Posts Tagged ‘art’

Gleaning: A Poor Man’s Harvest?

Friday, June 24th, 2011

glean 1. To go over a harvested field and gather by hand any usable parts of the crop that remain   2. To collect information in small amounts over a period of time

gleanings 1. Usable parts of a crop that are left behind in a harvested field and can be gathered in by hand   2. Objects or ideas that have been gathered or amassed over a period of time, especially when they form a collection or comprehensive whole

 

Ever throw out a tattered dress or shirt with the buttons still on? Or a pair of pants with a “perfectly good” zipper? (Brief audio flashback to my grandmother’s voice.)

Gleanings. There was a time, not so long ago in our history, when those buttons would have been cut off that dress or shirt and any fabric that could be restored to favor got salvaged into great grandma’s next quilt. And lets not forget the rest of the scraps that found favor as rags for household chores.

Leave it to an ephemera junkie to think about gleaning as she sorts through bags of 100 year old buttons and snaps and hooks and eyes  oh my! on a Sunday afternoon.

Gleanings. Clipped off tattered clothing and passed from Ray’s grandmother’s hands to his mother’s to mine.

“What’s the difference between gleaning and hoarding?” I wonder out loud, as I (more…)

Mermaid Nets and Viking Runes

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

“I toss and turn all night, awash in a sea of aquamarine and green, streaked with silver phosphorescence, drifting through the velvet night from a necklace of meteors. I raft down a river of paint, but unlike Huck Finn, my oar is a paintbrush that struggles to free me from whirlpools of cerulean blue. Then day breaks, and I trudge through a black-and-white world in sensible shoes …” • Loretta Benedetto Marvel from Mermaid Nets and Other Twice-Told Tales

 

Loretta and I– along with some Vikings, a mermaid, a couple of muses and a curious kitty – shared coffee after I finished writing in my journal this morning.

As some of you know, 2011 is pushing me to return to a more active participation with my art – to get out of my head and off the pages with it. The past number of months I have been gathering myself and my ephemera and creating a place for it to happen.

I am going to attempt something a bit on the raw side with this post. (Hope I don’t lose you.) I don’t often share my morning writings “as is” in this blog but I feel a collaboration coming on with this Loretta who I have never met but whose story sliced into my artist’s heart with the precision of a surgeon. (I found Loretta in the (more…)

When I was little …

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Ray on a Sunday Morning Muse

When I was little …

I examined my bedroom from my bed – upside down.

I viewed other worlds in the television set – while it was off.

And I especially liked to see how many layers of reflections I could capture in a pane of glass …

 

Like this reflection of Ray on a Sunday morning while we were talking about why he loves painting chiaroscuro.

“It’s the focus on light. Without the subject’s relationship to light …” and he was off.

With me right on his heals as we talked about the light and THE LIGHT. About art and spirituality.

As the rising sun angled a beam across the living room, I looked over his shoulder and caught this image in the cabinet behind him.

“Don’t move. I’m getting the camera.” (more…)

DUCK! Kicking the Can Project: Part 3

Friday, March 18th, 2011

JMR Productions Site Video on YouTube

If Juliette’s picture is worth a thousand words, what does that make this music video that JMR Productions Site offers as the next kick?

Every object has a story and every story enlists a response. In my décor therapy workshops, I encourage participants to acknowledge the power of the storyteller in the objects found in their homes.

 

“What are you ‘buying into’ when you walk through the door? What subliminal messages are you investing energy in and giving power to? Reinforcing ‘happy stories’ within your four walls activates a powerful template that invites and anchors the positive life experiences you yearn for.”


Using this video to reinforce a point NOT to take our “stories” for granted, which JMR Productions Site so beautifully illustrates with a seemingly unimportant piece of bedroom hardware, qualifies as an easy kick in my book. One that the décor therapist in me simply could not pass up. (I’m even thinkin’ this video might be (more…)

Kicking the Can Project: Part 2

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Effects by PhotoFunia-PBR

The creative collaboration continues …

“Ever play “kick the can” when you were a kid? You’d happen on an abandoned can and before you knew it you were three blocks past your house. Maybe you’d even get lucky and meet a friend or two on your journey. One could travel around the world with a couple of friends and a can. That is what we are doing here. Kicking the virtual can …” 

Missed Part 1 of this project? Click Here.

Some pretty wild threads of conversation in The Messy Room’s back room (Facebook’s Inbox) and Juliette’s photo entitled “Random Pastings” inspired this comment from Michele Sevacko …

“… this [inbox] thread has caused me to pause and remember that conversation is also an art … and occurring in many places simultaneously. As it is layered and built on it takes it – and me – to another level.”

Here’s her can, kicked from the woods of North Carolina.

Random Pastings by Juliette Mansour

“Random Pastings” photo by Juliette Mansour

Random Pastings and The Art of Conversation
by Michele Sevacko

As I’ve been going about my “busy-ness” and “being-ness” today, I’ve continued to reflect on the idea of conversation as an art – as I see it showing up in responses to emails, phone calls and Facebook posts.

Using Facebook as one example:
I have found that, just as there are artists who paint, take photos or sculpt things that seem so real you just want to step into the scene, there are people who are so “real” in what they are communicating you feel that you’re there with them – although they can easily be on the other side of the globe. These are my “Realists.”

Then, there are the people that relate just the “facts,” who feel it is their duty to keep us informed. There are also the people that only want to know the “facts.” Collectively, they represent my “Cubists” – not because of a similarity to the (more…)

Kicking the Can: A Collaboration

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Effects by PhotoFunia-PBR

Ever play “kick the can” when you were a kid? You’d happen on an abandoned can and before you knew it you were three blocks past your house. Maybe you’d even get lucky and meet a friend or two on your journey.

One could travel around the world with a couple of friends and a can. And that is what we are doing here. Kicking the virtual can! To follow the can, I have to take you to the time BEFORE the can appeared. It started with a post on ephemera. My Life As Ephemera, actually. The game began with a contribution from Sharron. A mandala that she created from my ephemera shot. And a poem.

I thought, “How delightful! I must share this right away.” But a little voice (you know the one) said, “Wait. There’s more.” So I waited. That’s when the can appeared. Well, really, it was a comment made by Juliette on my second ephemera post, Shoe Boxes & Found Objects, with a link to HER blog where “Voila!” the can appeared.

So, I kicked it. And she kicked it back. Then we sent out a call to see if anyone else wanted to play. (That’s when I discovered The Messy Room has a back room … heheheh … one that I dare not post!)

 

So, here is the first kick from Sharron Cee in South Carolina:

Ephemera to Mandala Composite

 

A Mandala: Created from the shot I used in my post, My Life as Ephemera. (more…)

Juliette’s Street Ephemera

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Pabst Blue Street Ephemera by Juliette Mansour

Photo by Juliette Mansour of Casa Dresden

Inspiration is unpredictable. That’s what makes it so magical. When it strikes it has that first time freshness – like falling in love – that defies the dull, deadening impulses of the mundane.

We might yearn for inspiration. Even create an environment that encourages it. But, in the end, inspiration will not be bought nor controlled. That we might take delight.

As a street photographer, Juliette finds her inspiration is often right around the corner. We seem to share a muse because what inspires her frequently inspires me. Her comment and blog link on Shoeboxes and Found Objects inspired an ephemeral muse-fusion that we are collaborating to capture. That we might share delight!

“Bernadette, you can find interesting ephemera on the streets! Check out this collection of odd, artistic, far out street stuff on my blog … okay, well some are ephemera anyway!”

Street Stories: Many Angry Eggs

Many Angry Eggs

“From carved out, psychedelic-colored, old refrigerators to creepy skulls hanging from a tree, here are some bizarre things found on the street that makes one stop and think, “how did that get there?”

Street Stories Winter Seating

Winter Seating

BIG ephemera that certainly fits my definition. With photo captions like: Skull in the Yard • Lost Bed • An Old Make Out Place • Psycho Fridge • Welcome No One (more…)

Awareness: Shoe Boxes & Found-Objects

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Ephemera with Cross

I’m pulling this one out of the archive closet. It really speaks to this newly purposed blog format for the Messy Room. And it also speaks to journaling the journey!

•  •  •  •  •  •

Original Entry: April 5, 2007

Those of you who signed up for our manifestation series will know what I mean when I say I am working on the first part of the formula. Got to walk the talk, right? So, I want to share a fun awareness that very quietly slipped into view last week – between the waxing moon and full moon.

Something interesting – or should I say someone interesting – has reappeared. My artist self. It took two layovers in Atlanta, a week apart, in one particular bookstore – wandering the aisles and killing time between Feng Shui appointments – to finally notice her presence. (I live a good ways from Atlanta so I consider these kind of layovers a real treat.)

Anyway, back to wandering the aisles, sipping coffee, and scanning the usual shelves. (Self help. Interior design. Philosophy. Metaphysical.) On my second visit, I found an angel card deck by Doreen Virtue that was not sealed and treated myself to a mini-reading. That must have been where my artist self saw her opportunity to sneak in because immediately afterward I landed in the art section, specifically the craft section, pouring through pages and pages of how to’s. Papermaking, hand-bound journals, altered books, collages, artist trading cards. Art decorated with found objects given a new purpose. Bits and pieces of God knows what from God knows where. The funkier the better.

Guess I got a little tipsy because the next thing I knew I was in the checkout (more…)

My Life as Ephemera

Monday, February 7th, 2011

Ephemera Bits & Pieces

e•phem•er•a 1. something that is transitory and without lasting significance  2. a range of collectable items that were originally designated to be short-lived

I have a secret, long-time love affair with ephemera.

If you traveled back in time with me and rummaged through one of the bedroom closets from my childhood, we would find shoe boxes (neatly stacked, of course) filled with cast-offs and found objects.

Plastic flower pieces. (Yes, I grew up in the plastic flower era.) Broken bits of jewelry. Belt buckles. Assorted rocks and seashells. Coins from mysterious foreign lands. (Okay, Canadian coins from across the river.) Bits of lace and embroidery thread. Odd buttons. Aluminum foil scraps and colored tissue paper. And a clothespin or two.

If we fast-forward to one of my bedroom closets, say around the age of sixteen, we would find bigger boxes with cast off clothing.

Grandma Doll’s crocheted aprons. (Waiting to be converted to vests and halter-tops.) Mom’s 50’s pearl-buttoned sweaters and jackets. (Waiting to be worn with my favorite hip-hugger bell bottom jeans – the pair with the chessboard appliqué on the butt stitched by yours truly.) Grandma Smith’s Greta Garbo-esque satin wedding dress. (Too precious to cut up but a definite inspiration.) An older  cousin’s 40’s taffeta and organdy party dress. Gloves in assorted shades of white to ivory. A black Cossack-style coat. And a velvet hand-beaded by somebody in the family purse.

If we fast-forward just a little more, we’d find a freshly married Bernadette merging with life in the fast lane – a life that left her no time for the magical meanderings ephemera encouraged.

•  •  •  •  •

Ephemera Bits 1

 

“The creation story portrays the love of a creative God lifting beauty and order out of the chaos.” – Sr. Macrina Weiderkehr O.S.B.

 

Now, lets visit one more Bernadette. The one who, when swept to the curb, scrambled to salvage bits of her broken dreams before they (more…)

Upcycling Gail Marie: ReFashion Passion with a Purpose

Friday, November 5th, 2010

GMCloseUp_1499

Gail Marie is an upcycling wizard with a magical wand that doubles as a dowsing rod for hidden treasures. You’ll find Gail Marie – with wand in hand – digging through odd lot boxes of castoffs at yard sales and flea markets that even die-hard bargain hunters shy away from. (You may think Goodwill hunting is a movie but to Gail Marie it’s a shopping safari.)

With a touch of imagination and a twirl of her wand, bits of this and pieces of that morph into something magical. She sees new life where others have given up hope and refashions unlikely combinations into sometimes practical, sometimes whimsical treasures.

And that ability is a gift that saved her life.

You see Gail Marie has upcycled herself. She is a cancer survivor four times (more…)