Serendipity 3

A new year ...

2008-01-27T03:29:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been a year since I last posted something on this site ... even though I have been posting on other sites, I realize now that it's been mostly announcing events and posting photos from readings, with a little bit of art here and there ... unfortunately, I've also realized I've only done a little bit of art here and there for the past year ... it's completely gotten away from me ... the year, the art ... where did it all go ... well, I'm not usually one for new year's resolutions, but this is an extreme for me, and I am not a fan of extremes, so I am resolving to bring more art back into my life (& yours) this year ... to start off, here's a couple of the sparse pickings since I last posted ... and I resolve to have something to post by the end of each month from here on out ... I would say week, but I don't want to get ahead of myself ... baby steps ... baby steps ...

Mother's Love

Topsy Turvy

Open Arms

This is a clock I made as part of a project with Rochester Art Club which paired up artists and poets to create something new between the two (though I ended up collaborating with myself instead of another artist & doing both the art & poetry myself ... but I loved it)

Some artists worked off the poet's words and came up with images, some poets worked off the artist's images and came up with poems, some found ways to blend the two into a single piece ... mine was 6 mini-paintings which turned to reveal the poem (although I actually had to put a sign up next to saying "Please touch the art" to get people to turn them) ... I so want to make more of these ...

A bit of found art (which my son has since disassembled)

An altered drawing I did for friends as a wedding gift (with the words: build with wild love, not bruised tongues)

I have many ideas that have been rattling around in my brain throughout this dry year ... now I must resolve to manifest some of them ... soon, I hope!

Slide Show

2007-01-08T08:38:00.000-05:00

Virtual Tour

2006-12-18T19:06:00.000-05:00

Here's a pic of my my Art Show at Blue Dahlia Coffee in Canandaigua.

The paintings are new (well, one of them is a do-over which was augmented from a previous painting) and the other is new.

The red & black & white one is called Ready to Take Flight and was the one augmented from an abstract portrait I did of my (soon-to-be-ex) husband; which basically looked like a big red & black vortex ... All the hopeful, added, bird-like looking part is new ...

This is what it originally looked like:

The other one, the woman in the lotus-like-looking flame with the VanGoghish-looking sky, is called From Assent to Ascension.

The other new pieces are Submission, Goddess of Strength, & Armor ... well Submission is new, Goddess of Strength is an older drawing I stumbled upon in one of my sketchbooks I just found, and Armor is a piece I drew during World Poetry Days at Saint John Fisher and recently altered.

Submission

Goddess of Strength

Armor

The photos included in the show are 4 altered photographs from the Native American Dance & Music Festival, featured in my first art show and Haz Mat Literary Review, and 4 unaltered photos: 2 of which were included in the Pathways & Doors Exhibit I was part of for the Rochester Ink Festival.

The altered photos from the Dance & Music Festival are titled: Wind Song, Shadow Dancing, Stolen Lands, and Edges of Invisisibility.

The unaltered photos from Pathways and Doors are titled Concrete Meditations (which appeared in Pathways and Doors as Ayden) and Post & Barn.

The two other unaltered photos are photos I took of rocks (which I do quite often since rocks are one of my odd obsessions).

One - Zen Rock - is a large rock with long grass plastered across it, which reminded me of a yin-yang. The other are two rocks embedded in a drive in Naples, which reminded me of a mother & child, and is therefore titled Mother & Child.

(The concept of Mother & Child is another one of those obsessions I have which repeats itself in my work quite frequently.)

The final piece is an oil pastel drawing of a mother & child I drew for my sister-in-law for mother's day while she was pregnant. It reads: Hold Close with Open Arms.

So, for those of you who could not make it ... here is your virtual tour ... All that's missing is the bio & the cup of coffee ... The bio I can add, the cup of coffee ... well ... meet me at Blue Dahlia some week and I'll tell you which is my favorite!

Self Portrait # 36

2006-08-22T23:36:00.000-04:00

A couple of my Ayden & Haley favorites

2006-08-21T20:22:00.000-04:00

I love the way the light hits his face here ... and how the tree is just their size!

This is one of my favorite photos of my son ... I was intitially unhappy with all the clutterish stuff in the background, so I made two seperate layers and applied different filters to the background while leaving the foreground intact ... now I love it!

I've noticed I have a penchant for taking pictures of people walking away. I also seem to pay more attention than most to how people walk and can usually tell who someone is by the way they carry themselves, even if it is too dark to make out their face. I did this with my sister once when we were camping and she was trying to figure out who was walking toward us in the dark ... it was her husband - no doubt - intrinsically his walk and yet, even though she has been married to him for twenty-odd years, she didn't recognize his walk. I have to think more on why I take so many pictures of people walking away ...

Photo Submissions for Doors & Pathways

2006-07-21T22:24:00.000-04:00

So, I was asked to be a part of this cool project that is part of Rochester Ink's Poetry Festival, called Doors and Pathways, which is combining photography and poetry (and you know how i love to combine art & poetry ... or maybe you don't ... but i do). So, this is a fabulous project I'm excited to be a part of & here are the photos I submitted for possible consideration in the show ... which do you think would be the best pics to write poems off of, or from, or about, or in conjunction with, or whatever?

These rocks make me think of a mother & child ...

2006-06-29T02:20:00.000-04:00

Variations on the Self

2006-06-13T01:03:00.000-04:00

2006-05-01T14:02:00.000-04:00

Shawnee Boyeee

I love this tree

2006-02-03T16:06:00.000-05:00

Saw this tree on the way out of the Sense of Place Award Ceremony.

2006-01-03T19:23:00.001-05:00

2006-01-03T19:23:00.000-05:00

2006-01-02T19:16:00.000-05:00

Laura Cat

2006-01-02T18:59:00.000-05:00

Deb Maisha

Mark-4x4

2006-01-02T15:53:00.000-05:00

Mark-4x4, originally uploaded by SerendipityThree.

Gregory Paul of Autumn Divers

2006-01-02T01:17:00.000-05:00

These are a couple of altered pics of a friend of mine, who is also a local musician. He sometimes plays alone and sometimes with the band Autumn Divers and he is definitely worth checking out. I doubt you could identify him by either one of these pics but he's an artist so abstract representation is perfectly acceptable (if not preferable) don't you think?

Two Moons

2005-12-31T00:33:00.000-05:00

My simple solstice tribute to the moon.

2005-12-31T00:30:00.000-05:00

I love how the moon seems to be sitting in this tree.

FREE JAZZ

2005-12-13T21:07:00.000-05:00

FREE JAZZ: So, Rick needed a photo for his DJ profile at 90.1 and Matt (seeing that Rick'sJAZZ bag is hanging so serendipitously under the FREE sign on the local Autoshopper dispenser) tells him he should jump up on it and ride it. Rick looks contemplative for about 47 seconds then jumps on. Later, he tells me as soon as Matt said it, he knew he had to do it. I wonder if they'll let him post this one on the radio site or if they will post this tamer (yet still poignant pic). We'll see. . .

Sneak Peek at Art for next Haz Mat

2005-11-11T04:14:00.000-05:00

Paper People - from the Washington D.C. Protest.

Sneak Peek at Art for next Haz Mat

2005-11-11T04:13:00.000-05:00

Dutifully Docked

Leaves on Pavement

2005-11-11T04:03:00.000-05:00

I love the juxtaposition of natural and man-made objects thrown together.

Trees & Rocks

2005-11-11T04:02:00.000-05:00

My two favorite things!

2005-11-11T02:45:00.000-05:00

This is an abstract of my father holding my son when he was first born, with my daughter leaning on him from behind.

2005-10-04T11:19:00.000-04:00

Now that's commitment. . . and that
is the coolest cane I've ever seen.

2005-10-04T11:18:00.000-04:00

I love this quote - always been one of my all-time favorites.

2005-10-04T11:17:00.000-04:00

Break The Cycle - and watch out for the snipers. . .

2005-10-04T11:15:00.000-04:00

End the War - cause he says so and he's damn cute.

2005-10-04T11:14:00.000-04:00

Me taking a picture of him taking a picture of the line of 1000 dead soldier's faces marching past.

2005-10-04T11:12:00.000-04:00

Impeach Bush

2005-10-04T11:09:00.000-04:00

I'm Socially Conscious and Stuff

2005-10-04T11:05:00.001-04:00

Michael Freeman- I can't believe in such a massive crowd we actually found him!

2005-10-04T11:05:00.000-04:00

PACE

2005-10-04T11:01:00.000-04:00

Peace Train?

2005-10-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

Hmmm. . . interesting exchange of looks.

2005-10-04T10:57:00.000-04:00

All penned in - doesn't this guy looke confused?

2005-10-04T10:54:00.000-04:00

Resist!

2005-10-04T10:51:00.000-04:00

Bush Lies, Who Dies?

2005-10-04T10:50:00.000-04:00

Veterns Against War

2005-10-04T10:49:00.000-04:00

D.C. + 300,000 protestors.

2005-10-03T00:53:00.000-04:00

True Leaders work for Peace

2005-10-03T00:49:00.000-04:00

PEACE & Scribbles

2005-10-03T00:47:00.000-04:00

Peace is the Way

2005-10-03T00:45:00.000-04:00

SHOCK-ing AND AWE-ful

2005-10-03T00:41:00.000-04:00

Doesn't she look happy?

2005-10-03T00:39:00.000-04:00

George W. Stop Fighting. Anna, age 4

2005-10-03T00:37:00.000-04:00

This is Not God is printed on the money on his head - I wish I had gotten a better shot of him.

2005-10-03T00:35:00.000-04:00

Mad Cowboy Disease

2005-10-03T00:32:00.000-04:00

I will not raise my child to kill your child!

2005-10-03T00:28:00.000-04:00

Get the Hell out of Dodge

2005-10-03T00:24:00.000-04:00

George W. is the biggest disaster ever to hit U.S.

2005-10-03T00:21:00.000-04:00

Free Dumb - c'mon she looks so excited.

2005-10-03T00:19:00.000-04:00

Define Terrorism

2005-10-03T00:16:00.000-04:00

Snipers on the roof

2005-10-03T00:14:00.000-04:00

Bush = Death

2005-10-03T00:12:00.000-04:00

Are you a Christian or What?

2005-10-03T00:07:00.000-04:00

End the War

2005-10-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

Another mother and daughter. . .

2005-10-02T23:56:00.000-04:00

Bush is America's Saddam - what a juxtaposition of faces here - so peaceful and so stern.

2005-10-02T23:51:00.000-04:00

Blind Faith

2005-10-02T23:43:00.000-04:00

What a statement!

2005-10-02T23:41:00.000-04:00

Who Do You Think Should be Impeached?

2005-10-02T23:40:00.000-04:00

College Not Combat

2005-10-02T23:38:00.000-04:00

Love Not War

2005-10-02T23:36:00.000-04:00

Here it is, as promised, the one pic I have where Matt doesn't look a bit confused.

Give Peace a Chance

2005-10-02T02:15:00.000-04:00

I find myself coming back to this mother-daughter theme again and again. I wonder sometimes if it isn't because I lost my own mother - but I don't know. I think I was fixated on it while she was still alive as well. Maybe not quite as much, but still. . . I was thinking the other day about this writng exercise in a book I once read, it prompted you with the line, "What I always wanted from my mother was. . . ". I don't remember all the answers I came up with at the time, but the ones that still stick in my head were honesty, belief, and love. Maybe it is this manifestation of moments when I feel like I can see the trust, the honesty, the affection, the belief in each other within a mother-daughter duo that I become transfixed.

2005-10-02T02:14:00.000-04:00

Democrazy- these dancers were fabulous -one of the focal points of the march.

2005-10-02T02:13:00.000-04:00

Democrazy

2005-10-02T02:11:00.000-04:00

We the People Say No to the Bush Agenda

2005-10-02T02:09:00.000-04:00

Hands off my Grandkids

Initial Protest Postings

2005-10-02T02:05:00.001-04:00

These are a few initial protest postings. There are many more, but it is very late and I have to sleep sometime, so I will be posting more tomorrow. I am working on a collage of faces from the protest. There are so many individual faces that convey so many communal feelings. More on that later.

This one, as many of you know, is Matt - looking as perplexed as usual. But guess what? I actually have a picture of him where he doesn't look lost - sinister maybe - but not lost. I will post that for your (and my own personal) enjoyment soon - very soon.

2005-10-02T02:05:00.000-04:00

Loved the sign. . . there were so many hand-made signs at this protest - more than i think i've ever seen before.

2005-10-02T02:02:00.000-04:00

Sometimes people ducked out of the pictures, often they didn't even notice I was there, and sometimes I felt like they were looking right into me.

2005-10-02T01:59:00.000-04:00

Money for relief, not war.

2005-10-02T01:53:00.000-04:00

I just had to take this picture. This poor woman sitting on the side of the road after a march that literally lasted for hours amongst the debris, with a sign such as this. You gotta love the irony of it.

Look at this Face

2005-10-02T01:48:00.000-04:00

This woman's face says it all. I can't even begin to put into words how inspired I was by the sheer masses of people who showed up for this protest. In a time when everything's been looking hopeless in my life - it was a life saving venture to be surrounded by the energy produced by 300,000 people standing up to be counted.

2005-09-23T11:51:00.000-04:00

All I can think of when I look at this is Dan's comment on the the spoof for that Bette Midler song - From a Distance - last night - swinging on the porch swing, singing Dogs are watching us, Dogs are watching us. . . Dogs are watching us - from a distance. . .

2005-09-23T11:47:00.000-04:00

I love how this crow is cradled in the curve of this very angular tree.

2005-09-23T11:45:00.000-04:00

Through the barn door just doesn't have the same ring to it as Through the Looking Glass, does it?

2005-09-23T11:40:00.000-04:00

Foundation 2: I have this obsession with what things are built on - their foundation, their roots, their history.

2005-09-23T11:36:00.000-04:00

I know this guy who, everytime we drove somewhere, would shout "hey" whenever he saw hay - he said it was something his dad used to do. He is a fabulous guy, very concious and thoughtful and commited to his ideals. I find it interesting how even the people we think are the most enlightened still have these little quirks - these corney little things they do. But it's these kind of oddities that make us who we are. And only those close to you really know these things. This is the true transfer of intimacy. The sharing of our little analities, our obsessions, our corney jokes. I t makes me wonder how many people really know me. How many people really know you?

2005-09-23T11:31:00.000-04:00

It's like you have a choice here - do you choose the dark side or scale the hieghts to reach the light?

2005-09-23T11:28:00.000-04:00

I love this ladder and the lighting and the dorway to another, lusher place.

2005-09-23T11:21:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the simplest things catch my eye - I wished I had my camera last night on Dan's porch. There was this row of candles lining the whole bannister and directly above them hung a completely dead plant - some kind of ivy I think. But it was so beautiful, the lighting, the shadow, the lines it was creating - I couldn't stop staring at it - I admit it, I was mezmerized by a dead plant.

2005-09-23T11:16:00.000-04:00

Ancient Tractor - at the Hennessys - where my dad used to go pick up Eileen and get yelled at by her father for messing up the television reception with his Pierce Arrow.

2005-09-23T11:12:00.000-04:00

Juxtaposition of Elements

A Modest Proposal Regarding Toothpaste at Wal-Mart

2005-09-11T02:36:00.000-04:00

A Modest Proposal Regarding Toothpaste at Wal-Mart
Activism
Posted by conversion on August 26, 2005 - 3:26pm
Yesterday, I read a Daily Kos diary by a father of four who makes $30,000/year and feels compelled to shop at Wal-Mart. It's entitled "Liberal Confession: I Shop at Wal-Mart," and it's really quite heartbreaking:

I have recently started shopping at Wal-Mart for my groceries. The reason? I save $25-$30 per week. I...had been shopping at Publix. I like shopping at Publix because it is a great store that treats its employees fairly and offers benefits. Wal-Mart is a horrible place to shop. It takes forever to check out because they don't have baggers, its crowded, and the employees are nowhere near as helpful as those at Publix. But, with gas prices where they are, I really am not in a position to give up the $25-$30 that I save by shopping at Wal-Mart. Maybe someone will read this and come up with an idea to help.

Last night, I saw an idea that might help or at least make him feel a little better. Marking his 100th post at No Cleveland Wal-Mart, Jeff Hess has suggested that everybody who feels they have no choice but to shop Wal-Mart simply stop buying toothpaste there.

Why toothpaste? Here's his reasoning:

All along I have been uncomfortable with those who would ask families on the poverty edge to not shop at Wal Mart and further stress their meager financial resources. A few weeks ago, while reading John Dicker's United States Of Wal Mart, I came across this little nugget:

Wal Mart is the largets retailer in the world, hawking more DVDs, magazines, books, CDs, dog food, diapers, bicycles, toys and toothpaste than any other company.

It was the toothpaste that caught my eye. I did some more checking and found that it controls approximatley 25 percent of the world's toothpaste sales. That means the company is raking in some $375 million from the approximately $1.5 billion in annual toothpaste sales in the U.S.

Now, if you're Wal Mart, and your annual sales are $288.189 billion, $375 million -- or only a miniscule 0.13 percent -- is less than a drop in the bucket, but it's still noticable. So here's what I propose.

If your family finances are such that you can avoid shopping at Wal Mart all together, that's wondeful. But, as a minimum, buy your toothpaste somwhere else. Doing so won't hurt your dental health. It won't damage the toothpaste industry. It won't hurt the workers who manufacture and distribute toothpaste. And, it won't hurt Wal Mart associates.

Your financial burden will rise a tiny bit, but you'll be helping to send a message that Wal Mart can track and measure.

Wal-Mart always cites the number of its customers as proof of how popular it is, but I've always wondered just how many people who shop there are as angry about the service and how they treat employees as gring.

I realize Wal-Mart won't go down because of this little protest, but wouldn't it be great to scare the pants off them? They can track PopTart sales at stores in towns ravaged by hurricanes so you know even a small dent in toothpaste sales will register.

I also realize that most people who read Buy Blue wouldn't be caught dead at a Wal-Mart, but if you know someone who does shop there and isn't happy about it, pass this on. If you have a blog, post this up. Together we can send them a message they won't miss.

2005-09-06T03:40:00.000-04:00

Your Basic Beat

2005-09-06T03:39:00.000-04:00

Painting - Orange Woman- I painted this when I was working on a sereis for my niece & herhusband as a wedding gift.

2005-09-06T03:37:00.000-04:00

Abstract Couple - this is an abstract i did from a pic of my friends carm & dawn for their wedding present.

2005-09-06T03:36:00.000-04:00

chris lavery

2005-09-06T03:27:00.000-04:00

My 3 year old took this picture. . . I think we're all artists to begin with and most of us lose it somewhere along the way.

2005-09-06T03:26:00.000-04:00

My little barefoot, hippy-grunge boy.

2005-09-06T03:24:00.000-04:00

MIchal Freeman on the move.

2005-09-06T03:23:00.000-04:00

Here's one of those pics I was telling you about rick.

2005-09-06T03:22:00.000-04:00

Norm's feature at Pure Kona.

2005-09-06T03:20:00.000-04:00

Here's lookin' at you kid - my ten-year-old took this pic- love it!

2005-09-06T03:18:00.000-04:00

Norm's Feature also featured Rob on Harmonica and Chris on Drums. (both looking very into their music- i love it when musicians become submerged)

2005-09-06T03:16:00.000-04:00

Chris

2005-09-06T03:15:00.000-04:00

Here's Norm looking pensive during his feature.