Day: January 22, 2005

Art, Collage, Photography

Snow Storms and Rituals and Beautiful Boys

Shelly

20050108_9

The wind is howling like a banshee and the snow is blowing sideways. At what point does a snow storm officially become a blizzard? The snow has lightened up a bit since I took these photos. I can actually see the ridge to the east of me. I’m glad I don’t have to be out in this. Snow and cold are great, but high winds scare the bejeezus out of me. This is definitely a day to stay inside with a good fil-um or book and drink lots of hot cocoa.

Rituals
Rituals
collage in composition book

Despite my lack of motivation, I did manage to get some gluing done. The idea for the piece above came to me yesterday, at work. The person in the cubicle beside mine has a collection of vitamins and assorted medications that she takes every afternoon. Little rituals like that are comforting: shoes shed by the front door when you come home, brushing your teeth before bed, or stopping every morning for coffee before work; big rituals, as well: christenings, birthdays, weddings, honeymoons, funerals. These rituals remind us that there’s a rhythm to life and that, no matter what happens, the world will continue rotating on its axis and the sun will continue to rise and set.

Beautiful Boy
Beautiful Boy
collage in composition book

I was watching bad daytime TV earlier in the week and on some talk show, probably Oprah, Celine Dion did a gawdawful cover of John Lennon’s Beautiful Boy. I’ve had the song stuck in my head since then–not a bad thing, since it was thankfully the original version. So, I thought I’d do some arting on the subject. Sometimes art is silly.

Letters to Esther

Letters to Esther

Shelly

And now for something completely different…

I started a sister blog today. It isn’t art related and the content isn’t even written by me. It’s a collection of transcribed letters written to a woman named Esther Munro. She was born in Illinois around the turn of the century. When she was a small child, her family moved to Geneva, Indiana. In the 1920s, Esther attended Indiana University, where she received a degree in elementary education.

Esther died in 1997 and her letters were sold at an estate sale. I stumbled across them a couple of years later at a flea market, where the vendor was selling them piece-meal. I thought it was criminal that he was splitting them up, so I asked him what he wanted for the whole lot. I ended up paying $20 for an orange crate crammed with hundreds of letters–her entire life’s worth of correspondence.

I haven’t even read all of the letters yet. Some of the letters are from friends, some from family. Many are from college sweethearts. They all help to paint a picture of the people around Esther. Interestingly, they don’t tell us much about Esther herself. I have an interactive art project in the planning stages that will help remedy that. Esther should have a voice, too, I think. But, for now, I’m working on transcribing these boxes and boxes and boxes of letters. I’m hoping to add a couple more each day, time permitting. I’m also trying to find related information on-line (e.g. the links to the Panama and Pacific Exposition and the PBS special on the 1918 influenza epidemic). If anyone comes across information or websites that they think would be informative, please let me know.