Cay Denise

This past year has been much different in tone and scope than the last.  Artistically, I've been productive in different ways...with fewer paintings but many more crafts completed.   That said, there is so much to be thankful for including the fact that I've maintained a reasonable work-life balance especially compared with 2017.  For me now, its all about that work-life balance plus exploring new artistic horizons and continuing to do the work!  My arts-related accomplishments for 2018 include having: *Completed 5 Let's Face It! projects in this 2018 course *Made 36 Blog Posts *Done a video log (VLOG) for every day in February! *Started keeping VLOGs more regularly starting in July *Created 5 iMovies *Started a spontaneous art journal and completed 38 pages *Watched and totally enjoyed these movies:  Loving Vincent, Christopher Robin, and A Star is Born; other great movies though harder to watch included Green Book and Dark Money *Created 50 shimmering ornamen

It has been a long time since I've written a poem, but I was recently inspired to do so.  I'll reveal what that inspiration was in a week or two...so as not to influence the reader.  If you have constructive feedback, please consider leaving a comment. The inspiration for this poem came from the hooting calls of a Great Horned Owl that flew into our neighborhood one night in November.  This raptor very seldom visits...maybe once or twice a year.  It is during these visits that the night becomes eerily silent.  Listen to the Great Horned Owl hoot at this youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsIygCtoqYg

I came across a November 27th article in Vulture Guides by Jerry Saltz about the 33 ways to be an artist.  Because it is such a long article, it has been bookmarked for later reading.  BUT, I did come across this great exercise in it:  Build a Life Totem .  Wow, that could be great fun!!! To do it -- you can use any material on any surface to make a four-foot-tall totem pole of your life, and you have a week to complete it....period!  The intention is for you to create something in which others should be able to know something about you other than what you look like or how many siblings you have.  You get to include anything you want e.g. words, letters, maps, photos, objects, signs, etc.  Be ingenious!  When finished, there is a sharing component to the exercise as well. Imagine if you had created the totem below, what do you think others would 'get' about you from it?  Would they think you're female, a free spirit, a bookworm, a follower of rules, a gardener, an engin