Happy Halloween 2010

These are the kind of gems you can spot on the back roads of Wisconsin.  An unintentional 'haunted house', a structure still held together by wood and glass and many layers of paint, but with a most decided slant......

I like the sticker in the window 'Plan'.  Plan for what? Any guesses?

Affirmation Shrine

An assemblage shrine I made out of recycled materials for the Escondido Arts Partnership Municipal Gallery Recycled Art Exhibition.   It's called the Affirmation Shrine, as I affixed snippets of text to the pincushion, like 'alternate', 'mystery', 'memory'...

Materials used:

Cigar box, sushi tray and 'garnish', vintage pincushion, text, old maps, keys, spiral notebook coil and cover, wooden spools, scouring sponge, plastic protractor, plastic toy, plastic push pins, optometrist lenses, ribbon, cellophane tea bag envelopes, artificial turf, eggshells.

Sun version 1

One version of the Sun card. I was invited to participate in the Honeycomb tarot (hence the shape).  It involves 2 photos we took out at Warner Springs. One is of the sun that Chris took of me (I am obscured beneath a layer, so you can no longer see me) and the way the camera caught the sun
rays. The other is a photo of a raven I took in a tree, with a 'find edges' filter. The little bee I added. Here is a Native American story that fits with this card:
In the beginning, Raven was a snow-white bird, and as a such, he pleased Gray Eagle's daughter. She invited him to her father's longhouse. When Raven saw the Sun, Moon and stars, and fresh water hanging on the sides of Eagle's lodge.......As soon as Raven got outside he hung the Sun up in the sky. It made so much light that he was able to fly far out to an island in the middle of the ocean. When the Sun set, he fastened the Moon up in the sky and hung the stars around in different places. By this new light he kept on flying......

Recyled Cuff Bracelet

I've been wanting to make another cuff bracelet, using some vintage fabrics, actually an old shirt with a black/white rose print. It has almost a Dios de los Muertos look to it, the roses have a kind of aura - I always hoped to use it for something. I added a piece of well worn levis to give it a sturdy back and also a deconstructed feel. Final additions are pieces of a silk 50's blouse and an antique brass button. The shirt fragment already included a button hole, so I didn't have to make one. I originally was going to use a delft (blue and white) and silver pin as a large center piece. But I like this result better, comfortable, broken-in, and the great fabrics speak for themselves. Finally a use for the boxes and jars of antique buttons, the odd scraps of fabric and faded trims. The process reminded me of making doll clothes when I was a kid, mostly hand sewn, no pattern, no rules.
I think the rose print would make a cool wallpaper, so I will scan that in later for a digital project.

QWERTY

Brought home a functional 1930's portable Royal Junior typewriter today. Found it at a garage sale for $ 20. The woman said her aunt still used it until she passed away a few years ago. I thought that was pretty cool, I now wish I had asked : "What did she type"? Letters to the editor, or to a dear friend far away? Recipe cards? Or perhaps she wrote stories, clicking away on the gleaming glass-covered keys, words hammered out in an iconic font that we strive to duplicate today on our modern keyboards.

Jewelry Assemblage

I have hundreds of antique optometrist lenses. a few years back I collaged them and hung them from simple ball chains as pendant necklaces. Just recently I got some of them out and incorporated this one into a necklace assembled from broken vintage jewelry. I started with an old mother-of-pearl rosary, there is an antique clasp, an old holy medal and other fragments. The collage is a girl with a wolf and a dictionary clipping 'mythology'.

left brain right brain words and pictures

What did I just read? That a person can either think primarily in words or in images. And that the completely visual thinker may be less empathetic. But what interests me is checking out how I think and when do I choose to think verbally (in complete sentences I have noticed) and when am I primarily visual? Do I switch back and forth depending on the situation? Am I thinking words and pictures simultaneously? When I am working on an art project, do I abandon the constant comments of the linear left brain? Am I flexing the right brain and reveling in imagery? It might depend upon the task - either primarily carrying out a planned construction or processing the (ever evolving) idea of the piece.
hmmm.......

Christmas circa 1974?

In this photo it looks like I am emerging from, or part of, the mobile that Jeff made from rare Canadian woods. We all appear to be enthralled and waiting for our turn with the latest technology, a (pocket sized!) calculator with a power cord! Actually I think that I am showing off that I can spell my name numerically on a calculator, 317537, which upside down reads "LESLIE"

Our house in Milwaukee

Mom, Dad and me in front of our house on 67th Street in Milwaukee. I guess my big brother Jeff is taking the picture.