Art Give Away - Thankful Photography

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! pickin' red rasberries by marisol diaz

So lets try a Thanksgiving Art giveaway! Leave a comment with what you're thankful for and be in the running to win an 8X10 photographic print of this Pickin Red Rasberries image! Remember be creative - we may find that we're all thankful for family - so what will set your winning comment apart? I'm thankful for vibrant LIFE in all of its forms...my truly extraordinary relationship with my husband, my three four-legged children and their bright eyes, my parents, my hands, my art, my bed, my house, my niece and nephew and every thriving member of my family...especially those that have mastered the art of laughter and joy - life is too short for sour grapes! What Are You Thankful for?

Update on Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 11:34AM by Amarettogirl

WINNER ANNOUNCED!

I received such thoughtful, introspections for the Art Giveaway - I was truly moved. It was so hard to choose that I chose a winner AND a runner up! So I will be sending two copies of this signed photographic print out to the winners (one 8x10 and the other 5x7). In first place is Ogun with his thankful comment about waking up to life. I have read Eckhart Tolle as well, and recognize the power of this kind of spiritual journey and the difficulty of dissecting the ego. The runner up is Sharon whose thankful comment recognized the generations that paved the way for our paths and gifts heralded to us in our very biological make-up that too often go unappreciated. Stainboy was in close running all along with his thankful comment, but seeing as he won the last art giveaway I chose to spread the wealth! Winners- please send me an email message (not a comment) with your mailing address in order to mail the digital prints to you and Congrats!

Tialey Vintage and Entrecard

As I am a new member of entrecard, I was spending some time learning the ropes and dropping 'virtual' business cards in 'virtual fish bowls' of other bloggers and sites for the past couple of days. I was hoping to find some genuine artful blogging, 'linky love' and some creative connections, when I came across the Tialey Vintage (pronounced: tea-alley) blog spot. Tialey is an independent company selling quality vintage, clothing, accessories and housewares worldwide. Now I have to say, I'm a huge Threadbanger fan and believe wholeheartedly in recycling, reconstructing and simply DIY clothing, but what if your're Edward Scissorhands and sewing is out of the question? You can still be progressive by re-thinking, reusing and thinking VINTAGE!!

Tialey' s Fit to a T - Turquoise and Black Body Hugging Spandex Vintage Mini Dress S

I was thrilled to see Tialey's banner tagline is 'The Future of Fashion is Recycling the Past'. So as it turns out, the wonderful Tialey folk (Cathleen) saw something worthy in me too, and gave me and my site some 'linky love' AND wrote a post about my etsy store!!! As it turns out Tialey has an etsy store too! -So I have featured some of their chic, retro pieces in this post.

Mod Pop Art Tialey's Flower Print Hawaiian Textiles Vintage 70s Barkcloth Dress S

"Our handpicked selection of items are primarily from the 1940s to the 1980s. It's not only a designer name that gets our attention. We look for good design, fun fabrics, vibrant color and things that will make you smile."

The way I see it, with all the production of clothing that we have in the world we can and should save a lot of time, money, energy and resources by re-using and recycling some pretty stylish clothes! Just look at this fantastic orange dress - I wish I was tall enough to pull it off!Tialey's Citrus Orange Vintage 1960s Miss Elliette Cocktail Social Maxi Dress S

Tialey also sells men's clothes! There stock is always changing, so check back often for new arrivals. Sign up for their newsletter to see a sneak peek of featured items and receive exclusive discounts.

Political Art and Obama Gana!

Well my fears have been put to rest, and my dream was realized, Barack Obama won!! With that said, I have chosen to resurrect some Obama art pieces that I made for the 52 Chelsea art exhibit in the month of September.

El Valiente (the Courageous One) direct illustration on Shrinky Dink by marisol diaz September '08

I made these illustrations as part of a contemporary Loteria card game set. I will soon be posting all of the remaining Dinks up individually for sale on my Etsy Shop.

El Cotorro (The Parrot) by marisol diaz Direct Illustration on Shrinky Dink Sept. '08

To see the process of how I make these Dinks check out this video:

For The Love of Blogging...

Well, I thought blogging would be just one of those things I could truly stick to in a disciplined fashion. As it turns out, there isn't much beside my four-legged children that I can stick with on a long-term basis- in fact my husband keeps shocking me with the number of years that we've been married (a whopping six and half years!) I'm just one of those people...easily distracted or perpetually overwhelmed by self-imposed deadlines. Hence my blogging has been sparse. In the end I have decided that it doesn't matter how many comments I get, or how frequent I post - but what matters is that I have something to say or an image to share that is of some worth to me.

Today is election day and the US world I live in is somehow going to miraculously change (or not) tomorrow. More young people have been active in ensuring everyone they know takes on their civic duty to vote. Facebook comments read with anxiety, hope and fear. As it has been so easy to get caught up in polarized political attitudes, a good friend and fellow artist Nick Guarracino a.k.a. Grumpyboy reminded me that we shouldn't romanticize or idolize any human, there is no such thing as a perfect or completely good or bad person - at the very least we will wake up tomorrow and finally be done with Bush. Thank you Nick.

Now I offer you my favorite pic of the week, Chica. In this shot she is thoroughly annoyed that I have awoken her from her nap on my desk just for a pic!

Baby Chica Sleeping on My Desk at Work

Now I must return to watching my favorite Rocky scene where Rocky slides down his apartment wall making out with Adrian for the first time! So hot!

Inspiring Artist - Sylvia Levenson

While I was taking the class at The Studio @ the Corning Museum of glass I got to visit the museum collection frequently. One of my favorite pieces (and there were many) was this piece by artist Sylvia Levenson.

It's Raining Knives by Sylvia Levenson

On of our class assignments was to seek out a piece from the glass collection to respond to via our own art work. As I get adjusted to moving out of NYC and deeper into the jaws of suburbia, and as I watch the continuing politics of fear immobilize people, I was deeply drawn to this sculpture. The title card also spoke volumes about our human exchange with fear.

For me, Sylvia's sculpture invokes the innocence of youth. The colorful houses and even the astro-turf are reminiscent of cloistered safety. The fact that she makes use of glass only adds to tenuous, fragile and volatile potential of the situation.

In my own work I am very drawn to the melancholy of loss, especially innocence lost. I had been feverishly illustrating a series of young girls in my sketchbook and was considering carefully composing them in a paper-doll fashion of sheets of glass. In addition I am very interested in stained glass, and really wanted to consider cutting my sheet glass into forms before I illustrated on them with the vitreous paint (this technique is explained in past post). I was inspired by the element of repetition as well. That is how my art pieces entitled Lost Girls was born.

detail of Lost Girls by marisol diaz

Lost Girls by marisol diaz

So with little time (for class was in its last three days) I cut sheet glass, painted and fired as many girls from my sketchbook and bunnies as I could. The scale is much smaller and less colorful than Levenson's work but the inspiration is there...in my way.
Lost Girls 2 detail by marisol diaz

A Puerto Rican Wedding and a June Bride

Despite the fact that I return to Puerto Rico yearly to be with my father, brothers and family, this summer's visit held an extra-delightful purpose...my brother Michael's wedding. Meet Sharon Ortiz...whose name I'm sure has something like 'de Diaz' as part of it now. I have been blessed to share with both Sharon and my brother as a couple for the past few years and have even had them vacation with me here in my home in the States. The greatest gift however is that Sharon is now my sister-in-law.

The wedding which was held at their church (Casa de Avivamiento), was absolutely beautiful flanked in one of my all time favorite colors orange! Their Pastor Javier Rodriguez was their officiant. He made a powerful sermon of their wedding vow exchanges, considering that both my brother Michael and his new bride Sharon are long standing, active parishoner's and are in the process of building their own branch of the church.

Unlike me or our other brother Chayanne, Michael has both 'been chosen' and has chosen to follow in the divine path of preaching. Where as I am more spiritual than religious, Michael has found an extraordinary community, purpose and goal in life through his church and their religion.

Sharon's dress was absolutely gorgeous! And Cheers! to whoever designed the format of the wedding decorations which were stunning with coordinated drapery, columns, flowers and table linens...designing that effectively requires great artistic vision!

The cake was delicious and also designed in such a sophisticated and elegant manner, complementing the decor flawlessly! It was truly a spectacular event...check out the flower girl my niece Chamirelis!

Here is our side of the family, My brother Chayanne (Chami's dad), my father, Sharon and Michael, my aunt (Micheal's mom), and me.

I have a lot more images but I will be posting them all on my new FLICKR site soon (in a few days).

My Husband (Gregg Emery) and I made our six year wedding anniversary just a week before Michael and Sharon's wedding and here is our toast to Sharon and Michael:

We wish this young couple the great happiness, deep friendship, and un-bounding love that we (Gregg and I) have found together. Marriage is a lot of work and it takes clear, constant and caring communication, those of us who survive it, know that the ease of wedded bliss comes only with trust, clarity, mutual support and shared dreams. You are beginning a new nucleus, a new unit, a new family... begin your own new traditions and share the growing pains together (there will be pains and of course great joys)- the reward is indescribably beautiful. Never take the companionship for granted, for life is mutating and changing constantly and in each other you seek a changing constant not a familiar presumption. Respect each other's minds as library resources, as well as mirror reflections. Discover life together the beautiful and the ugly - for it is these experience that will bond you both to each other...no object has that power.

Blog Things! Spice Quiz...

In my escapades through cyber-world I found these silly blog things that are quite fun to try. The weird thing is that I think the results that were yielded for my husband and I are quite TRUE! Click on
Blog Thing to try your hand at it and let me know how it goes!

I Am Ginger

Like ginger, you are a total shape shifter. You can be sweet, spicy, mellow, or overpowering. You are both soothing and unique. You are popular... yet you are often overlooked.

What Spice Are You?

My Hub is Garlic

Of all the spice types, you are the most universally loved. You get long with pretty much everyone, and you leave a lasting impression. You adapt yourself well to situations. You can fit in or stand out, depending on what you're called on to do.

What Spice Are You?

The Life of Pi Book Meme

One of my regular stops in the blogosphere is artist Beatriz Macia's blog Suitcase Contents. She is a Colombiana, living in Italy who is a phenomenal cook, artist and writer. I so enjoy reading about her adventures in cooking with her son called La Cucina de Nicola. But this week Beatriz introduced those of us who do not know, to what a meme is and she tagged me to do a book meme!!!

Now the rules of a book meme are as follows:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

So my favorite book for the past four years is the Life of Pi, which is always by my night-stand (along with a stack of other books). As a passionate animal lover this book played an intensely powerful role in my spiritual awakening. I have found the best way to surmise my spiritual feelings is that I see the face of God in animals and in nature. In fact, I feel dark when I kill insects unnecessarily and I have...but I digress. This book is about a young Indian boy, named Pi Patel who is a zoo owners' son and his journey through survival.

Here is the meme for my paperback copy since - depending on what copy of the book you have you will get different results.

"He was too far. But the sight of the lifebuoy flying his way gave him hope. He revived and started beating the water with vigorous, desperate strokes."

I found this amazing interactive (you can play with your keyboard) computer animated promo for the book at Hoss Gifford, Life of Pi Interactive Promo, that I HIGHLY recommend to my readers!!!

In addition, there are tons (not so good) Youtube video dramatizations and animations based on the book, but I rather enjoyed this one, (though the music gets a bit loud...) that I embedded here:

I also found this incredible image through my travels on the Blogosphere at a site called Worth1000 which to my understanding hosts Photoshop contests. If you click on the link you'll have to scroll down to see the Life of Pi image, that I'm writing about here, but you'll also see in on the top header. Thanks form a tip from fellow blogger Paisley, Worth 1000 doesn't like anyone to use their images without permission (even with credit and a link back- which as an artist I guess I understand). Which is why you don't see the image I am talking about here. The only info that I could find about the artist was the name melian1224. This image is amazing and is worth you clicking and looking for!! This is the artist's quote:

"After the sinking of a cargo ship, a single solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the surface of the wild, blue Pacific. The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, and orangutan, a zebra with a broken leg, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger, and Pi Patel, a young Indian boy. This is one of my favorite books, one which I just had to bring to life, I hope I have done it justice!"

I hope you guys have enjoyed this book meme! Stay tuned for my next post which is a Inspiring Artist post on artist Phil Young. I haven't done an Inspiring artist post in a while so I'm looking forward to it as I hope you all are too!! In addition I had some interest in the Giveaway idea so I may do the first one in June...so stay tuned!!!

Embroidery & Body Image Life Question

This is one of my sewing machine drawings that I thought was appropo to todays post.

I am also miss asking questions of my readers from The Book of Questions, so I thought I would ask another question today, please leave a comment with an answer and I may feature your response in an up and coming post!

Question # 169:How many times during the day do you look at yourself in the mirror?

I'm doing a senior selective/presentation (for students who are seniors) these days on historical perspectives of body image, the definition and the pursuit of aesthetic beauty. The presentation is entitled From the Hottentot Venus to Barbie: Historical look at Beauty and Body Image and I thought that this question suited the topic. I'm interested in people's responses, so please leave a comment!

Happy Mother's Day!

For all my readers that are Mom's or 'Moms to be' - Happy Mother's Day!!! Though my children are of the four-legged kind (dogs) I appreciate that special, beautiful and unique bond between mother and child. Surely I wouldn't be all that I am if not for my mother and my grandmother.

However, I want to send a shout out not only to biological mothers but mothers in which a child is born from the heart not the womb. When choosing to nurture, care and grow a deep bond for a child that was in need, you have committed an act of such great generosity, no words can fathom.
Check out Lilly, a black homeless dog. I was floored this sunday morning when watching Charles Osgood She is currently the mother of these ailing, hungry kittens.

And if that is not an amazing story enough for you see this AMAZING yet graphic video of a Leopard that goes upon its natural life - kills a baboon - but then discovers a day old baby in the baboons fur and instead of killing it (as she did the mother) she nurses the baby baboon!
So happy Mother's day!