SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE

MUSIC I LIVE BY... 
November 8, 2011  
 

My life's soundtrack defines and soothes...

FIRST: PAPER TRADERS' art blog challenges... the first task was to create a luggage tag, boarding pass or shipping label for a shipboard voyage. Su Lin Chang, a young, inexperienced, naive and traditional Chinese  woman from Shanghai was embarking on a long voyage to New York to join her sister. Emigrating was a big decision, but she was looking forward to making the United States her new home. She knew it wouldn't be easy leaving all her family members and her ancestral home, but this was an opportunity of a lifetime. It was a long, difficult trip...she had to take two different ships to make it all the way to New York! Here is one of Su Lin's  BOARDING PASSES...

and here is her luggage tag...she only had one bag with all her worldly belongings!

At the other side of the world, in our neck of the woods, Paper Traders' art blog requested artists to create something Native American...I was all over THAT request! Here's my gentle native Faithkeeper...

NOW, my life's soundtrack. The music that speaks to me with the loudest voice has to do with feelings and ideals. John Lennon's IMAGINE beautifully expresses my hopes and dreams for a peaceful world...

"...Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world..."

Michael Jackson's WE ARE THE WORLD struck a powerful chord in my heart... 

Our daughter is the subject of my next piece. It expresses my hopes and wishes for her...even now that she's a wife and mother of two. Lee Ann Womack's I HOPE YOU DANCE...

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE from the hit Broadway musical and award winning movie The Lion King is very powerful for me, combining music and words that I love as well as my love for all things African...

"From the day we arrive on the planet

And blinking, step into the sun

There's more to see than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done...

***

It's the Circle of Life

And it moves us all

Through despair and hope

Through faith and love

Till we find our place

On the path unwinding

In the Circle

The Circle of Life"

The Broadway show, Rent  (as well as the movie) introduced the marvelous and tender song, SEASONS OF LOVE. This speaks to me more as I age...

"525,600 minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets,

In midnights, in cups of coffee

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife

In 525,600

How do you measure a year in the life?"

I'll bet that Carole King's song, TAPESTRY, is part of the soundtrack in the lives of many people...it's certainly one of my all-time favorites...

"My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue,

An everlasting vision of the ever changing view

A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold...

A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold"

Audrey is a Clan Mother...one of the leaders of the Onondaga Nation (one of the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.)  She's also one of my longtime friends and someone who has had a tremendous influence on who I am! Among the most important lessons I've learned throughout my 25 year friendship with her is the value of giving thanks daily for the many blessings in life. Further, I now believe, as do all indigenous people, that we are ALL brothers...all connected in this thing called LIFE, no matter where we are. I'm fortunate to call Audrey my friend. There's a song in the Broadway show, Wicked, called FOR GOOD, that expresses my feelings of friendship and gratefulness...

"I've heard it said

That people come into our lives for a reason

Bringing something we must learn

And we are led

To those who help us most to grow

If we let them

And we help them in return.

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true

But I know I'm who I am today

Because I knew you..." 

 I love rainy days! Eddie Rabbit wrote a song entitled I LOVE A RAINY NIGHT... it's perfect!

"Well, I love a rainy night

I love a rainy night

I love to hear the thunder

Watch the lightning 

When it lights up the sky

You know it makes me feel good..."

 Dire Straits' BROTHERS IN ARMS is another one of those songs that screams what I believe...what about you?

Finally, there's a new song by Josh Groban called HIGHER WINDOW that plays a chord in my heart...

"...because there's a light from a higher window

Shining down on us tonight

And the music floats on the breeze

From an easier time..."

This has certainly been a glimpse into who I am...I hope you enjoy the art and can identify as I have with some of the music.

Thanks for stopping by...

'Til the next time,

xox,

abbyj

POETRY and CHALLENGES

THE INFINITE POSSIBILITY OF YOU... 
October 26, 2011 

'Magician with words has my admiration"

ZENA JOHN, writer, poet, friend

I boarded the plane in Johannesburg, South Africa... that's where I connected for my ongoing inter-Africa flight to visit friends in East London, (South Africa.) Armed with my reading material as well as my laptop, I settled into my seat. A very pretty young woman was sitting next to me... she looked to be someone with whom I wouldn't have minded talking during the flight. Oftentimes... not always... I enjoy talking with my seat mate (especially in foreign countries,) sharing bits and pieces of our respective homelands, families, interests, world views, life philosophies... with THIS young woman, I got so much more than I bargained for- a lifetime friendship! Not only did we enjoy one another, talking non-stop throughout this flight, but when I boarded the plane once again for my return trip to Johannesburg to make another connection, THERE SHE WAS! What are the chances of THAT happening? Once again, we were seat mates and our chattering and sharing continued! 

ZENA JOHN is a gifted writer and poet..she performs magic with her words. Her pieces are heartfelt, honest and sincere. She knows how to express common thoughts and feelings, touching the hearts and souls of her readers, making her expressions the reader's own. With her permission, I'd like to share one of her pieces that I've attempted to illustrate.

 

 

THE INFINITE POSSIBILITY OF YOU

by Zena John

Conjured up in my moonlit dreamscapes 

A life-pausing glance sideways

At me, out of a face so foreign, so familiar

Imbued in blood-red robes

Scattering my essence into

Congealed memories of a thousand lives

How time fools us

Into amnesiac wonder at the newness of it all

This cosmic waltz my love

Perfected over eons of sequences

Fleshed out in multi-hued incandescence

A newborn wail gloriously erasing consciousness

Pounded into the dark spaces between atoms

Flung into the wall of all my befores

Newness creeps into my awareness

Coating my yesterdays with gritty promises of tomorrow

The now being too heavy with the flood of a thousand lives

Blinked into reality

Unblinked into history

A cosmic whiplash gleefully unleashed by playful gods 

Several of Zena's pieces are included in a soon-to-be-published volume- an anthology. Mine is already pre-ordered! If you're interested, the book is called:

THE GROUND'S EAR- 

Contemporary Verse from South Africa

 A quick look at a couple of challenges...

CRAZY AMIGOS asked artists to work with the theme: REMEMBER...

and COLLAGE OBSESSION was looking for DREAMS and NIGHTMARES to which I quickly responded with yet another of my scariest dreams/nightmares: I grew up in an apartment house eight floors tall. That's not tall compared to big city apartment houses, but even for the eight floors, there was an elevator. Having been stuck in that elevator on several occasions, I often had dreams of falling down the elevator shaft... I must have outgrown that fear as I haven't had a falling dream in many years!  :o)

 Thanks so much for stopping by...hope to see you when I next post...

Hugs,

abbyj

ONE MORE...CREEPY

NIGHTMARISH... 
October 21, 2011 (2) 

Oops...I forgot...

DIGITAL WHISPER  asked participating blog artists to present a woman's portrait that was "doctored" to look nightmarish... I did!  What d'ya think? 

 Not sooo bad, really...right?

'Til the next,

xox,

abbyj (again!)

 

CREEPING CLOSER...

ALL HALLOWS EVE...Soon! 
October 21, 2011  

" circle of life...a path unwinding"

My Mom and me in my younger years...

 

Childhood comprises such formative years...years for us to learn about the world, our environment, behaviors, other peoples...and we each experience it in different ways. TAKE A WORD, a fun challenge blog,  was interested in seeing how we as artists think about CHILDHOOD... above is my grandson just a few years ago, in his pensive mood...

Youngsters from the village where my Ethiopian adopted families live...playing with their photo as they returned from the fields...a childhood of hard work...

 

 

A different kind of childhood...one filled with terror and heartache...children of the Holocaust

 

 

Also in Africa...the elders take a very active role in the development and teaching of the children...and their nurturing as well

Well, 'tis that time of year...the time of frightening visions, thoughts, fears and fantasies...Halloween! The CREAVIL CHALLENGE BLOG wanted to see our visions...the above and those below are MY visions for All Hallow's Eve!

SUNDAY POSTCARD ART, in the Halloween spirit, was interested in Haunted Houses..

THINK MONDAY-THINK ATC  was into Vampires and Bats...FUN images...dark!

This should get you thinking about All Hallo0w's EVE... last year, my grandchildren went as Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. I'm looking forward to seeing what excites their imaginations this year...

 Hoping to see you for my next posting. Thanks for stopping by!


xox,
abbyj
 

REVEALED

WHAT DO YOU FEAR MOST? October 14, 2011 

"I dreamed about my ocean drowning"

INSPIRATION AVENUE has asked artists to express what they fear most. I learned to swim in the ocean and clearly remember the strength of the waves as they knocked me off my feet and onto the rocks... I was  dragged underwater. The salt water filling my mouth and nose, making me gag, are not among my best beach memories!!! These MANY instances probably account for my periodic drowning nightmares... and my lack of love for swimming. I DO swim, but only if the temperatures are excessively uncomfortable and I need to cool off!

 My other fear... the most current and ongoing fear... is PUBLIC SPEAKING! This seems odd, even to me, since my career was in television- researching, interviewing, writing and editing documentaries. However, you rarely saw me on camera... I was always THE VOICE behind the camera... narrating! A dear friend once asked me to host a WOMAN of the YEAR luncheon celebration given in her honor. This meant I'd be required to be on stage giving introductions and creating small talk around and with each speaker. I apprised my friend of my fear but she was adamant that I do it!  I did... it was AWFUL! In retrospect, I should have taken a public speaking course concurrent with my career! 

"FEAR is a darkroom where negatives develop!"                         Anonymous 

Thanks for stopping by... again. Hopefully THIS posting is normal... no over-sized or multiple,  pictures!!

Hugs...

'Til my next posting,

abbyj 

 

MASKS

HIDING FOR FUN and TRADITION 
October 10, 2011 

"The mask I wear is ME"

COLLAGE OBSESSION, one of my favorite challenge blogs, requested participating artists to create some art around the theme of MASKS. I wonder about the use of masks...their purposes: fun, camouflage, fear, embarrassment, tradition, religion...the reasons one wears a mask are many. Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote:

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes-

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask......

 

This last tribal piece is of an Ethiopian friend of mine...an elder in the southern part of the country's Omo Region...a member of the Kara tribe. He and his tribe paint masks on their faces and decorate their bodies as a daily ritual...it's one of their traditions. I love the natural mask!

 

Thanks for stopping by...hope to see you for my next posting!

xox,

abbyj

ONCE UPON A TIME...

IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE... 
October 7, 2011  

"My heart smiles...colored leaves blaze"

 (Challenge issued by Think Monday, Think ATC: leaves...also my 6-word memoir for this posting)

It all started with Gladys and John McMurdey. Born in Buganda (called Uganda today) on the African continent during colonial times, they emigrated to the western part of the country that was to become the United States of America. It was just a small union at the time, but even then, there were those who dreamed of settling in the New World. 

(COLLAGE OBSESSION: using a pastel color wheel to create vintage art)

They were an odd couple in many ways. They kept to themselves and built their homestead far from other settlers. A high stone wall surrounded their home, keeping them IN and any would-be visitors OUT. They worked hard at being very self sufficient.

You may wonder how they could afford to do all they did...THAT story centers around the unusual "family" that came with them to their new home. Uganda is the home of what used to be a huge population of mountain gorillas...gentle giants all. It is said that one of the young gorilla males, named Hooter, became habituated during his younger years...(was comfortable being with people.) One of the people with whom Hooter became "friends" was an uncle to Gladys. Before he died, Uncle Horace put a large amount of money in one jar and an explanatory note in another, then dropped Hooter, his younger brother, One...and the jars at Gladys and John's home (knowing of their hopes and dreams to emigrate to the New World. In the note, Uncle Horace made his intentions clear...the money was theirs to do with as they pleased, but whatever they did and wherever they went, they were charged to include Hooter and One in their plans. So, off they all went, traveling for months, to what eventually became the USA. Can you imagine such an unlikely group of individuals?

)

(CRAZY AMIGO: Animal; THREE MUSES: Jars; TAKE A WORD: Walls)

John was a builder in Uganda, so with some local help, the McMurdey's new homestead was built rather quickly. The people who settled near Gladys and John were curious to know about their new neighbors who chose to live in isolation. But the walls protected their privacy, keeping their lives as private as they wished.  

Their home was an odd one...

(INSPIRATION AVENUE: Owl)

Eclectic, to say the least. Not so odd from the outside...actually rather modern for its time... except for the small graveyard they created in front of their house. (John and Gladys didn't leave ALL their loved ones behind...they brought some of them to their new homestead.) Too, some of their rooms were somewhat suspect...for example, there was one that was left mostly empty with the exception of the cauldron that was mysteriously bubbling and steaming all the time. That's where they kept the jars that came with Hooter and One...and the skull of their dear Uncle Horace. 

(PAPER TRADERS ART: Spiders Hate Orange; THREE MUSES: jars)

They also had one room where they decorated the walls with peeling paper and paint as well as some family portraits... not a very inviting gallery to view...although the portraits seemed quite normal!

(TAKE A WORD: Walls)

 Unfortunately, not much is known about the lives of Gladys and John McMurdey in the New World. Did they have any children? What happened to Hooter and One? How did this most unusual "family" group  exist in their self-prescribed  isolation? Did they have a good life? Are their bodies STILL on the grounds of what was their homestead? I can't answer any of these questions...but, if YOU know anything further about these colonial Africans, originally from Uganda, please do email me or let me know in your comment. I'd love to hear more......

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you next time!

Hugs,

abbyj