In Loving Memory

Three years ago today, my brother Larry passed away after an 18 year battle with AIDS. The pain of losing a loved one to this devastating disease is painful beyond belief. But actually watching someone you love waste away from this disease is a pain that is too difficult to put into words. It isn't a quick death; it is a long drawn out death that kills little by little as vital organs in the body stop functioning.



Right before Larry died, he asked me to do him a huge favor. He asked that I do everything that I can to educate people about HIV/AIDS and help find a cure for this disease. So much of our research dollars go to Heart Disease and Cancer research (and rightly deserved). However, here are some heart wrenching HIV/AIDS statistics:



The correct provisional global estimates for 2007 are:


Number of children living with HIV in 2007: 2.1 million [1.9-2.4 million];
Number of children who died of AIDS in 2007: 290,000 [270 000-320 000].



Number of people living with HIV/AIDS in 2006
Total: 39.5 million
Adults: 37.2 million
Women: 17.7 million
Children under 15: 2.3 million


Misc. facts and figures:


Number of AIDS Deaths in 2006: 2.9 million. (2.6 million adults and 380,000 children under 15)
Number of Orphaned Children by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa at the End of 2003: 12 million


By December 2003 women accounted for nearly 50 percent of all people living with HIV worldwide, and for 57 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa.



Young people (15-24 years old) account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide; more than 6000 become infected with HIV every day.



An estimated 5 million people in low income countries do not have the AIDS drugs which could save their lives.



There you have it, and it is sobering. I have many friends who have siblings that have passed from this disease. There are people in our ART groups who have family and friends that have passed from this.



So today, on the anniversary of Larry's death, I am asking you to please open up your hearts and give a donation to San Francisco AIDS Foundation http://www.sfaf.org/donate or to amFAR http://www.amfar.org/cgi-bin/iowa/index.html

It can be a $5 dollar donation if that's all you can do. But please...give. And feel free to give the link to my blog to your family and friends. The message needs to get out.


Rest in peace, dear brother. I miss you...

Just You and Me...

I finished the flip side of Abby's Alphabetica tip-in page. This is on the back side of Isn't Life Strange? that was posted a few days ago. It was kind of tough coming up with a song that began with J. I chose Just You and Me by Chicago.

Isn't Life Strange???

This piece is for Abby in my Alphabetica group. I have to do her letters "I" and "J". Abby's theme is music of any genre. So, I did Isn'tLife Strange by the Moody Blues.

Finally...pictures of the new home!

I'll admit, I should have done this a while back, but I was just too busy! So after much prodding and poking, I went outside this morning with my camera and took some pictures. Here is the front of the house...

This is the view from my backyard deck. I live in a rural area of CT, but then again, CT is very rural outside of it's cities. I have my very own woods complete with wild turkey, opossum, owls, field mice and a crap load of deer. Unfortunately, with the deer come the ticks and Lyme disease. Can NEVER be too careful out there!

My squirrel resistant bird feeder and it really does work! I get goldfinch, cardinals, chickadees, robins and a whole bunch of others that I haven't identified yet.
Tah-dah!!! My illustrious studio! My own little corner of Nirvana. It ain't much but it's better than what I used to have...a place in the garage! I'm moving up in the world! (Actually moving down in the world since this is in my basement!)
And this is sandee organized! Take a really good look at it because it probably won't look this way in a week!
The studio is larger than this but the other half isn't finished yet and the lighting there is very poor, or more realistically speaking, there isn't any lighting! Soon...........

Gothic Arch Tip-in

I'm in a Gothic Arch tip-in in one of my yahoo groups. These arches are for Cindy; her theme is RED and ? and Artist's Choice. How fun is that!!! These are the 1st 2 pages to come out of my new STUDIO!!!!! OK...so the studio is in the basement and doesn't have a window, but it's a real studio and it's MY SPACE!!! No reason for the sons or husband to go in there. Finally, a place to call my very own.

For Sweet Peggy

I had so much fun working in peggy's RR journal. Her journal began as a photo album with preprinted flowers and photo cut outs. It was a challenge to see what would work. I really liked the way the pages turned out; I hope she likes them too!!!

We'll Always Have Paris...

I'm in a Tip-in Round Robin in one of my Yahoo groups. These pages are for Michelle. Her theme is La Vie est Belle which is Life is Beautiful. She wanted sepia tones and a color of our choice.I sure hope she likes these!!!

Thinking GREEN!!!

I'm having a run on Green today! I don't know if it's because I was loving the color or because I was too lazy to get up and get something else to work with!!! Either way, I'm happy with my art today! This 3-2-1 (3x3, 2x2, 1x1 inch pieces) are for my buddy peggy, who I REALLY, REALLY MISS!!! Can you guess what the theme is?!?

Junkalicious!!!

I can see daylight again! Gary and I spent a good part of the weekend trying to really get through the bulk (MOUNTAIN!!!) of the moving boxes. He found most of my art supplies that were packed up for the past 4 months. It was like going shopping all over again!!!

I had to make a Diva Dictionary page for my Altered Divas Yahoo Group. (I wish I had more time to participate in that group; the women are all wonderful.) We had to make up a word and do a 5x7 art piece depicting the word
My word is JUNKALICIOUS...these pages were made with the crap...er, I mean junk, that was sitting in bags in the basement. You know, the stuff you don't know what to do with but hate to throw away??? I used all sorts of junk...old text, a napkin, discarded painted watercolor paper, glittery vellum, green foil wrapped around a slide cover, postage stamps, stamped images that I have NO IDEA where they came from, and puka beads from an old broken necklace. I was living a JUNKALICIOUS moment!!!

Arte y Pico Award

I feel so honored to be given the Arte Y Pico award by Gayle Page-Robak. After the past couple of weeks of moving, unpacking, schlepping kids, all I can say is THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!

From what I gather the origin of this award is a lady named Eseya from Uruguay, South America, and the title is something like "Art and a little of other things too". This is Eseya's site which is supposed to be posted each time the award is given by the person receiving it.
The idea is that you then pick five blogs that you believe deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and contribution to the blogging community. List the names of the people you chose to receive the award on your blog and link to their blogs. Then let your award winners know by posting a comment on their blog.
Each award winner is to show the award and put the name of the person who gave them the award with a link to her/his blog. You also need to show the link to the Arte Y Pico blog to honor the origin of this award.There are so many blogs and blog owners that I appreciate and admire. Not only for all of the art they share but, also, the wonderful techniques they share. It is hard to pick five but here are the ones I have chosen:

Barb Burkard

Caryl Hoobler

peggy gatto

Martha Brown

Julie Molina

Hats and Crowns Mingle

Now that I'm somewhat unpacked, I have more time to art! What a joy to be able to sit down in my kitchen (my studio is nowhere near finished!) look out into the woods and reflect on things. These 2 atcs are for a Hats and Crowns Mingle in my Altered Designs Yahoo Group. The images are from Lisa'a Altered Art.

Edgar Allan Poe

These two arches are for Donna in my Altered Art Swap Yahoo group. Her theme is Edgar Allan Poe...one of my favorite authors since middle school. I chose The Raven because I loved it when I read it the very first time. I know it's a favorite among many, and I probably should have picked a more difficult writing of his. But I just had to stay with what I loved the most. ENJOY!

FINALLY! Time for art!!!

Unpacking is a full time job after a major move across the country. I started getting really upset because it didn't allow me ANY TIME to do what I love to do~create art. The beauty of Round Robins and Tip-Ins is that there are time constraints. I know that sometimes those constraints are a hassle. But for me, at least for today, they were a blessing. It made me sit down and focus on nothing else but these journal pages for Debby's Alphabetica book!

I had enough of the moving boxes!!!

I just couldn't unpack today! I sat my butt down and made art. To hell with boxes and packaging paper. This puppy had to have some down time!
A triptych for a mingle on Altered Designs.

These are skinny "Spring" mingle pieces.

I received three GORGEOUS pieces of art in the mail today! Let's see...I opened a gorgeous fabric page from a RR I'm in; a triptych and my 1-2-3 Mingle from my wonderful friend Tamara. It was such a happy mail day.

Images are compliments of Lisa's Altered Art.

I'm REALLY Home!

As of this moment, I am sitting in MY house...in MY reading room...in MY favorite chair. We spent three months in the rental which was OK. The location was gorgeous, being on a lake by an American Eagle nesting ground. But it wasn't with my things. Or my husband's things. Or my children's things.

Hopefully by the end of this week, I'll have new art posted. I missed my arting this week. So glad the tough part is over! My husband was so sweet and put all my art stuff together so it'll be easy for me to find my things. He's so good to me. And supportive of my art. I really love him...

This is Gary and me FREEZING in Vermont last summer. He's my hippie dude!

Blushing Bride

I finished my "B" adjective page for the Alphabetica RR. I really like the way it came out. The hard part was coming up with the "B" adjectives!!!

A Season of Eggs!

With Easter over and Passover on the way, I can't seem to get EGGS out of my mind. Maybe making egg art will help!

Alphabetica

E is for Evergreen and F is for French Blue. These are pages that I made for an Alphabetica Tip-in Round Robin. I LOVED making these pages!!!

Edgar Allan Poe

I'm participating in a "Dark" themed round robin. Karen's journal is great! She is asking that we do pages on all the dark people who were alive before the 1930's. I chose Edgar Allan Poe. I remember reading The Raven in middle school and I just loved it.
The pages are sewn together and there is tulle covering the front and most of the back; it's not your eyes or the quality of the scan!

A is for ARTSY!

I'm participating in an ALPHABETICA tip-in and my theme is ADJECTIVES. We have to make our own A & B pages. I started my page awhile back, but so many things were going on here, that I forgot all about it! And then I couldn't find the darn thing! I think my luck with this tip-in is not so good; the C & D page that was made for me and mailed never made it to my house. The poor person has to make it again! I've had that happen to me before and it is not fun. I feel terrible.

I have to finish my B page and I plan on doing that by tomorrow. I have the background finished but I'm not too sure about the "B" adjective I want to use. I was thinking about bold or bright. Any suggestions would be welcomed and you can leave them in my comments!

My Artful Hands

This is the theme to my friend Barb's Tip-in journal. I loved working these two pages for her; Barb loves the neutrals just like I do. I hope she likes these!

Gothic Arch Tip-in

I'm in a tip-in Gothic Arch collaborative project. These pages are for Carol whose theme is Carousel. What a challenge this was for me!!!!! I sure hope she likes them!

Gothic Arch~Celtic

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The theme for the Gothic Arch Challenge is Celtic. The images are from Lisa's Altered Art. Enjoy!!!

1-2-3 Mingle

I hosted a 1-2-3 Mingle in Altered Art Swap. These are the pieces I made for my recipient. Hope she likes them!

4x4 Friday

The theme this week is Fairies. The image can be found at Lisa's Altered Art.

A very late Gothic Arch!

The theme for this week is Transitions. Mine is very late, but better than never!!!

4x4 Friday

The theme this week is Pets. There's something about this dog that I just love!!!

Lisa Vollrath Freebies

http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/

I believe this is a 30 day freebie countown to Easter. Make sure you check it out!

Journal Pages for Jen!!!

I'm in a wonderful Round Robin with some terrific artists! The theme of Jen's journal is Songs From My Childhood. I had to really think on this one. I do remember my gramma and I singing "Sing a Song of Sixpence" in her Brooklyn highrise appartment. I must have been very young, between the age of 3-5. We would sit on the recliner by the window and I would sit on her lap. What a wonderful time I had with that song...what a fond memory...

Had a little down time this morning...

For the Monday Image Challenge at Altered Designs.
For the TGIF ATC Mingle. The theme this week is Stamped Background.

Who doesn't love a freebie???

Here is a site for freebies...fun, fun St. Patrick's Day images:

Artist How-to Countdown

Have fun with them!

Two New Arches

I'm a designteam member for Altered Pages and I made these pieces today using Jackie's collage sheets. What a peaceful way to spend the morning...

Gothic Arch

The theme this week is TRASH. What a great theme this is!!! I have so many recyclables in my house...this was a breeze! The arch itself is made from a cereal box. The checkered paper is a bag from a gift shop. The inked paper is the wrapping from Scott toilet tissue. I also use an old cigar label, an old button and some gold wiry, springy stuff that I have no idea where it came from! The wording is from an old coat claim check (even though it says it's not!)~

Theme Thursday

Letters of the Alphabet is the theme for Theme Thursday this week. This is my rendition!