Finding my way back

This may be sad or triggering for some of you. If you find it to be too much, I don't mind if you scroll down to the dashed line and start there.

For over six years I was one of two caregivers for my mother who had dementia. Her particular dementia was Vascular Dementia.  That means that the blood vessels in the brain were damaged in some way leading to a lack of oxygen and nutrients in the brain. This eventually causes brain tissues to deteriorate and eventually fail to function.  
Toward the end of September, my mother passed away peacefully on a Sunday morning. She had been under hospice care for about a month. I will say that our experience with hospice was excellent. 

I am 'stuck' with the role of executor for the will at this point and it is stressing me out. My feelings about loss and everything else have me in a state of confusion and mixed feelings.  I thought that once mom passed I would be able to resume my "normal" life.  However, at this point I feel like a little boat adrift on the high tides in the middle of the ocean.  I am trying to get back into my creative activities, but they seem pointless right now.  

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I did join a brand new writer's group that is meeting at the Public Library here. Our first "assignment" was to describe ourselves in three words and expand on those words. The words I chose were words that I think portray my best side. Perhaps I should repeat the exercise and use three of my worst traits. 
Anyway,  I chose to use "songwriter" "creative" and "friend"'

Here is that piece. 

songwriter, poetry with melody

I try to live in harmony 

I share my words with you

the feelings here in heart and mind

always trying to be kind

I share my dreams with you

creative soul, creating art

quilting and painting are a part

of what I share with you

creative things come from within

happy things that make me grin

I share a smile with you

Friend, a companion I judge not

I try to do just what I ought

 caring for a special few 

I will share my life, my hopes, my dreams

but I won't push it to extremes 

you can trust me to be true

I hope you enjoyed that bit of poetry.  

Now let me share some gel prints

This was a gradient printed over the purple abstract tree shape. 

These are two gradients that will probably be used in collage. 

This is a nice almost neutral that should also work well in collage. 

And, for the Friday Face Off,  here is a very old photo from the family archives. 

I am not sure just who these folks are. 

My mystery ancestors.

I suspect that they are on my maternal lineage but I have had no luck in identifying them. 

Linking to the Friday Face Off

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Monsters? SITAR

After more than a month away,  I am back for Sunday in the Art Room.  Today I am sharing art that is not my work.  My niece's husband has written at least two children's books.  My offering for today is a bit of art from his second book. "There Are No Monster's Under My Bed"  

The illustrations that Kevin has created are delightfully whimsical.   I love the "monsters" in the book best of all, so I am sharing a couple of photos.  These are only cropped portions of the illustrations, but you will easily get the feel for his illustration style. 

 First is two monsters running. 

I love the cape flying along behind the frog. And those lips on the purple monster are so much fun. 

The second photo I am sharing is that purple monster from a front view. 

I think I would have been frightened of this one as a child also. 

The story explains how the child realizes that the monsters are just 

ordinary things that we see differently in dark rooms. 

If you would like to get this book for someone you love, you can find it on Amazon

There Are No Monsters Under My Bed

Linking to Sunday in the Art Room

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A 36 Year Old Photo

Back in 1990,  when I was a bit younger than I am now,  a dear friend and I went on a trip to Pigeon Forge Tennessee.  The town was packed. This wasn't a surprise to us and we were all there for the Opening of Dollywood's 4th year.  This year they were adding a carousel. In grand fashion, there was a parade through the main street of the town.  The Grand Marshall was riding on a Lion from the carousel. 

I had my camera with a zoom lens and was chasing along taking photos.  Here is a photo that I took that year with my good old Pentax film camera.  

Yes, of course the Grand Marshall for the parade was none other than Dolly Parton. 

As she was going by,  I yelled out "Hey, Dolly!  I never saw a fox riding on a lion before." 

She laughed delightedly and said "I never thought of it that way!"

Rest in Peace, dear lady.

Linking to the Friday Face off.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Altered Book Pages

I have been missing on here for a while. These days I have a lot less time and energy for creating because I am caring for my Mom.  She is in the later stages of dementia.  That's life and we carry on. 

However,  this week I took a little time to create a two page spread in one of my altered books and decided to share these pages with you.  The first page was created starting with a "roll-off" sheet.  Let me explain.  

When you are printing with a gel plate, you use a brayer to roll out the paint. Then to clean off the brayer, you "roll off" the remaining paint on scrap paper.  I am actually using an old manual from a leadership class as paper for this process.  So here is that page:

To fill in the areas around the roll off,  I used some of my painted papers and a couple of brush markers. 

For the facing page, I used the above as inspiration and created a similar image using mostly collage and some brush markers. For the collage, I used painted papers and a few pieces from an old magazine page.

They are different yet similar and I like them both.  

I am linking to Sunday in the Art Room.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.