Monica's blog

First off, sorry no pictures of the purse today. I'm ALMOST done with the handle. I also have a few brooches done for the swap during the Bead Unique Retreat in Tahoe (ALMOST HERE!). I wanted to write a little about a blog I enjoy following and a fellow artist that I really admire. I've known Monica for years now back when she was my Fairy Bead Sister from one of the beading forums we belong to over on Delphi. I've never met her in person, but I feel like I know her from her private e-mails and her blog. She is one fantastic artist and really makes people think about things with her poetry and her pictures. Today was no different. Monica was writing about Tea with Savannah Terry. Please check it out.

She is talking about finding old pieces of a woman's life such as her dishes, her letters, her pencils and other things. All these things hold her essence, but unless found by an artist are discarded and thrown away. Monica, by reusing these items in her own art work has taken Mz Terry's life and passed it on to others. I really was touched by these ideas as I feel the same way when I take these throw away toys and make them into bead items.
But what really made me sit back & really contemplate Monica's post was an incident that happened this Spring.

We live in a small subdivision on the suburbs of Worthington Ohio. There is a main street outside of our project with older ranch style houses probably built in the early 1960s. I was told that most of those houses were bought by workers of the Annhauser/Busch brewery only two miles south of us. I remember when we first moved her seeing these older African American people with their walkers going out to pick up their mail in their rural route mailboxes. Most of the inhabitants have passed away over the years, and many of the houses have been torn down to put in more newer homes on squeezed together on smaller lots. One house I remember because it had been abandoned for over 2 years with the grass overgrown. I wondered what happened to the old lady who'd I'd see get into her big Lincoln and drive down to get her mail. It was finally sold, and a new family moved in redoing the whole house from top to bottom. Chris & I were driving down the main road when he spied a pile of radios, and upright piano and other items on the side of the road. As we drove up into the drive way they put out a big sign that said FREE. I wish I had room for the piano, but our house is stuffed as is. Chris took the radios, and other items including a old milk jug. I opened a cabinet & there were records. I asked if I could just have the record. The new owner said yes. I can't believe what a treasure I found in her old records. Ones that I remember listening to on the radio back when I was a little girl in the back seat of my Dad's big Chrysler New Yorker with the radio blaring. Then I found 3 Dinah Washington albums. I wasn't sure who she was, so I pulled one out of the sleeve, cleaned it gently & placed it on our vintage stereo. It was LOVELY. I feel in love with Dinah's voice & then something made me feel weird. I could almost see that older woman sitting over on the couch smiling at me. I saved her music. Now I listen to Dinah all the time & get the other old Motown records out to listen to (oh she had some Tom Jones, and Engleburt Humperd- too). I wish I could know her name as Monica has found Savannah's name, but I do share in this woman's love of her music and her life.

BTW, you might have HEARD Dinah without knowing who she really is. I'd heard a car commercial & there was her song coming out of the speakers at me. I was thrilled to see Dinah's music is still appreciated even though it is used to sell cars.

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ALSO...please check out my new button to get you to Monica's site for the Pink Artist Part 2 raffle. A QUILT and so much more to win with all money going to breast cancer research.