Me, a Picasso???

Not even close! I just joined a new online group, and this months challenge is to make an ATC or 4x4 card in the style of Picasso. It's his geometric forms and distorted bodies that symbolize the artist for me. I see in this style a pessimistic view of humanity--the world is an uncomfortable place, everyone is twisted in some way or another. Perhaps that's not what he consciously had in mind, but it's what I see.

I Made a Card!

It's been ages since I made a card, decided to go for the ink spots weekly challenge to do a collage card. The stamps used are by Hampton Arts, and are ATC-sized. Since the stamps are collaged, this makes my card a double collage. Double, double, toil and.... Sorry, October puts me in a scary frame of mind.

Friendly Visit--I Hope!

Witch Hazel dropped in for a visit today.

Rascal and Fripon weren't impressed. But then, it takes a lot to impress cats.
Witch Hazel used to delight in scaring the neighborhood kiddies when they cam for Trick or Treat night. The kiddies don't do my apartment building, so wicked WH has no more Halloween fun. Hmmm! Maybe she should go around ringing doorbells this Halloween.

Crusade 13 Continued

The red and gold trees outside my window and the Halloween decorations everywhere are so inspiring that I've made another entry for the Goth Crusade. The card is from a clip art CD, and the Boo-gy Man is an altered photo of a doll. The doll photo was generously offered by a member of one of my art sites. I'm not sure that I want to let her know what I've done with the poor doll!

Halloween Crusade!

Michelle Ward of Green Pepper Street Team has given us "Goth" for Crusade #13. I'm using Halloween to give my interpretation of this theme. The two pages here are from a mini scrapbook--my first--I made a couple of years ago, using my autumn-themed poems. I couldn't resist including ee cummings' Halloween poem, "hist whist". I have this cummings poem in a delightfully illustrated book, and never tire of it.

I apologize for the distracting arrows on the ee cummings page. The original page only had a quote from the poem, and for this entry, I wanted to treat you all to the whole poem, without adding it physically to the original page. Voilà!

I'm baa-aack! Sniffle, cough

I'm back from my Oklahoma travels, and am so glad I went to my 50th high school reunion! I don't know the exact count, but I think about 40 of us were there. It was so great to see how we had all matured and have had interesting, fruitful lives. It was also fun to see everyone surreptitiously eyeing the nametag of a person, then exclaim, "You haven't changed!". Right--that's why we only recognized each other after reading the nametags! But we must be excused; after all, most of us hadn't seen each other for 50 years.
After the farewell brunch on Sunday, my best bud from college picked me up and we drove to her home in Stillwater (home of OSU), where I stayed for two weeks. Cindy and I had lots of fun catching up, but didn't go out much, because the evening I arrived, I came down with what we thought was an allergic reaction, but turned out to be a virus. Naturally, I generously passed said V-attack on to Cindy--what are friends for? She had to stay home from work for most of my visit. We're both still battling the nasty virus.

New Blog, New Challenge

I've started a new blog for my journaling, so for those of you who just have to keep up, click on this link below to view new pages: http://mezzokatzjournal.blogspot.com/
The new theme from Green Pepper Press Street Team has been posted for September. My interpretation of the theme is "Living Passionately." I try to do everything with passion, be it washing the dishes or singing, because I’m convinced that everything one does makes the world a better or worse place.

Singing would have to be at the top of my list of passions. For the story on that, see the August 22 entry in this blog.

Next has to be cats. They've been in my life since my birth, and I can't imagine not having one to greet me when I come back from an excursion. The following poem I wrote in 1990 is an indication of my feelings for cats.

Royalty

A cat with a question
Came to my door,
I understood, I speak Siamese.
A window ledge among some plants,
Someone to come when she calls,
Won’t interfere with her nap.
I invited her in
And gave her the bowl
I reserve for potentates.
She likes my tuna
And my mohair,
Doesn’t mind
If I sit in her chair.
The wonder is--
Out of all the neighborhood,
She chose me!

These are my current companions: Fripon, the alert one, and the more relaxed Rascal. "Fripon" is the French for "rascal". They're littermates, half Persian, half Abyssinian. Fripon has all the characteristics, including body and eye shape, of the aloof Persian, and Rascal has the energetic nature and body/eye conformity of the Abyssinian.

On to Passion #3: Optimism! Not the kind of optimism which refuses to see the evil in the world, but the kind which believes that good is stronger than evil, love overcomes hate. Good and love don’t win every battle, but they will win the war.
The journal page on “music”, below, explains why I believe this, why I remain optimistic midst all the turmoil in todays world.
Some people say that if there is a God, he must not love us, or he wouldn’t let natural disasters destroy lives, or people to carry out evil plans. These people forget about the free will with which God has endowed us. He will not force us to do his will, but always brings some good from the evil we do. The stories of heroism which came out of the horrible tragedy of September 11, 2001, and the acts of love and caring after the destruction of the 2004 tsunami are some examples of good from evil.
I could talk about some of my other passions; friends, knitting, stamping, reading, for instance, but you’d probably fall asleep, if you haven’t already, so these three will suffice.