Gathering Things

In just a few short days, we embark!

In last week’s newsletter, we talked about some pre-course homework to help you get warmed up for what is to come.  That assignment was to collect five images each of  that make you happy, sad, thoughtful and creative.  I know a number of you have created Pinterest boards and shared the link on the Members Only Forum Thread and the  Group’s Facebook page.

I have created a board on Pinterest also and for this week’s blog post, I am going to share some of my images and talk a little bit about why I selected them.

First up:  Thoughtful

Edie.  As I sifted through images for this collection, she kept coming up.  I’m avidly interested in the Warhol sixties and she sort of embodies my lasting impressions:  beautiful, tragic, dynamic, troubled, gone too soon.

Pulling together photos that made me thoughtful took a little work, but “Sad” was much harder.  There are plenty of things that make me sad, but honestly, I don’t want to look at them if I don’t have to.  At the same time, if we look away at everything that makes us uncomfortable, that’s not dealing in reality either.  I pulled together my pics and for this post, I selected a picture from my past:

Prime Hook Beach, Delaware, is where I spent at least half of my childhood.  It is a small, private beach on the Delaware Bay.  My grandfather built the beach house in 1955 himself.  The cottage is now owned by my aunt and she has maintained a lot the original elements of the home as my grandparents had it.  The old farm table in the middle of the kitchen is still there where family and friends shared countless meals.  At night, in my dreams, when my deceased grandparents visit me, we visit with each other here.  This place is part of my DNA.  But, time and Mother Nature are taking Prime Hook Beach away.  The access road to the beach is literally five miles of winding road through a National Wildlife Refuge.  Storms have destroyed the beautiful marsh and now a good rain washes out the road.  Slowly, Prime Hook Beach and the tangible evidence of my childhood spent at the beach are leaving.

Shifting gears to more upbeat thoughts, here is one of my images for “Creative”
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Doesn’t she look like she could be a great fiber artist?  I love the fashions of the women in the Harjuku area of Japan:  Colorful, eclectic, humorous, adventurous.  I cannot wait till I don’t have an office job so I can dress this way ALL the time…and no, I do not care that I am over 50 now…because I am going to be one of THOSE old ladies.

Finally, the best for last:  “Happy”

One of the things my husband and I have in common is the love of dressing up in costumes.  How lucky was I to find someone who shares this crazy trait?  So, of course, we love Halloween.  We have costume trunks (yes, more than one) in the basement.  This year it so happened that we were going to be on vacation in Sedona, Arizona with some friends.  These friends are not as much the costume folk that we are but they were game when I said, “Oh, we will be there on Halloween, you know we have to dress up, right?”  I didn’t want to drag anything with me from home and I didn’t want to spend a lot of money.  So, off to the thrift store we went for a collection of hats which cost $6 and then to Party City for some greasepaint and for less then $25, all four of us where ready for Halloween.  We made quite the foursome on our ghost tour of Jerome, Arizona.

So, enrollment in the course is closing this coming Friday, November 15th.  The response to the course has been wonderfully overwhelming.  In order to keep the overall experience intimate in the way we envisioned the course, we have decided to close enrollment MUCH earlier than we originally anticipated so the last day to enroll for this semester is the coming Friday, November 15th.  For you folks that can’t join us this time, we will open up the next semester in February 2014.

OK, now I’m off to blog over at www.spinartiste.com…Happy Sunday everyone!