Desert Shadow Box

This piece has an interesting feel to it, deserty, dry, warm, lonely. It's made from a cigar box. I found some interesting shaped boxes up at the smoke shop on 12th. This is a racoon skull. I've found more than one on my beachwalks. I've found other skulls too, and am facinated by the cranial bones, the sutures, the eye sockets. What's beneath the surface facinates me.

Being Present

This shadow boxed is filled with jaw bones of small animals, and stones and tube worm casings and marbles found on the beach. The beach is a lovely place to find objects. I often come across bits of ceramic bowls and cups and even old dinner ware. I've found flow blue and roseville. I've found tiny bottles and glass stoppers. On the beach there are agates--you have to look hard at first, but then after awhile, they seem to appear without trying. I think this is like life--if you look too hard, you don't see. It's that soft focus that lets everything in--sort of a Buddhist meditation practice of sorts. Letting life in without resisting. Recently I read in a meditation book that nothing can stick--it just keeps going through--because we are energy. Interesting to think about. As an artist, it is the resistance that blocks the work. So letting go is the best--letting things come in--be like a window.

Number 23

This was the first shadow box I made. It includes a jaw bone from a small animal, a small bird's egg shell, buttons, ceramic bits from Italy, a birds wind, a key, a marble, and beads. This shadow box has significance for me, being that 23 adds up to 5--which is my birth number--if you've ever ventured into numerology, you'll see that numbers have meaning. This means that I'm to be a teacher--oddly enough--I am a teacher. The goddess is a symbol of my need for self expression as a female. I've been wounded around my femininity, as have so many other women. Supporting myself with loving kindness is the answer to rebuilding inner strength and a belief in oneself. Also doing art is a healing process, so I always allow myself the freedom to create.

Bones From the Beach

This is a collection of jaw bones, a tube worm shell, and some rocks and marbles. They are beach items I collected and kept on a window ledge at my waterfront home. Recently, my husband of twenty years and I split. To keep my collections, I decided on making shadow boxes. Then the beach glass, the bits of ceramics, the bones and special rocks could have a place on my walls, rather than leave them behind.