this and that

I thought I'd update you on the postcard art benefit I did for Silvermine Guild, which you can reread here. The first two postcards shown on that link were sold, but six others were returned to me, and have found a place in my home! I joined the four parter into the frame above, which is clear glass sandwiched around the work, and shows the wall color behind.

The other two that remained I framed separately,

and I've grouped the with this collection, including a Nick Bantock,

and friend fab artist Gloria Santoyo Ruenitz

NOW...

I've got some sharing to do, for my fellow bloggers!

Many of you are familiar with Seth Apter's The Altered Page ,

but do you know about his Pulse Artist Survey Magazine?

From Seth:

The Pulse is coming. And it is beating loud and clear. So far over 175 artists have signed on to participate in the next edition of The Pulse, a survey in words and pictures of "the state of the art" of the online artist community. And it is not too late for you to join. If you are interested in being part of this project, email me and I will forward all of the information you need. Please contact me soon, as sign up for this project will end on November 30.

Well he is working on a new issue, and you can read all bout it here, and maybe you'd like to join in and share some of your artist's secrets, favorites, and indulgences!! It's quite a project, and reflects Seth's passions and commitment to art and all in blogland!

Parts of the shared discoveries will begin being revealed on

November 22, the first Secret Sundays...

"a series of weekly posts that offer a window

into the secrets of the participating artists"

Meanwhile, Laura Hegfield is Calling All Angels to join her in a Thanksgiving project of gratitude. If you'd like to share all that you are grateful for, stop on by her blog, Shine the Divine, to find out more, and open your grateful heart!

and I have been gifted with an award from Susan, over at Weaving A life, with a little award. Since things are a bit hectic over here and I haven't made some new art, I'll take advantage of this award, though I usually don't respond to them formally. Thank you Susan!!

I'm supposed to list seven things you don't know about me, which I am struggling to do - what kinda stuff should I share? would you want to know that I haven't put out there already?!

1~ I have worn glasses since I was in fourth grade. At night I liked to read and I'd fall asleep with those little John Lennon like frames on. When I woke up and got ready for school I couldn't find them anywhere. I cried and refused to go to school without my glasses. Finally they were found, deep and buried in my bed! I've remained very attached to my glasses and clear vision.

2~ I lost all my hair in 1999, or so, after 10 years of alopecia areata. So if I do need chemo, at least I won't go through that trauma, it's done and over with.

3~ As cliché as it is, I met my husband (who I just celebrated my 20th wedding anniversary with last Wednesday) at a bar above a restaurant I was eating at with a visiting friend. We'd gone upstairs after dinner for a drink and dancing (that's another subject) and he came over and talked to us - I thought his interest was with my friend - the master flirter, and I kind of sat back. Until she got bored and left us, because he obviously wasn't interested in her! I didn't believe anything he told me that night - that his name was John County, I'm like, yeah sure, and I'm Karin City, and that's Anne Township... to his saying he was practicing plastic surgery. That got the biggest laugh. Turned out it was all true, he was a surgical resident and was rotating through plastics that month. (He later left surgery and was certified in Pediatrics and Allergy/Immunology.)

3~ Dancing - I don't do it. When my parents wouldn't let me pursue water ballet, which I showed great potential for (heh) at the age of 6 (they had even been approached by a coach), they instead made me take regular ballet. I hated it - the dress up girly stuff was SO not me, and I swore that I would never dance again. Well, that "sacred contract" held hard and fast, because dancing was never something I enjoyed or did with free abandon. Anything in the water was another story! Years later I did learn to move again, during my dabbling with...

4~... a year of training to become an Expressive Arts Therapist. After a year I knew I couldn't work through art with an agenda though. It's a wonderful form of therapy, but I do art and learn through it without expectation - I don't use art as a tool for healing, art simply heals me. Trying to reverse the order, and go into it hoping to heal from what ever modality we engaged, took the magic out of it for me, so I know there were better people for practicing and mastering that approach.

5~ I also did two out of the three year training program in Medical Intuition offered by Caroline Myss and Norman Shealy, MD, at the Institute for the Science of Medical Intuition. Again, I realized this was not the path for me as a career, but I loved everything I learned and experienced in my own personal evolution.

6~ I helped create my kitchen with an eco friendly approach.

Our walls are covered with recycled brown craft paper, which I treated to create a stone like leathery appearance (We also used bamboo flooring, which you can see),

and we have concrete counters that I made a design pattern for, using contrasting concrete colored blocks and bands of aluminum.

7~ I have a fabulous friend, artist, teacher, inspiration visiting me here right now, timed perfectly for helping me transition through the door of cancer patient. Donna Iona Drozda from Drozda's Art Life has been a friend for twenty some years and couldn't be a better boost to my spirit! We've been laughing a whole lot :)