Karen's Muse and Musings

Meet Bobby

A beautiful cabinet card arrived in my mail yesterday from Christine. I just love this little boy with his ball and his adorable toy horse — so much so that I sat right down and created this collage sheet.

Here's a little poem from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Looking Forward

When I am grown to man's estate
I shall be very proud and great,
And tell the other girls and boys
Not to meddle with my toys.

Time for a New Look

In honor of the recent first anniversary of my Typepad blog, I decided to freshen things up by trying a new look. After completing the "remodeling," I searched for a poem to fit the renewal theme. However, I found this lovely poem by Robert Frost, and I couldn't stop thinking about it, so this is my offering for you today.

The Exposed Nest

You were forever finding some new play.
So when I saw you down on hands and knees
In the meadow, busy with the new-cut hay,
Trying, I thought, to set it up on end,
I went to show you how to make it stay,
If that was your idea, against the breeze,
And, if you asked me, even help pretend
To make it root again and grow afresh.
But ’twas no make-believe with you to-day,
Nor was the grass itself your real concern,

Though I found your hand full of wilted fern,
Steel-bright June-grass, and blackening heads of clover.
’Twas a nest full of young birds on the ground
The cutter-bar had just gone champing over
(Miraculously without tasting flesh)

And left defenseless to the heat and light.
You wanted to restore them to their right
Of something interposed between their sight
And too much world at once—could means be found.
The way the nest-full every time we stirred

Stood up to us as to a mother-bird
Whose coming home has been too long deferred,
Made me ask would the mother-bird return
And care for them in such a change of scene
And might our meddling make her more afraid.

That was a thing we could not wait to learn.
We saw the risk we took in doing good,
But dared not spare to do the best we could
Though harm should come of it; so built the screen
You had begun, and gave them back their shade.

All this to prove we cared. Why is there then
No more to tell? We turned to other things.
I haven’t any memory—have you?—
Of ever coming to the place again
To see if the birds lived the first night through,

And so at last to learn to use their wings.

Robert Frost (1874–1963).  Mountain Interval.  1920.

East Meets West

Asian is the theme for this week's Gothic Arches. It's funny because it's not my first choice for art style, but my friend, Shirley, has been here this weekend, and on Friday we ate Thai food, and yesterday we ate sushi! So something definitely is in the air.

Shirley and I have had a delightful time together. Eating, of course, was one of the highlights, but so was shopping. I took her to some of my favorite local stores where we definitely did some damage. (Warren, honey, if you're reading this — Shirley did most of the shopping!) Afterwards we came home and drank Grey Goose martinis and shared art tips — the perfect way to spend an evening.

Boy with Goose

Make up your own story to go with this one.

You can now order prints of my artwork such as this one at Etsy.

 

Goose photographed by my good friend Joanne Thieme Huffman and used with her permission. Thank you, Joanne.

Clara

I am falling more and more in love with vintage cabinet cards and photos. Clara is one of the latest additions to my little "family." Once again, I can't help but wonder about her life. Was she happy? Did she marry, have children, grandchildren and grow old? Why is her photo being sold on eBay? What happened to her family? I will probably never know the answers to these questions, but, little Clara, you now have a home with me.

You may remember seeing Clara in Tree Hugger, and now I've just completed a collage sheet with her sweet, haunting face.

This week's theme for Gothic Arches is heritage. I chose an old family photo taken at a family reunion in 1936 as the basis for my arch.

My grandmother and grandfather are in the photo along with aunts and uncles. The handsome young boy on the right is my father at the age of 10. This is my heritage.

The quote is taken from Family and Politics by Letty Cottin Pegrebin, but it is well worth reading the entire quote.

If the family were a container, it would be a nest, an enduring nest, loosely woven, expansive, and open. If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable—each segment distinct. If the family were a boat, it would be a canoe that makes no progress unless everyone paddles. If the family were a sport, it would be baseball: a long, slow, nonviolent game that is never over until the last out. If the family were a building, it would be an old but solid structure that contains human history, and appeals to those who see the carved moldings under all the plaster, the wide plank floors under the linoleum, the possibilities.

Happy Easter!

I wish you all a safe and happy Easter. Peace be with you!

Karen

Tree Hugger

Digital art created in Photoshop.

What kind of world do you want
Think anything
Let’s start at the start
Build a masterpiece
Be careful what you wish for
History starts now

excerpt from the lyrics of "World" sung by Five for Fighting

Blackbird

Another arch for Heather.

The quote is from a poem by William Ernest Henley (1849-1903).

The Blackbird

The nightingale has a lyre of gold,
    The lark's is a clarion call,
And the blackbird plays but a boxwood flute,
    But I love him best of all.

For his song is all of the joy of life,
    And we in the mad, spring weather,
We two have listened till he sang
    Our heart and lips together.

Enough said?

A Thing of Beauty

When my husband brought home those precious, old baby shoes, he also brought a portrait of a beautiful woman. Unknown and forgotten, now she has a home in my studio, and she is the focal point of this arch I made for my friend, Heather. I photoshopped her with an arch we photographed in Siena — two beautiful objects combine to make "A Thing of Beauty."

Four Faces of Hope

When I first saw the photo of this little girl, I was struck by her expression. She looked sad, but in her eyes I saw hope. This is a scan of the original cabinet card.

I worked on the image in Photoshop, and here are my Four Faces of Hope.

   

Speaking of hope, for all of you who are experiencing the bitter cold right now, here's a little sign of hope for spring — the first daffodil in my yard.