The last of the spooky stuff, I promise!

Here is a quick pic of my "altar" for both Halloween and Day of the Dead. My centerpiece is Eve. She was created in an art for kids class I took at San Jose State. Her body is made by using masking tape to adhere newspaper to a straw. The straw provides the hollow for the aluminum wire to go through and connect all the bones. The newspaper adds the bulk and give you the shape to paper mache over. The hardest part if I remember correctly was attaching her head! Eve was constructed to show our common ancestor. They say we are all descended from an African Woman. I used the biblical myth of Eve to represent her. The green felt around her neck is the serpent whispering knowledge to her. This is one of my favorite things in the whole world. It expresses so much of me and took many days and a lot of new skills to make.



After my pumpkins were done I had a little fun with them :) You can also see the finished Halloween Tree... well, as finished as it's gonna get this year! I wouldn't ever consider it "done", just like a Christmas tree, every year it will change. I think next October I will add some spider webs and garlands of some sort...
It was a great start and now I get to continue practicing! My dear Kevin got me this cute little mini xmas tree! I guess I'll be creating more ornaments and hopefully taking better pics ;)

Well, Eve says, good bye everyone and remember that we are all connected in one big family tree!

Creative and Motivated!

Sometimes it's hard to be both at the same time... especially with the time and energy constraints of modern life. If I look back, I can see that I was most creative and likely to finish a project when I was in college. Duh, if I didn't, I got a bad grade! But I think it was more than that. Us creative folks can be, forgive the stereotype, a little out there and I believe that I personally benefit from structure. This can be self-imposed (but that's like letting the fox guard the hen house) or imposed from outside one's self. Luckily, one of my good friends turned me on to Swapbot.com. It's a great way not only to find structure for your creative endeavors but to meet other artists and fun people all over the globe. You join a swap and you're given parameters for your creation, an audience and a deadline ;) I can't tell you how great this has been for me! Here are the results of my first swap, an ATC swap with a Dia de los Muertos theme.

They are both ofrendas which means "tribute" or "offering" in Spanish and refers to the altars made by families for their beloved dead on Dia de los Muertos. The first one is for my grandma Barbara. The images in the card remind me of her. The perfume bottle for her Avon, the dragonfly for the pair of earrings she gave me and the calaca for the many Albee awards she received for her success with Avon. The flowers are marigolds, traditional altar flowers for the Day of the Dead and also represent the love and joy she brought to so many.

The second one is for my grandpa. His was a little harder for many reasons. My grandma died in 2002 and I think I've had a lot of time to process that loss. My grandpa died in 2005 while I was planning my wedding. In order to make it through that time, I had to push aside many of my feelings of grief and guilt. By making this piece for him, I was able to get back in touch with and release some of that pain. I chose the images based on his love of westerns, his free spirit, his love of his country and his stellar personality. You might also notice that my grandpa's card has a small dragonfly, which links the two pieces together. Also, the wire on his card spells out his call sign: W6UBQ.

There are so many lessons I learned through this project! One was about giving your art away. Yes, I mailed the originals to my swap partner. I didn't have to, the rules specify that you can send high quality copies but something told me that I should. Maybe it was another act of letting go. I'm happy that they will be placed in someone's art collection. I have already benefited through the creation and I don't think I would benefit more by keeping them. Anyway, thanks everyone for reading. This is indeed the time of year when we are going into the darkness. I hope you all find healing there.
Allison