NASHVILLE and MORE...

May 31, 2013

 

What  great fun we had visiting Music City... Nashville, Tennessee... with our friends, Gene and Joanne! It's not only a place where you hear all kinds of music spilling out of every honky tonk... day and night... but it's also a place for great deals on cowboy boots!! We went into a place that had a "buy one pair...get TWO PAIR  free" deal!! These were all high quality boots... don't know how they can do it- must be based on  pure volume sales!! Needless to say, the place was PACKED!!!

Here are some shots I took here and there during our Nashville visit...

 

 

 

Opryland Hotel Resort...gorgeous

 

Nashville skyline

As for this week's art challenges...

SUNDAY POSTCARD ART was in the mood to "party." I'm always up for a party... 

TAKE A WORD had us blowing "bubbles..."

 

THINK MONDAY- THINK ATC  participants were  feeling the art in their "hearts..."

 

the Flicker group, DIGITALMANIA, had artists examine the style of a Lisbon-based illustrator and designer, Christiana Couceiro. These are pieces I did in her clean collage style...in honor of the World War II pilots who painted their planes with a variety of nose art...and in honor of childhood days!

And finally, at the CRAZY AMIGOS challenge blog, we were wrapped up in "cars..."

 

 

Enjoy your week...thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you for my next posting!

 

Big Hugs,

abbyj

ARTFUL READERS CLUB: MAY

May 30, 2013

 

 

 

Greetings to all those who love to read! It's the last Friday of the month, time for all participants in the ARTFUL READERS CLUB to post their May book reviews and art. I don't know what led me to choose this book...perhaps my interest in religion, culture and medieval times. In any case, I'm thrilled I chose it... SACRED HEARTS by Sarah Durant.

 

Today, a woman can be single, have a career and a joy-filled life. But in the 16th century, many aristocratic Italian families, able to afford only one hefty dowry, would lead one daughter into an arranged marriage and force the other young woman to take the veil.

It's 1570 in the Italian city of Ferrara and the Convent of Santa Caterina is filled with women who are married to Christ out of choice or because they weren't marriage material for one reason or another. Enter 16 year-old Serafina (with the singing voice of an angel, by the way!) The convent's newest novice, (incarcerated by her family for her illicit love affair with her voice instructor,) is introduced to the reader as she's howling with rage and hormones, determined to escape. But Serafina's rebellion is not like that of the other girls: heart wrenching, relentless and ultimately explosive, the disruption she creates sets off a series of events that grow to involve the "apothecary mistress" with her healing potions and herbs, the worldly, political Mother Superior and the ambitious, fiercely devout "novice mistress" who watches over her flock of young recruits like a soldier of the Lord. Each  aspires to influence Serafina's path. But as they struggle to subdue the passion in the wayward girl's rebellious soul, each finds she must come to terms with the sorrows, lost hopes and decisions of her own past as well as the unstoppable changes bearing down on the Convent from outside the great cloistered walls- the religious dictates of the Counter Reformation that was beginning to purge the Catholic Church and impose terrible oppression on the nunneries.

SACRED HEARTS is an extraordinary journey into a world we rarely see, a place where women sacrificed their personal desires and dreams because they were "called" to do so or it was imposed upon them. It's rich in historical detail and full of interesting characters, treachery, lies, medicinal herbs, love and heartfelt decisions. Who knew that the life of a nun could be so exciting? If you love the Renaissance period of history and medieval times...or just a tale of human drama...I highly recommend SACRED HEARTS by Sarah Durant!

 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope this book interests you... Please check back for my regular posting of LIFE: THE VIVERE in a few days.

 

 

Big Hugs,

abbyj