Hello, hello, hello,

For those of you who've been waiting to commit to an art project until you know what it is, well, here it is. I like to do Artist Trading Cards to trade, as the name implies, with other artists, photographers, and others. No, you do not put your stats as an artist (e.g. date of first painting sold, record sales price for a work of art, prizes won or awards given). You do sign your work and date it, and provide information on how you can be reached, such as an e-mail address.

Google artist trading cards and you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about ATCs, and then some. I've posted a couple of my own in earlier blog posts, but there are thousands of examples all over the internet. One very helpful site that gives a thorough explanation and history as well as many and varied examples of ATCs is http://www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html. Take some time to look around. Do you sew? Knit? Take photogaphs? Doodle? Color? Quilt? Are you a calligrapher? All these techniques and many more are things you can use on your ATCs. You don't have to be considered an artist by yourself or anyone else to start making and trading these fun mini-works of art.

The best thing of all is that you can commit to something like this because it is so small, and it takes such a short amount of time to complete one. Or a hundred.

Don't blame me if you become addicted!

Do blame me if you can't find an old card, or some kind of material to work on. You can find the specifics on any ATC website, but I'll be happy to mail you a couple of blanks if you want.

I'd love it if some people would participate. Not only will you get to stretch your creative muscles, but you'll receive an ATC by someone else. You see, ATCs are never sold; they are either swapped or given away. I'll do one for you if you 'd like. Just tell me you want to do one, too.

Okay y'all, as much as I appreciate Becky's positive response, I can't believe she's the only one!!! I promise, you can do so many different things with this one little project; it's the size of a playing card and you can do pretty much anything you want to it. You can doodle, draw, paint, glue something on it that you did on your computer...magazine cut-outs, beads, clay, wax --- the possibilities are endless. You can even sew something on it if you want! Plus, you'll get a free piece of art in return. Really. I'm going to wait --- let's see --- a few more days and then I'm shuttin' it down --- Becky and I'll be doing something cool and fun, and you'll all wish you'd joined in...

Hope you're all having a good week!

Okay! Who's up for an art project???

Don't all reply at once! Let me say first that this would be a very small scale project with a) very little skill or artistic talent required, and b) many, many, many different variations that you could do in a very short amount of time. It would also be cheap. In fact, I would even send you the "base" to get started on. Then you could choose how much time, effort, resources to put in to it. I'll give you lots of examples to look at, and lots of free advice. ;>)

WHADDYA SAY? Who wants more information?

Here's a photo I took last summer in a friend's garden, then played around with PaintShopPro until I got this image. I kind of like the eerie quality of it.

Here's a drawing of an unidentified plant I drew from a picture in a magazine. I thought it was pretty, but didn't get it quite right, so I think I changed it a bit.

Okay, okay...Due to all my clamoring fans, (you can tell they're clamoring by all their comments) I'll be updating my blog much more often from now on. The subjects may be varied, but I hope to include more posts relating to art, and post more pix of the things I'm doing in that regard. It seems I'm rather distractable and undisciplined, and may need a bit of accountability, even if it's only to myself and my imaginary readers. (Did I ever tell you about my childhood imaginary friends? Yeah, that's a whole 'nother post...)

So art-wise, I've just finished, or almost finished, redecorating my bedroom. I have the before pictures, which I'll post soon, and then, as soon as I finish a painting for above the bed, I'll take the after pix. That's not the only artwork I've done for the room, so perhaps I'll take some after pix in the next day or two. I will say that I consider the whole room an art project; I made the curtains, pillows, a tablecloth, etc., and feel a great sense of artistic satisfaction in the (almost!) finished room.

My next project will be to make some painted tote bags for various folks. I made several for a neice, but the forgot to take pictures, but I really enjoy adding trim, appliques, etc., but I had the most fun on the one I painted flowers on with a mixture of different kinds of fabric paints. Loads of fun and I think it turned out quite pretty. I may have to recreate it...

Alrighty then. There's the first of the new posts. Hope to see you often.

Looking back, I can see that I've recently read two books that I felt like I shouldn't have been reading, and yet, I kept reading them! I'll have to stop that. Now, however, I'm reading an awesome book that I highly recommend to any- and everyone.

Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn is a book I found at Half-Price Books several months ago and snatched up because I had read it years ago and loved it. Fortunately, although it was published in 1966, it remains a great book, full of richly drawn characters, historical truths, and a compelling story line. It's often referred to as a romance, and there is a great romance that is part of the book, but it' s also so much more. It centers around a young Black man from New Orleans, who is blessed to receive a scholarship to attend a college "up north" and how that effects and changes his life. When I first read this in high school, it made me want to be black. Seriously. I remember how envious I was of the warmth and depth of tradition and love this young man grew up with, and it made me feel that I had missed out, somehow. When I voiced these thoughts to my mother, I remember she tried to reassure me that our WASP-y heritage and traditions were just as rich and meaningful as anyone else's. And she might have convinced me had she not mentioned the "Virginia Reel" as one of white America's great cultural contributions to the world. The Virginia Reel???

It occurs to me now that she was probably just at a loss for what to say to me. Who knows, I may have even been in tears at the time. And what do I know about the Virginia Reel?

This book may not resonate with some as it has (again) with me, but I still recommend it, especially to younger whites, whose knowledge of a segregated South might be even sketchier than my own. If nothing else, the writing is beautiful and evokes images both stirring and awful. The first time I read it I remember feeling ashamed that members of my own race perpetrated such a way of life, even in such recent times. Now I read it and know that is its Sin. Black or White, Jew or Gentile, Protestant or Catholic, we're all broken people, living in a fallen world, ruled by Sin. So I grieve for the sufferings of people like the characters in this book, but as a child of God, rather than a child of a White man.

I'm almost finished reading a book called The Vision of Emma Blau, by Ursula Hegi. This is the second of Hegi's books that I've read, and while the other had some disturbing and unsettling parts, this one is touching some sore spots that are making me very sad.

This is a multigenerational story of a German immigrant who builds an elegant apartment house in a small New Hampshire town. It's a story of his family, of longing and yearning and pretending; one of selflessness and selfishness; one where dreams and reality are interwoven in a way that is ultimately quite realistic, but hard and disillusioning, nonetheless. It's a story of giving all and of withholding love and affection, of giving or taking too much power in a marriage.

It is about the bittersweet emotions we get tangled up with in our relationships, both the healthy and the unhealthy. Personally, my own inability to have a child is somehow mirrored in the main character's having a child that she loves fiercely, but cannot devote all her time to, having two stepchildren and even the ghostly presence of her beloved husband's two dead wives who preceded her. People live and die, we mourn and go on...it's all infused with such incredible sadness.

While many of the characters experience moments of happiness, the world they inhabit is not one I think I would care to live in. Even the lightest times are tinged with darkness, foreshadowing some rift in a relationship that will never mend, a realization of a truth that one has been blissfully blind to up until that point. Siblings and step-siblings are in the end all alone, quibbling and distrusting and resentful of each other and their parents.

The heaviness in these character's lives that Hegi portrays is pervasive, even as I put the book down to go about my own business in my own life. Perhaps the inability to stop eating that plagues one of the characters hits a bit close to home, although I don't go to the extremes Robert does in the book. But the temptation to fill up our empty spaces with food, sex, shopping or drugs is surely real.

I haven't finished the book yet, but I suspect the ending will provide a kind of resolution, as opposed to just an ending. I do not expect it to point out that God is the only thing that can fill up that hole inside us all.

More Fall ATCs...