Do crooked pointy hats count?

Way down at the bottom of this post are the pieces I sent off to Somerset yesterday. It was a grueling day as when I woke up I was thinking I wouldn't send anything in at all as I just wasn't happy with the main piece and had my tax stuff to finish figuring out and had packages that had to be mailed so it took every ounce of focus to get through it all and not give into the panic of the tax situation itself. Your comments on the previous post convinced me to give it a whirl and finish the other pieces I had ready to work on - so thank you for the kick in the pants! It will be many months 'til we know if they made the mustard.

So, just so you get the full affect of ME. I am a big fat worry wart. Have you figured this out? I have a sense of humor and I'm not a sad or negative person. I have perfected ways of worrying (more than the word was ever intended to include after years of practice since I came out of the womb anxious) with a happy comical look-at-how-rotten-things-are-or-might-get-isn't-it-funny air about me. One of my biggest talents is worry. I can worry better than anyone. Well, I'm the third generation on my mother's side of severely worried women and my husband says I am better than they were and could win any worry contest hands down. I couldn't inherit their cooking skills, could I? So, yes, the tax surprise worries me. Our savings took a big hit from the writer's strike last year and then the thousands spent on the move. We were just getting smoothed out where I thought it looked like we were going to get back up where we are supposed to be and then BAM, taxes took the big hunk that they did. So, because of my superhero worry ability, surprises like that put me into hyperworry mode so that I can no longer just worry about the tax bill, now I have to predict what next big problem will get in the way. I went to bed the other night, after first hearing about our taxes, wondering "our son will be 18 next year, what will happen then, and what about health insurance, will he still be covered by our health insurance, and if being a student helps with those things, what if he can't get into school and what if he doesn't want to go, and when will he start getting out of bed on his own in the morning without me yelling at him 50 times in 10 minutes, and what if he always sleeps late in the morning and loses every job he ever gets, and then loses his wife and family, wait, will anyone marry him if he doesn't go to school and has no health insurance and can't get out of bed, and . . ." I seriously could go on and on. And why am I still here and happy and not locked up in a padded room or highly medicated? Because I have a husband. I have a husband that says "It's gonna be okay. I will make sure everything will be okay. It's only money and I can always make more of that. Our kids will be fine. It's okay." And as he looks in my eyes and kisses me I know he's also saying, "Don't even think about getting a job. I want you to do what you're doing." And then I am okay and know he's right and know we've always survived all we've been up against and I sigh with a split second of "all is right with the world" . . . . until I start thinking "What if something happens to him?" Now if you don't think my husband is a saint, I don't know what qualifies.

A big happy bright spot today . . . Go check out Alice in Paris Loves Art and Tea (already linked for you). I am featured on her blog as a part of her ongoing Artist Rainbow interview series. I have been a huge fan of Shelagh's (Alice's real name) paintings and photographs for a long time and I cannot tell you what an honor it is to be included in her series. She is such a talented writer as well as an extremely talented artist. I am pinching myself! It is the first time I've been truly written about in a bio kind of way (and by another artist, such a compliment) and it makes me feel like I might really be an artist, cuz, as you know, I'm not always sure (especially when mean people in flickr give me a bad time about my POINTY HATS!). Shelagh, thank you, thank you!

There are rumors and some evidence shared that I have been published in the May/June Somerset. I haven't gotten mine yet. When I do and see it myself, I will do the happy dance. Thanks for the nice notes about it though! I won't get overly obnoxious about it 'til I have it my hot little hands.

Instead of writing a separate description for each piece below, here is the information how these were made. The top three are 3 1/2 x 5 pieces and the one at the bottom, which you've already seen but without the mat, is 5 x 7. These collages were made using black and white images from the public domain. The images were manipulated digitally for contrast and brightness and some focus, and the faces were enlarged separately. The hats were found in a catalog and scanned, also manipulated for contrast and printed in black in white. After printing the images, they were trimmed and hand-colored using a variety of ink markers and powder pastels and then arranged, heads and hats attached to bodies, and all attached to papers from 7 Gypsies, Graphic 45, and Paper Pizazz.

Sarah



Jack



Sadey



Good Little Witches



Here are the images a bit closer up