Today felt like the most beautiful day since the beginning of the world:  the skies were blue, the temperature balmy, the sun shining, and the gentlest stirring of the air, not even up to a breeze, stroked my cheek.

I sat in my winter-blasted backyard for a while after work, looking at the shrubs and bare earth and seeing instead the foliage and flowers as they will be in a month or two.

I do have flowers, though.  I have a hellebore with lovely, drooping heads of purple, yellow eranthis (also called Winter Aconite), snowdrops, and honey-scented Fragrant Honeysuckle (Lonicera Fragrantissima, a rangy shrub with tiny, almost invisible white blush flowers which are so fragrant they can be smelled from twenty feet away).

Above is a mixed-media, mostly oil pastel piece I did which makes me think of Primavera, a goddess of Spring.  Spring is definitely in the air today, and so is heartbreak, for can this weather possibly last without another blast of winter? One can but hope.

Art Opera in Redbank Coming Up in April!

A super art event is coming up in Redbank, NJ starting April 7 called Art Opera - packed with fabulous workshops, special events, and creativity.  When I first found out about it by nosing around the internet, I almost fell off my chair with excitement.  In my neck of the woods, there usually aren't art events like this - one has to travel hundreds of miles to get to one.  And here is one with the most mouthwatering classes only an hour and a half away in Redbank, which is a great town.  I used to go there regularly to stroll around and check out the antique stores.

Check out the Art Opera Website at:  http://www.artoperanj.com/
Art Opera is April 7-11, 2010. Most workshops are April 8-9, with some morning classes on April 10.

I signed up for two swaps; the first time I have participated in a swap.  Today I mailed them off express mail.  It was tough letting go of the package.  Should I have glued rhinestones on the backs of the tags? In a perfect world, yes, but I was already late sending the swaps out, so I grit my teeth, taped up the cat food box turned inside out so I could use it for mailing, and set off for the small post office in the next town.  I had a lot of fun making the items, and now that I have done it once, I know how many things there are involved that I might never have thought of when I am in a creative frenzy, like having mailing materials on hand!

Here are pictures of the swaps - the first is a charm for a charm bracelet, and the second is decorated match boxes with surprises inside.

I had some tiny doll heads I had made for a project some years ago which I decided would look cool decorated with ribbon, trims, and rhinestones.  Because the theme of Art Opera this year is flappers, the sea, Coney Island, etc., I decided to name each one after a Greek ocean nymph, and I pasted the names on the back.

I couldn't find my stash of matchboxes, natch (GOT to get organized!) but I found a template for making them, so I used old postcards of 20s bathing beauties and a traditional Japanese wave pattern to make the decoration for the outsides.  I used snippets of ribbon and rhinestones for a little extra sparkle.  On the inside, I put little ocean shells, many of which had rhinestones or tiny, tiny shells glued on.  To me it looked a bit like a mermaid's treasure trove.

I just can't wait for April 7 to meet everyone and get started!

Understanding Alice in Underland

Twin and I went to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which I have been looking forward to for lo! these several months (unusual for me unless it is a Jane Austen movie!) because of the promise of phenomenal weirdo visuals.  And because of the prospect of Johnny Depp in a moldy top hat, frizzy red wig, and rainbow-hued makeup, too, I admit.

Well.  Twin loved it, which made me happy.  He tried to read Alice in Wonderland for the first time just a few weeks ago, and shall we say he was less than entranced.  I read both Alice books as a child, and I didn't think about whether I liked them or disliked them; I was fascinated by the characters, the images, the slightly skewed ideas and topsy turvy logic.


One set of my family's nicknames was taken from Jabberwocky, as a matter of fact.  My mother was Mimsy (close enough to Mommy, or Mumsy, which people in England actually sometimes use); and since "all mimsy were the borogroves" and I was so like my mother, I was Borogrove.    The Alice books were a part of our family life, and references to them, their world, their vocabulary, and their logic (my father was a logician, and I adored logic problems) were rife.

I loved some of the effects and colors and ideas in the movie - I want  to shake myself up a little.  Why not do a portrait with violently red or blue or purple hair and lime green skin with magenta highlights?  I definitely have my favorite, "safe" color combinations.  I will always love them and gravitate toward them, but I think a little  conscious rocking of the boat would be a good idea for me.