Sunday Postcard Art - Theme: Blackbird

Masquerade Postcard - 4 x 6 digital

This is my very late entry for this week's Sunday Postcard Art and Eleanor #43 Masks are from Cirque de Soleil - all other images purchased or from personal collection of photographs.

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Eleanor #42 and Skinny Page #13

"In My Opinion" - 4x8 inch digital

First 12 4 x 8's

I was musing on a few things today. Our weather here has begun to warm up, with highs tomorrow in the teens (USA friends - around 65ish) but we missed the bright autumn colors because of the unexpected and heavy snow fall.. We went from green to green/white and now....hard to describe. There are still leaves on the trees but they're the color of frozen. It feels as though autumn was stolen from me this year and what remains is a colorless atmosphere that like me, is not quite at ease with its missing season.

I have seen several blogs with 'art dolls' on them recently Laura's and Shannon's to name a couple. Inspired by them, I thought I'd follow the trend for fun and create another Eleanor 'art doll' in a 4 x 8 format. It's digital with images from Altered bits and Iktupulli. The quote by Taoist philosopher Chuang Tze reads: "We cling to our point of view as though everything depended on it. Yet, opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter they gradually pass away." p.s. pardon the absence of spaces to denote new paragraphs - blogger glitch!

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"Vienna" Skinny Page

Original Digital Version

The Baroness - 4 x 8 inch digital after painting, printed onto cotton with some preliminary stitches, buttons and lace added

I enjoyed researching Vienna as the subject for this page. Through my web research, I became acquainted with Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita Von Suttner who was the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for her work in anti-militarism. The following is a direct quote from the Nobel Institute: "Baroness Bertha von Suttner, the first woman to be awarded the Peace Prize, wrote one of the nineteenth century's most influential books, the anti-war novel Lay Down Your Arms (1889). The title was provocative to many, but the anti-militaristic message caught on. In the 1870s she became a close friend of Alfred Nobel's, and they corresponded for years on the subject of peace. The Peace Prize Laureate became one of the leaders of the international peace movement, and in 1891 established the Austrian Peace Society. At the male-dominated peace congresses she stood out as a liberal and forceful leader. At the beginning of the new century she was referred to as the "generalissimo of the peace movement". There is little doubt that von Suttner's friendship with Alfred Nobel had an impact on the contents of his will, and many give her the credit for his establishment of a peace prize. "Inform me, convince me, and then I will do something great for the movement", Alfred Nobel said to Bertha von Suttner." The various elements in the collage are from public domain resources, ( and include: a map of Vienna, a portion of the Hofburg Imperial Palace, a street scene, a bank note commemorating her achievement along with a postage stamp and the Nobel gold medal with the Latin inscription translated: "For peace and fraternity among peoples."

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#41 Eleanor

#41 "Sing" - approx. 16" x 19" inches Digital

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Different Views - Skunk Skull

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Skunk Skulls, Skinny's, Doilies and Snow

Our first snowfall arrived late yesterday and since I haven't hooked up the heat in my studio, the weather provided me with a perfect opportunity to begin to sew some of the Skinny Pages I've been working on digitally and blogging about. I've also started to work on an Eleanor art pillow, or is it a wall hanging, or a quilt? She hasn't told me yet which it will be. Despite the cool temperatures, the sun shone in, and the variety of textile textures, colors of sepia, aqua and varying shades of green inspired me to capture a few photos to share along with a reminder of how good life is. I also captured a couple of snapshots of my latest acquisition - a skunk skull. It is a treasure.... though I may be among a small group of people who might consider it so. Try to say skunk skull out loud 3 times in a row. I did, and I ended up sounding like what I imagine a skunk may snort like! Go ahead, try it....you know you want to! Boo-ha. Fun wasn't it? This latest project has also given me just cause to finally work with several hand dyed doilies and one of a kind pieces of fabric designed by Lorraine of Creative Daily. She surprised me with these for my birthday and I've been looking forward to figuring out a way to use them. The aquas, greens and turquoises as well as the black and white cotton fabrics of letters and clocks and beautiful script are all Lorraine's. I am hoping she will soon open up a shop of some sort so I might buy more...and more.

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Another Skinny Page - "Laura's Little Darlings"

"Laura's Little Darlings" - 4 x 8 inch page - digital

I was up early this morning, with enough time to get the digital portion of this latest skinny page completed. The image of the three 'little darlings' is from Laura who has been generous enough to post it copyright free on her blog. Thanks Laura. I've printed a similar version of this onto fabric now and will begin to 'quilt' it adding dimensionality and texture. It was made with one of the project participants in mind that I know likes images of children.

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pARTy Eleanor #40

pARTy #40 8.75 x 11.25 inches - digital

Marsha lead me to the Library of Congress where I found some fun copyright free images and another Eleanor. Thanks Marsha!

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Blog Giveaway - Draw October 31st

I just wanted to acknowledge the new followers to this blog and thank you for taking an interest in my various musings. A day never passes without a yearning to create and to be noticed makes it even more enjoyable. So, I thought it was time to express my appreciation, to you, to mark the changing season and the upcoming Tricks and Treats and post a free draw. The prizes (I can't only have one winner) will be a selection of ATC's from my Eleanor series. Below is my most recent Eleanor, but there are 38 others here to choose from. These will be digital but may end up being fabric, or embellished with charms, or whatever stirs the muse. Thanks again. Draw date will be October 31st. Please make sure you provide some method of contact so I can email you for your address and add your name to my follower's list!

#39 - Day of the Dead Eleanor - orig 5x9 inches digital Image credits: public domain

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Time Travel and the Case of the Mistaken Face

"Time Travel" - 4 x 8 inch digital

This collage ended up being very enjoyable as I allowed my muse to soar into my childhood imagination and love of fantasizing about going back to the past or into the future. "Back to the Future" was a movie I always enjoyed watching with my children when they were young. I'd posted a draft of this collage a few days back but as you can see, it resembles very little of the initial draft apart from the vintage image of the young man. I imagined he'd become confused in programming his time travel and mistakenly entered in 'face' instead of CLOCK face. It's good to play! Here is the earlier (and my favored) rendition of this same collage. I prefer this color combination, but the specs call for rust and turquoise.

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