Sporkerfly

Your Birthdate: September 2

You're so intuitive, it's like you have a sixth, seventh, and eighth sense. You connect with others freely and easily - and you tend to have many best friends. Warm and caring, it's hard for you to close your heart to anyone. Affection is like air for you - you need to give and receive it to survive. Your strength: Your universal compassion Your weakness: Your unpredictable mood swings Your power color: Mauve Your power symbol: Butterfly Your power month: February

This past several weeks... actually the past 2 months or so have been a whirlwind of activity. Last Friday marked my 26th Birthday. Many of you wished me well and made that day very special for me, so i would like to say Thank You, to all of you who did. Yesterday I finished with the bulk of moving into my studio, still have to pack up a couple more small boxes and take them over, then i have the task of unpacking and setting up my studio... This should prove interesting and fun since i had the help of a few family members who just threw things into boxes, not knowing the method to my madness of what only looks to them like junk. I barely have time to do this now, but I promised and failed to make good on my promise to post this work in progress last week (I hope you'll forgive me Lin).

As with almost all of my work, there are many layers of meaning as well as media involved in making this piece. Layers of magazine cutouts as well as image transfers made through a special immersion process create a portrait of women, old and young, living their multi-layered, multi-facedted lives- dancing, working, sweating, crying, communing with God and their children/families... Images of celebrities and women of interest to me- women whose lives are & were studded by pain and struggle as well as blessed and cursed with glamour, talent, beauty, brains and legendary voices and careers, such as Lady Day (Billie Holiday), Marilyn Monroe,Betty Boop (hehehe), Emily Dickenson, Natalie Merchant, Coco Chanel, and The Black Madonna. These images build a base to which the painting is applied adding further depth and meaning to the piece.

A fist clutches a butterfly- her life and her innocence violated, her beauty and power made only more evident by the one that violates her and tries to keep her from freedom. On another level this image represents and is dedicated to anyOne or any Group of people who have ever been oppressed, enslaved, violated, betrayed, rejected or neglected, or "kept in your place". Your beauty and strength will always overshadow and haunt your oppressors if they dont change their ways. Be watchful that you dont become an oppressor as you learn to fly.

More about this piece, and more photos of progress soon to come as it unfolds and reveals itself to me. Also, if you're at all interested, i will be posting pics of my studio space, here in my bedroom/office/studio (the before pics) as well as pics of my new studio, in Historic Southend as it takes shape and becomes a home and haven for art making. Thank you for your time and for your love and support, for believing in me and for encouraging me to make fear my doormat and stomp on it as i take hold of my dreams and to all those who have been coming to my journal over the years. Love and blessings to you all.

So, without further ado, here is my work in progress, first painting from my new series, Black and White and Red [/Read] All Over.




( Details... )

I was at a friend's journal the other day and i commented in agreement with him. While strolling through his journal again this morning, I re-read the entry from the other day, along with the comments.

Mine struck me quite strangely because though I remember writing it, I didnt think much of it at the time. Looking back, it seems quite profound to me, as if it were a message that i needed for myself.

I really really think I must start paying more attention to the things that come from my pen, fingertips and mouth.... I might learn something from the one who speaks through me from time to time.

Here's the quote:

on 07/25/05

The well of knowledge is so very deep that anyone presuming that they know all will be likely to drown in their own shallow well.
~C

( Click here to see! )

*
* Register!!


The Filmerica Challenge is the result of a collaborative effort to make the best Filmmaking competitions and should be not confused with others. Our goal is not to compete with the other filmmaking challenges but to give you an new alternative to what a Film Challenge should be.

The basis of this years competition is to create a film in less than 72 hours (1 Weekend). How this gets done is what's even more intriguing. To make it even more difficult and to keep everyone honest, we will assign you 4 film criteria the day of the competition.
Here is a quick breakdown of the competition.

* Register your Team (The cost is only $99.00 up until May 31st. 06/01-06/25 is $120)
* Wait for our email and check our your New Team Homepage
* Start your Producers/Film Journal (Linked from your Team Page)
* Get all your staff involved and signed up with a free account!
* You may ONLY, organize your crew, locations, and equipment prior to the kick off.
* On July 15th you will get an email with the following information:
o Your Film Genre
o A Line of Dialog
o A Prop
o and a Character
* After you receive the kick-off email on Friday you will begin the following;
o Write the script
o Rehearse & Choreograph
o Costume & Set Design
o Shooting
o Capturing
o Editing
o Energy Drinks & Coffee
o Motion Graphics and Special Effect
o Sound and Music Production
* You will then have until Monday the 18th to make a 5-9 minute Film and Ship it along with the necessary production forms!
(MUST BE POSTMARKED BY MONDAY)
* Now, sit back, enjoy Filmerica's community features and award the judging and awards presentation.

Film Categories/Genre’s:
Filmerica has limited the amount and type of Genre’s to only six primary categories, which will level the playing field when it comes to judging the finalists. Filmerica chose the following film Categories/Genre’s based on what people are interested in viewing:

* Action / Adventure
* Comedy
* Western / Classic Picture
* Love Story / Drama
* Horror / Mystery
* Sci-fi / Super-Hero

See Complete Rules on the Registration Page
* Register!!


The Filmerica Challenge is the result of a collaborative effort to make the best Filmmaking competitions and should be not confused with others. Our goal is not to compete with the other filmmaking challenges but to give you an new alternative to what a Film Challenge should be.

The basis of this years competition is to create a film in less than 72 hours (1 Weekend). How this gets done is what's even more intriguing. To make it even more difficult and to keep everyone honest, we will assign you 4 film criteria the day of the competition.
Here is a quick breakdown of the competition.

* Register your Team (The cost is only $99.00 up until May 31st. 06/01-06/25 is $120)
* Wait for our email and check our your New Team Homepage
* Start your Producers/Film Journal (Linked from your Team Page)
* Get all your staff involved and signed up with a free account!
* You may ONLY, organize your crew, locations, and equipment prior to the kick off.
* On July 15th you will get an email with the following information:
o Your Film Genre
o A Line of Dialog
o A Prop
o and a Character
* After you receive the kick-off email on Friday you will begin the following;
o Write the script
o Rehearse & Choreograph
o Costume & Set Design
o Shooting
o Capturing
o Editing
o Energy Drinks & Coffee
o Motion Graphics and Special Effect
o Sound and Music Production
* You will then have until Monday the 18th to make a 5-9 minute Film and Ship it along with the necessary production forms!
(MUST BE POSTMARKED BY MONDAY)
* Now, sit back, enjoy Filmerica's community features and award the judging and awards presentation.

Film Categories/Genre’s:
Filmerica has limited the amount and type of Genre’s to only six primary categories, which will level the playing field when it comes to judging the finalists. Filmerica chose the following film Categories/Genre’s based on what people are interested in viewing:

* Action / Adventure
* Comedy
* Western / Classic Picture
* Love Story / Drama
* Horror / Mystery
* Sci-fi / Super-Hero
See Complete Rules at Filmerica

This is crossposted from myMain journal

In regards to the collages below that i made of the children....(An exerpt from an answer i made to a comment about them) The ones with the children represent several things. I was spending three hours yesterday, to create.. I decided that i needed to let my artist child play.... But as a grown woman, and an artist, one of those reasons was that I was thinking of things that i wanted to create, both physically, literally and figuratively... I used the vibrant oranges and yellows for several reasons as well, one of those being that i was in a severe funk yesterday and i needed to bathe myself with sunshine. I finger painted with "sunshine" until the pools of color that i had mixed, disappeared
from my pallette...

I wanted to point out to all of you the children again, watch them, they come alive... You can hear them whispering their secrets... way too loud for them to remain secret... you see them ribbing one another with an inside joke.. maybe they're playing telephone.. maybe theyre keeping a secret from me... but then I think to myself "I am the one who instigated... the secret words... the untold...this telephone (trans)mission.. it will never be deciphered"

Those chidren are so alive to me... Any yes, you friends who discerned the more sinister parts of those works, you are all right in a round about way... I wont say anything more about it than this: When you are a child, so often peril can come your way. There are struggles, you get divided inside, you hang on for dear life to who you are born to be... as everyone around you seems to grip as tightly as they can to your most essential being and strips pieces of them away... circumstances also put parts of her in a coma... or at least they attempt to...you may lose it all or you may learn to synthesize new pieces of you for them to pull away... pieces that are reflections and slivers of the ones who are tearing these parts away. The tricky thing is that sometimes you forget that you aren't the one you invent for them to destroy and that you have to find the one... the wise, but scared one, who has been mostly preserved, in her cocoon inside
you... She emerges slowly from her place of rest and protection, because she has what seems like thousands of years of layers, strips of synthesized spirit flesh, that is not fully who she is, that must be fully stripped away, must be dissolved and operated carefully on, because at this point those layers have developed their own blood vessels. The operation process is a long and painstaking one because some of the invented layers look very much like the real spirit flesh that is woman has grown, as she has grown over the years. The operation is scary and dangerous if not carefully , slowly and lovingly executed, so as not to fracture and divide that little woman even more.

HERE are a couple of very old things that i thought some of you may enjoy

santa

the pain she bore (papa)
the dress she wore (fav)

the scar she bears (birth)
the way she shares (gift)

the lives she saved (neonate in palm of hand)
the way she gave (bent over backward)

eccentric is love
brought to you by the isLove Generator

I just wanted to take the opportunity to share some beautiful artwork with you. My friend Rodney Ferguson has prints of his watercolor lighthouse collection paintings for sale at his Ebay store as well as at his Home Website. Rodney and his wonderful wife and children have been a sort of extended family to me for about 14 years now. I love them and because of that and also my respect for Rodney and his work as an artist, I wanted to do my part in helping to share his work with as many people as possible. I hope that you'll take a look, it's definitely worth it, especially if you like lighthouses!

here's and example of his mastery (the photo can be clicked to take you to an ebay auction for a print of this image)

My sister who is studying sign language as her major brought home a little slip of paper with the following written on it.

The Human mind

I cdnuolt bleveiee taht I cluod aulaclty
uesdnatnrd waht I aws rdanieg. The phaonmneal pwoer of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervitsy, it deson't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are,the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the fsirt and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porlbem. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by ilstef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Azmanig huh?

Your love is... by ChibiMarronchan
Your name is...
Your kiss is...	erotic
Your hugs are...	friendly
Your eyes...	twinkle in the moonlight
Your touch is...	the only thing I desire
Your smell is...	amazing
Your smile is...	encouraging
Your love is...	unique
Quiz created with MemeGen!

Order a MindMap, elect a President!

( Click here to see! )

Borrowed fromsoylentjames

a month I would be...February
a day of the week I would be...Miercoles
a time of day I would be... Midnight
a planet I would be...Saturn
a sea animal I would be...anemone
a direction I would be...North
a piece of furniture I would be...a chaise lounge
a liquid I would be...Electric Lemonade
A tree I would be...Oak or Cypress
a bird I would be...a swan
a tool I would be...a jigsaw
a kind of weather I would be...partly cloudy
a mythical creature I would be...a unicorn
a musical instrument I would be...saxophone or drums
a color I would be...purple
an emotion I would be...elated
a sound I would be...thunderstorm
a car i would be....Rolls Royce
a song I would be... Help by Joni Mitchell
a book, I'd be written by... David, the psalmist
a place I would be...Savannah
a word I would be... supercalifragilisticexpalidocious
an object I would be...a paintbrush
a body part I would be...eyes
a facial expression I would be...cocked eyebrow, nonchalant
a number I would be...7

I am a Pacman Ghost. I like to hang around with friends, chatting, dancing, all that sort of thing. We don't appreciate outsiders, and do our best to discourage others approaching us. I enjoy occasionally wandering around randomly, and often find that when I do so, I get to where I wanted to be. What Video Game Character Are You?

C	Cheesy
H	Hilarious
R	Refined
I	Industrious
S	Scary
T	Tender
I	Innocent
N	Neglected
A	Adventurous

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

( More photos of R. )


This is my Homeless friend,R. R. has only one arm and his legs are both lame, one in particular is very lame. He lost his arm and recieved the other injuries while working in a plant many years ago. I met him about 6 years ago when I saw him painting an angel in a small nook of trees off the side of the road. That day I stood there and talked to him for several hours, until long after dark. His angel stayed illuminated the entire time, there were no street lights close by and he had no flashlight or other source of light on. We spoke about art, about God and about family. After this chance meeting, I started to run into him in various places around town and each time I would spend hours talking with him, not realizing how much time had gone by. Over this past 6 years, I have been given much in the way of life lessons, spiritual council, and inspiration by this man. R. is a very talented artist and I am proud to say a very close friend of mine. Sometimes months go by and I dont see him, but hardly a day goes by that I dont think of him and pray for him several times. I love this man, he has been such a wonderful friend and mentor. Many people have scoffed at me for sitting on the side of the road (me being a white girl living in the south) for hours into the night and often into the wee hours of morning talking to this black homeless man, but they are missing out. They do not see anything more in him than the color of his skin (which shouldnt be an issue anyway) and a rough, sometimes dirty, somewhat eccentric man with one arm and a terribly exaggerated limp (more of a shuffle and drag). I often wonder why people do not use their gut instead of their eyes and their assumptions to decide whether or not to talk to someone. The lessons and the council and friendship that I have recieved from this man is worth so much more than I ever could have expected that first day when I hopped out of my Dad's car and went over to speak to him. Though there have been many times that I have given gifts and offered food, money, and other necessities to him, this man once took the $15 that was in his pocket and gave it to me because he said he knew I needed it more than him... That was on a day that I had no food in my house and no check coming to me for several days. R. may very well be my guardian angel. I know that there are many people who know him around this city and have been touched by his generous personality and his tenacity. I feel so fortunate to have met him and to be his friend.