I'm still in RETREAT mode ... and that's a good thing

I have had a handful of friends asking me ... "when are you going to blog about An Artful Journey?"  and ... "when can we see the pictures from An Artful Journey?" ... and "what did you think of An Artful Journey?" ...  I mean, really, I could hear Kelly drumming her fingertips next to her keyboard, just jonesing for my first words.  :-)  {thanks, Kelly - I'm glad you want to read what I thought of AAJ.}

Well, to be honest, I've been hoarding the experience ... the memories, the newfound friendships, the sights and scents and sounds, The Presentation Center, and for said hoarding, I do apologize.  I need to - no, I want to share it all, with you all.  Really, I do.  But you have to remember:  Magpies are Hoarders Extraordinaire, and so in this instance, I'm going to really take on the magpie's persona and say "that is what I was doing ..."  Forgive me.

So.  I cannot possibly put into words just how it went for me.  I have a feeling there are plenty of other AAJ participants that are still processing just what happened, just what we all experienced {and while it was unique to us all as individuals, there must be some commonalities to what happened for us all - am I right, ladies?}.  I will TRY, though, to give it a shot {putting it into words, that is}.  It may take several blog posts to get it all out, and to try and get it just right.

Here goes:

It was amazing.  It was eye-opening.  It was warm, and welcoming, and beyond my wildest expectations.  That's saying a lot, 'cause I have a most vivid imagination, and I often have great expectations.  AAJ organizer and "mother" Cindy O'Leary did a spectacular job putting all this together ... from the location (The Presentation Center) ... to the instructors - which read like a "who's who" in Mixed Media:
Albie Smith http://albie-smith.blogspot.com/ ,
DJ Pettit http://djpettitt.typepad.com/djpettitt/ ,
Leslie Riley http://www.lesleyriley.com/index.php ,
Nina Bagley http://www.ornamental.typepad.com/ ,
and of course, Kelly Rae Roberts http://kellyraeroberts.com/  
& Mati Rose McDonough http://www.matirose.com/index.html )

... to the beautifully quilted and embellished and filled with ephemera "Welcome" packets ... to the activities ... and between Cindy and Stephanie, we all felt well cared for and well managed.
 
"Managed?" you might ask.  Imagine if you can:  100+ women (and a few brave-soul husbands!) gathered all together.  At times, it had to feel like herding cats .. and yet, Cindy could get our rapt attention with a quick "ladies ???" and a little "ahem".  Worked like magic, every time.

It was magical.  It was perfect.  It was a new concept in Art Retreating, far as I know .. we each registered to spend the ENTIRE workshop (starting Friday night to breakfast Monday morning) in ONE workshop, with ONE instructor (except for those of us with the Dynamic Duo of Kelly Rae and Mati Rose) ... which meant that we had to fill just ONE supply list, and UNLOAD our supplies into just ONE classroom - for the duration of our stay.  Can you imagine that?   It SOOOO worked, I don't know why this concept hasn't been tried before.  I loved it!

AN ARTFUL JOURNEY was my very first art retreat experience -- and I'm thinking I just might be spoiled by it.  Guess we'll just have to rally 'round Cindy to make that FIRST ANNUAL REUNION happen in February 2011 - same place, same time, same participants.  Wouldn't THAT be magical, ladies?

So I don't know how much more I can say tonight.  Mark just returned from a three-day bike race in Vegas; I am coming off a three-classes-in-a-row Chris Cozen "high" {at the gracious-as-always Stamping Details in Poway, CA}, and I'm looking forward to my Monday morning class with Jane LaFazio and all my friends in there. 

I've got so much art on the brain, I even woke up at 4:20 am on Saturday - and could NOT go back to sleep.  And again, it was an early Sunday morning for me - I had to wake Rocky up, if you can believe that !!!

I am so tired, I can't even post a few random photos to whet your appetite for more blog posts about MY experience of AN ARTFUL JOURNEY.    Well, okay. Here is ONE:

this is how my work space looked Friday morning, right after we finished our GROUP SWAP - we each made little swap goodie bags for everyone in the group.  And COOL TREASURES we all received!  Our workshop had the distinct pleasure of including the 2 AAJ ladies who traveled the furthest to join us:  Beth from the UK, and Cathy all the way from Australia.  Can you believe that?!

And let me just end it like this for now:   what AN ARTFUL JOURNEY opened up for me is such an exciting place inside, I'm guarding it like a newborn.  The dream I have long held to actually "work" in the art field is blossoming, and I am hatching (there's that magpie reference again!) a plan.  And there has been a virtual flock of ideas flowing today that just can't be stopped.  It's so fun!  Wait - did I just use another magpie (bird) reference?  Oh my!

Speaking of winged creatures ... one of my guardian angels, my mother Edith, passed away six years ago today.  It was a Sunday then, too (Leap Year). 

I am ever grateful for a couple of things about her journey to her better place: 

One - she died the day before our daughter Kristina had a horrific car accident - and yet, Kristi walked away with only a few (large and severe) hematomas to her torso.  She had just left work, it was late and dark, and she was thinking of her Grandma Edie and praying that Grandma was at peace ... when it happened.  The policeman who first arrived on the scene told her he could not believe his eyes when he found out SHE was the driver of THAT vehicle.  THAT, my friends, was my mother, protecting her grandchild from harm.

and

Two - I inherited my spirit and my creative talents, if you will, from my mother.  I also inherited these traits from my father's side of the family - every single one of my auntie's had such great taste & style - truly, they did.  But it is to my mother that I owe the most - she encouraged my artistic tendencies, and she always always always believed in me.  When I returned to school to study Interior Design - at the ripe old age of 38, Mom was my biggest supporter.  Thanks, Mom, for that.

And so I believe that all these new ideas, this new DREAM that is forming, is due, in large part, to my mother - who continues to make her presence known to us, the family she left behind six years ago today.  I doubt that this is a coincidence.

I love you, Mom.

-- Davielle  

Edyth's Passing - 5 years ago tomorrow

My mother, born Edith Yerkes Dickinson {and through the years, known as Edith Meinhardt; Edith Antelline; Edith Russell - among other surnames - but mostly known by the last name Antelline} left us on February 28, 2004. Five years can seem like forever; it can also seem like a flicker of a heartbeat in time.

this page, a tribute to Edith, was photographed out of the MEMORY SCRAPBOOK I created for my father, Frank Antelline, September 2008, on the occasion of his 88th birthday.

and the next page was a continuation of the tribute to Frank & Edith's relationship ...

and this next page showed Mom as she got older, enjoying time spent with her children and grandchildren ...

Along with my brother Jay and my sister Francia, and our children and our grandchildren, we ALL remember {with a mixture of horror & delight} HOLIDAYS spent with mom ... because she was notorious for visiting Neiman Marcus as she got older, EACH CHRISTMAS SEASON, just to get a handful of their glossy red bags -- emblazoned with the NM logo in gold -- into which she poured all manner of goodies & surprises for everyone in the family. We each got our own bag, and this is likely where my passion for BAGS began ... be they gift bags, handbags, or grocery gabs {okay, so I'm kidding about the grocery bags}.

So where, you ask, did the horror come in? Mom was a prolific writer of poetry, and a holiday just wasn't a holiday, to her way of seeing things, unless she had Center Stage for a moment, during which she would regale us with her latest prose. THE FAMILY'S ALL TIME FAVORITE had to be her "Badges of Maturity", for the sheer shock value alone -- several of us, I clearly recall, snorted a beverage out our nose that Christmas afternoon when she ripped into this one:

"Ye Gods,

there are crinkles in my cleavage

a creping here

a sagging there

When did all this happen

It must have been while I was nappin'

or too caught up with doing

I certainly wasn't inspecting my anatomy

as carefully as I should have

while I was pursuing

life's demands and pleasures

else I really would have

noted

these badges of maturity

that come with Social Security

Crinkles creping sagging there may be

but still in my heart is a dance

a romance

a spirit that is free."

-- Edyth Antelline, 1989

Niece Barbara had a friend or two over that day, and needless to say, it was a Christmas they'll never forget !!!

Mom was quite a character, and was ALWAYS a free spirit. She sure was.

We miss you, Mom. RIP.

-- Davielle, your youngest

Edith and Elizabeth ...

... two peas in a pod, back in the day.

If you read my post of yesterday, "Serendipitous Sunday", you might be curious to see a photo of my mother and my godmother -- Edith {mom} and Elizabeth {god-mom}.

I aim to please, and so I dug up a PHOTOCOPY of a photo that is my all-time favorite of them {not to mention, it's just about the only one I have of them together} --

Being the hi-tech {NOT!} girl that I am, I've photographed the photocopy and VOILA! Here, for your viewing pleasure, Elizabeth & Edith Share a Dress.

To clarify, Elizabeth is on the left {the stunning blonde} and my Mom is on the right {the lovely brunette}.

Mom's couturier, Jack Payne, had got the measurements obviously wrong on this one, and when the dress arrived at the fashion show, Mom and Liz both said "why, Jack, TWO women could fit into that dress!", and they proceeded to prove it. God bless the photographer who captured this moment ... each with a leg held up for full effect. Now Mom, Elizabeth, and Jack are in Heaven, having a good chuckle.

Yours in happy memories of wonderful family friends,

-- Davielle

One Dress, TWO VERY DIFFERENT LOOKS

So you all know that if you take RED and BLUE and blend them together, you get PURPLE, right? So here on Election Night, that's what I've done ... with the font color of the text, anyway. Really, I need a job or something, don't I?! Now that I've bored you with a Lesson in Color, let me go on to (hopefully NOT) bore you with a Lesson in Accessorizing ... from one of the Masters (oops, MISTRESSES) of the Art of Accessorizing.

My mother Edith (or, as in her later years she liked to spell it: EdYth) sure could turn heads. Take these two photos, for instance ... lovely, yes? What I never before realized - call me Struck Blind by Her Sheer Beauty - was that she was wearing THE SAME DRESS in both, yet because of earring, hat, and in one case, clutch purse - she got totally different looks out of it. Wow. I wish, oh how I wish, we still had all her now-vintage ... handbags & clutches, hats & glasses, and those dresses ... WOW, those dresses. Of course, slender as she was back then, they'd never FIT me or my sister ;-) ... but oh, just to have them in our closets, beckoning us to WORK HARD and HARDER to wear them --- talk about incentive!

this, her somewhat demure look ...

and this, her Steamy-yet-somehow-still-Refined look ...

Honestly, though, other than for photo shoots and fashion shows, Mom RARELY wore ... earrings! Can you tell I'm still ... dreaming? That, and feeling very nostalgic about Mom. Must be because she was SUCH the American Girl, ever the Patriot, our mother, and VOTING / ELECTION DAY was always always always SO VERY IMPORTANT to her ... her parents didn't raise a dummy with Edith, no sirree ...

-- D.