Two More Art Postcards

I'm thrilled that I feel strong enough to sit at my art table and do a few things. I have cut back on the postcard Round Robins because I just didn't have enough brain power to stay focused on many things, but I am still getting some great postcards in the mail! I also have a stack of postcards to file, which is overwhelming just looking at it. I wish I had an invisible helper, or a trained robot sometimes, to give me a hand because I get so easily overwhelmed. I remind myself it's just part of this illness and I can only do as I can on this day. :) It helps, but the stack is still there. Maybe I should just move the stack!

I was able to play some with art yesterday before I had to head downstairs to my bed. I put together 2 more art postcards and here they are:

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Scraps from the scrap drawer, gesso,  acrylic paint, oil pastels (I love those things!), punched butterfly, rubber stamps, vintage music, a bit of fabric, small tag, vintage images, and there you have the mixed media art collage!

Something else I did this morning - I trimmed my "Friends" list on Facebook. For me, since I have such severely limited contact with people, Facebook can be an important way to stay current with people I care about and who care about me. I realized that I have over 100 people who were either long gone from my life, never stayed in contact with my family, had moved on with their lives in a different direction and had expressed no interest in us, or we in them. So, click click and off the list. Now I have a current list of people who are local, or have have maintained a relationship over the years. It's been very freeing! For me, it's not so much about that number listed on your Facebook page, but the quality of the friends who are there. 

Hooray!

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Another Journal Page

I did this a few days ago, and I think it turned out a bit on the dark side. I have been feeling pretty lousy, so maybe it shows! :)

Pane's Best

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For some reason, this mixed media piece of a decayed wall scans unevenly even when doing it twice. The base is a baby wipe I used as a brush cleaner, and then I put heavy matte gel on the page. I made a texture circle, added some cording, acrylic paint and rubber stamping. 

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Overall, not good

Slow, exhausting, continual relapse, been going on for weeks now. If you get tired of reading about ME/CFS, then you know how tired I am of having it. I am trying to advocate for all of us who do have it, and the many who don't support them.

I am so thankful for my Lord.

Hope you will take the time to watch this video.

Dance My Child

Another journal page, playing with gesso, scraps, acrylic paints, oil pastels, old image, ribbon and Stabilo pencils in a collage. This may or may not be finished, I'm not sure!

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Weather is much more humid today, and I guess that it should be expected - after all we are in the South! I will be glad when the Grackles stop overpowering the bird feeders - I know they are feeding babies, but they are such bullies and take so much! The Bluebird eggs have hatched in the standing birdhouse and they look so helpless. The parents are very protective of them. We have a chipmunk living in the rock pile near the birdhouse and when the chipmunk scampered out, the Bluebird parents started dive bombing the poor thing, even though he is not the least interested in the babies! 

And life goes on!

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Wall Hanging Progress, and a Story: Deep Blue Sea

Here are the latest pictures for the wall hanging, work-in-progress. It tells a story, but it is not quite ready to end. I have some more work to do and will keep adding pictures.

Overview

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As you might remember, the base is Tyvek, which is very flexible and allows for painting, stitching, whatever you want to do. The base was collaged with papers, fabric, lace, origami mesh, cheesecloth, acrylic paints and oil pastels.

Closeup 1

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The houses were cut from book pages, altered with inks and images and wire windows were added. I have yet to add the window on the top house. Buttons were sewn on. 

 Closeup 2

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The image of the girl is a tag I had made a while ago, and underneath her are pages, stained cheesecloth and stained muslin. Click here to see the beginnings. I have had several rough nights where I either can't get to sleep, or wake up at 2:30 AM, and have mostly worked on it then. I'm pleased with how it's coming along and look forward to adding more to it as the story all comes together!

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Deep Blue Sea

53rd in the Tuesday Story Series

When my father was in his seventies, and was still able to travel, he started a tradition which was repeated for several years. Every year, he would make a group reservation for a Gulf Stream fishing boat out of Charleston, and we would all chip in. Usually in May, before the weather would be too hot, a group consisting of my Dad, one of my sisters, brothers, my uncle, several cousins, in-laws and various friends would meet together at 5 AM at the dock, usually still in the dark. Dad and other family members would come down the day before and stay with me, and we would get up at 4 in the morning, meet several of the others at an all night restaurant in Mt. Pleasant and some would eat breakfast, the rest drinking coffee and talking. Some of us had found out that it was better to be very careful what we ate before a 3 hour trip on the open sea! 

The boat had an open top deck for seating, and an inside cabin. Most of us stayed on the top, braving the wind and sprays because it was easier to calm the stomach in fresh air. Often if there were no clouds on the horizon, we would see dawn break and watch the cargo ships passing on their way to the busy Charleston ports. What was really thrilling was to see the submarines come in (the Navy Base was still open then). You just don't realize how large and imposing they are until you pass within a short distance of it traveling above water. There were usually several sailors up top and we'd all wave to them and yell. And some of the container ships which moved determinedly towards the city were huge, with stacks of trailers on their decks which would dwarf a small town. 

Once we got to the Gulf Stream, the color change in the water was amazing. Light aqua greens and blues reminded you of a tropical island. It was not unusual to see a sea turtle go past, or watch a school of flying fish. The captain would use his radar to spot a likely group of fish, and did his best to place the boat right over it. Once done, the boat hands would call out for us to go to our poles, which we had placed in a chosen spot around the boat. We usually fished off the back of the boat, because there was less likelihood of the lines getting tangled.

Our boat looked similar to this one. The boat we used is now retired.

Bait was cut up squid, and we had 2-3 hooks on the line. I would bait my line, then press the release button and down it would go for 200 or more feet. The boat hands would be moving all about us, detangling lines, helping to pull in fish with a gaff, or taking the fish off the line. There was a large freezer on the back of the boat, and as you caught fish, they would mark it with your ID and throw in with the rest. We would catch grouper, spot tail bass, red and pink snapper and small sharks. Once in a while, I or someone else would pull in a trigger fish or a dogfish, and one of the boat hands would yell "Don't touch it!" and come cut it off and add new hooks to the line. Dogfish have poisonous spines and trigger fish have a small mouth with razor sharp teeth, so I was glad the guys were there to help!

The squid would be inky and slimy on our hands and clothing and sometimes we would catch our fingers on a hook. It was a balancing act with the boat rocking on the waves, and sometimes we would be in a rain shower. Your thumb got very tired pressing the button to reel in the line, and you had to occasionally reapply sunscreen out on the bright water. You smelled like fish and were bone tired when the boat headed back in at the end of the day. Lunch was chili dogs and water or soda, or crackers and snacks. (Some of the other passengers brought a cooler of beer, and sat up top just drinking. That was an expensive beer party!!) It usually took till the next morning before you would stop feeling the boat rocking, which made a kind of odd sensation when you were taking a shower later on. Once, upon arriving home, and barely able to stand up, my husband (who is not a fisherman) stood there for a minute taking in my smelly appearance, disheveled hair, filthy clothes and my plastic bag full of freshly cleaned fish and said "I don't understand why you do it!" I just looked at him and said "It's FUN!" 

And it was. And those were great trips!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Journal Page

Another journal page. Sometimes a page is worked on over several days time, until it seems "done". On other pages, I scribble and make notes of ideas I see in some of my art publications. This one has a scribble and then it exploded into art over several days, as I had the energy.

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I used acrylic paint, stencils, oil pastels, rubber stamp, postage stamps and a bit of lace, on top of collage scraps and pages.

What beautiful days we have been having! It is the 20th of May, and nighttime temps are down in the high 50's, with daytime in the 70's. My darling husband bought me a rope hammock for Christmas and I have been able to put it to great use! I have had the window open in my studio and have enjoyed the bird calls and buzzing of bees. The peanut feeder outside my window has been refilled many times, as Downy and Hairy woodpeckers, finches and titmice fight over whose turn it is. The bluebirds in the standing birdhouse has started another family and the ones on the porch nest platform have launched their first brood. I saw a Chipping Sparrow with a beak full of dried grasses to line its nest. I had to change some of the configuration of the bird feeders because the greedy Grackles were wiping out everything before many of the other birds had a chance. I've watched cardinals, bluebirds, starlings, titmice, and several other birds feed their flying young which followed them to the feeders. The breeze is wonderful! I saw a chipmunk run to hide in the pile of rocks in the back yard. Flowers are growing and the red rose we planted in the corner of the fence is a beautiful spot of color with the sunshine on it. 

We are blessed!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Project Moving On, and a Story -The Lt. Colonel

Two weeks ago, I began a project on Tyvek (see here) and showed the materials to be used on it. I have worked on it as I could and here are some update photos. I have actually done a lot more since I took these pictures but I haven't photographed them yet. But at least you can see how it's proceeding!

There are several paint layers on it now, and it's evolving, as these projects often do, into something completely different than I had in mind when I began. I will update soon!

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The Lt. Colonel

52nd in the Tuesday Story Series

My father was born in South Carolina and my mother in Pennsylvania, so I have ancestors who fought on both sides during the Civil War. On my father's side, among many relatives who fought, one was his great grandfather who was a Lt. Colonel in the Confederacy. 

Born one of eleven children, Daniel Livingston married Narcissus Fanning and they had  ten children, one of whom died in infancy. The only photo I have of them shows him in his uniform, and her in a simple dress with a thin kerchief around her neck. She looks forlorn and tired, even more so than subjects of photos from that era usually do. During the years I was doing research on the family line, I was contacted by someone who claimed that he was descended from Daniel and his wife's sister. I had noticed that this sister was living with them when one of the census records were taken, so it could very possibly be true. With DNA testing available now for genealogy testing, it would be easy to find out. If it were true, that could explain why she appears the way she does.

Daniel joined the CSA as a Captain in Company B, Unit 1, Hagood's SC Infantry. He was wounded in Second Manassas and Sharpsburg. A story has been passed down that he was severely wounded during the Manassas battle and was found by a Virginian family and taken back to their home and nursed back to health. In gratitude, he named his seventh child after the family and the town they lived in - Quincy Fairfax Livingston. A family named Quincy living in Fairfax VA hasn't yet been located but it could still be possible.

If you have read anything about the armies during the Civil War, you will know that they do not reflect the US Army as it is now. On both sides, the men were free to leave after their three month subscription, or leave when it was time to plant or harvest. Officers were elected by their men, or named so by commanding officers who perhaps had favorites among the men they commanded. It was a loosely organized group on either side. I found letters my grandfather wrote requesting supplies and his handwriting was beautiful, which indicates that he had an education. At some point, the men he commanded complained about him after he was promoted to Lt. Colonel and he resigned his post. On the surface, that doesn't reflect well on him, but as I have read and studied that period, it was not an uncommon occurrence. After he left on 3 Mar 1864, he joined a local garrison in South Carolina, which was glad to have him.

I found his obituary in a small South Carolina newspaper, the Southern Christian Advocate, written by his pastor, George H. Pooser. It reflects the life of a man who earned respect, even though he had made mistakes. I think it's a reflection we would like to speak of ourselves when we are gone - that we suffered the frailties of our human form, but in the end we were "prepared for the change" as we go forward into eternity.

“Livingston SC- 

Col. Daniel Livingston was born in Orangeburg Co. SC Nov 27, 1827 and died Oct. 28, 1881. He was married to Miss Narcissa M.C. Fanning, April the 5th, 1849, joined the Methodist Church at the Boiling Springs Camp meeting and made a profession of religion six years ago. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel in the Confederate army, was a man of strong attachment and warm friendship. Like other men, he had his faults, but he had the gift of drawing others to him. He was attacked with paralysis about five years ago, but recovered partially from it, so that he was able to go about until last March, when he was stricken down and confined to his bed almost constantly until he died. I visited him frequently during his last illness, and he assured me on several occasions that he was prepared for the change; as he did members of his own family before he breathed his last. He leaves a widow and blue (?) children, with a large circle of relatives to mourn his loss. Said one who knew him well, “Colonel Daniel Livingston will be missed.” He bore his sickness of seven months with much fortitude and patience, and his remains now repose at Hebron Church, Edisto Circuit.” G. H. P. 

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