Life...The Vivere

In the Merry Month of May...

May 6, 2013

Grateful  for Nana...early Mother's Day



It's such a pleasure to see sunshine and such a profusion of color that  IS spring! Nana used to take me outside to play no matter what the weather, but it was in the spring that she taught me to navigate my new tricycle. Wonderful memories of my maternal grandmother who was my best friend until she passed away at the age of 97. I'm honoring her with  an early recognition of  what will soon be  Mother's Day. Love and miss you, Nana!

I have some fun art pieces to share with you from my usual art challenge blogs...

TAKE A WORD asked to see some "stone angels..."

THREE MUSES challenged participants to include "music" in their art...

In Flicker's DIGITALMANIA, we wre inspired by two artists...

The first, Lisa Kettell, is a mixed-media artist whose style I'm not crazy about so it was hard to be inspired by her art. Here's an example of Lisa's ...

here's mine...

Hal Shukovsky, a digital collage artist, is more to my liking. Here's his work...

and here's mine...

Finally, something I did for a personal longtime friend. I met her when she was 6 years old and was in our fair city to have an open heart surgical procedure...life-saving surgery that couldn't be done in her homeland, Siberia (Russia.) Our local Rotary Clubs brought Svetlana and her Mom here for 6 weeks for surgery and recovery. During that time I got to know them both well and spent a great deal of time with them as I was putting together a documentary for television about the GIFT of LIFE program... the program that brought her here. We've been in touch since then... more lately, now that Facebook has made it so easy to stay in touch more regularly! We met again when she was 11 and we were visiting Russia...she and her Mom came down to St. Petersburg (from their home in Siberia) to spend time with us. We were supposed to reunite last spring when we were again in Russia, but she and her husband were experiencing the birth of their first child during our visit. Instead, as Lada's American Grandma, I've been receiving photos of this beautiful, healthy baby. Here's a picture of my friend and her husband (she's now a social worker in her mid-20's...)

and here's my playful creation featuring Lada, their almost-one-year-old girl... my Russian "granddaughter..."

I must say I really enjoy playing in Photoshop. I have to thank my mentor who, long ago, was a photography student at Syracuse University. She worked with me for a couple of years...patiently, teaching me the basics. (Now she has a successful career of her own...last I heard, in New York City!)  Thanks Michelle...wherever you are!!

Hugs to you all and thanks for stopping by!

'Til the next,

abbyj