REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Four Versions of My Garage Sale Mary

I used to go to estate and garage sales a few Saturdays a month but then when I had successful bladder cancer surgery last fall, I realized for the sake of my kids, that I couldn't keep accumulating "stuff." But, for some reason, I decided to drop by two sales yesterday and three today. I really do get a very special rush from "junking," I'll admit. I set an intention of finding a new office chair today--and, I found a great one for $15 at the first estate sale I stopped at. This woman, who had passed, was a crafter personified and I had to rein myself in, but I couldn't resist a beautiful plaster of Paris madonna and child, even though she was pretty dinged up. Those of you who know me well, know that I love all things Mary, madonna and divine feminine. Made in Mexico originally, I got out some of my Lumiere paints and touched her up. This is what she looks like now. 

She is approximately 14" high and 10" wide--and I absolutely adore her. 

But, I also love putting some of my photos through the Dreamscope app  Following are three more versions of Mary. I am downloading all the images to my Pinterest account but I'm also downloading them to my Polyvore account so I can play more later in making some digital art with her. Who could imagine that my $15 Mary would bring such pleasure? And thank you to the woman who once sat at her old Mac in my new office chair and sometime long ago bought this Mary. 

Mary using the Glory filter. 

 Mary using the Tangerine filter. 

Mary with the Terrace filter. 

 

Loving Lupita: Twelve Days of Mary Love (Day 5) and Haiku My Heart

Rebecca of Recuerda mi Corazon is currently hosting Loving Lupita: Twelve Days of Mary, but on her blog every Friday she always hosts Haiku My Heart. She is combining the two on this Friday. I hope you have time to visit and perhaps participate yourselves. 

In 17 syllables we write what we feel in our hearts and today this SoulCollage® card, another art process that I use, presented itself to me. I created it in 2011.

Always inspiring

Eternally maternal

Divine feminine.

I purchased a vintage sepia photograph of the focal image at a garage sale several years ago and I use it in many forms in my art.

 

 

Junque, Stories, Movies, People Watching, Mexican Food: Near Perfect Day

One person's junque is another person's treasure. One person's near perfect day is not necessarily most people's vision of a near perfect day. But, I've had a fabulous day myself and there are still hours to go yet. 

Above is my "haul" from 1 1/2 hours of what I've come to call junque-ing, estate or garage sale-ing. To begin with, the weather today is what Southern California is famous for--hot, but not too hot--air clear and most people wearing super casual clothes. I planned my little route of houses to visit and I was lucky to find eight within two miles of my house--and I went late so people were willing to bargain. One block had five just a few houses apart. These days I'm mostly looking for art-related stuff and what you see above includes:

• One gorgeous black laquer Japanese "birth shrine" box and some of its original contents. 
• One red and black mirror/candle holder, my favorite colors for folk art.
• One blue frame, one cobalt blue cross candle holder, and some ephemera for assemblage. Blues are my favorite colors.
• One small handmade box with wheels that will become a funky shrine. 
• Three Margaret Furlong porcelain angels, brand new, in their boxes.

Total cost? $10.50. Yowsa!

Stories. Well, the black laquer box belonged to a Japanese man who told me he was 50 years old and the box was given to his parents in honor of his birth. His mom gave it to him recently and he said kind of shame-faced that he has no use for it. I do! I treasure a Margaret Furlong angel my friend Barbara gave me years ago and these angels are not inexpensive. Now my original angel has three sisters. A friend of the seller yelled out when we settled on $3 for all three, "Didn't your mom give you those for gifts?" She replied, "Naw. I don't know where I got them." Gulp. 

Later I met two girlfriends at the local theater to see Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine" film and though painful often to watch, to me it was a fabulous film--and it felt so cozy to be tucked into my seat between two women whose company I greatly enjoy. 

On the way home I stopped at Michael's to use my 40% off coupon on some paint markers and went to Sprouts for milk--and peach pie. There is a very small window in summer when Sprouts has peach--my favorite. Wowsa!

Then, on the spur of the moment, I decided to go out to dinner--alone--at Maria's Mexican Restaurant by Michael's in Torrance. It's a local joint with great food and I brought in an old Kodak photography book to look at as I'm always very self-conscious about eating alone in restaurants.  I got a taco combination plate and my excellent waitress struck up a conversation about Polaroid cameras and film vs. digital cameras. She boxed up my left-overs including the chips and hot sauce and I have another meal to eat tomorrow. I watched Central American soccer for a while on the flat screen and prepared to leave but not before practicing my Spanish in my head while watching the Spanish play-by-play titles flashing across the screen. 

A woman about my age was eating alone and reading a book at a nearby table and as I was leaving she said, "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation about photography." Come to find out her name was Tootsie, and she was born and raised in Redondo Beach. She originally studied photography at Redondo Union High School--and we reminisced about "old" Redondo Beach vs. what it is like today. Tootsie and I got a big kick out of remembering the old Strand Theater which was near my house before it was torn down for fancy condos. I have heard the term "Recondo Beach" more than once. I live in one myself. A church was torn down to build my building. She was particularly enamored with the old Instamatic cameras she said. Then she launched into "old timey" photo stories about her grandparents and parents. I didn't want to be rude, so I listened for about 10 minutes before I politely managed to exit. 

So, I came home and fed Mollie and came to the computer. There is a concert down at the pier and the excellent singer's voice is wafting up three blocks to my house, through my open window, and I feel so grateful to live where I live. No marine layer tonight. Yay. 

So, now it's dog walk time, maybe a tiny bit of art using my new paint pens, and hopefully I will finish "Bad Monkey" tonight. By the way, walking through the neighborhood on a summer evening is a little bit voyueristic for me--so many people chatting on their patios and one family put their TV on their patio and watches outside. And, I know when I walk by the fire house, whatever they are cooking tonight will smell heavenly. 

Wow. I'm so glad to be alive, in this time and in this place. I'm really in tune tonight with the interconnectedness of all people. 

Dreaming of Saying My Prayers on a Vintage Prie Dieu

Long, long ago I had a dear Catholic nun for a friend and a journal mentor. She was the late Sister Mary Patricia Sexton, CSJ. She lived at Carondolet Center at Mt. St. Mary's in Los Angeles when I went for journal workshops given by Dr. Ira Progoff of Dialogue House. She loved to tell the story of giving Dr. Progoff, who was Jewish, his own prayer kneeler and she called it a prie dieu. He cherished it. There were many beautiful prie dieus in Carondolet Center as well as at most retreat centers I've frequented over the years. I've always wanted one for home, but assumed they were too expensive to own personally and simply dismissed the thought as frivolous.

This is the prie dieu in the chapel of Christ Episcopal Church where I worship now. It is so beautiful and when we had the Redondo Beach Home and Architectural Tour last weekend, I photographed all our beautiful, but modest treasures to include "in the cloud" with a lot of other historical material I have been gathering. We are celebrating our 120th anniversary this year. 

For some reason, I actually did a brief Google search tonight for a vintage prie dieu and was amazed to find there are many available though most are way beyond my price range. I'm envisioning one sitting at a garage or estate sale someday since I do frequent them to buy "junque" for my mixed media collages. If I were so lucky to find one, I'd sand it down, antique it, and then embroider a beautiful kneeler cushion. I have found that sometimes when I set an intention to trip across something in my journeys, I actually do. 

So, for the few people who read here, do you have an old prie dieu buried in your attic or garage you'd like to sell so I can recycle it and give it a new life? In the meantime, I'll keep haunting eBay, Etsy and some of the antique dealers online. 

 

Mornings With Mary: Divine Feminine Shrine - Day 5

For the Christ Church Fall Art Show, in addition to mixed media collage, I made two shrines for the first time. Being the garage/estate sale queen, I'm always on the lookout for "stuff" that can be repurposed into art. This is one of those 60s gilt metal Kleenex boxes that were all the rage. I repainted it and then used Mary's face from a SoulCollage®  card as the focal paint. The rest is mixed media collage. 

This is the little girl whose mom let her choose between the two shrines and then bought it for her. It gave me such pleasure to know that the piece I called "Shrine: Divine Feminine" went to such a great home. 

Be sure to visit Rebecca's Recuerda mi Corazon to see the posts of all the other people who are participating in the 2012 Mornings With Mary challenge. 

The Triumph of the Blue Dresser

This may seem like a silly story, but it's my true story of refinishing an old dresser. Bear in mind, I've refinished small pieces in my life, but nothing so large and beat up. 

It all began last summer when I found a picture in a magazine of an old dresser that someone had painted this color blue and then stenciled in Navy blue. I put it in my ideas binder. Then late last fall, at one of my weekend estate sale forays, I found an old, beat-up white dresser for $30. Hmmm. I can practice on this without too much guilt, I thought. I called my son-in-law and grandson and they came with a truck and loaded it in the patio. 

I began the stripping and sanding and it was arduous and I didn't know what I was really doing. When I removed the drawers, I marked them for placement as I do know that can be problematic if they aren't in the right spaces. November rolled around and the weather grew colder so I dragged the dresser up in an alcove and there it sat all winter and spring, and my Inner Critic kept going berserk about my inability to stick with projects. 

On my list of tasks to accomplish this summer while I'm off work, the dresser was #1 on the list. I had to sand it down once again, threw drop cloths all over, and chose the paint (twice as much as I needed). It took me one day to paint the frame and then second-coat it. The next two days I tackled the five drawers. I took a few days break and then went to put the drawers back in thinking I was finally done. Not one single drawer fit anymore. My father was a wood worker and my former husband was excellent working with wood. You'd think some of it would wear off. I do love to sand, by the way, and I adore the smell of shavings and wood dust. 

I arduously began the sanding of the tops and bottoms of the drawers, and a little of the interior, and got two to fit, but I was so darned discouraged by then, I'd get all teary every time I saw the ongoing mess on the patio. I was determined I would only ask for help if all else failed. (One of my character defects is being stubborn about not asking for help.) Last night while visiting my son Tony, Gretchen, Henry and Fritz, I told them my about my incredible frustration. Tony, who has done a lot of refinishing himself suggested that I concentrate on sanding down the interior frames rather than the tops and bottoms of the drawers themselves. At 4 p.m. today I went out, scoped out the project, and got out my trusty sander and a jar of Dorlands Wax Medium. I gritted my teeth, asked for my late father's help, and then threw in Joseph and Jesus because they were carpenters. It took more than two hours of sanding and continued waxing, but all those drawers now fit. Is it possible to feel triumphant over refinishing a piece of furniture? It wasn't like medaling at the Olympics, for God's sake. 

I now have touch up to do and I'm not so sure about the stenciling. I kind of like the dresser a plain blue, although it has more to do with simply not being able to face into trying something else I don't really know how to do and screwing up. Now I have to ask for help again from my son-in-law and grandson. I'm hoping they will carry the beast up the stairs into the guest bedroom. Although, I wonder if I should keep it in my own room as a testament to my tenacity, which my Inner Critic often says I have little of. 

What I Did on Mother's Day: Art Journal Page, Sacre Bleu

Lovely morning with a brunch at my youngest son's home with three moms present, including my daughter and daughter-in-law, and four of my six grandkids. The sun decided not to come out today, but we chattered non-stop and ate yummy waffles, sausage and fresh fruit and reminisced, of course. Now my former son-in-law is spending the afternoon and my eldest son called from Washington. Life is good!

And I've just spent the last few hours finishing an art journal page I've been layering for a week: Sacre Bleu. I've just completed Christopher Moore's novel Sacre Bleu, a delightful, dark comedy d'arte about the French painters in the 1800s. It was a wild read but I loved it. 

Though I don't wear a lot of blue, my home the last two decades has morphed into a blue palette. I've collected cobalt blue glass for a long time, but a three week house sitting gig in the 1980s in my friend Anita's home, really started a blue and shades of blue trend for me. She was a wonderful decorator and I picked up a ton of ideas from her. 

Lately I've been adding dashes of maroon to some of my accessories as well and because of Moore's book, I've been researching the color blue. I'm not a trained artist so I know little about color. Imagine my delight to go to a Friday estate sale and there was an astounding book for $4 called Blue: The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau. Below is a photo of my Friday "junque" haul, none I need, but hey, a bargain is a bargain. I keep telling myself there could be worse addictions. Because I do largely recycled art these days, I have convinced myself that my junque forays are helping the planet. Yeah, right! 

By the way, I got stiffed this weekend by a little old lady in Palos Verdes who had lost her house (according to her) and was agonizing over the memories of each items(s) she was selling to each person. I took a fancy to that little blue and white pitcher on the right which was cracked and poorly repaired. She asked $5, I offered $2 and she took it. I gave her a $20 and she said it had been a favorite she bought in Portugal many years ago and how she never thought her life would come to this. She handed me a bunch of crumpled bills I knew I should count but she was having such angst. When I got to the car I counted and she had shorted me several dollars. Go back? No way. Every time I put flowers in that blue pitcher I'll remember Swedish Susan with her long grey hair telling stories of her travels around the world as she sold her worldly goods. Damn, I'm grateful for my own life.  

So, a mom got to have a perfect weekend being with friends, with family, reading, estate saleing, art journaling, and the continual organizing I am also addicted to. What did you do for mom's day? 

Garage Sale Yields Some Great Treasures

Most Saturday mornings that I am not booked with other activities, I plan a little local route and go "junking" at garage sales. God knows I need NOTHING, but these days I am searching mostly for "stuff" used in mixed media assemblage and collage, not furniture or hot ticket acquisitions like I used to buy. I have no room left, although I am in the midst of refinishing a $35 dresser I got in the summer, I'll admit. 

Now, this haul has to be my all-time bargain finds--all for $2.50! I only scheduled one look-see at a garage/moving sale near my house and went half-heartedly. I don't have any mojo left after the lean holidays. What is inside all these picture frames will be removed and pieces used in collage or the art journals. The three watercolor pads are jammed full of a young artist's practice pieces. I'm actually scanning several of these images so I can use them in a variety of ways. The antique finial and the red belt with gold fasteners would definitely be re-purposed into something or other. I adore the orange mirror--made out of some kind of foam core. I'm thinking of painting it a Nantucket blue to go along with the dresser I'm refinishing for my guest bedroom. 

Being raised as frugally as I was, the garage sales and thrift shops give me the thrill of the bargain that I I was teethed on. I've never been drawn to shop in the malls or high end stores. I don't have the shopping gene per se. Down in my garage I have several empty Xerox boxes housing my small treasures--hardware, art supplies, frames, angels, small boxes, and other art supplies. I will never use all this stuff in my lifetime, but on the other hand, I don't have a huge Nordstrom bill each month. 

I like to tell myself I'm recycling and helping the planet, but in actuality I have some kind of adrenalin run when I do garage sale. Also, I have met so darned many wonderful people. But, my best of all and totally free acquisition came up on the Art Gang L.A. listserv I belong to. A woman was giving aways all her storage components of an art studio. They were moving to Hawaii. I didn't know this woman but I follow her now on FaceBook and bless her daily.

Do you have an garage sale adventures to share? 

Cataloging Some Art Projects: Our Lady of Guadalupe Prayer Box

Tonight one of my sons arrives from Washington state for a four-day stay as he is having a corrective eye surgery. I am straightening my art/office room as he likes to use the computer here. So, as I move art pieces in progress, finish a few off, and do some rough sketches of some summer projects, I decided to photograph some of the pieces that are done, or nearly done. Most of my art is made from recycled objects that I find at garage and estate sales, although the Guadalupe statue is from the Dollar Store. This is a prayer box I keep in my bedroom. Everything except the statue I found at weekend sales. 

A poem to accompany Our Lady of Guadalupe, perhaps? A quick Google search yielded dozens, but I found a wonderful site at the University of Dayton that has a Marianist Research Institute. It is a wonderful new resource I'll visit often since I am so drawn to Mary and divine feminine image. 

Poem for Our Lady of Guadalupe

Mary, Virgin of Guadalupe

Dark lady, you smile at me across the mountains
The secret smile of ancient people.
What thoughts do you send me, dark beautiful lady?
Will you someday tell me when I come with great armfuls of roses
Over the mysterious mountains to your feet?
Dear, dark queen will you give me too
Lovely roses in December?

Anne B. Quinn

 

Have an Artistic Eye? Imagine What I Can Create With This

This is an art project waiting to happen, not something profound already made that I want you to analyze. But, I would like your input about what I might make this into. On June 21 I am off work for the summer and I've already begun laying out some larger mixed media projects I want to tackle. This is one of them.

I picked this up at a garage sale for $2 about six weeks ago and I've already placed it in the patio so I have to look at it every day and begin envisioning what it could become. It is 24" x 36" and is an old window that someone built a shadow box that is 6" deep behind. What you see inside is a piece of metal attached to a board. It is nailed in, so I'll remove it and it will become my palette. Because it is a shadow box, I assume I want to make a mixed media assemblage of sorts probably featuring a female face. 

I am not a trained artist and have only been doing dimensional work for a year or so. If you enlarge this photo, can you gaze at it and give me some ideas? I'm not very creative coming up with a plan which works when a piece is smaller. It seems like this one has to be planned out. I'd be very grateful!