Jul23
Jul8
ceiling
Oct29
Halloween trading cards part deux
Here are the fronts and backs of the other art trading cards that I made at this month’s NETFAA meeting… the pink potion is my favorite
Oct29
Haunted House
one of my grade school writings, this time for Halloween #tbt
Happy Samhain! Happy Halloween!
Even in the daylight, the deserted Meyer house looks haunted. The uncut grass and never trimmed shrubs overgrow the spacious front yard. All of the trees bend in one direction, as if to run away from some evil force lurking in the creepy house. Windows are boarded up and the shutters are either not there or are falling off. The brick walk that leads to the falling steps is cracked and worn. The porch is covered with dirt and old branches that have been blown in by violent storms known to the area.
As you open the door, creaking fills the air from rusted hinges. On the left is a spacious dust filled room that seems to you to be an old ball room. Wooden floors have scrape marks marred deep into them. A wild dance is your guess, for the cause of the many marks. Crystal chandeliers have shattered light bulbs among cracked crystal pieces.
Directly across from this room is the family, living, and parlor room, all in one. A small sofa and two chairs are in front of an ash filled fire place. On the mantel piece are several faded pictures staring at you, and this makes you feel very uncomfortable. Stained, dusty carpets cover the floors from wall to wall. Lamps on corner tables have ripped cloth shades on them. The bulbs under them are smashed and dusty.
At the back of the house is the kitchen. In the middle of the room there is a small breakfast table with a wooden chopping block on it. With closer examination, you see that blood and bits of flesh are on the block. These are also on the large and sharp butcher knife. You wonder if the blood and flesh are of a human. Chills run down your back at this thought and of the discovery that the blood and flesh seem relatively new and fresh.
The dining room has a crystal chandelier like the ball room. A large oak table is in the center of the room under the chandelier. Chairs with decaying, caned bottoms and backs are pushed back from the table, as if some people had just finished a hardy meal. Five places are set at the table, with decaying food still on the plates.
After going up the stairs a ways, you can see that the top six stairs are missing. In a way, you’re grateful that you can’t go up. In another way, you’re disappointed that you can’t plunder around in the old rooms that are upstairs.
You stand in the doorway for one last look at the creepy house. Turning, you leave the house.
A bang is heard as some foreign force closes the door after you.
Oct29
Albino Moth
clump of clutter
Hard to ART when there’s no available flat surface and I can’t find anything. Enjoying some MUCH needed time in my studio, making use of Full Moon Energy to re-vitalize my creative space.
Inside and Out.
Oct8
Art Night trading cards
Tonight at my monthly art meeting of NETFAA (North East Texas Fine Art Alliance), we made artist trading cards with a Halloween/Day of the Dead theme. It was fun!!! Here are two fronts and a back. I’ve got two others, but I didn’t take pux of them yet.
Mar13
HAPPY PI DAY!
Feb23
Is the opposite of autumn, fantastic spring?
Mar25
Mercurial Inspiration
Thank you, Johnny Depp.
I watched The Ninth Gate this weekend mostly because he starred in the movie. And I like mysteries and thrillers. “A rare book dealer, while seeking out the last two copies of a demon text, gets drawn into a conspiracy with supernatural overtones.” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142688/)
Old books. A cute guy. The Devil. International travel. What’s not to love?
I love books. I’m a true bibliophile. It is somewhat surprising to me how little I read, for as much as I love books. While watching the movie, I wanted to be right beside Corso (Johnny Depp), holding and examining those awesome old books. One of the most AWESOME experiences of my life was seeing a Medieval illuminated manuscript IN PERSON, during an Art History course that I took while I went to college (or, as they say, to university) in Manchester, England; we were on a class field trip to York Minster to look at painted glass, and we got to go into the library, and it was one of the really cool libraries with huge oak tables and floor-to-ceiling bookcases with a ladder along three walls and floor-to-ceiling lead glass windows along the fourth that looked out onto the Yorkshire countryside. The librarian showed us one of their collection.
<sigh> It was awesome.
So, … back to this weekend, … after the movie sparked my sense of exploration and books, I decided it was way past time that I check out the bookstore in downtown Terrell. {Remember that I moved last fall? For a lot of reasons, it feels like we JUST moved last month, instead of last October. It was a tough Winter; my depression cloaked me again.} Terrell is a small Texas town with all the appropriate stereotypes still intact. It’s not a place where an eclectic artist type, such as myself, would – TYPICALLY – find many kindred spirits. You know what I mean?
The store is called Books & Crannies (I know, right?!) and it’s in the location of the old Iris Theatre.
Books & Crannies, located in the historical Iris Theatre, and home of the new Iris Theatre, located inside the bookstore (photo taken from somewhere on the internet – I don’t own this – and I didn’t note where I took it from)
It’s a GREAT store! I came in the back door, from the alley, and right away was met with raw wooden shelves holding beautiful old books. I exhaled. I had found a place for myself here in Terrell. There’s even a little (drama) theatre in the back – appropriately called The Iris Theatre – where a local troop puts on plays three times a year. I cannot remember the name of the current play. It was sold out this past weekend. I’m going to try to go this coming Friday. I’ll let you know.
Anyway…
In addition to old books, they have new books, contemporary stuff. And it’s decorated really well, with neat reading nooks and with movie and writing inspired paraphernalia, like a speaker from an old drive in and an old Royal typewriter. I bought two books: a used copy of one of my all time favorite Anne Rice novels, Exit to Eden, (hardback!) and the first in a series about a cat that’s a detective. Fun! Cat On The Edge, by Shirley Rousseau Murphy, the first Joe Grey Mystery.
Yep. I already finished it.
And I could talk more about the cat detective book or the bookstore or the little theater or the devil book movie, but the real story in all of this is…. I’m inspired again to work on my zines. THANK YOU to my mercurial muse that ignites my sporadically produced zine.
TheZINEsaurus 