Illustrated

When I was a child some of my favorite books were the classic fairy tales, but it wasn't because the stories were all that interesting. No matter how the story is told, Cinderella always fits into the slipper. ( As an adult though, I do love a good retelling. For those who have read Confessions of an Ugly Step Sister and Cinder Edna, you'll know what I mean.) The things that I loved about the books were the pictures. It was always so fascinating to see how many incarnations Cinderella could take on. Was her hair black this time? What was she wearing to the ball? What did the Palace look like? I would open the books and just get lost in the images. I had no need to read the words. The illustrations were so detailed I could just feel the story. My childhood was filled with these depictions. I would get lost in the art and not find my way out for hours. Then I'd go back and do it again. 


The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault 1922

It turns out that the Illustrators I loved so much all had one thing in common, they were part of the art nouveau movement that started in the 1890's and lasted through the 1920's. This is called the Golden Age of Illustration. Some of the pictures are quite sexually charged with some adult content, so I also got a sensual education as well. That's what art nouveau is , seeing beauty in the rounded lines and curves that echo nature, and the human body is apart of that. 


1923 edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales
illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren.

As I grew up, I still read, but I thought I was much to mature for the picture books. So my imagination took over, but to be honest, the style in my head was still the same.  My sense of aesthetic was highly influenced by these artists. They laid the ground work for my own artistic expression. The highly detailed pictures have now become my own artwork. Whether it be painting or fashion, it can't just be plain, there has to be a lot of embellishment and texture.

I'll share some of my favorites here, but since I couldn't put all of the pictures I love on this little post, you might want to do some of your own research. These talented artists really are worth getting to know.

  My all time number one favorite is Kay Nielsen. He was a Danish Illustrator that collaborated with Disney from time to time. There is so much going on in these drawings, his work is just so Beautiful!


The Fire Bird



Crinoline and Powder



12 Dancing Princesses

Warwick Goble
An English Illustrator that specialized in Japanese and Asian themes and then he'd put his own romantic, idealized, western spin on them.


The Iron Stove

The Six Swans

Odalisque (google this)

Harry Clarke

He did Illustrations for multiple fairy tales, but I like what he did for Edgar Allen Poe's stories the best. They're a bit darker, the black and white patterns helped me sink into madness, and I LOVE THEM! He was also a stained glass artist in London and his glass is just as detailed and gorgeous as these pictures.

 

Edgar Allen Poe’s “Tales of Mystery and Imagination”

I can't identify this one, but there's been a head chopping,
 so It might be for Poe's work as well.

Edgar Allen Poe’s “Tales of Mystery and Imagination”

Edmund Dulac

He was a French man studying law at the University of Toulouse , but he got bored, so he became an artist instead. Thank goodness for that. He Illustrated multiple story books and had quite a successful career as an artist.

 

Scheherazade

Sleeping Beauty

Tales from the Arabian Nights

Last but not least is Arthur Rackham

He was thought of as one of the leading artists of the Golden Age. His images were done in watercolor and pen and India ink. They have a kind of photographic feel to them. He was successful in his lifetime, and his art is also a much sought after collectors items.

The ring of the Nibelung

Pandora

 

Undine Lost

 

I still love illustrations for the same reasons as I always did and as an adult I still get lost in them. There are so many other artists who's works I could share, but posts can only be so long. Some honorable mentions are John Bauer, Emma Florence Harrison, H. J. Ford, Gustaf Tenggren, Dorothy Lathrop, and Virginia Frances Sterrett. I can see where they have influenced more contemporary illustrators who have in turn influenced me as well.

 (Love)

 

This Year

It began as a vision in the foggy mists of January. As I stood in the backyard chilled to the bone and praying that we'd have an early thaw, I saw the garden spot alive with flowers and butterflies and flowing with milk and honey. Well, full of food anyway. I needed something to keep me sane during the winter, so I ordered some gardening books for myself. I'll have to admit I was pretty zealous about it. The second the sun came out (mid February), I was outside digging and foraging for usable materials. I used the wheels my brother and I salvaged from our scrapping adventures, some bricks I found up at the dump spot on the hill, and some sandstone from a school that my brothers and father demo-ed years ago. My goal was not to spend a cent on the structural stuff, and I was able to realize it. 

So without further ado, here is the finished lot.

 

I put a boarder of railroad ties on the north and south sides.

I took another 5 feet past the trees into the yard and put in bricks as a barrier. 

As you can see I've planted a few things already. The raspberries and strawberries are located on the north side of the garden near the compost bin. I put down fescue grass as a mulch to help keep the weeds down. How well that works is yet to be seen.

 

I built up a little wall to make a permanent flower bed and put down old carpet
 as a pathway (I know it's not so green, but I'm using what I have here).

I've put a bed of Asparagus in on the south side with a rhubarb plant in the far corner. We had a bunch of rusted out water troughs and old tires that I thought would make great raised beds, so they were thrown in the mix as well.

I used the vintage farm wheels as decorative boarders around
 the perimeter of the house. This is on the south side where the
 tomatoes were last year.

I thought blueberries would do well in this spot so I put them in when the other berries went in. I also put a couple bushes on the east side of the house, so hopefully we will have plenty of them to keep us happy. It wasn't just the back of the house that I overhauled, the front needed work too.
Here is the result.  



I ripped out the wild rose bushes and created an actual bed.

I've planted perennials and artichoke as ornamental plants, along with watermelon as a cover, in the above spot. Everything is basically experimental at this point. In the below spot I've just fescued the dickens out of it in an attempt to control the weeds. I've planted herbs in the pots and put some cactus out as well.

 

We used to have a Dairy, so of course I would use these left overs.

There is a lot I still need to do, but I've decided to wait on it until next year. This has been quite the project already and my visions are always evolutionary. Most likely I will change a few things as time goes by, but in the mean time I'll just enjoy the work in progress.


Herb tower + concrete swan = hodge podge design. I don't know
if I like it yet, but I'll see what it looks like with flowers.

That'll do pig

I bought this pretty little pig (it's what they're called in the industry) in Korea. It was the next to biggest size I could find. The biggest one was way too big and as we know it's much easier to put weight on then to take it off. So I bought this pig with the intention of helping her gain some girth so she could be useful to me.

Look at her so slim and cute.

She even has a Korean name.

 

I brought her home and fed her some good sandwiches and fattened her up. No wait, that was me. I just added padding to her so now she is rounded and full and very healthy looking.

 

I had to add the most at the waist.

Fitting around the arm hole was a challenge,
 but darts are great for things like that.

Since we can both wear the same size , draping has become much easier because I can tell exactly what I'm going to look like in a design. I don't have to waste time and effort on something that in the end won't turn out. This was well worth the effort for me.

 

When she needs to do a skinny gig, I just unzip the fleshy parts and hang her fuller self in the closet. It's working perfectly.

 

 

BTW it's also been very fun to see what I actually look like. I am always so hard on myself, but these measurements have been mine for the last ten years and I think they're just fine.

Last Year

Spring is here once again. It's the most wonderful time of the year and I love it so much! The cold is leaving (unfortunately though, that old North wind isn't giving up yet), the sun is here longer, and the sky is brilliant blue. My favorite reason however, is that I get to put my garden in. This first picture is last years raw materials.

There were aspects of  my garden that were just lovely and I always enjoy watching little things grow, but unfortunately there were things that just didn't work out.  I was in a bit of a rush when I moved home from Florida, so the seeds went in a little late. Since I started everything too late, the cold weather crops bolted and the summer crops still hadn't ripened as we proceeded into fall.

My baby watermelons were so cute, too bad they never got very sweet :(

 

As you can see the weeds were atrocious and the biggest problem was keeping them all down so the veggies could grow.

The Cauliflower was gorgeous, but never grew any heads???
 I'm still trying to figure that one out.

I planted my squash at the edge of Dad's corn field, but the tractor went through soon after and leveled the mounds. " Oops "said Dad "I forgot that I had that scheduled". Luckily, some of the seeds survived so I did get a few plants.

 

The squash was actually abundant, as squash always is. We got more then enough from the surviving plants to keep us swimming in squash. One of the two successes of the season.

 

The other success was the tomatoes. I put them on the south side of the house and actually bought the starts so they were nice and big when I put them in the earth.  To be honest, I consider this cheating (I should have started them myself), but I'm not complaining because the fresh ripe tomatoes in my salads, stews, and sandwiches were to die for.
 

 

I consider last year practice for the main event.  I have big plans for this year.  I've been working pretty hard since February getting the new garden planned and put together. I've already met with some failures (blasted wind!%@*&^), but those too are learning experiences. Practice makes perfect.

 

 

I'm excited for this year and many successes in the future. Mmmmm I can just taste those tomatoes !

Letting Go

Oddly enough, this post has been rather difficult to write, sitting here in my drafts for months. Letting go can take so much more work then we think it will.  Here's the back story.

I was pretty busy this last summer. My dear Brother was kind enough to give me a job until I can get my own thing going. Basically, I've been picking up other peoples trash. We find piles of refuse, like the one pictured above, then we find what's valuable and take it to be recycled. Our official title is that of Scrapper, and we've been practicing our "Trade" in Nevada mostly.

If you turn 90 degrees to the left from the above pile of garbage you can see the beautiful Ruby Mountains. There is in fact, a lot of beautiful landscapes in Nevada and it's what's kept me sane as we travel down our never ending roads to nowhere. Unfortunately and fortunately (for it's been my bread and butter) there are also a lot of junk piles. They really do mess up the view. These old homesteads have generations upon generations of pile up. Sometimes we find cool antiques, but mostly it's moldering crap that's just an eyesore.

Usually we are called in by the children that have been left this unsightly legacy, but on one particular job it was the Parents. My Brother and I were summoned by the Mother to come and clear it away. Her children held onto every little bit of this and that, until her property was covered in junk. Now I am pro "keep it if it's useful", but I will only keep if it I'll use it. I don't keep if for keeping it's sake. These grown up children of hers didn't want to part with anything, no matter how rusty or useless. It was ridiculous behavior for fully grown adult men. Quite literally the worst hoarding case I'd ever seen, and I've watched Hoarding Buried Alive plenty.

So it got me thinking, what is it that I hold onto? Here is the difficult part and why the post sat waiting to be written. What do I need so desperately that I can't let it go? Well, it isn't stuff. I purge my closets and rooms every chance I get.

Then one day I was getting my long luscious hair trimmed at the salon and they had a quote by Steve McQueen on the wall (I totally love him btw, tough guys,Yowza!). It said "The lighter you live, the further you'll go". It dawned on me as I was talking to my hairdresser about how gorgeous my hair is, that this is what I couldn't let go. My appearance, my Hair especially.

Of course...I had to prove to myself that I could.

 

 

It wasn't just a spur of the moment thing. I made an educated decision. 

 

These are my reasons..... for all of you who have been shaking your heads mournfully saying "why oh why".

1. I wanted to go back to my natural color. 2. I wanted to save the money I spent each month touching up my roots (maybe save for a trip or something). 3. I wanted to see if my self esteem was based on what I look like.

I've had my hair short for almost two months now and the above reasons have been proven. Yes, my natural color is there. Very salt and pepper, I am almost 40 after all. Yes, I am saving money and it's rather nice not to have to touch up every month. Yes, my self esteem has taken a bit of a blow. I had a very dramatic look and so I got noticed. I knew that men were looking because I was looking for them to look (cause I knew they would). Make sense?

Now? Well to be honest, I've realized that when I go out I'm not looking any more. I'm not making eye contact or smiling like I used to. I am just assuming no one is noticing me. It's a complete change in attitude on my part and it brings up even  more questions (like, am I basing how I feel about myself on what men think?). My hair wasn't my self esteem, but it was my sex appeal. That needs to change. I need to know (in my inner soul) that I've got it no matter what I look like. I am talented, capable, and I am still beautiful, I just don't have any hair at the moment. This little experiment of mine has become much more then I thought it would be. Letting go of my hair was the easy part. I shaved my head myself and didn't even cry, so I thought it wouldn't matter so much. It turns out it does though. What else do I need to let go of? What else can I let go of? What other junk is cluttering up the landscape of my soul? What ever it is, when I get rid of it; I'll be lighter, happier, and more at peace with myself.

writing it up

“I never wanted to be well-rounded. I do not admire well-rounded people nor their work. So far as I can see, nothing good in the world has ever been done by well-rounded people. The good work is done by people with jagged, broken edges, because those edges cut things and leave an imprint, a design.”

“If you’re gonna write, for God in heaven’s sake, try to get naked. Try to write the truth. Try to get underneath all the sham, all the excuses, all the lies that you’ve been told.”

“Writers spend all their time preoccupied with just the things that their fellow men and women spend their time trying to avoid thinking about. … It takes great courage to look where you have to look, which is in yourself, in your experience, in your relationship with fellow beings, your relationship to the earth, to the spirit or to the first cause—to look at them and make something of them.”

“There is something beautiful about scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.”

— Harry Crews
 

I've never read anything by this author, but I just came across what he said and this makes me want to read his works.  I'm writing. I'll try very hard to do the same with my works. (I'll keep you posted) ;)

Just Beautiful

I just had to share this.

I love Designers who create sculpture and turn Fashion into Art.

This is so over the top and Fabulous

Here are a couple of my favorites and of course, the shoes.....oh the shoes!