Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Time to Vote!






Yes! It is time to vote for the bi-annual Land of Odds Beaded Doll Challenge online. I just got the official e-mail from Warren letting me know it is all on-line & ready. So here's my plea to you all who follow my blog or like to read some of my crazy thoughts. Please go to this link & vote for Rachel's Dream or one of the other dolls that calls out to you.







This doll was a big project for me & it took me about these past two years to think about what I wanted to achieve with the theme Earthen Mother, and how to accomplish what I had planned. I started with the idea to dedicate this doll to Rachel Carson who I think is the Earthen Mother. Without her book, Silent Spring, our work would be a completely different place than we now live in. I remember pollution so bad that children were not allowed to play in the school yard during recess & yes! I never saw stars until I was 8 years old when we drove cross country from Los Angeles to Ohio. It was shocking for me sitting on a bunch of Lava rocks there in Arizona looking up at the sky & seeing all those blinking white crystals starring back down at me. I asked Daddy what they were. He was stunned that I didn't know, but they looked nothing like the stars I'd seen in coloring books or drew in school. Garbage lined the highways where ever your went. We lived in an agricultural area back in the early 60s & yes! when the planes dusted the fields, we were outside watching them swoop and glide over the fields. I was so afraid of nuclear bombs destroying our world, but there is was anyway tiny "time bombs" of pollution falling from the sky, in my food, in the water I drank,in the grass I played upon.

Please join me in honoring a woman who truly is our Earthen Mother-Rachel Carson

6 comments:

Magpie's Mumblings said...

I voted for you Dot!

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

What a thought provoking project and post!!

The generation after ours has no idea how bad it was, especially if they did not live in a manufacturing environment. The steel mills of Gary and the Chicago area caused pollution for miles around. The smell in the air while passing Whiting where a refinery was, was horrific.

Thank you for the post, and I love your doll. I vote for this tribute.

They used to go around the town with a fogger in a truck spraying for mosquitoes. As children, we used to run behind it in the spray fog!

When the storm drains overflowed into the street after a rain, we used to play out in the flooded street.

So many other things to think about, especially for workers in factories.

People are appalled when they see the situation in China. Our country would be like that if it were not for environmental activists.

Can you tell this is a cause I support!! I'm so political!!

Wildflowerhouse said...

You most definately got my vote! Sharon

Anonymous said...

I can't say enough how I love your beading work! I think you should come play with us in Pittsburgh for a weekend!
Joyce

Dees said...

Dot, you did a powerfull and wonderfull job! I am so glad to find an American woman that cares about our Earth Mother. In Europe the Image of the USA with regards to Ecology is not good at all. I know there must be more like you, but they are so invisible to us overhere!
Make yourself heard through your work, as it speaks out! I love your Earth Mother, she has a little twinkle in her eyes as if she wants to invite me to join her... Just lay by her side and look through her glasses.
I voted for you, but to me you are a winner!

Beverly Ash Gilbert said...

Dot - what a wonderful dedication. And your memories are so poignant! I just went and voted!