Happy Valentine's Day!

(not necessarily romantic)  LINKS:
NPR  The Dark Origins of Valentine's Day
The Atlantic  America's Valentine Day spending 

art by E. Sablosky © 2016  all rights reserved  (We received this beautiful hand painted card from our talented neice!)

art on buildings

On the last Saturday in April, my son graduated from the University of Cincinnati!  After the ceremony, we wandered around an area of town known as Over the Rhine.  We saw several buildings painted with large murals on their sides.

Called Energy and Grace, this mural was a partnership between ArtWorks and the Art Academy of Cincinnati.  "To celebrate the school’s commitment to reviving this historic community, ArtWorks turned a painting by one of its professors, native Cincinnatian and internationally acclaimed abstract artist Kim Krause, into a mural."  The painting is a celebration of the energy and momentum of the rival of this area of Cincinnati.

LINKS:
Energy and Grace 
ArtWorks-- murals in the Cincinnati area

I posted this photo on my instagram site.  Are you on instagram?  Come find me HERE!  

Wordless Wednesday/ Wordy Wednesday--where I linked up: 

  The Art and Tree Chatter of Aquariann

Create With Joy

 

photo by me © 2014  all rights reserved

KAW Studios Giveaway

The Blogging Business team on esty is hosting another fabulous giveaway!  This time it's a  FIFTY DOLLAR gift certificate from Kaili of clockworkghOst!  You can spend it however you like!

Kaili is a talented artist and photographer.  Her shop is filled with her art work.

I love owls and this psychedelic owl is wonderful!

Kaili has nature photography prints, original artwork and prints, ACEOs, and a journal.  She even does custom pet portraits.  Be sure to visit her shop to see all her wonderful art!

To enter the giveaway, please go to our team blog --

Blogging Business Artisans:  August Giveaway

There are several ways to get extra entries!

CONTEST DEADLINE:

August 22, 2012 at 11am central

CONTEST ELIGIBILITY:

Residents of the USA and Canada only

Here's where you can find Kaili:

etsy shop

blog

facebook

Pinterest

photos by Kaili of KAW Studios © 2011-2012

Blogging Business Artisans

Late last year, I participated in the creation of a new team on etsy--Blogging Business Artisans.  We are a creative group of artists, focused on business, and having fun along the way.  I introduced you to the charter members HERE and a few more members HERE.  Now, meet 3 more members!

Jamie is the proprietress of For Love of Cupcakes.

Jamie's SHOP is filled with hairbows and clips, rosaries, artwork, and more!

Check out Jamie's BLOG to learn more about her life with her sweet little baby. 
Visit on Mondays and link up with her Make Yourself Monday Blog Hop!
Check out this book review.

Kathy is a fine artist. 

Her SHOP features watercolor paintings, pen and ink, drawings, mixed media, and prints.  I love her ACEOs!

This print, Your Best Friend is one of my favorites!

Many of her works feature the animals she loves, especially horses.  Here's what she says about her art:

"I have loved art as long as I have loved horses. Now I love to share paintings of my horses and paintings of some of the other critters that have wandered through my life. My artwork is inspired by the beauty of God’s creation and by memories from my past."

In her BLOG she shares about her life with her fun sense of humor.  Here's a current POST about her life in the country.  HERE  she share progress on drawing some VERY special furry ones!


Janet, of Honey From the Bee,

has a SHOP filled with jewelry "inspired by my passion for nature, travel, and the creative life."

In her BLOG, Janet speaks of inspiration, travel, nature, and her creative life.  Learn a little bit more about Janet on her POST Six Word Memoir.  Meet Daisy and Moose in this POST, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie.




I look forward to sharing more members with you!

"The focus of Blogging Business Artisans (BBA) is to promote our etsy shops, blogs, and one another with fun activities and via various social media. We will have monthly artistic challenges, treasuries, and giveaways. The BBA is planning fun social activities such as Secret Santa, link parties, and a blog hop."

LINKS:
team on etsy
BLOG where we post introductions to our members, their art, and interests.  You will also find a list of our members and their contact information.  Informative business articles are posted here as well.  Additionally, there are links to our upcoming team challenges.
facebook
twitter  
my POST on BBA charter members

MORE  members
FABULOUS multi item GIVEAWAY 

CONTEST DEADLINE:

February 21, 2012 at 11am central

CONTEST ELIGIBILITY:

Contest open worldwide

© all photos and images are the property of the above individual artists.  all rights reserved

Blogging Business Artisans

Recently, I participated in the creation of a new team on etsy--Blogging Business Artisans.  We are a creative group of artists, focused on business, and having fun along the way.  In a  PAST POST, I introduced you to the 6 charter members.  Here I will introduce you to 3 more members.  Come visit their shops and blogs!  

Linda Pruitt has 3 shops on etsy!

Her Pruitt Creations SHOP is filled with wonderful fabric items-- coasters, zipper pouches, decorations, aprons, quilts, coffee cozies, pillows, paper items and so much more!

  

Linda's Pruitt Design SHOP promises romance in jewelry and pillows!  She also has wonderful pouches and paper bag art like the ones here on the right.

In her Pruitt Supply SHOP, Linda carries fabrics, buttons, findings, and fun yo yos like the ones here.

Linda has 2 blogs!

On her Pruitt Handcrafts BLOG she shares lovely new hand made crafts, crafty ideas, and "occasionally, little stories about my grandchildren!"  HERE'S a post where she talks about using The Square.

Abigail's Attic is Linda's second BLOG.  Here's what she says:  "The reflections you will find here are all my own meditations, introspections, musings if you like, of the thoughts in my attic. Not stuffy or starched, I hope, but like finding a rare pair of vintage button-downs, dusting off the years and discovering the beauty hidden there. Enjoy your time with me, settling in for a delight or two, a story or three and I hope you will go away refreshed with new observations wanting more. "

Find a poem she wrote about Fall HERE. 

Jenny is the artist owner of A Bird in the Hand Art.

Jenny's SHOP features unique home decor items and jewelry pieces inspired by birds.  "I have a background in biology, specifically animal behavior, and I have been inspired by the beauty of various bird species."

On her BLOG A Bird in the Hand Art, Jenny shares about her art, participates in Iron Craft challenges, and posts business tutorials such as this one 
about making a button link.

Sarah is a crocheting diva!

For her SHOP Magnolia Surprise, Sarah creates wonderfully fun items for your home--crochet coasters, dish cloths and scrubbies.  She also makes scarves and afghans, play food and toys.  "At Magnolia Surprise, there's always a surprise waiting to be found!"

On her BLOG Magnolia Surprise, Sarah shares about her life, her craft, and her granddaughter.  Check out these beautiful new shoes!

I look forward to sharing more members with you!

"The focus of Blogging Business Artisans (BBA) is to promote our etsy shops, blogs, and one another with fun activities and via various social media. We will have monthly artistic challenges, treasuries, and giveaways. The BBA is planning fun social activities such as Secret Santa, link parties, and a blog hop."

LINKS:
team on etsy
BLOG where we post introductions to our members, their art, and interests.  You will also find a list of our members and their contact information.  Informative business articles are posted here as well.  Additionally, there are links to our upcoming team challenges.
facebook
twitter  
my POST on BBA charter members
GIVEAWAY  Hurry!  You have till November 21!

© all photos and images are the property of the above individual artists.  all rights reserved.

Freedom Center: Two Images

I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person; 

now I was free.  

There was such a glory over everything.  

I felt like I was in Heaven. 

~Harriet Tubman

Recently I visited the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center museum.  What a wonderful place!  The exhibits are so informative and well done; many are interactive.  I found myself captivated.  There are artifacts, life size models, movies, lovely artwork, and the famous slave pen.  I was so inspired!  I can't wait to go back.   Recently installed is a new permanent exhibit, "Slavery Today."   (Yes, slavery DOES exist today and probably very close to where you live.  shocked?  Visit the museum and find out.)

Here are some shots of the slave pen, a holding building for slaves before being sold at the market.  Built in 1830 by Captain John Anderson, a Revolutionary War soldier, this 2 story building is 21' x 30' x 26' high.   Male slaves were shackled to iron rings in the floor of the second story; female slaves and children were housed on the first floor.  This is the actual, original building removed from it's Mason, Kentucky location and reassembled at the Freedom Center.

1 door, 8 small windows, 10' fireplace (where the women cooked)

"The pen is powerful.  It has the feeling of hallowed ground.  When people stand inside, they speak in whispers.  It is a sacred place.  I believe it is here to tell a story--the story of the internal slave trade to future generations."

~Carl Westmoreland, curator and senior adviser of the Freedom Center

Dark and damp, rank with odor, human waste and garbage would drop through the cracks of the upper story to the floor below.  On that upper story, men were chained two by two to a central chain by short shackles that allowed them to only sit or lie down.

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson

Journeys I and II

(textile work begun in 1968 and continuing into the present)

“In 1968, I decided to create a ‘work’ apart from other works that I created, that would rag on and on into the future.  At the same time the work would rag back and back into the past—penetrating the interior of West Afrika and the horrors of the Atlantic Slave Trade which had not even been imagined."

(click on the Journey images to see details)

In the photo above--the faces of slaves who traveled on the Underground Railroad.

Robinson's Journeys is a work in progress that has evolved over the years with her travels and experience.  She calls this type of art RagGonNons  because "they rag on and on."

Journeys tell very complex stories-- about her own journeys, as well as the journeys of African-Americans from the time they lived in Africa before slavery to the present. 

Brilliantly colored, heavily adorned and painted,  made from found objects such as fabric, beads, shells, buttons, leaves, bark, handmade paper, and twigs, it is laden with stories.

 

 

“A great civilization arose along the Niger river, established by the Songhai, a nation of scholars, warriors, merchant, farmers, and artisans." 

The Freedom Center pays tribute to all efforts to "abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people."  Here we can see and touch and experience viscerally the entrenchment of slavery in human culture.  What you find might surprise you.  such as how widespread the African slave trade was, and not only, or even the most, in the United States.
The Freedom Center is rich with stories, with history, with human involvement that will cause you to cringe as well as leap for joy.


LINKS:
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center website
article about the slave pen, detailing the slave trade of Anderson
Aminah's World website   Be sure to click on "create your own artwork," for a fun, printable interactive art project.
fascinating interview with Aminah Robinson
~~~~~some tidbits:

"I pray over each piece..."

home is more of an environment than a traditional residence--art is everywhere, even imbedded in the kitchen floor... 

neighbors anonymously leave fabric scraps on her porch

the Doll House 

This is a fun weekly meme, under the direction of Jenny Matlock.  This week, our letter is "F."  Come and join HERE.  Here is Ms. Matlock's   submission.Now go visit!






PLEASE NOTE:  I am adding a LINK to this blog, Katz and Other Tales, for an enlightening report on slavery and chocolate.  Yes, chocolate.

photos by me © 2010

World Cat Day

honoring the joy cats bring to our lives.....

watercolor art print by LaBerge

cat on a bike art print pendant by primoriginals

original mixed media art by sariart

Pretty Kitty snap clips by jackandjane

Hand knitted and felted purse by HandmadebyMia

Wool felt gadget case by BoutiqueID

Pottery plate by firecat

Lampwork earrings by beaded tail (who by the way donates a portion of her sales to animal charities)

Wool felt OOAK miniature book by Juliaanna

Crazy Cat vinyl wall decals by tezis

Drawstring mini tote, hand painted and hand embroidered by TooCuteCats

August 8 is World Cat Day!  Celebrate!





photos © by the individual artists.  all rights reserved.