Cassoni

The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota has a wonderful exhibit going on right now called "The Triumph of Marriage: Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance." Cassoni were large "treasure chests" that were commissioned by the father of the intended bride. They would be filled with all the belongings she would need to journey into her new life. The objects in her cassoni would also be the only items she returned home with if her husband died. The chests had beautiful painted scenes on each panel and in the fifteenth century most were dismantled. Because they had been painted by popular artists, each panel was sold as a valuable work of art. There are very few intact cassoni left in the world. I attended an educator's workshop on Saturday where we learned about cassoni and made our own using shoe boxes, cut-outs from magazines and scrapbook papers. It was great fun and I have a lot to teach my kids now thanks to the Ringling Museum of Art!

TAD-3

TAD-3
Originally uploaded by Hank V

This is my third installment in Thing-A-Day. I'm hoping to figure out how to actually blog it where it goes at some point. For now, I'm using this blog. I suppose I should be using it anyway.

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TAD-2
Originally uploaded by Hank V

My second entry for the Thing-A-Day Blog.

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TAD-1
Originally uploaded by Hank V

Made this for Thing-a-Day, hopefully it will post at a better size this time.

TAD-1

I'll be trying this one again.

Vacation, Day 4/5

Today it was off to Tennessee to visit the family. My Aunt Katie is the dearest woman I know. She practically raised me when my parents were ill during my early childhood. At 80 years old, she mowed the lawn the day before we arrived, about 1 acre of lawn. She still keeps her 18 month old great-grandson everyday. She is amazing. It was great to see her. Aunt Ruby also came by for a visit.

We stayed in the Courtyard Marriot by the Knoxville airport in Alcoa. What a beautiful facility. If you ask, breakfast for everyone in your room can be included in the room price for an extra $10. It includes eggs (cooked to order), bacon, sausage, gravy, biscuits, fruit, pastries, waffles, etc. Great deal and good food.

On Thursday we drove around Cades Cove (http://www.cadescove.net/), a must when you are in Tennessee. If you can't get up in the Smokies do the cove. We say wild turkey and dear. Some of my relatives say a mother bear nursing her cubs last week. We weren't so lucky.

If you visit the gift shop at Cades Cove they have an old timey band (2 people on mountain instruments) playing music and singing and great honey with the honey comb still in. Honey combs are great to chew, by the way.

Vacation, Day 3

Today we had a leisure breakfast at TC's. I played my fiddle, I should say practiced on the stoop in the warm sunshine all morning. Then it was off to Pocket Loop at Pigeon Mountain. Most people are probably not familiar with the Pocket Loop as you have to take a dirt road past a few residential/farm type houses. There is a partially built boardwalk and the rest is mountain trail up to the falls. We had our "Flowers of the Smokey Mountains" book with us and identified a lot of plants. We spent the afternoon throwing rocks in the creek, catching salamanders (and letting them go) and playing with a huge millipede. All in all, a great day.

On the way home, we made another attempt at the incline railway on Lookout Mountain (http://www.lookoutmountain.com/) and this time we did it. Channel 46 from Atlanta was there and filmed us. Hopefully, someday it will be available on line.

Vacation, Day 2

We woke up early today and had breakfast at T.C.'s house. The girls were outside in the fresh, cold spring air immediately after breakfast. We spent the morning at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga (www.huntermuseum.org), had lunch at Tony's Pasta Shop in the Bluffview Art District(yummm!) and rode the carousel at Coolidge park (http://history.amusement-parks.com/tenncool.htm). We attempted to ride the Incline Railway up Lookout Mountain but several busloads of kids were getting in line just as we drove up. Dinner was at TC's.

Vacation

Well, we tricked the girls last night and started our vacation after Grammy's birthday dinner. We were about an hour and a half past our exit before anyone noticed that we passed our house. It worked out well we were able to drive for about 3 hours and stopped about 11 p.m.

Today has been very interesting. The Courtyard Marriott we stayed in was typical, no problems. We stopped for gas and Starbucks in Tifton. At the Starbucks Claire kept pulling on my skirt/shirt as young children often do. (Especially Claire). I kept turning around and asking her to stop pulling on me, leave my shirt alone, your stretching my clothes out, etc. Finally, she stopped and scooted up beside me to whisper "Mom, your skirt is tucked into your pants."

Later in the day we stopped for lunch at the scarriest Subway in Georgia (Warner Robbins in case you want to know where not to stop). It was under construction and apparently doubled as a daycare. No, I'm not kidding. The kids (all under 4) were behind the counter and climbing under the cabinets in the refrigerators, etc.

Later in the day we made one more stop for gas and potty, in Rome, Georgia. Interesting little place. There were instructions on the wall to guide you in reaching inside the back of the toilet and flushing manually.

Finally, we reached our destination. Whew! Catfish and B-B-Que for all at Buck's BBQ and Catfish with our dear friends.

My Left Foot

I just watched the most amazing movie last. I was already a big Daniel Day-Lewis fan. He really outdoes himself in this movie. My Left Foot is the true story of Christy Brown, an irishman born with cerebral palsy. He was thought to be mentally deficit until one day when he grabbed a piece of chalk from his sister with his left foot and wrote the word mother on the floor. He lived to be almost 50 years old. This is the story of his joys, disappointments and accomplishments. He lived to be a great painter, writer and husband before his death. He was one of 13 surviving children in his family.

Voodoo

This card was snapped up quickly on Flickr. However, I just had to post it. I love this dragonfly/bird mutation thingy.

Ode to Iggy

Iggy Pop trading cards. Anyone interested? He is certainly a "wild one".

Raw...Here we go again!

O.K. this post is getting a bit too familiar. At least I am having a bit of success again. Last week I committed to a 5 day banana fast. Yes, that is correct. 5 days of bananas and water. It went well. After the first day my mind was clear my body felt light and I was feeling great. By day 5, I had a salad for lunch, but that was ok. I chose wisely. Salsa instead of salad dressing, no cheese, no meat. Since the fast has concluded I have been about 85% raw and I plan to keep it that way. I am striving for 95-100% raw. I lost 8 pounds during my fast and have kept 4 off. I must conclude that a good deal was water. I plan to do the banana thingy again next week. It just felt good to feel so clean, inside as well as out.

Water-The 4 Elements 1 of 4

Yeah, it is finally done! This one took on a life of its own and fought me every step of the way. I think we (the collage and I) finally came to terms with each other and turned out an o.k. piece of art.

Working on Something Big

Well, once again I have attempted to start my seasonal collages. In my mind, I have planned out 4 collages....spring, summer, fall and winter. I have been pulling pictures and setting them aside in separate containers for about 1 year now. I finally got up the courage to begin and well, the consensus is that winter looks like water. Now I'm wondering if what I really have are 4 collages based on the elements. Do I rule the art or does the art rule me? I think I will be forced to give in under pressure. I've already removed 1 of the 4 pictures that were meant to hold the collages together theme-wise. It just didn't work. Hopefully, this one won't be as painful as the last. I'm hoping it will let me finish it tomorrow.

Journal Doodle

In an attempt to do something artistic everyday, I took my journal with me to the car dealer today. The service that was schedule to take 3 hours lasted 6 and we have to go back on Friday because they forgot something. Well, my kids completed the days school work and I completed a super-doodle. I say super because I doodled for a couple of hours. Here is the fruit of my labor.

The Closer You Look

You know you have a problem when you have to get up out of bed to change a piece of work that you just completed. I made this set of the ATC's and just didn't like the phrase I put on them. After laying in bed for about 1/2 an hour I finally got up, retrieved them from my desk, went back to the drafting table and got going on them again. Here they are, finished. Had I thought of it, I would have done a before and after scan. Oh well, maybe next time. Btw, they are available for trade. Enjoy!

Newest Collage

This one finally came together. It has been junking up my drafting table keeping me from other work for several weeks now. This 12 x 16 mixed media collage consists of cut-out pictures, acrylic paint, jewels and a ornate butterfly I found on the ground in my front yard. I re-did the background twice on two different canvases before I finally settled on this one. This actually kept me up some nights arranging and re-arranging the parts in my head. A few of the items I collected for it went unused, I suppose they'll be bothering me now that the rest have finally settled happily on their new home.

Carnival

Didn't want my other card to feel left out. I just couldn't quite get the formatting thing down on that last post. So here is the other card I made today. Could have made more but we were too busy chatting.

Trading Cards in the Haze

Yikes, the kids woke me up today because they thought the house was on fire. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it we were just getting wind and ash from the many fires that are active in Florida right now. Girlscout park day was canceled. Driving over the bridge to St. Pete was like driving through fog. Normally we can see the Clearwater Causeway, St. Pete, etc. Not today. Breathing was another story and it was accompanied by a lot of discomfort. We stayed indoor with a friend and made trading cards.

Good times.