Empty Cavity

I'll call this grief art. Not grunge, grief.

My beginnings of a self-portrait art doll.
Here I am building the armature, the structural
framework for what will come next.

My posture is contemplative. I am staring down
into an empty cavity.

Where is my heart?
It looks like a black blob.
This is how I feel. Empty, hollow.

This armature will be covered with
paper mache in the coming days.

Hopefully my head will stay in place.

I really like the eerieness of the armature at
this stage with the shadows that the light has
cast, as though I have multiple arms and my
body like that of an xray. I can see through
myself, not for long.

"There are as many nights as days, and one
is just as long as the other in a years course.
A happy life cannot be without a measure of
darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose it's
meaning if not balanced by 'sadness'. -Carl Jung

Looking for balance and harmony.

Thank you for your visits and kind words.
~ Andrea

My other blog "The Way I See It"

Identity Crisis

9 x 12 140# cold press watercolor paper
collage fodder a.k.a. stuff papers, old and new
foam stamps, Caran d'ache water soluble
crayons,

Aren't long vacations supposed to help revive a person?

For the past couple of weeks I feel like I'm chasing
my fish tail, that's right my fish tale.

Long story short...
Swimming upstream, a single wing damselfly in distress,
an incomplete metamorphosis, toting a single hawk
wing. All dressed up an no place to go.

But wait, I do have an asparagus crown. Does this count for
something?

Our vacation was wonderful, a single flight to
the great city of New York where we picked up our
rented vehicle and traveled to places far and near,
visiting new haunts and old, with family and friends
some old acquaintenances and some new.

Gerard and I had the wonderful opportunity to meet
another blog friend John Mora of Typos.Daylight.Fate
it was a fragment in time at Fire Island National Seashore
with his lovely wife Marie and 3 beautiful children.
A moment we'll treasure.

We travelled through the Pennyslvania Dutch Country,
eyeing beautiful lush green pastures, fields of corn,
red covered bridges, picking up roadside produce from
our sweet Amish and Mennonite friends who work
tirelessly tilling soil and managing livestock and farms.
Hardworking, beautiful people.

Trekking down to Gettysburg, PA
to pay respect to those who fought valiantly for a country
divided, hallowed grounds- now common.

Onward toward to our great capital city Washington, D.C.
to spend time with my sister, brother-in-law and
my new twin nieces.

Next stop Virginia Beach, and Cape Hatteras on
the North Carolina's spectacular OuterBanks.
Breaking shore, dipping sun, warm ocean breeze,
breathtaking, refreshing, mind cleansing.

Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk where the Wright Bros.
took to their first flight.
Magnificent.

Further trekking now heading west through
North Carolina in search of the Great Smoky and
and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I believed I had seen green trees before but never,
NEVER have I ever seen so many beautiful varieties
of trees in one location. Deciduous,
Coniferous, Evergreen all there, canopies that
go on forever, enchanted forests, lakes and mountains.

Final stretch and our destination for departure
Nashville, TN home of the Grand Ole Opry and...
believe it or not... an exact replica of the Parthenon
as it was in ancient Greece, right in the middle of
downtown Nashville.

I know now why I'm still gathering my wits. It
was a great joy ride, and now it's back in the saddle.
I just need to find it.

Soon, yeah soon... I'll be posting pics of our trip
at my other blog locale "The Way I See It".

Peace and Love.. ain't it good to be back home again.
~Andrea