Fun with Conspiracies

I remember growing up in the late 70's and early 80's, legend was Kennedy was not killed by a "lone gunman" and Lee Harvey Oswald was definitly framed. The more documentaries I saw, the more I was convinced as well, but who did kill JFK? Popular concensus was our own government (which I am also leaning toward), but what do you do? Many adults said they were going to stay alive long enough to read the classified info on the case once it was declassified (50 years). The suspicous thing was that once the time came for the docs to be declassified, there was a mysterious fire and the documents were gone....y-eah, sure.

So what do we do when we feel we have been taken for a ride by a government concocted BS story? We make a game out of it! I recently acquired Adobe Photoshop and need to learn how to use it. I thought it would be fun to experiment with some Clue game cards and make a Clue "Who killed JFK" game. I have worked on a few cards...what do you think? These aren't the killers, they are the possible conspirators (except poor Oswald), after all, anyone who wanted JFK dead was too important to do the job themselves, right?

Self-generated assignment...unconventional art, myself as the medium

In two weeks I will be 38 years old. I have always used my body as an outlet for my creativity. I do not have tattoos( I have too short an attention span for art and get tired of things quickly, tattoos are too permanent) but I use my makeup and hair as an excuse to express myself artistically. This is not a new concept that I am expressing, but I have realized a way that I have used my skills as an artist to sculpt my body. When I hit 20, my body was in bad shape, I put on 20+ pounds and my metabolism had slowed tremendously. I had four kids after that and my energy level went downhill, along with my self esteem. I decided when I hit my mid 30's to do something about it - it was now or never! I began to run and bike, not much happened, I lost a little weight and felt a little better, but I thought I could do more. I realized that as an artist, I could shape my body ANYWAY I wanted to! So, I did and I am continuing to. It is a slow process compared to sculpting clay, but the rewards are well worth the patience.

Using weights and varying the repetitions and heaviness of the weight, I have been able to cut my size of my legs, bulk my shoulders, cut and shape my arms (which was my worst feature), and slim my waist and hips. I have literally made myself the sculpture. I have posted pictures above, one of me two years ago at a size 11, and one of me now in a size 3!

Assignment #10...Collecting

I was looking over the list of blog assignments to see what I would take on this week, what would be relevant to my life that I could express passionately. Let's face it, no one wants to read or even view a blog that is dry, and impersonal, right? The one assignment that jumped out at me was "Collecting". Unfortunately I will not be including art so I will attempt to create a visual image through my witty use of metaphors and colorful language.

After getting over my anxiety of realizing that I hold on to everything and should be nominated for a reality TV show, I realized that I do indeed have a beautiful collection, one that I was unaware I was collecting. As a mother, I collect the obvious photos and artwork from my kids over the years, and I looked at it in that very way...obvious mother's collection. When I began going through the handmade cards and letters I stashed in my top drawer of my dresser, however I saw an evolution of my children formed on paper.

I watched the crayon drawn pictures and scribbles turn into letters of appreciation and requests for motherly guidance from my kids. My creations were making creations for me, and here is a record of their maturing and growing. This of course led to me going through the umteenmillion photos I have, both in paper (waiting to be scanned) and on my hard drive. I became teary-eyed at the soundless 11 sec. clips that we saved from our 1st digital camera back in the mid-nineties. My precious collection I had been overlooking and taking for granted was being dusted off and pulled out of the dark recesses of my cluttered life into the light of my awareness through an assignment. Yes I have a collection, and now I will begin to make it intentional, after I get over my procrastination and deal with thinning the clutter of my life and home, I will find a way to preserve and showcase this treasure.