Cay Denise

Yellow, from a pre-created zine cover, has been paired with maroon as the color combination for this new abstract zine titled 'Something Stirring'. Many of the images are cutouts from the Spring 2025 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine and have been edited a bit. The single flower pages look a bit bare, so I may fill them in with a quote or some writing later on, but I like it as is.   For information, the full quilt art pieces in the magazine were created by Serena Brooks, Paola Machetta, and Barbara Whitt.  

In a latest Spring zine using coneflowers as inspiration, this one had spaces in it once all the collaging was done.  What do you do with space?  Is the space you see restful to the eye, a distraction from the eye moving along, or just right?   The top image show the spaces after my 'It's Spring' collaged elements were in place.  How does the space look?   I searched for quotes and poems--nothing looked right.  So, I wrote a Haiku (first line of 5 syllables followed by a line of 7, then a line of 5) and added it to fill the spaces.  Now this zine has a different 'tone'.  It seems, to me at least. more fun and lighter.  Granted, the distinctive flower shapes have receded from focus.  But wouldn't it have been more boring to turn the pages only to see different versions of the flower layouts?   The flowers, aside from their shapes (that I love and was my inspiration), have purpose.  Their blooming is not only beautiful, but they ...

'Letters Aloud' is an ensemble of about four people who do reading concerts.  They read real letters written by real people while the screen on stage shows images.  The letters vary from those that are tone-deaf, mean, discriminatory to hilarious, inventive and kind. One such letter was quite amusing.  The State of Michigan sent a letter in December 1997 to a property owner directing two dams in a pond on the property be removed.  A January 1998 reply informed the state that the beavers couldn't do that.  Here is a link to the exchange:   The Dam Letters .      Writing and sending hand-written letters was the primary way people communicated before computers, smartphones, and social media platforms (even before telephones, television, and radio too).  I used to write letters quite often.  Now, it amazes me how much less I do it, but how much greater I prize receiving them.  Letter-writing is becoming a lost art and could use som...