Home Page: written down

I’ve been mulling the prompts while turning out a batch of non-prompt related pages. Figured it was time to post something! Made this page today after attending a great concert last night, Hubert Sumlin (one of the all time great blues guitarists) accompanied by David Johansen (of New York Dolls and Buster Poindexter fame). Amazed that a skinny white boy from Staten Island could channel Howling Wolf, a huge black man from the deep south who had a voice that’s been compared to “heavy machinery on a gravel road.” But David J. pulled it off perfectly, and I’m very happy I was there to see/hear it.
Wishing you all a terrific week!

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This page makes me laugh because it’s oh-so-true!! It started out as some “afternoon no-brainer play” which typically means lots of experimentation. As I was working with a bunch of things at once the evidence of my excessive tendencies was smacking me in the face. Supplies everywhere, piles all over the floor, covered in ink and hunting for the missing element I knew I just saw a moment before! My studio is a disaster and yet I continue to collect cool stuff. So I dropped everything I was doing and re-focused. I chose this simple color scheme and circle/floral shapes with the hopes of just BEING with my toys. This page is what came out. It is true – I am not a minimalist. The saying “Go big or stay home” comes to mind!

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I’m very attached to a house that I know I will never live in or own. It’s the Jan Martense Schenck House, a seventeenth century house, which is located in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The house was originally built as a farmhouse in 1675 in Brooklyn, New York, where I grew up and still live. In 1952, the Museum purchased it to save it from demolition and installed it on its fourth floor in 1964. It’s the oldest house in the U.S. and I first discovered it as a child while learning about the history of New York City in school. This house has been my favorite exhibit at the Museum ever since. No matter what exhibit has drawn me to the Museum over the years, I always wind up visiting “my” house. Looking through the windows and standing in the doorways of the house, admiring the beautiful seventeenth century furnishings and decorations, always makes me smile. The house means so much to me that when my husband and I were dating, on our first visit to the Museum, I had to take him to see “my” house. Although I knew it wouldn’t be his idea of our perfect dream house, I know he understood how much the house meant to me. I guess this house will always belong to me.

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The pics for this spread happened within my first week of registering for this class and I’m so glad I finally put it together! The memory of the day makes me smile.

I had an appointment with my NeuroSurgeon in the morning that I knew was going to be icky. As a tradeoff, I planned an afternoon trek to the newly relocated International Newstand (one of my FAVE places!). The store was still in relo disarray and way too crowded so I wandered into the cafe next door (also new to me). I found an unexpected delight – the cafe features a “local artists” gallery which was different and edgy. Loved it and took my time exploring. Then, in the back, tucked behind a corner and by the bathrooms, was a floor-to-ceiling magnet board! It was filled with magnets of all types to play with – alphabets for kids, magnetic poetry words from several different sets, etc.

Of course I had to play – I made lots of found poetry and then photographed some of it. Below are the 2 that made it to my journal spread. “I AM” came from one of our initial prompts -the words around it were whatever was in proximity. “Fear is Lethal” resulted from the many emotions the Neuro brings out for me.
Thanks for sharing my Artful Play day with me!

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Hey Guys,

Long time no post!
Sorry, been waiting for insipation to strike, I have however, been keeping an eye on all the work and loving it – You guys are too good!

This is my second page. Its about what I’m not going to change. I’m a total softy – and thats never going to change, I cant help it. People tell me I should be less sensitive and harder, but you know what, I dont want to be. I’d much rather be just me.

Hope you like it, hope to be back real soon with some more…..

xxx

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I never imagined that I would pay homage to my town because afterall, I despised growing up there. No, scratch that – I despised being a teenager there. It was small. the only restaurants were Sizzler – probably the first one in California, and an A&W which I worked at (and got fired for giving cute boys free food) as a teenager.

But the town was lovely – full of orange groves and houses with space between them. Ours had five acres and a zillion walnut trees and grass that grew up to our chests, which we would crawl through playing marco polo.

I was one of the few kids who grew up in a town with all of my aunts and uncles, my cousins and my grandparents, and though my childhood DID suck, I had a lot of fun being in the wide open land, with a mountain as my backyard. There were no fences between the houses and the Jarman’s next door wouldn’t flip out if we ran across their lawn to take a shortcut to the creek.

The town now looks like mini Orange County. Gone are the orange trees and the walnut trees on our land. In fact, there are now 5 houses on the 5 acres where our house was. Tract homes have taken over all of the open spaces.

There is a McDonald’s, a ROSS, and a Starbucks.

My Grandma and some aunts and cousins still live there, and when I go to visit, it doesn’t feel like going home.

It downright ticks me off. LOL.

So this is me in a tree on our prroperty when I was about 5. And I think I am discovering a collage style that feels like “me” finally! I have only been doing collage for a few months, exploring techniques… The title is from an actual paper I wrote in 2nd grade called “the vanishing teacher” LOL – and a vintage map of California and some other old schoolwork of mine and Daisy D’s PP.

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I have a pretty low level of attachment to objects and places. So Brenda helped me figure out this assignment. It seems I actually do miss having a fun car. Because of my business, I have a van and I hate vans!! Here are my thoughts & wishes that some day I can take the ‘Funky Town’ exit again.

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I can’t believe I got this done so quickly—usually I sit and think forever on these prompts! But I got to thinking about things that don’t really belong to me, but I feel as if they do… and I realized, I give gifts with strings attached! Not really in a manipulation sense, but in a sense that I feel some part of me still OWNS the item I gave away. And I can resent it when the other person doesn’t treat the gift with the proper love and respect… Not the best thing to realize about myself, but hey, the first step towards change… <>

Thanks for looking!
oxxo
LainE

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Here’s my page for week 6 regarding the kitchen prompt.

Oh how I struggled with this. This sat for a few weeks since I just couldn’t come up with a thing. Not a darn thing.

Life / family was different when I was a kid – I was alone a lot and made my own meals. I lived on Chef boy R dee (sp?), cereal, instant rice, carrot sticks….that kind of thing. I’ve never learned to cook and don’t really care. It strikes me as a lot of time, effort and mess for just food. With no kids and a hubby who agrees, it’s no big deal in our house. We eat a lot of salads, sandwiches, frozen stuff and go out. The kitchen is purely functional (although I do like the new counters we put in last year!!).

But, I do recognize the food=love equation and the value of comfort foods when you need them. So I journaled a bit about these points and called it a day. Not my fave page by a long shot, but I just couldn’t get into it. Fair enough.

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This is my page in response to the week 5 prompt – X marks the spot. I did a LOT of thinking on this one and my prompt page is covered with scribbled ideas. While there was lots of material for me to work with, I struggled with identifying the central focus and how to put my thoughts into one cohesive (visual) piece. Then some serendipity kicked in.

I knew I wanted to use a map page for a base. I haphazardly tore a page out of a book, cut it to size and gessoed over it. After it dried I realized that the intersection of 2 major highways on this map formed a perfect X! So I had to go with it (it’s the green X in the page) Then I thought of us at the top of our own mountain (search). The base is what it takes to persevere and the side quads became about the pathways we take. There is the wandering path (ala the Family Circus comic), the straight path to the top, the Escher-like staircase, etc.

But through it all, we rise to the top because we are human. We are the Hero and the Star. We are about hope, continuous improvement and increasing fulfillment. To not look for more is to settle and become complacent. Life and change doesn’t support a “status quo” mentality. So, we persevere in an ongoing search. The wisdom of our previous searches gives us the tools for the next one.

So that’s what went into it. And I still think I haven’t summarized myself very well !! Thanks for looking.

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