Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Everything is not exactly the same here...



I love the Art Deco District on Miami Beach. The buildings are from the 20's and 30's, and despite "Corporate America's" desire to tear them all down and replace them with homoginized cookie cutter style structures, these geometric beauties are being protected.


David and I recently spent an entire day walking the streets of Miami photographing some of the nearly 1000 deco buildings. I'm not very happy with the small photos I am able to post here at blogger, I.miss how easy large photos were at AOL.


Above is a collage of some of the buildings, if I can figure the larger photo thing out I'll post some individual photos so you can see the dramatic effect of shadow and light that seemed to be a design priority back then.


Wednesday, December 3, 2008




Our Thanksgiving was a little untraditional this year, 46 years old and for the first time in my lifetime our family went out for Thanksgiving dinner. (Have I mentioned how much I love tradition?)
We didn't go just anywhere, we went to "The Top Of The Bridge" and if you were going to go out for Thanksgiving this would be on the top of one's list of where to go ... but not having Thanksgiving at home???
David joined our family gathering for the first time this year, that was nice. The food was great, amazing as a matter of fact. It was served buffet style and any Thanksgiving dish plus much much more was prepared by top chefs. I did get to spend a little time with some of the people I love most in the world. No one had to chop, mix, cook, clean or do dishes who knows maybe not so traditional may become a tradition.
After dinner, David and I stopped by to see friends, that was nearly as spending time with my family. All in all it was a great day, I have much to be Thankful for.



Monday, November 10, 2008

I was reminded ...

by a new friend today that taking a look back at our past lives, our past life experiences can give us insight on who we are today and who we want to be tomorrow.

Still preparing for a visit with the Muses ... after reading this (thanks DB) I felt that maybe taking a look back at some of the moments I've felt most creative, might help me to invite more creativity back in to my daily rounds.

The following was a creative moment for me ...


Rain: June 2005




Photo's are of Stephanie painting a giraffe face ... forgot to photograph the dragons.
On day 2 of the convention I decided to move away from the airbrushing and take some beginning face painting classes but first, I wanted to play Oliver Zegars Creativity Game.

Let me just say that I was so not prepared for this game. Keep in mind that although I do consider myself to be a somewhat creative person ... I have not had any paint or drawing instruction and certainly no real experience applying paint (make-up) to skin.

Luckily, I'm not easily intimidated or excessively shy, because this game was defiantly not the right place to start, especially as it happened to be filled with so many experienced painters.

Here's how we played the game ... first 2 people drew a color card, we drew medium green and burgundy. Those were the background colors along with white. Then someone drew another color card for the line color, it was yellow ... black and white lines were also allowed for highlights and shadow. The next card drawn was a shape card, it was an oval. Last card was the character card, we chose a dragon.

The following step of the game was to paint our faces respecting the guide lines chosen with the cards. Ahem ... did he say paint medium green, burgundy and white background ovals with yellow, black and white outlined ovals to make your face look like a dragon????

There was no demonstration ... just instruction to get to work creating our dragons. I felt a little better when I realized that surprise had swept the entire room and I was not the only one perplexed by the thoughts of all those colored ovals.
I was very surprised at how distracted I became by the oval thing ... yep, I was stuck on oval, but like everyone else I began applying my paint.

The more experienced in the group knew to use the white to highlight the places where a light source would naturally hit. Me, I was still stressing over all of those ovals, but kept painting.

Once most of our faces were covered in oval shapes using the assigned colors, the yellow lines started to be applied. We were making oval eyes, oval scales, oval nostrils and teeth ... we even did our best to make oval fire for our dragons to breathe. Oh my ... ovals, ovals, ovals!!!

I was doing just fine until I decided to look around at the other dragons, by the time the black and white details were being applied many of the faces would have qualified to be used in a Broadway stage production. I kept applying my ovals and soon it was time for us to put down our brushes and move on to the next part of the game.

Here's where it became important not to feel embarrassed or intimidated, for the beginners (me) as well as for the experienced (nearly everybody else). We moved to the head of the class and placed our chairs in a huge circle. Ummmm ... now it was time to discuss each individual dragon out loud.

We talked about the things that we liked, the things we wish we would have done differently and the things we would defiantly do again next time. Every single person in that room walked away knowing so much more about face painting than they did when the walked in.

Oliver and Stephanie were among my favorites. There were several raffles throughout the weekend for a hour one on one session with the instructor of your choice. I decided during that class that If I won, I would have chosen one of them because they both had such warm eyes, because Oliver spoke the language of art with such passion and because I figured that where one of them goes, the other is not far behind. I'll bet they would have both been there.

Imagine for a minute, being told in a Belgium accent that even on your worst day as a face painter you will paint so much better than the five year old. You paint his face to look like a dragon and the five year old becomes the dragon.


GRRRRRAAAAAARRRRR!!!!! (Ithink he said GRRRRRAAAAAARRRRR!!!!!)
I was not eager to have a photo of my dragon face taken at the time, now I sort of wish I would have. I would like to have been able to compare it to the amazing green and burgundy with yellow dragon I will learn to paint by the next time we meet. Thank you Oliver and Stephanie for the inspiration.



Thursday, November 6, 2008

Hope







I've been watching Obama since he made his keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004. I was at work the night he made it and once I heard clips I wasn't happy until I was able to hear it in it's entirety.

Rain: July 2004


I remember the enormous sense of hopelessness I felt after the last Election wondering how we were going to make it through the next 4 years. I also remember reflecting back on the Obama speech from time to time thinking "This is the kind of hope I would want to hear from the next President of the United States."

Rain: January 2005

Today I truly do feel hopeful.




Wednesday, November 5, 2008

A little more than a name ...

Picture "The Muses" from: brown.edu/~maicar/MUSES.html


Since one of the few things I really know about the mythological ladies of art is their names ...

  • Calliope: the muse of epic poetry


  • Clio: the muse of history, education and knowledge


  • Erato: the muse of sensual poetry


  • Enterpe: the muse of lyric and music


  • Melpomene: the muse of tragedies and elegies


  • Polymnia: the muse of sacred song


  • Terpsichore: the muse of music and dance


  • Thalia: muse of comedy


  • Urania: the muse of astronomy and astrology

I thought I should do at least a little research on them before we meet. I found photos and just the right amount of detail about each of them in a High School Student Essay written by: Heather Clegg-Haman found here--> The 9 Greek Muses


Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The Mythical Girls From Ancient Greece ...

Despite GiGi's warning yesterday ...

"Ah foolish mortal ~one does not summon the muse; the muse summons you. ;)"


I am still searching for my missing Muse.

GiGi is one of the most creative people I know, so it's easy for her to say ...

"I'll bet you have had a creative idea or two; you simply haven't recognized it as such. Just start writing, or grab a camera, or pick up a brush and start something; anything will do. It doesn't have to feel inspired. This prompts the muse, once she stops laughing, to take pity our feeble efforts and guide us on our way. It's the action that summons the flow... That's my theory, anyway. ;)"


If you don't already know GiGi please visit her at Lotus Martinis a place where her creative energy seems to flow effortlessly.

As for me ... I seriously feel stuck, uninspired and I'm sure that my deepest needs and desire to be and do the things I was "born to do", are not being met.

Since I'm not sure where to look for my own Muse, (I don't even know her by name), I have decided to go back and pay a visit to the original beacons of creative inspiration. That's right ... the 9 Sister Goddesses of imagination, inspiration and the arts. These girls have long been celebrated and enticed by many cultures, and why wouldn't they be? They were the the daughters of Zeus (King of the Gods). Ancient Greeks worshiped them for inspiring their poets, musicians and painters to create.

I'll let you know what I find.


Monday, November 3, 2008

Summoning the creative muse ...

I haven't had a creative thought or idea in months.


Any suggestions on how to summon my old friend and creative muse?




Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Mandy Smile



My beautiful daughter is feeling sad today, suffering a very real sence of loss. I felt like posting this collection of Mandy photos this morning so I can see her smile.


Right now, Atlanta feels sooooo far away. Your mom loves you Mandy.



*** Coy ***






Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Big Brown Retires ...

Photo from ESPN

Racing fans everywhere watched last week hoping that Big Brown would win the Belmont Stakes and become the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years. Much to everyone's disappointment, he finished dead last.

Boston's, Suffolk Downs was certainly hoping for him to win -->
"Suffolk Downs is offering a $5 million purse for the Massachusetts Handicap if Big Brown wins the Triple Crown and both he and Curlin go undefeated and start in the race against each other."

With a dazzling 7 wins in 8 starts, it will likely be that one loss that defines this horses career. Now that he has torn off 3 inches of flesh from his right foot in a workout at Aquaduct on Monday and the injury is expected to take months to heal, the decision to retire him has been made.

Having Big Brown taken out of the line up will take a little of the excitement out of this years final races, but by the end of the year he should be healed and will be off to begin his stud career.


Better luck with that Big Brown.






Tuesday, October 14, 2008



Ok so it's not a whole week, but it is 5 days. It has been soooooo long since I've had a few days off, 5 days seems like an eternity.

I didn't make any formal vacation plans but Wednesday , October 22 through Sunday, October 26 I am going to just take some time to myself and plan to spend a little time with my friend David.

That Friday and Saturday happens to be the Breeders Cup weekend. David is a big fan of Thoroughbred racing and the Breeders Cup is a horses ultimate shot at the big time, it's what everything else has lead up to throughout the year.

With 23 million dollars in total purse for the event, 5 million for the Breeders Cup Classic race alone ...it doesn't get any bigger than that.

I just realized this morning that Saturday will also be Moon Fest <-- on Clematis Street <-- a huge street party in West Palm with Live Bands, a haunted house, street performers, circus acts and adult costume contests and fashion shows.

This happens to be one of my favorite events of the year. I just called David and told him to eat his Wheaties that weekend because we will be watching the big race at the track via simulcast by day and taking part in the moon Fest street party by night, I can't wait.

Now, to figure what kind of costumes we will wear ... thinking back (photos above) on some of the ones from a face painting convention I attended a few years ago. I'll need dust off the face paints and get the old creative juices flowing.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Ahhh ... so nice to see some of my old friends and neighbors already.
*** Coy ***

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Dancing in the rain at blogger

Well ... one click and all of my Rain entries were moved from AOL to Blogger. Not as sad for me as it would have been a couple of years ago, there was a time when my journal and all of my friends at AOL were really important to me. When AOL added the advertisements to journals and everyone scatttered in different directions that importance just wasn't the same.
I have not been journaling much lately (do I have to call it blogging here at blogger?) but who knows, a new location might just kick start some of the old creative juices. I tried moving to blogger when everyone else did and the task seemed much to labor involved, today it was simple, I just clicked on the link AOL provided in an e mail and here I am.
One thing did make me a little sad ... Rain has always been photo journal, without the photo there was no entry and today when I moved to Blogger I realized that the only photos that are still available on the entries I have posted over the years are the recent ones I posted when AOL made it easier to upload. Prior to that I was using Photo Site, they have closed down and I did not move my photos. I wonder if it's to late to do that now?
It looks like the features here at blogger are going to be easy to use, I'll have to come back here soon to figure out how to post photos and maybe I'll feel like journaling again.
*** Coy ***

Sunday, February 10, 2008

For sale: baby shoes, never worn ...

 above is Ernest Hemmingways six word story.

     Not quite what I was expecting, a collection of six-word memoirs. Smith Magazine asked it's
online readers to write the story of their life in a six word sentence and ended up with this delightful book.
 
 
     If I were asked to write the story of my life in just six words, I would either write:
     "I shouldn't have married a Coonass."
       or...
      "I'm still dancing in the rain."
 
     Believe me when I say, the first story started 26 years ago and is closely related to the second one.
   
    What would your six word story be?
                            
                                                               
 

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Koosh

     I went to Atlanta for a few days to visit my daughter ... it was fun catching up.

My favorite photo was of Koosh, Mandy's kitty. Awwww ...

                                               *** Coy ***