THINKING SPRING YET?

April 14, 2014

 

Despite another snow storm and piles of snow standing taller than me,

some are thinking about spring...wishin' and hopin' for it... like these robin redbreasts, waiting patiently.

This is for INSPIRATION AVENUE (green),
TAKE A WORD (green) 
and THE THREE MUSES (spring)

 

Over at Flicker's art group, DIGITALMANIA, the inspiration for the week is mixed media collage artist, CHRISTINE PELOQUIN. Here are some pieces I created in her style...



 Finally, because my dear husband and daughter took off for a week of scuba diving, when COLLAGE OBSESSION requested participants create a piece of art describing the word  "under," I immediately thought of under...water!

I look forward to seeing all their underwater photos when they return... they always get some extraordinary images of a world most of us only dream of!

 

That's it for this week...going to take a short break and catch up on other activities. Will see you in a few weeks...

 

Thanks for stopping in. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all those with an Irish Heart!!

 

Big Green Hugs,

abbyj

NATURAL WONDERS

March 6, 2014

 

Greetings from sunny Central New York! There are still hills of snow all around us, but today, it looks like spring is right around the corner...after a few more snow storms of course [big smile]. I remember years when it has snowed on Mother's Day in early May!!!

It's Mother Nature's kind heart that keeps beautiful birds around us year round... ever changing, always singing.

No matter where you are, if there are wires strung on high poles, there are always birds sitting on them, visiting with one another or just resting. In this week's challenge blog, TAKE A WORD, "blackbirds" is their theme.

 



 Going from birds to monkeys... at COLLAGE OBSESSION, the theme is "monkey business." Now, I know that technically, chimpanzees are considered Apes, but both are from the biological Order Primates. The most obvious difference between monkeys and apes is that monkeys have long tails...apes have no tail. Too, apes are highly intelligent beings...monkeys, not so much! I've had one-on-one experience walking and playing with an 11 year old female chimp named ICARU. I met her in Uganda, on Ngamba Island,  a sanctuary for rescued chimps. We were together twice in as many years. This is one of the photos I took of Icaru with some of her friends... they're very playful, giggle when tickled, and spend a great deal of time grooming one another. Icaru didn't put the basket on her head, but would have, if given the basket!! :)

 

Finally, on INSPIRATION AVENUE, a theme that's not nature-oriented..."lanterns." Can you imagine a story about this piece?

 



That's all for this posting. Enjoy the days ahead as we inch ahead to our next season...for us, it's spring.

 

Hope to see you for my next...

 

Big Hugs,

abbyj

A BIT OF ART

March 2, 2014 

Hi Dear Ones,

This is a quickie posting to show you the latest challenges I've completed... all different, all fun!

SUNDAY POSTCARD ART requested the inclusion of a newspaper in our art... I chose a Geisha against a Japanese newspaper background.

Next is TAKE A WORD, who had visions of numbers in their heads. I had visions of Father Time...

Finally, THE THREE MUSES asked us to say Bon Voyage with a piece of mail art...

Quick and to the point... the pieces were a challenge to create...hope you like them and will stop by again for my next...

 

Have a good, healthy week!

Big Hugs,

abbyj



ARTFUL READERS CLUB

March 2, 2014

THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tartt

 

 

Good book this month... you might like it! It's Donna Tartt's  THE GOLDFINCH.

 

While viewing an exhibition of Renaissance Dutch paintings in New York City with his mother, 13 year old Theo Decker sees a young girl  with an elderly man. He's fascinated by her and wants to make contact, when a bomb explodes. The museum and exhibition is turned into rubble and dust and Theo's mother is killed. The elderly man with the little girl (who has vanished from sight,) is dying and gives Theo his ring with instructions to take it to a certain address. He also asks Theo to take a painting that has fallen on the ground and keep it safe. The painting is Carel Fabritus' 1654 masterpiece, "The Goldfinch..." one of his mother's favorite paintings.

Spanning 14 years in the life and coming of age of Theo Decker, these incidents set in motion a chain of events, both tragic and fortuitous, that make up this novel.

We  follow Theo through his  variety of residences, close friendships, work experiences, travels, drug-addled days and finally, dangerous  years,  as he struggles to regain possession of his beloved painting...a painting he had planned to return to the museum, but never got to it as the years hiding it made it increasingly more difficult and ominous to envision...the repercussions.

The novel is divided into five parts...the final part begins with a quote by Nietzche: "We have art in order not to die from the truth." This precisely describes Theo's relationship with "The Goldfinch."

As long as he had it, he held the connection to his dear deceased Mother. The painting allowed him to not have to fully grieve. Fabritius, (the artist of the painting,) as his mother explained to him before her death, is the "missing link" between two other Dutch artists, Rembrandt and Vermeer... just as the painting served as the missing link between Theo and his Mother.

Make no mistake... this was a loooooong book... almost 800 pages. The end dragged a bit for me and I could have followed the combination art and philosophy discussion... had it been shorter! Other than that, I enjoyed the tome. Perhaps you'll enjoy it too!

 

RATING: **** out of *****

 

Thanks for stopping  by for my monthly book review. See you for my regular blog posting soon.

 

Big Hugs,

abbyj

ANOTHER MIXED BAG

February 26, 2014

 

Arrabal, the tango dancer
for DIGITALMANIA's* Florian Nicolle inspired challenge

Meet ARRABAL (check out this YouTube* link!) We met her in her coming-of-age story, as she entered the underground world of Buenos Aires's tango clubs and discovered the violent history that took her father and disrupted her nation.  In an explosive story told entirely through dance and music, we learned about the political violence that threatened to destroy Argentina in the 1970's... as well as a bit about the tango, born in the working class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century. Although the music was very loud, it was beautiful, sensual... and the dancing was exciting and unique! If you're in Toronto, it's playing at the PANASONIC Theater.

 

A second piece, inspired by Florian Nicolle* (a 25 year old French graphic designer and illustrator,)  for Flicker's DIGITALMANIA* is this piece I created in Nicolle's style...I call it BLIND...

INSPIRATION AVENUE* declared its challenge to be CHANGE... my thoughts immediately flashed to 9/11 and how much the world has changed since then. Remember when air travel was fun?

THE THREE MUSES* wanted to see some art about ARCHITECTURE. I've always loved the romance of castles...

TAKE A WORD*simply requested something with BLUE...

 That's it for this week's challenges. Enjoy the rest of your week...especially the weekend!! See you for my next posting?

 

Thanks for stopping in!

Big Hugs,

abbyj

* please click on the titles in this color for further information



MAINLY VINTAGE...and BAOBABS

February 18, 2014

 

 

Hi Dear Ones!

Still experiencing more snow than we've had in a very long time...a part of each day seems to be devoted to snowfall!! Beautiful and cold...I'm loving it!

 

The current art challenges don't reflect this winter wonderland at all. In fact, Flicker's DIGITALMANIA requested a botanical theme in art journal format ...my art was based on a photo of a BAOBAB tree that I took in Africa. Note the beautiful Malachite Sunbird on one of its branches. Baobab trees live for thousands of years.

The one in this photo is young and small...

 

in comparison to THIS one...and this isn't the largest I've seen...(just can't find the photos of the larger ones! )

They're amazing trees that give food (with their bark as well as their fruit) and shelter to the animals of the savannah.

COLLAGE OBSESSION asked for an art piece with some handwriting. I combined this request with TAKE A WORD's challenge for a piece with  something vintage...here's what I came up with....

My tribute to those who perished in the HOLOCAUST

Enjoy the rest of your week...be comfortable!

See you next posting???

 

Big Hugs and thanks for checking in,

abbyj

 

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

February 12, 2014

 

 

To each and every reader of this blog...family, friends, soon-to-be friends...Happy Valentine's Day! Hope it's a day that finds you with at least one loved one around you!! :)

Some new pieces of art to answer blog challenges...

Flicker's DIGITALMANIA introduced us to the art of the very well known  Romanian photographer and artist, Caras Ionet. Here are my pieces inspired by Caras...

[Although this picture may look a bit surreal, it is truly based on a photograph I took while staying at Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Kenya. The giraffes are welcome to come into the manor house...or put their heads in the windows to get "treats" or a friendly hug from the guests. My daughter and I had great fun!]

SUNDAY POSTCARD ART was interested in finding out about our favorite pet...mine was named KELLY. She was a Yellow-Naped Amazon parrot who talked, sang, danced and provided day-long dialogue if engaged. Here's Kelly...

 

 

THE THREE MUSES called for art that was black and white...

 

and that's it for current challenges. I wish you a wonderful Valentine's Day! Hope to see you for the next posting of Life...the Vivere!

Big Hugs,
abbyj

THE HEART TURNS TO LOVE

February 7, 2014

 

Hi Folks!

Well, it's not Valentine's Day yet, but my thoughts for art have turned to love and the heart...like this one for SUNDAY POSTCARD ART paying tribute to a heart that's blue...

Here's a little LOVE graffiti for THE THREE MUSES...

Finally, for the TAKE A WORD art challenge blog, even the butterflies were flitting around a girl thinking of her love !!

Thank you for checking in...hope you're near your loved ones for the coming week... after all, it's almost Valentine's Day!

 

Have an enjoyable week.

Big Hugs,

abbyj







Clocks,  Bridges and Nature, Oh My!

February 4, 2014

 

I hope you're well and have had an enjoyable week. What a fun week and weekend I've had... New York City in some balmy weather...sunny and warm(er) than it's been in Central New York!! My cousin and I had tickets to the Metropolitan Opera for a performance of Puccini's MADAM BUTTERFLY. The voices were superb, the costumes and colors vibrant and the story...tragic. Interestingly, they used puppets to represent two children as in the photo below... they were eerily lifelike! The puppeteers were in black in the background.



 
This weeks art challenges were most enjoyable. For example, COLLAGE OBSESSION asked for "bridges" and I didn't get to it until late...so, I'm posting my entries here instead of on the C.O. group site... Since I was in NYC, I looked out of my cousin's window in Brooklyn and this was the picture I saw...I can see both the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges...



then, I remembered an incredible bridge we saw while we were in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam...called a monkey bridge because it seems that only a monkey could make it across. They're typically made of a only a few bamboo logs and one handrail. But, the name really comes from the stooped monkey-like posture people had to maintain when crossing, so as not to plunge into the river below. There aren't many of these bridges left...only in the remotest areas.

The current COLLAGE OBSESSION theme is to create a piece showing one of nature's homes...

SUNDAY POSTCARD ART requested art about Italy. I took one of my many photos and created this... from Venice with love!

Clocks were of interest to the TAKE A WORD challenge blog...

Finally, Flicker's DIGITALMANIA group introduced us to artist Anna Higgie, who does interesting collages. Here's one of hers...

 and here's what she inspired me to create...

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you like what you see...and will stop by again!
Enjoy your week...
 
Big Hugs,
abbyj

ARTFUL READERS CLUB

THE QUEST by Nelson DeMille

January 31, 2014

Welcome to my first review for 2014! Nothing like starting with a blockbuster, but, sadly, not as much of a blockbuster as many of DeMille's other tales!

THE QUEST is a rewrite of a book DeMille wrote four decades ago, but the theme is timeless... a search for the Holy Grail. Interesting to note that he wrote this book long before any of the Indiana Jones movies or any of the similarly themed novels like The Da Vinci Code were conceived. He wrote it before stories about treasure hunting for ancient objects or deciphering medieval mysteries became a cliché.  This is a story about a trio (2 journalists and a photographer) that goes to the jungles of Ethiopia to cover the fighting between rebels and Haile Selassie loyalists, but ends up searching for The Holy Grail.

There's a lot to like here...there are Indochina and post World War II Soviet prison camps that play a role in the development of the two male journalists; there's a female photographer that's  sexy,  beautiful and   mysterious, putting herself in harm's way; there's a great description of a terrible yet historically significant time that shows the depravity of human nature... and there's terrific imagination by DeMille in using the Catholic Church to set in motion a chain of events that lead to a priest being held in captivity for forty years and ultimately to our three journalists searching for Christ's Cup. That said, there were times when the story was slow...unusual for a DeMille read. There's none of John Corey's wit and sarcasm (the protagonist in several of DeMille's other books,) , no anti-terrorism excitement, no consistent page turning madness...I missed that!

Would I recommend THE QUEST... most  definitely, but expect a departure from many of  his other   action-packed novels. It's different enough to stand out and keep the reader's attention, but not what I was expecting to find in MY quest!

Thanks for stopping by. Please join me for my next posting when I'll be sharing art,  photographs and more thoughts.

Hugs,

abbyj

REMEMBERING...and CHALLENGES

January 28, 2014

 



Hi Dear Ones,

For me, the month of February is a special time for remembering two of my closest and dearest...  my Mom's birthday was February 3rd...she gave me my love of music... and my Nana's was February 12th...she taught me how to love! In the photo above, there are four generations of women on my Mom's side...my Mom, Nana, Michelle (at 1 year 5 months,) and me! If we were to make that photo today, there'd be  an additional  generation... Michelle's daughter, Lilly, now 9!



 

On to the art challenges...TAKE A WORD asked to see something about "couples..." My art turned to romance!

 

SUNDAY POSTCARD ART only wanted to see "faces." My face is braving the snow...appropriate for a Central New York woman!

 

I did two pieces for THE THREE MUSES  this week because the first one..."word..." is a bit late to enter on their website. We were asked to pick one of our favorite words and illustrate it. The word I picked was a long word...  SESQUIPEDALIAN. I know many more sesquipedalians than I'd like!!

 

Their request for this week is a piece of art including a silhouette...

 

So pleased that you stopped by for this posting. Please come back soon...and enjoy the rest of your week and weekend!

 

Big Hugs,

abbyj