Artist of the Day: Still Life of Cow Skull with Pink and Ivory Roses - Lucy Snowe

lucy snowephotography

Lucy Snowe is one of my favorite contemporary photographers.

This photograph is an ode to Georgia O'Keeffe stark, and hauntingly beautiful paintings of bones and blooms floating above desert horizons.The word that comes to mind to describe the feelings they evoke is lush.  

Other than her gorgeous paintings, what I admire most about O'Keeffe is her fierce dedication to her vision. And to her own bent. She followed her heart, her muse, her own voice. No matter what. She quit her suffocating teaching position to paint. She took long walks. Alone. She never let the fact that she was a woman in the male dominated art world intimidate or stop her.

She painted what pleased her. She did exactly what she wanted.

It has to be said that she had a powerful ally and financial backer in her husband Alfred Stieglitz, which, really helps one be true to oneself.

Her singular dedication to her work, has been thinly described by some scholars as verging on bloodless. The reality is that Georgia put her work first, just like her male peers. Her stoicism during her husband's affair, and then her calculated retribution on the other woman after his death is one part chilling, and one part yougogirl worthy.

She remained in New Mexico when husband Stieglitz was ill, and even when it was clear he was going to die. She loved him. He loved her. After he died, she eviscerated his lover, and returned to the desert.
---
artist bio: My husband is a cowboy, riding horses, raising cattle and peacocks, tooling leather, and can't understand for one minute why in the world anyone would buy a photograph of a little dog wrapped up in a scarf.

Women's History Month 2012

WHMN

Library of Congress - March is Women's History Month

The White House - Presidential Proclamation -- Women’s History Month, 2012

National Women's History Month - It's Women's History Month

UK Women's History Month - What About Her Story?

The Daily Beast - Women in the World

The Guardian - How we can connect with feminism's global future

The Christian Science Monitor - Women who shaped history with a pen

Aljazeera - How one religious scholar fought for women's rights and won

Women in World History - Women in World History

NWHP - I've included a few questions about American women and their achievements. To take the entire National Women's History Project quiz on American women, and to get the answers click here.

Women’s History Month Quiz
Created by Margaret Zierdt, National Women's History Project Board member

Can You Identify These Women of Great Vision and Achievement Whose History Is Our Strength?

1.Who became the first female Secretary of State of the United States, appointed by President Clinton in 1997?

5.Who is considered the first American woman to be ordained by full denominational authority in 1864, and who also campaigned vigorously for full woman suffrage?

8.Who was the first black woman and the youngest poet laureate in American history when she was appointed in 1993?

10.Who was the female lawyer who worked for equal rights and suffrage, co-founded the ACLU in 1910, and helped write the Equal Rights Amendment?

11.Who led the fight to criminalize lynching, helped form the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and aided many black people who migrated from the South to Chicago?

12.Who became the first female president of Harvard University when she was named its 28th president in 2007?

13.Who became the first woman vice-president candidate on a major political party ticket when selected in 1984?

14.Who volunteered as a nurse during the Civil War, earning the nickname “Mother,” and after peace became an attorney advocating for veterans?

15.Who was the United States delegate to the United Nations who championed and won approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948?

16.Who earned a graduate degree from Oberlin College in 1888, was the first black woman to serve on a Board of Education (in D.C.), sued to integrate restaurants in the 1950’s, integrated the American Association of University Women at age 85, and was a founding member of NAACP?

17.Who wrote "The Feminine Mystique" in 1968 and became a leading figure in the Women's Movement?


22.Who is the architect of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which she designed when she was only 21 years old?


35.What woman attended the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, signed the Declaration of Sentiments, and lived to see women win the vote in 1920?


39.Who sculpted the full scale marble statue of Lincoln which is in the Capitol Rotunda, becoming the first female and youngest artist to receive a commission from the government for a statue?

49.Who introduced America to French cooking in her books and television series from 1963 through the 1990's?

Women's History Month - Beatrice Wood

Beatrice Wood

My life is full of mistakes. They're like pebbles that make a good road. Beatrice Wood

I think it appropriate that Beatrice Wood is the final woman featured here for my Women's History posts. She followed her own bent, created a movement and brilliant art, and lived her life joyfully and exuberantly, on her own terms.

Here are a few links:
Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts
Beatrice Wood
The Legend of Beatrice Wood's Art
Books by Beatrice Wood
Beatrice Wood Portfolio

Women's History Month - Judith Freeman

Judith Freeman

Red Water- Judith Freeman


I heard Judith Freeman read from Red Water at the Great Salt Lake Book Festival. She was an engaging speaker and reader, and to be completely honest, watching her, I had the thought that writing and reading from what I've written is exactly what I should be doing. Her comment that she didn't know what else she could do other than write, resonated like a big clanging gong.

Red Water is a captivating novel told by three of John D. Lee's wives. The narrative's trio recounts the daily pettiness, hardship, brutality, and struggles of polygamy (er, for the wives, that is), and a life centered completely around religion. The novel's sullied undercurrent centers on the Mountain Meadow Massacre and the eventual prosecution and execution of Lee, Prophet Brigham Young's adopted son. The Ensign , a Mormon publication, featured an article on the massacre which you may find interesting.

Freeman lastest novel is The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved.

Women's History Month - Ana Menedez

Ana Menendez

Ana Menendez was slated to teach a writing class at W@W a few years back so I picked up her books In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd and Loving Che, and devoured both. Sadly, her new position at The Miami Herald didn't allow her the time to teach summer classes, so the class was cancelled.

The title story of In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd portrays first generation Cuban immigrants working at menial jobs while longing for their former life and thier former country. I love the humor and pathos of this story, these men, and I don't want to spoil the punchline of the story, so I won't, but I dare you to read this story without tearing up or a pushing down a lump in your throat.

Loving Che is another enthralling novel that begs the questions: is the narrator reliable?; is memory reliable?; how does a brush with greatness refigure an ordinary life?

I haven't read Menedez's latest, The Last War, but since it's release it's been making literary and personal waves.

Ana Menendez is in Ogden, Utah this week for Weber State University's Undergraduate Literature Conference. She'll be giving readings March 31 at the Eccles Center from 7-8 p.m.; April 1 at The Elizabeth Hall Auditorium from 3:15-4:10; and participating in a question & answer panel discussion in Shepherd Union Building, Ballroom C from 11:45-12:45, April 2.

Don't miss this opportunity to meet an emerging literary talent.

Women's History Month - Samantha Hunt

Samantha Hunt

The Invention of Everything Else is a must read book from an important new voice.

Have fun with this link to Samantha Hunt's The Invention of Everything Else, a novel that imagines the life of Nikola Tesla, friend of Mark Twain, foe of Thomas Edison, and the genius who lit the world.

Enjoy this review from the New York Times' Sunday Review of Books.

Women's History Month - Elizabeth I & Anne Boleyn

Elizabeth I

Beloved Queen Bess, ruled England with the "heart and stomach" equal to that of her Father, Henry VIII, (and "a lion's heart" like her mother, Anne Boleyn), managed to follow her own bent, never marry, and lead her country into its golden age.


Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn has long been considered a fascinating and tragic figure, eclipsed by her famous daughter, relegated to a footnote of the Reformation, but without the passion she inspired and her insistent advocacy, Henry VIII would have most likely never divested himself of Katherine of Aragon or the Catholic Church and made himself the head of the Church of England.

Women's History Month - Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago

Prepare yourself for the force of nature known as Judy Chicago. Her book The Dinner Party literally changed my worldview. The Brooklyn Museum's virtual tour of The Dinner Party exhibit will rock your world, or at the very least, be a feast for your eyes.

Women's History Month - Meaghan Delahunt

Meaghan Delahunt

Here's a review from The Guardian about Meaghan Delahunt's novel In the Casa Azul: a novel of revolution and betrayal. Also known as The Blue House, the book is a masterful, intimate portrayal of two of the most intriguing and controversial figures of the 20th Century: Frida Kahlo and Leon Trosky.

Olivia Dickinson's amazon.co.uk review further describes this intriguing novel: In the Blue House is a fragmented text, with disparate voices answering each other back through the tumultuous decades of the first half of the 20th century. Russian exile Leon Trotsky and beautiful Mexican artist Frida Kahlo are the two characters who join the voices. The couple had a brief love affair in the 1930s when Trotsky was warmly offered a refuge from Stalin in Mexico. Their voices, though, are only two among many. Stalin and Trotsky feature as children in pre-revolution Russia, and as grown men ripping apart their country with their conflicting ideas. Stalin's wife tells of her growing discomfort with her status and with her husband in cold Moscow, while Trotsky's wife contrasts this with her tales of her affection for her husband and their intimacy in the heat of Mexico. The tales and voices of those whom history has forgotten also figure, such as doctors and engineers in the USSR; Trotsky's bodyguard and assassin; Trotsky's father; and a one-legged Mexican Judas-maker.

Delahunt's novel manages to be both an affectionate portrait of "El Viejo", the "Old Man", and also a disturbing insight into the consequences of the revolution of which he was a part. The fragmented structure of the text, with so many voices fighting for attention, darting back and forth from 1932 to 1917, or from 1940 to 1952, can be confusing. A "dramatis personae" would be useful, and perhaps a timeline of Russian history--though this might ruin the effect of the non-sequential narrative. For those readers with very little knowledge of the Russian revolution and its aftermath in the first half of the 20th century, this book reads best entirely as a work of fiction. For those with historical knowledge at their fingertips, it may make real people more real and allow their voices to be heard.

Women's History Month - Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo from The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo - PBS

Los Dos Fridas/The Two Fridas, 1939

Frida's hands & heart necklace - soldered copper foil technique by Danna

Frida Kahlo's fearless approach to making art as equal parts autobiography, confession, accusation, challenge, and absolution, has been an inspiration to countless artists. By studying her work, her ethic as an artist, I've been inspired to make the personal, political in my own paintings.

Just for fun, I took a copper foil jewelry class about a year ago and made this necklace from Kahlo's painting, Los Dos Fridas.

Frida is ubiquitious on the web. I've paired the list to a few of my favorites that I believe you will enoy.

Frida by Jonah Winter, Ana Juan
Beset by one shattering ordeal after another, world-renowned painter Frida Kahlo always managed to channel her anguish into creativity. Frida, by Jonah Winter and illustrator Ana Juan, is an exquisite and playful glimpse into the artist's life and work. Filled with the folk art icons of Frida's Mexican culture--monkeys, devils, smiling skeletons, and sympathetic jaguars depicted with acrylics and wax on paper--the book describes, in short streams of text, the feisty, irreverent, fierce nature of the artist. One especially memorable illustration, based on one of Frida Kahlo's own paintings, shows Frida herself caught in a tangle of thorns against a mournful blue night sky. The text reads, "After the accident ... her body will hurt, always." Author and illustrator's notes add background information, but this stunning book from the author of Diego, about famed Mexican muralist (and husband of Frida) Diego Rivera, is a spectacular, lush introduction to an inspiring woman and her art. (Ages 5 to 8) --Emilie Coulter from amazon.com reviews

In the Casa Azul: a novel of revolution and betrayal by Meaghan Delahunt
A historical footnote Leon Trotsky's six-week affair with painter Frida Kahlo during his exile in Mexico blooms into a mesmerizing first novel by Australian writer Delahunt. After his expulsion from the Soviet Union, Trotsky and his wife, Natalia, are welcomed into the Mexico City home of leftist muralist Diego Rivera and his wife, the charismatic Kahlo. Thus begins the short but fervent affair between the Old Man (as Trotsky is called) and the young Kahlo but Delahunt has a broader plan. She uses their relationship as the jumping-off point for a compendium of brief, urgent scenes offering a guided tour of early communism, from leftist Mexico and 1930s Spain to Stalinist Moscow, with a side trip to Trotsky's Ukrainian childhood. Inevitably, revolutionary politics give way to tragedy: Trotsky and Natalia amid an ever-shrinking circle of admirers in Mexico, their children all dead; Trotsky's father, thrown off his farm by Soviet collectivization; Nadezhda, Stalin's wife, committing suicide. Delahunt's ability to pare grand historical figures down to their all-too-human weaknesses is impressive, and the final glimpse of Stalin is itself worth the price of admission. Having ordered the murder of every competent doctor in Moscow because he can't face his own mortality, he lies on his deathbed, being fed oxygen by a gynecologist. In the end, this novel resembles nothing less than one of Rivera's famous murals human activity everywhere, each figure burning for attention. from Publishers Weekly

Frida's Fiestas: Recipes and Reminiscences of Life with Frida Kahlo by Marie-Pierre Colle
Beautiful illustrations highlight this delightful treasure house of Mexican recipes and fascinating anecdotes of Frida Kahlo. Guadalupe Rivera, Frida's stepdaughter, has gathered here favorite recipes for more than 100 authentic Mexican dishes, that Frida Kalho served to family and friends over the course of her life. This wonderful collection also contains family photographs and some wonderful reproductions of her paintings. Ignacio Urguiza transports the reader, through his glorious photographs, to many of Frida's favorite places, including her blue house in Coyoacan. Urguiza's photos of exotic dishes and settings are visually stunning.
The book is divided into twelve chapters, one for each month of the year, each section a fiesta for the palate and for the eyes. There is a description for every festival and family event celebrated here, along with photographs, illustrations and fond memories, all woven together to provide a fabric of Mexican life and Frida's life. Events celebrated here include Frida's wedding to Diego Rivera, a Mexican national holiday, dinner after the opening of one of Frida's exhibits, Frida's birthday and the Feast of the Holy Cross. From an unusual recipe for black Oaxacan mole, an exquisite sauce of chilies, nuts, spices, tomatoes, garlic, onion and Mexican chocolate, to fresh corn tamales, squash blossom budin, lamb with drunken sauce and delicious meatballs in chipotle sauce, this is a book that will stimulate your senses. All the recipes are easy to follow and the results are marvelous.

I bought this book as a birthday present for a friend and wound up buying another for myself. Reading "Frida's Fiestas" is a cultural experience in itself. What better way to celebrate the life of Frida Kalho and the wonders of Mexican cuisine! by Jana L. Perskie from amazon.com reviews

Brianna Chamberlain: Jewelry Designer Extraordinaire

Brianna Chamberlain photos by Tyler Seamons


briannachamberlain.com

photos by Tyler Seamons

If you've been reading my blog this month, you know I've been posting an eclectic array of women, famous and obscure, past and present,for Women's History Month. In the spirit of Women's History Month,I am pleased to introduce jewelry designer extraordinaire, Brianna Chamberlain.

I received a custom-designed necklace from Brianna Chamberlain's jewelry collection this past Christmas, and became an instant fan. Brianna is a local jewelry designer. Her designs are bold, original, and feature eclectic pairings of stones, amulets, and precious metal findings.

Brianna Chamberlain's necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings are treasures that are a brilliant reflection of the designer. If you live outside Utah and are unable to visit the numerous local boutiques and museum shops that carry her work, host a party, and she'll bring her collection to your home to share with your friends!

From what I know of Chamberlain's design life, work ethic, and her personal life, I think the refrain from Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin's duo "Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves" is the perfect theme song for her:

Now, there was a time
when they used to say
that behind ev'ry great man,
there had to be a great woman.
But oh, in these times of change,
you know that it's no longer true.
So we're comin' out of the kitchen,
'cause there's something we forgot to say to you.
We say, Sisters are doin' it for themselves,
standin' on their own two feet
and ringin' on their own bells.
We say, Sisters are doin' it
for themselves.

Check out the music video.

To see more of Brianna's stunning jewelry click on the links to visit her website, and her new shop at etsy.

Brianna Chamberlain's web designer and photographer, Tyler Seamons, may be reached at Sector Nine Designs.

The beautiful hand-painted silk sarongs are available at S-Ence.

Poem Therapy at 10:27 P.M. Sharon Bryan

Sharon Bryan


Body and Soul
Sharon Bryan

They grow up together
but they aren't even fraternal

twins, they quarrel a lot
about where to go and what

to do, the body complains
about having to carry

the soul everywhere as if
it were some helpless cripple,

and the soul snipes that it can go
places the body never dreamed of,

then they quarrel over which one of them
does the dreaming, but the truth is,

they can't live without each other and
they both know it, anima, animosity,

the diaphragm pumps like a bellows
and the soul pulls out all the stops—

sings at the top of its lungs, laughs
at its little jokes, it would like

to think it has the upper hand
and can leave whenever it wants—

but only as long as it knows
the door will be unlocked

when it sneaks back home before
the sun comes up, and when the body

says where have you been, the soul
says, with a smirk, I was at the end

of my tether, and it was, like a diver
on the ocean floor or an astronaut

admiring the view from outside
the mother ship, and like them

it would be lost without its air
supply and protective clothing,

the body knows that and begins
to hum, I get along without you

very well, and the soul says, Listen
to that, you can't sing worth a lick

without me, they'll go on bickering
like this until death do them part—

and then, even if the soul seems to float
above the body for a moment,

like a flame above a candle, pinch
the wick and it disappears.

I am grateful for this body that houses me, and regret that I have spent so much time taking it for granted. No more!

I picked up a lime green and black sweatsuit today and plan to start back on my speedwalking workout tomorrow morning. I'm also heading to the health store and picking up fish oil pills and flaxseed cereal. And chili chocolate, of course.

Women's History Month - 433 Words to Change Your Life

from Glamor Magazine, March 2010

An acquaintance gave the lates issue of Glamor to me the other day and I thumbed through it absent-mindedly, thinking it might have a few decent images for a collage. I certainly had no intention of reading any of the articles, because I assumed the target audience seems, so, not me, and I just didn't think I'd relate. Of course I read the entire magazine, enjoyed the articles on dating, sex, make-up, clothing, ripped out images of shoes, necklaces, and dresses.

And then, I read this powerful 433 word manifesto by Eve Ensler, (author of I Am an Emotional Creature, The Vagina Monologues, etc. Remember her from a few posts ago?).

I wish I had read this when I was ten years old and starting to doubt myself, starting to listen to every voice other than mine, look for validation in all the wrong places. Sounds like I could write a blues song (or a really bad country soung, eh?).

I'm just saying, every breathing creature should read this 433 word manifesto. As many times as it takes to believe it.

Women's History Month - Sally Mann

Sally Mann - Stick Figure Productions/HBO Documentary Films

Untitled (#1), 1998 from the "Deep South" series

Candy Cigarette, 1989

Sally Mann is fearless. Her photographs are unflinching, disturbing, thought provoking, and achingly beautiful.

I looked through What Remains when it was first out in bookstores. I loved it. I hated it. I loved it.

The stark images of human bodies after "we" exit them, will give you pause, but I think you'll find it difficult to look away.

Women's History Month - Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler tackles the big issues, sometimes with a sledge hammer, sometimes with a feather. It's easy to label her as a woman writer, a feminst, and thereby categorize her subject matter to a single note. This makes it easy to determine where her work fits in relation to our interests, beliefs, values; for corporations to figure out how to sell, and booksellers which part of the bookstore and on what shelf her work belongs.

Woman, feminist, especially feminist has become synonymous with anti-male. How? Why? dictionary.com defines feminist as the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. Not more rights, not taking anything away, just equal.

Despite the negative connotations of the word, I believe that if you love a woman, and especially if you have a daughter, or love a little girl, you really do want the world to value her, want her to thrive, want her to be safe, want her to become, and that this makes you a feminist.

"Gendercide" is the focus ofThe Economist March 4th, 2010 issue. Last year a I became friends with a woman from China who was part of an exchange program with my work. Once we got to know each other, she wanted to know why I hadn't had more children, especially since I only had one child, a daughter. The only answer I had was that I really only wanted one child and I was perfectly happy with her. She also had one daughter, and wished for a son, but more than one child is not allowed.

I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World

If you're asking yourself, why would anyone write about the secret life of girls? or thinking, who cares? Think about this: females are 53 percent of the world's population. That's the majority. So, why wouldn't you be interested in over half the world's population, especially in light of the fact that throughout history, almost every social or economic reform the world over has had its beginning with women.

I know I'm beyond lucky to live in this century, in this country, even in this state. If I'd been born a hundred years ago in the same circumstances, I'd have had zero rights under the law, and I mean zero. I wouldn't be allowed to speak in public, vote, keep wages I earned, and I'd be a wife in a gaggle of sister wives, all married to the same man. I'd be legal property. So would my children. The only birth control I'd have access to would be herbs like black cohosh and blue cohosh.

All the rights my daughter takes as her due, were in the nascent stage when I was in grade school. I got the message very early about which gender was valued more in my religion and family. Now that I'm an adult woman, things have changed, dramatically, but the foundation, the received messages, the fire in which you were forged, is at the core of your being, no matter how fast or far you run.


I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World Written in the same format as her watershed work, The Vagina Monologues (1998), Ensler’s latest mélange of dramatic voices continues the mission of her philanthropic organization, V-Day, to stop violence against women. Published for adults but aimed straight at young adults, this volume provides a searing look at the inner lives of young females today in entries that explore sex, violence, love, body image, materialism, identity, family, friends, and the future. “You Tell Me How to Be a Girl in 2010” begins the collection with a furious catalog of the state of a girl’s world, from global war to everyday heartbreak: “Girls younger than me are giving blowjobs / in homeroom / and they don’t even know it’s sex.” The sobering international voices include child soldiers, young sex slaves, girls whose boyfriends hit them, and girls who starve and cut themselves. Other girls speak of honesty, tenderness, freedom, accomplishment, self-love, and defiance: “My short skirt / is not an invitation / a provocation / an indication / that I want it / or give it / or that I hook. . . . My short skirt is happiness. / I can feel myself on the ground. I am here. And I am hot.” With moving forewords by Carol Gilligan and Ensler, this powerful title, interspersed with shocking “Girl Facts,” serves as a potent call to girls to honor their emotions and to readers of all ages to uphold human rights at every level, from the boardroom to the bedroom. from Booklist by Gillian Engberg

Women's History Month - Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus by Allan Arbus (a film test), 1949

Diane Arbus was born to privilege. This world presented an insulated "unreality" that was less real than the nudist camps, circus and carnival ciruit, or the female impersonaters she captured on film. She photographed the underbelly of society, individuals considered "freaks or eccentrics", and focused light on an entire world swept under society's rug, and thereby changed the rules of subject matter and what can be considered art for the medium irrevocably.

Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C., 1962


Arbus' contact sheet

It's impossible to know how many rolls of film a photographer shoots to get that one photograph. This image of one of the contact sheets from Arbus' session with the child with the grenade provides a glimpse into her process at: The Indecisive Moment.

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus

Watch a clip of the film at Fancast. Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus stars Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr. The film was directed by Steven Shainberg.

See that camera? the vintage twin lens Rollieflex? I want it, and according to Sotheby's there are only 700 in existence for this particular model, so, out of my price range. I'm still on a quest to find an affordable, working TLR 2.8 Rolleiflex, but I believe I will begin with a TLR Mamiya.

Fur is a wild and wonderful imagining of Diane's life. Robert Downey Jr. is phenomenal as the beast man who ignites the ember smoldering beneath Diane's proper buttoned down exterior, and Kidman's understated portrayal of Arbus provides just the right blend of unexpressed passion, submission and passive defiance. I loved this film.

I wrote the following flash for a flash flood challenge in a friend's office at zoetrope. The challenge was to write a flash of 100-1000 words, with a film as inspiration. I had just seen Fur, so it was my most recent inspiration.

Warning: the flash contains some racy bits.

Fur - Danna

Unlike me, Lionel wears his animal on his skin.

He is the new neighbor who lives one flight up. The wolfman. My beast. I hear his relentless pacing and the sound is intoxicating. I cannot sleep until he does, and then, I lie in my bed listening to the blood rushing through my body until I nearly cry out. I imagine curling my fingers through his mane and drawing him to me. Rubbing his scent over my body. Taking him into me.

Lionel sees me as I am: a woman who longs for the carnival life, the illustrated man, bearded lady, the snake man, the intoxicating parade of giants and dwarves.

Lionel sees me, and that is all that matters.

My husband is a kind man. An ordinary man. He loves me the best he can, but insists on seeing me, seeing us posed in starched Sunday clothes under conventional light. I long for him to take me by the neck and thrust from behind.

It is Lionel who knew before I did that my camera is the key to unlock all my doors, its insatiable shutter dialating and contracting as light strikes film, my animal eye narrowed behind the viewfinder, watching. Always watching.

My Famous Sister

Amanda Blake

My sister, (who is not Amanda Blake, btw), has just been named Oregon's Young Mother by the Oregon Association of American Mothers, Inc. She will present a talk on Legacy at the American Mothers conference in New York City. This is an incredible honor and achievement.

My sister has five children. Five. Every time we talk on the phone it's a cacophony in the background and sometimes she has to hide in her garage and lock herself in the car so we can try for an uninterrupted conversation. Try, is the operative word, because invariably, one or more find her and then they're banging on the car windows, and I can hear their muffled voices. I tell her to threaten them in very dark and creative ways, she does, and then I hear them laugh and exclaim, "Oh, Aunt Danna is so funny!"

My eldest sister has five children; second eldest sister has one child; my eldest brother has six children; I have one child and two stepchildren; my younger sister, who is the subject of this blog post, has five children; my younger brother has three children; and my baby sister has four children.

I remember coming out of the anesthesia from my c-section, and thinking, Mom did this seven times! I think I made the decision right there not to have any more. For me, one is enough.

The thing about raising an only child, you don't get to learn from your mistakes and do better with the next child. I was a single mom for ten years and I know that many times my energy and patience were worn paper thin. I can't remember what I did, but I do remember calling myself "mother of the year" when recounting the infraction to a friend. Also, I remember telling my daughter that she was "on the psychiatrist's couch for that one", and the time when she turned to me and said, "I'm on the psychiatrist's couch for that one".

I've been a fan of Amanda Blake's paintings ever since I discovered them on etsy. I found this mother and child painting today and thought the subject matter appropriate for the post.

Blake received her BA in fine arts from the University of Oregon, studied watercolor in Sienna, Italy, and oil painting and print making at the Chautauqua Institute in New York.

You can find more of her work on her websiteAmanda Blake :: Oil Paintings, blog, etsy shop, Enormous Tiny Art, and the Sebastian Foster Gallery.