i'm here...

'inspiration exists,

but it has to find us working.'

~ pablo picasso

i have been busy lately getting ready for 3 rather big deadlines that will arrive within a week to 10 days... this is not said to solicit sympathy - i made the choice to go after them all... but the timing is tricky... and the anxiety is building... i have been reading your blogs, though i may not be commenting... am trying to limit my time on the computer... because while i sit here and wonder at times what i will do, picasso is right - the best inspiration can come when we are actually at the task... 

this piece is for a festival that i am in and it is going to be auctioned... i thought that using words like 'imaginative' (there was no word 'imagination' in the dictionary from 1877 that i used for the paper), 'passion', 'create' & 'art' were fitting to the occasion... garnet, pearl, amethyst and raspberry amethyst are used... 

i also did another set of the almond blossom earrings from the abs challenge last month... as i didn't have any more emeralds, this time i used green garnet... 

there is one more in the works - we enter an inventory which is able to be edited... turns out the system went down - ok, yikes... while i know i should have printed it out, i did not... and i now cannot do my tags! but i know there is time until monday - so i have my fingers crossed...

on the home front, we got down to the beach on sunday - i needed that so bad... the sand was warm on our feet and there were piles of sand that have been created to prevent erosion from storms... 

and what is it about the water that pulls at you?

in addition, em is back to posting and has updated her blog... i really like to read what she has to say and how she says it... to see that individual who i have lived with for 18 years standing on her own... and to know that i am a part of it... 

remember - it's all fake ! :0)

'the job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.'

- sir francis bacon 

mission accomplished!

so as i mentioned yesterday, the nj zombie walk was held in asbury park... a city very near and dear to my heart that is experiencing a cultural revival...

base camp was in the old carousel house where at the city's lowest point the full sized horses were auctioned off...  early in the day they had tony mandile, a professional demonstration & brian keene who writes for marvel and dc... this is what emily wants to do for a living - prosthetic make up... so she was there for all of it... i brought the little one around 3 (yes, the little one, because as anyone knows the little ones worship the big ones) to get his makeup done... i paid for professional make up so i could see it for myself and duplicate at halloween... 

the artists were full out ready and each represented their interpretation of what a zombie looks like...

 

 

i am not a horror movie person, i did my time with that as a teen and early twenty something... for emily i have seen 'sweeney todd' because we love tim burton and the actors he works with and 'zombieland' ... i was wondering yesterday how many people went to the movies that night in costume!

 

this is the old casino where at 5pm the zombies all gathered...

these are my zombies!

 

 

they guess-timated that there were 1000 participants...

my 'celebrity' moment - these guys are one the front page of the website... 

i was so excited - they look so real, don't they?

the zombies walked down the boardwalk and then

out into the town... 

 

tired zombies! and hungry - but not for brains! :0)

october is my favorite month, halloween my favorite holiday - there are no expectations except to  have fun... and so it begins ~

who will you find in the sea?

maggie and millie and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and

millie befriended a stranded star
who's rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles; and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

for whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

- e.e. cummings

this is the creation that came from the beads by mika and the sand dollar charm by erin... i know my usual is chunky & the original plan was to have a lot of shiny silver... however, after finding out that mika hand sands each bead, i felt that it was a disservice to hide all of that surface area... and the flat sides of the discs are more like the sea glass that one finds anyway... erin's charm is so highly detailed that the same applied... keep it simple, natural, random...

so i began to think of the tide line left on the beach when the water retreats after a storm... piles of broken reeds, sea weed, skate pods, sand dollars, sea stars, all sorts of shells &, if you are lucky, sea glass... sea glass in varying shapes and sizes but having a certain color range - brown, blue, green, and clear... in thinking about it today, i realized that sea glass is the result of pollution - i guess it's the only kind i am ok with then (& i didn't think i was ok with any of it)... as you inspect the ocean's offering, you enter a kind of trance... searching for the perfect ____ (you fill in the blank)... and when you do, you treasure it - for you have found a gift that means more to you than anything material... and isn't it interesting how you are satisfied with just one (whatever you found)? in a world where people collect and look for more, you unconsciously stop and feel complete...

science tells us that we feel relaxed and happy at the beach because of the negative ions that are released by the crashing water... that may be true, but i think there is something to just connecting with nature... it takes us to a simpler place... a place where we can just be... a place where we can believe that everything will be okay, that our goals can be achieved and our challenges overcome...

tread lightly

ocean mist no. 5 by mika at pinocean

porcelain sand dollar by erin at EveryHeartCrafts

living by the beach in new jersey, the summer officially begins with memorial day... and things will now change dramatically until labor day... personally i love the beach off season, but i understand why summer draws crowds...

as kids, we were familiar with the summer saying 'benny go home' ... benny being an acronym for the stops on the bay head to new york train - bayonne, elizabeth, newark, new york... it was nothing personal, we were just local kids who noticed the influx of people each year... it had to do with being upset with the irreverent treatment of the beach by some visitors (and locals who are just as guilty and should know better)... vacationers are crucial to our local economy - the beach towns have always counted upon summer business for their survival...

here is the issue i have - and i know that i am not alone in this - please just tread lightly... do not treat our beaches as if they were disposable, as if they don't exist when you aren't here... as if the sea birds and ocean life are not affected by your litter... this applies to our whole planet naturally, but i feel a bit protective of the places nearest to me...

call me a scrooge, but my skin crawls when i hear the small boats & jet skis flying through our bay... i know people love these, and i am sure that they are fun... but we have a bird sanctuary here - egrets, osprey, swans, herons, all kinds of ducks and even eagles who also have their little ones about ... the noise and intrusion scare them... we even have an area where horseshoe crabs - dating back to the prehistoric era - come to mate... where is the concern for these true residents of the bay?

'treat the earth well. we do not inherit it from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' - part of a native american proverb...

so come, enjoy the beaches - there is nothing like the sound of the water pounding on the sand... learning about where to set up when you arrive in the morning if it is low tide- seems like a good idea to sit near the water, right? but then the tide comes in! watching people jump the waves, listening to the sound of laughter and sea gulls screaming... feeling the sun on your skin... finding out that when the water is still cold, there may be crabs in the shallower water... enjoying the wonders of the ecosystem... becoming mesmerized by tiny tide pools on the jetties... holding a sea star... using a seining net, placing your catch in a bucket of cold water & then releasing the life after you look at it... finding hermit crabs on the tide line at low tide... wonder after wonder after wonder...

and then as the sun goes down - walking the boardwalk, playing miniature golf, getting ice cream... & maybe going to the glass blowing studio...

erin's charm and mika's beads make me smile, they both draw inspiration from nature... the work shown reminds me of walking along the beach after a storm, searching for treasures of sea glass, sand dollars and drift wood... they have recreated these things so perfectly - and i thank them for it! mika is currently (and patiently) enduring my requests for custom orders... i already have my charm & when mika's beads arrive, i will anticipate the beads whispering to me...

i can't wait - for the anticipated final design or for the summer fun to begin!