The Chosen One

This page developed from one of Juliana Coles's exercises. The assignment was to imagine yourself as "the chosen one." I had with me, by coincidence, the photocopy of my kindergarten picture. I imagined my "temple" as a simple house with rooms to celebrate each of the epiphanies of my life, times when I truly felt special, chosen, touched by something divine and greater than myself: shopping for an Easter dress with my grandmother when I was 5, "altering" my first book at age 7 and being told for the first time about artists like Marcel Duchamp, spending a rainy Saturday with my Aunt Helen when I was 12, setting off on a cross-country journey when I was 20, and falling in love with my dear, sweet Damon when I was 43. I haven't yet translated this piece into a finished work, but I want to, so I will. Like it says on the page, "I am aware of my power."

Strange Geography

This is the cover of my "junk" journal, the composition book I carry around in my journal bag. I use it to capture things quickly, not really a place for fully developed art, but for first drafts, ideas, and experiments. I had it with me at ArtFest 2005 when I took Extreme Journaling with Juliana Coles.

I make art.

I made this art for a local art show. It took second place overall in mixed media and sold. I don't lnow who bought it. That makes me a little crazy sometimes, because I want to talk to them and find out what made them like enough to buy it.

The piece is made from plumber's tape and slug tape over foam core, hand tooled with embossed patterns, words and such, then finished with a patina of india ink.

Sometimes my best ATCs happen when I'm just goofing off. For this one, I tore some strips of scrap from a magazine ad for the background and added a couple of simple elements and hand-written text. It reads: "When we have nothing else, hope can give us wings."