Serendipity 3

A new year ...

I can't believe it's been a year since I last posted something on this site ... even though I have been posting on other sites, I realize now that it's been mostly announcing events and posting photos from readings, with a little bit of art here and there ... unfortunately, I've also realized I've only done a little bit of art here and there for the past year ... it's completely gotten away from me ... the year, the art ... where did it all go ... well, I'm not usually one for new year's resolutions, but this is an extreme for me, and I am not a fan of extremes, so I am resolving to bring more art back into my life (& yours) this year ... to start off, here's a couple of the sparse pickings since I last posted ... and I resolve to have something to post by the end of each month from here on out ... I would say week, but I don't want to get ahead of myself ... baby steps ... baby steps ...

Mother's Love

Topsy Turvy

Open Arms

This is a clock I made as part of a project with Rochester Art Club which paired up artists and poets to create something new between the two (though I ended up collaborating with myself instead of another artist & doing both the art & poetry myself ... but I loved it)

Some artists worked off the poet's words and came up with images, some poets worked off the artist's images and came up with poems, some found ways to blend the two into a single piece ... mine was 6 mini-paintings which turned to reveal the poem (although I actually had to put a sign up next to saying "Please touch the art" to get people to turn them) ... I so want to make more of these ...

A bit of found art (which my son has since disassembled)

An altered drawing I did for friends as a wedding gift (with the words: build with wild love, not bruised tongues)

I have many ideas that have been rattling around in my brain throughout this dry year ... now I must resolve to manifest some of them ... soon, I hope!

Slide Show

Virtual Tour

Here's a pic of my my Art Show at Blue Dahlia Coffee in Canandaigua.

The paintings are new (well, one of them is a do-over which was augmented from a previous painting) and the other is new.

The red & black & white one is called Ready to Take Flight and was the one augmented from an abstract portrait I did of my (soon-to-be-ex) husband; which basically looked like a big red & black vortex ... All the hopeful, added, bird-like looking part is new ...

This is what it originally looked like:

The other one, the woman in the lotus-like-looking flame with the VanGoghish-looking sky, is called From Assent to Ascension.

The other new pieces are Submission, Goddess of Strength, & Armor ... well Submission is new, Goddess of Strength is an older drawing I stumbled upon in one of my sketchbooks I just found, and Armor is a piece I drew during World Poetry Days at Saint John Fisher and recently altered.

Submission

Goddess of Strength

Armor

The photos included in the show are 4 altered photographs from the Native American Dance & Music Festival, featured in my first art show and Haz Mat Literary Review, and 4 unaltered photos: 2 of which were included in the Pathways & Doors Exhibit I was part of for the Rochester Ink Festival.

The altered photos from the Dance & Music Festival are titled: Wind Song, Shadow Dancing, Stolen Lands, and Edges of Invisisibility.

The unaltered photos from Pathways and Doors are titled Concrete Meditations (which appeared in Pathways and Doors as Ayden) and Post & Barn.

The two other unaltered photos are photos I took of rocks (which I do quite often since rocks are one of my odd obsessions).

One - Zen Rock - is a large rock with long grass plastered across it, which reminded me of a yin-yang. The other are two rocks embedded in a drive in Naples, which reminded me of a mother & child, and is therefore titled Mother & Child.

(The concept of Mother & Child is another one of those obsessions I have which repeats itself in my work quite frequently.)

The final piece is an oil pastel drawing of a mother & child I drew for my sister-in-law for mother's day while she was pregnant. It reads: Hold Close with Open Arms.

So, for those of you who could not make it ... here is your virtual tour ... All that's missing is the bio & the cup of coffee ... The bio I can add, the cup of coffee ... well ... meet me at Blue Dahlia some week and I'll tell you which is my favorite!

Self Portrait # 36

A couple of my Ayden & Haley favorites

I love the way the light hits his face here ... and how the tree is just their size!

This is one of my favorite photos of my son ... I was intitially unhappy with all the clutterish stuff in the background, so I made two seperate layers and applied different filters to the background while leaving the foreground intact ... now I love it!

I've noticed I have a penchant for taking pictures of people walking away. I also seem to pay more attention than most to how people walk and can usually tell who someone is by the way they carry themselves, even if it is too dark to make out their face. I did this with my sister once when we were camping and she was trying to figure out who was walking toward us in the dark ... it was her husband - no doubt - intrinsically his walk and yet, even though she has been married to him for twenty-odd years, she didn't recognize his walk. I have to think more on why I take so many pictures of people walking away ...

Photo Submissions for Doors & Pathways

So, I was asked to be a part of this cool project that is part of Rochester Ink's Poetry Festival, called Doors and Pathways, which is combining photography and poetry (and you know how i love to combine art & poetry ... or maybe you don't ... but i do). So, this is a fabulous project I'm excited to be a part of & here are the photos I submitted for possible consideration in the show ... which do you think would be the best pics to write poems off of, or from, or about, or in conjunction with, or whatever?

These rocks make me think of a mother & child ...

Variations on the Self

Shawnee Boyeee

I love this tree

Saw this tree on the way out of the Sense of Place Award Ceremony.

Laura Cat

Deb Maisha

Mark-4x4

Mark-4x4, originally uploaded by SerendipityThree.

Gregory Paul of Autumn Divers

These are a couple of altered pics of a friend of mine, who is also a local musician. He sometimes plays alone and sometimes with the band Autumn Divers and he is definitely worth checking out. I doubt you could identify him by either one of these pics but he's an artist so abstract representation is perfectly acceptable (if not preferable) don't you think?

Two Moons

My simple solstice tribute to the moon.

I love how the moon seems to be sitting in this tree.

FREE JAZZ

FREE JAZZ: So, Rick needed a photo for his DJ profile at 90.1 and Matt (seeing that Rick'sJAZZ bag is hanging so serendipitously under the FREE sign on the local Autoshopper dispenser) tells him he should jump up on it and ride it. Rick looks contemplative for about 47 seconds then jumps on. Later, he tells me as soon as Matt said it, he knew he had to do it. I wonder if they'll let him post this one on the radio site or if they will post this tamer (yet still poignant pic). We'll see. . .

Sneak Peek at Art for next Haz Mat

Paper People - from the Washington D.C. Protest.

Sneak Peek at Art for next Haz Mat

Dutifully Docked

Leaves on Pavement

I love the juxtaposition of natural and man-made objects thrown together.

Trees & Rocks

My two favorite things!

This is an abstract of my father holding my son when he was first born, with my daughter leaning on him from behind.

Now that's commitment. . . and that
is the coolest cane I've ever seen.

I love this quote - always been one of my all-time favorites.

Break The Cycle - and watch out for the snipers. . .

End the War - cause he says so and he's damn cute.

Me taking a picture of him taking a picture of the line of 1000 dead soldier's faces marching past.

Impeach Bush

I'm Socially Conscious and Stuff

Michael Freeman- I can't believe in such a massive crowd we actually found him!

PACE

Peace Train?

Hmmm. . . interesting exchange of looks.

All penned in - doesn't this guy looke confused?

Resist!

Bush Lies, Who Dies?

Veterns Against War

D.C. + 300,000 protestors.

True Leaders work for Peace

PEACE & Scribbles

Peace is the Way

SHOCK-ing AND AWE-ful

Doesn't she look happy?

George W. Stop Fighting. Anna, age 4

This is Not God is printed on the money on his head - I wish I had gotten a better shot of him.

Mad Cowboy Disease

I will not raise my child to kill your child!

Get the Hell out of Dodge

George W. is the biggest disaster ever to hit U.S.

Free Dumb - c'mon she looks so excited.

Define Terrorism

Snipers on the roof

Bush = Death

Are you a Christian or What?

End the War

Another mother and daughter. . .

Bush is America's Saddam - what a juxtaposition of faces here - so peaceful and so stern.

Blind Faith

What a statement!

Who Do You Think Should be Impeached?

College Not Combat

Love Not War

Here it is, as promised, the one pic I have where Matt doesn't look a bit confused.

Give Peace a Chance

I find myself coming back to this mother-daughter theme again and again. I wonder sometimes if it isn't because I lost my own mother - but I don't know. I think I was fixated on it while she was still alive as well. Maybe not quite as much, but still. . . I was thinking the other day about this writng exercise in a book I once read, it prompted you with the line, "What I always wanted from my mother was. . . ". I don't remember all the answers I came up with at the time, but the ones that still stick in my head were honesty, belief, and love. Maybe it is this manifestation of moments when I feel like I can see the trust, the honesty, the affection, the belief in each other within a mother-daughter duo that I become transfixed.

Democrazy- these dancers were fabulous -one of the focal points of the march.

Democrazy

We the People Say No to the Bush Agenda

Hands off my Grandkids

Initial Protest Postings

These are a few initial protest postings. There are many more, but it is very late and I have to sleep sometime, so I will be posting more tomorrow. I am working on a collage of faces from the protest. There are so many individual faces that convey so many communal feelings. More on that later.

This one, as many of you know, is Matt - looking as perplexed as usual. But guess what? I actually have a picture of him where he doesn't look lost - sinister maybe - but not lost. I will post that for your (and my own personal) enjoyment soon - very soon.

Loved the sign. . . there were so many hand-made signs at this protest - more than i think i've ever seen before.

Sometimes people ducked out of the pictures, often they didn't even notice I was there, and sometimes I felt like they were looking right into me.

Money for relief, not war.

I just had to take this picture. This poor woman sitting on the side of the road after a march that literally lasted for hours amongst the debris, with a sign such as this. You gotta love the irony of it.

Look at this Face

This woman's face says it all. I can't even begin to put into words how inspired I was by the sheer masses of people who showed up for this protest. In a time when everything's been looking hopeless in my life - it was a life saving venture to be surrounded by the energy produced by 300,000 people standing up to be counted.

All I can think of when I look at this is Dan's comment on the the spoof for that Bette Midler song - From a Distance - last night - swinging on the porch swing, singing Dogs are watching us, Dogs are watching us. . . Dogs are watching us - from a distance. . .

I love how this crow is cradled in the curve of this very angular tree.

Through the barn door just doesn't have the same ring to it as Through the Looking Glass, does it?

Foundation 2: I have this obsession with what things are built on - their foundation, their roots, their history.

I know this guy who, everytime we drove somewhere, would shout "hey" whenever he saw hay - he said it was something his dad used to do. He is a fabulous guy, very concious and thoughtful and commited to his ideals. I find it interesting how even the people we think are the most enlightened still have these little quirks - these corney little things they do. But it's these kind of oddities that make us who we are. And only those close to you really know these things. This is the true transfer of intimacy. The sharing of our little analities, our obsessions, our corney jokes. I t makes me wonder how many people really know me. How many people really know you?

It's like you have a choice here - do you choose the dark side or scale the hieghts to reach the light?

I love this ladder and the lighting and the dorway to another, lusher place.

Sometimes the simplest things catch my eye - I wished I had my camera last night on Dan's porch. There was this row of candles lining the whole bannister and directly above them hung a completely dead plant - some kind of ivy I think. But it was so beautiful, the lighting, the shadow, the lines it was creating - I couldn't stop staring at it - I admit it, I was mezmerized by a dead plant.

Ancient Tractor - at the Hennessys - where my dad used to go pick up Eileen and get yelled at by her father for messing up the television reception with his Pierce Arrow.

Juxtaposition of Elements

A Modest Proposal Regarding Toothpaste at Wal-Mart

A Modest Proposal Regarding Toothpaste at Wal-Mart
Activism
Posted by conversion on August 26, 2005 - 3:26pm
Yesterday, I read a Daily Kos diary by a father of four who makes $30,000/year and feels compelled to shop at Wal-Mart. It's entitled "Liberal Confession: I Shop at Wal-Mart," and it's really quite heartbreaking:

I have recently started shopping at Wal-Mart for my groceries. The reason? I save $25-$30 per week. I...had been shopping at Publix. I like shopping at Publix because it is a great store that treats its employees fairly and offers benefits. Wal-Mart is a horrible place to shop. It takes forever to check out because they don't have baggers, its crowded, and the employees are nowhere near as helpful as those at Publix. But, with gas prices where they are, I really am not in a position to give up the $25-$30 that I save by shopping at Wal-Mart. Maybe someone will read this and come up with an idea to help.

Last night, I saw an idea that might help or at least make him feel a little better. Marking his 100th post at No Cleveland Wal-Mart, Jeff Hess has suggested that everybody who feels they have no choice but to shop Wal-Mart simply stop buying toothpaste there.

Why toothpaste? Here's his reasoning:

All along I have been uncomfortable with those who would ask families on the poverty edge to not shop at Wal Mart and further stress their meager financial resources. A few weeks ago, while reading John Dicker's United States Of Wal Mart, I came across this little nugget:

Wal Mart is the largets retailer in the world, hawking more DVDs, magazines, books, CDs, dog food, diapers, bicycles, toys and toothpaste than any other company.

It was the toothpaste that caught my eye. I did some more checking and found that it controls approximatley 25 percent of the world's toothpaste sales. That means the company is raking in some $375 million from the approximately $1.5 billion in annual toothpaste sales in the U.S.

Now, if you're Wal Mart, and your annual sales are $288.189 billion, $375 million -- or only a miniscule 0.13 percent -- is less than a drop in the bucket, but it's still noticable. So here's what I propose.

If your family finances are such that you can avoid shopping at Wal Mart all together, that's wondeful. But, as a minimum, buy your toothpaste somwhere else. Doing so won't hurt your dental health. It won't damage the toothpaste industry. It won't hurt the workers who manufacture and distribute toothpaste. And, it won't hurt Wal Mart associates.

Your financial burden will rise a tiny bit, but you'll be helping to send a message that Wal Mart can track and measure.

Wal-Mart always cites the number of its customers as proof of how popular it is, but I've always wondered just how many people who shop there are as angry about the service and how they treat employees as gring.

I realize Wal-Mart won't go down because of this little protest, but wouldn't it be great to scare the pants off them? They can track PopTart sales at stores in towns ravaged by hurricanes so you know even a small dent in toothpaste sales will register.

I also realize that most people who read Buy Blue wouldn't be caught dead at a Wal-Mart, but if you know someone who does shop there and isn't happy about it, pass this on. If you have a blog, post this up. Together we can send them a message they won't miss.

Your Basic Beat

Painting - Orange Woman- I painted this when I was working on a sereis for my niece & herhusband as a wedding gift.

Abstract Couple - this is an abstract i did from a pic of my friends carm & dawn for their wedding present.

chris lavery

My 3 year old took this picture. . . I think we're all artists to begin with and most of us lose it somewhere along the way.

My little barefoot, hippy-grunge boy.

MIchal Freeman on the move.

Here's one of those pics I was telling you about rick.

Norm's feature at Pure Kona.

Here's lookin' at you kid - my ten-year-old took this pic- love it!

Norm's Feature also featured Rob on Harmonica and Chris on Drums. (both looking very into their music- i love it when musicians become submerged)

Chris

Here's Norm looking pensive during his feature.

I'M SO AFRAID OF BIN LADIN

DUMB SHIT BLUES

SPIES EVERYWHERE

Haz Mat Literary Review

Well, it's almost out. The long awaited Volume 7 of Haz Mat, featuring altered photos from the 2005 Native American Dance and Music Festival. This is the first nationally published art/photo work I have done, and I have to say: I am very excited.

It has also been fun working with Norm on layout, design and getting out the glitches. I remember this professor I had at Saint John Fisher (Hi Deb) who loved grammar and was not ashamed to admit it. I mean the woman really loved grammar. She would go to the library and take out archaic texts so she could analyze what grammatical rules had been changed or removed or altered and why. I was in her grammar course and I remember her telling us she was a grammar freak but she didn't know what the rest of us were doing there - we must be nuts.

I feel like that about a lot of things. While I can spend entire days or nights plugging away at photoshop, painting, or writing, I would definately think anyone else who lived my life was a bit nuts. But I know I am a bit nuts, so. . .

These are all the pics that will be included in this issue, in order of appearance. Some of them have been posted before, some have not. All I can say is, I hope you like the result of my month of insomnia - I do.

Front Cover - Haz MAt - Volume 7 - Issue 2

Sarah Tallchief - Fancy Dancer

Samsoche Sampson - Hoop Dance

Lumhe Sampson & Melissa Carr

Brenner Fontenelle - Grass Dancer

Lumhe Sampson - Hoop Dance - Eagle

Samsoche & Lumhe Sampson - Hoop Dance - World
This was almost the cover but got changed at the last minute

Craig Marvin - Grass Dancer - this pic is opposite the previous post

Doug Huff - This pic is above a short poignant poem

Silohette - Waylon Marvin

Back Cover- Samsoche Sampson

Nature's Wisdom

I checked out this site, Nature's Wisdom, because I heard they were looking for someone to do some logo work for them and I found I really like them.

The site has some beautiful images and great articles. I especially like the fact that there is so much local information.

I have included the link above. Check it out and let me know if you like it as much as I do.

A little bit of green - Altered

Looking Up - Altered

Looking Up

Yellow Tree

Ayden Walking

leaves of grass

these rocks remind me of a mother and child

barn & silo

foundation

barn & silo 2

horse in front of barn

ayden made me do it

tomatos

wood chips

old boat moored in weeds

Gonandagan Dance & Music Festival

These photos were all taken at the Dance and Music
Festival at Gonandagan this past weekend.

After the first day, I went home and stayed up til 6 am
altering the pictures so I would have something to show
people the next day, and so I could figure out which ones
might work for HAZ MAT.

Despite the lack of sleep, it was well worth it.
I really love some of these images.

I would like to thank everyone I spoke to for their
kindness and enthusiasm.

I will be in touch.

Peace (Paz)

Marie

Samsoche - Invisibility

Subjective Genocide

Why is it
you can walk into any open Wal Mart
and buy your kids a bucket of Cowboys and Indians
to play with

but you could never — would never
even if you could — buy them buckets
of Jews and Nazis, of Serbs and
Croatians, of Tutsi and Hutu

Published in Haz Mat Literary Review: Vol 7, Issue 2

Samsoche & Lumhe - Hoop Dance - World

Doug Huff - Seneca

Samsoch & Lumhe - Hoop Dance

Hoop Dance- Lumhe

Sarah Tallchief- Fancy Dance

Samsoche

Paz- Aztec Dancer

David Zamora- Aztec Dancer

i don't use flash but i happened to catch someone elses's and got a pic with a shadow on the tent wall and then i got carried away with the smudge tool on Photoshop and stayed up all night playing with this picture - originally, the waves at the base went over a cowboy hat but it was not clear to others that it was a cowboy hat so i took it out - and now there's this

Desert Blush

Coffee at Daily Perks

Soccer Star

Running

Self Portrait

Tree Pose

MIssing It

Build with Love

peppers

Abstract of Arianna

Ani-esqe

Norm: Rock Star

Love Your Body

coffee

rigel speaks

"TONY!"
TODD VAIL WAS THE FABULOUS FEATURE LAST WEEK AT PURE KONA

TREEHUGGER

MY GUMBALLS

WILLOW

SOCCER

AYDEN

MEDITATION

COFFEE AT DAILY PERKS

IT'S SUMMER

DON'T MISS
URKNEE AND BEIRTON'S
(AKA BEERCAN) NEW CD
FREE GIN & TONIC POETS

JOE ST. MARTIN (THE ROCK STAR)
WILL BE THE FEATURE AT DAILY PERKS
THURSDAY JUNE 16 AT 7:30 PM

SWINGING COUSINS

MY STAR MODEL

ARIANNA AS ADA LOVELACE

AYDEN

I LOVE THIS TREE!

TREES & CONCRETE

I REALLY LIKE THIS SHOT

ARTHUR - THE GITSIS MESSIAH

SHANNON

MAN, I LOVE ROCKS. . .

IT'S LIKE ANCIENT RUINS

ROCK HIKE

AYDEN

ELISABETH

RIGEL

There's no way there from here

If you are here, it is most likely because you already know me (in some capacity) and I said, "Hey! Check out my blog! It's so cool!"

If you are here, you are most likely one of the people on these pages (and if you are one of these people - I hope you like your pics, I do).

I put some of my favorite photos on here from the last year. Some of them are from the Anti-War Protest Rigel, Matt, and I went to in New York City this year, a lot of them are from Pure Kona and a couple performances by Dream Engine, and some of them are other (nature shots, artwork, paintings).

This initial submission gives you an idea of the range of my work, stemming from mutiple obsessions with multiple medims. I hope you enjoy browsing as much as I enjoyed posting.