood and other summer motifs.

The Numeral girls traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida, which I discovered last winter. My husband found a super cheap airfare to St. Pete, so we bopped down for 5 days. It’s the home of the Salvador Dali museum, among other things, so I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed and we weren’t. Typically people hit the beaches, but we spent our entire time in the downtown area, with his wonderful parks and walks along the bay and a lot of galleries and fun restaurants. The colorful image on the inside and outside lid of the Numeral girls is an altered photograph of a display of metal work I took at a street market. The piece also uses vintage postcard images.

I’m in a vintage mode. Currently I’m working on two pieces. One will evoke an old-time diner and the other a vintage Woolworths. I’m also working on a ‘dark doll’ in the cool October All Hallows vibe.

Till next time.

The Surgery Journey Journal

As I mentioned, my friend Katherine created a wonderful journal for me. I found it very powerful to work in this medium. I prepared by copying excerpts from the many emails into a document and printed it on colored paper.


I used images of the pieces I created during this time, including the Warrior torso and the small Warrior doll, who was meant for the torso but in the end, was her own piece.

I gathered my crow motifs, crow feathers gathered on my evening 'recovery walks' with Dennis, ribbons from the flowers I received and so on. I used rubber stamps for text, chalks for highlighting and other images that spoke to me.

The journal was designed with 'pockets' where I placed all the cards I received during this time.

I added my own signifier images to the covers and in the end, had a full gathering of my experience.

Happy to be blogging again

I had surgery about a month ago. The scary part was that cancer cells were discovered in a routine test and the surgery could resolve the situation in and of itself or could reveal that the surgery was only the beginning treatment. Most fortunately, the cells turned out to be precursor cells and the surgery was all that was needed. But I must say, the two weeks between the words ‘malignant cells’ in the biopsy and the surgery certainly took me to some emotional depths.

My totem torsos [see July 7 entry] did me in good stead, as well as the many calls, cards and emails from my friends. So many good vibes, blessings, affirmations, prayer circles, rituals, and so on came my way that I can be most sure they are a good part of my good news and recovery.

My dear friend Katherine made the wonderful accordion journal you see here. This Friday we have convened a meeting of the ‘Art Girls’ and I plan to create a book of this journey, including those cards & excerpts from the emails, and ribbons from the flowers and so on. Look for it in the next post.

The last thing I did before surgery was upload the final version of Aspect Art – Art As the Soul’s Journey to Amazon.com. It was a perfect moment of completion as I stepped into the unknown. Just click this link to check it out.

Reviews are most welcome!

And I’ve revamped my website to a sleeker look. There are new images, an excerpt from the book and other things. And if you find a typo or broken link, please do let me know. www.alterede.com

And the last new thing I’ve done in the past two weeks as my energy came back, is my new shop at Ecrater –alteredEart.ecrater.com. I’m not on Etsy or Ebay right now, but this little site has a few goodies.

All is good.

Shifts, Challenges and I'll Be Off-the-Grid for Awhile

It's been an interesting time indeed. And life's interesting times can also evoke art. Since April I've reached a new place about diet, health and the body.Of course, work that seems to focus on the outer, always begins with work on the inner. And in that I got in touch with another aspect of my inner strength and wisdom. I think of it as 'aligned will'. So this piece is Shouting Out Will and Wisdom and has served has a strong totem for me.


But life continues to ask us to be fluid. When one thing comes into alignment, another may shift and still more alignments need to evolve. I have a challenge in my life right now that calls for my attention, my willingness to be in life just as it is, my capacity to listen within and be present. All of that came to me as a kind of fierceness, a Warrior energy - warrior as a great protector, one who faces all challenges, one asks, 'What does this moment require?' and listens to what may come as the answer.

She may be fierce in her focus. She may carry a sword to cut through illusion and fear. But she is surrounded with earth energies. Crystals of many sorts, holding the energies of compassion, balance, grounding and transformation. Her feathers hold the energy of the Crow Clan and other spirit animals. She sits upon rock and even carries shards of ancient pottery to remember that we are all of an ancient clan.

So life has grabbed my attention and I'll be off-the-grid from typical things and literally off-line for awhile.

Minimal sales but maximum magnificent people!

Tea Cup Miss spoke deeply to the beautiful spirit of Kathleen who took her home.





Well, I had an interesting two days high atop Afton Mountain on the grounds of the Swannanoa Palace, an 1900's Italianate mansion. My best buddy Deb, of DifferentLightStudio, got me into this and it wouldn't be half as much fun - or any! - without her. She is so outgoing and generous and just is on sparkle all the time. She was even game for an impromptu juggling lesson.

This was also the first time I have put my OrionWisdom spiritual work in the same venue as my art, so it was a bit of a coming out party too.

Dennis put together a great display and people were mostly intrigued and a couple of pieces even found new homes. My opening line was 'A little bit different, isn't it?.

There was lots of good conversation and I made some great connections with other vendors.

Night More sells magickal jewelry and things. She has two sites on Etsy. One for her jewlery and art and the other for supplies for you to create your jewelry and art! Check out Night at BellaBohemian and The Moon and The Sea




Pam Roland explores fine art and whimsy. Her whimsy are the delightful Joybelz - wonderful little beings that dance with caring, uplifting sentiments. Pam is sharp and bright and delightful herself.



In another vein, the lovely Christina Kramer wears many hats, Reiki Master, healer and channeler of Mother Mary. She's developing her web presence but if you'd like to know more, just email me and I'll pass it along.


When my Elves and Fairies started to come to me they each brought their name and story. I included these stories in my Ebay listings and soon found that I created 'back stories' for all the pieces. I include these stories when I ship a piece. At this event, there wasn't room for each piece to have their story, but I chose one story of each type of piece. I found it so interesting that people seemed to read every story. It seemed that they found a way to connect to the art through their stories.

This little Elf is Elandor and she also found a new home at the show.


My son, Alexander, suggested that next time I be sure to have note cards available of the pieces with their stories on the back. Good idea!

We'll have to just wait and see how 'next time' presents itself!

Art & Spirituality Meet Up This Weekend

When I'm not here much, you know I've been busy. This weekend my best buddy Deb has gotten me to join her to be vendors at the OneHeart group's spiritual homecoming this weekend here in Waynesboro.

This will be a first for me in a couple of ways. It's the first time my art has been on display other than the internet and secondly, it's the first time my spiritual work has been in the same mileau as my art.

So I'll be sharing about the OrionWisdom work and having a lot of art for sale too, especially the Goddess/Wisewoman torsos and the Fairy/Elf series.

Deb and I have a double booth, so I'll be with her wonderful flowers and abstracts, and of course, all the OrionWisdom cards and art she created. In any event, we can't go wrong being together for the weekend and who knows who we will meet and greet.

It's been interesting getting things together and I feel like I'm now 'aligned' for something, even though it may not actually be this specific event.

The Aspect Art book still has a few technical issues I have to resolve and it's the focus of my attention for next week. Helen and I did a piece we really liked, so we added two pages to the book after our first proof copy. I do hope we're available at Amazon.com by the end of the month. The book really wants to fly but, of course, the devil continues to be in the details.


I look forward to having an interesting report from the weekend, high atop Afton Mountain on the grounds of lovely old Swannanoa Palace. Find out more at Wikipedia

Collage, Comics and Books

My friend Benn recently commented that I don’t post very often to this blog. Absolutely true! Thinking about it, I can see that I tend to post after I’ve completed some work. Lately, I’ve been working at the PC and in collage.

I spent a day in the studio with my friend Laura who was visiting. We did collages. Laura had a theme she wanted to explore. I worked free-form from magazines in the moment, with just a few ‘on hand’ images. I like to do this every now and then, working without concept and responding to the images as they arise. This collage includes the iconic portrait from National Geographic. The abstract detail pieces are torn from photos of Mayan stone walls.

Following that flow at last month’s Art Girrls Day, I also worked in collage. This time I used a flawed proof copy of a photo book I worked with Helen on that we created with her son’s photography. It was a perfect background for another free-form collage. This time I used more ‘on-hand’ images from my ongoing pile, with a few in-the-moment magazine entries as well.

I then made a fun graphic novel comic book for my son Alexander’s birthday. A friend told me about a super, easy-to-use software that takes your images and gives you comic-style layouts and many super comic effects. I took a slew of pictures at my son’s house of all his collections and strange art. The story in the comic was centered on how all the things in his house speak to him, but he’s not sure what they say. It was a great, fun project. You can try the software free for 30 days. www.plasq.com

And just this morning, I ordered the proof copy of what I hope is the final version of Aspect Art – Art As the Soul’s Journey. This book is about my work with my friend Helen on what we call Aspect Art – exploring the facets or ‘aspects’ of your life through art. We actually began the book last year but after a bit and the first layout, I just hit a creative stall. Message from the universe – put this aside for awhile. Just recently I simply woke up ready to get back to the book after several months of hiatus. I had been having technical problems with the color saturation of the page backgrounds, when Dennis said, ‘Well, why don’t you just try a white background and just let the art be the color?’ Well, of course, that was the needed element to move things and everything just came together. It aligned so well, that after I submitted the first final version, Helen sent some pictures of recent work and I realized this just had to be included in the book. So pages were added, things updated and the 2^nd ‘final’ version was uploaded to Amazon.

By the way, Amazon’s program, Createspace, is a great way to produce quality print-on-demand product and sell it on Amazon.com I use Lulu for my initial production and then switch to Createspace. If you want any print-on-demand mentoring, just email and I’ll be happy to share my experiences. Aspect art has it’s own mini-web site as www.aspexart.com

So when I’m not here, blogging, you know I’m out there 'doing'.

Ebay, TV, Fun

Hey, Just sold my first Ebay piece - the Alpha Girls you see here. I admit it was a nice feeling. I’m inspired now to list more things and make my Ebay gallery come more alive. Perhaps our fears about the economy are lightening a little and we can let ourselves please ourselves a bit, like buying art. Alpha Girls is one of my favorite boxes. I love these little dolls and along they way mark them as either Alpha Girls or Numeral Girls. The letters and numbers are enigmatic even to me, but I like the idea that they hold a hidden identity.












Another favorite of mine is this doll who is a homage the Abby character on the popular tv show, NCIS. She’s goth, she’s really smart and competent, a genius at computers and science, her decidedly own person. I was inspired to do create this homage when I found this doll who just reminded me of Abby. She was my first doll whose head isn’t altered in a major way. I get a kick out of her.




















Follow this link to Altered E Art [alteredeart] on Ebay

Elves, Hobs and Fairies

I’ve wanted to work with sculpting some faces for my altered dolls, but alas, this talent escapes me. A bit ago, I had a dream where I altered a dolls face using air dry clay. In the dream, I created a little woodland leaf elf named Dunton. I woke up jazzed with energy and sure enough, found two dolls I had not deconstructed because originally I didn’t like their shape. Of course, they were perfect for elves.

Since then the elf energy has been flowing. They seem to come to me with names and stories. The ‘boys’ have emerged with a bit of tough energy, so I think they have a touch of the hobgoblin too. Next emerged fairies. Rix, with his striped socks and chain collar, seems to be carrying a bit of the Goth fairy. In these challenging times, my art spirit seems to enjoy traveling to these other realms.

DEconstruct-Reconstruct

I love this photo of a de-construction day. I love these elegant heads – you can see them peering from my altered shoes and emerging from a clay mask. I purchase these wholesale as MardiGras décor.

I keep all the fabric bits and pieces which show up as collage clothing on my altered dolls, bits in collages and so forth. I also tend to remove the eyebrows from the faces, which had a nice element of mystery and distortion.