First Encaustic July 13, 2009
Posted by Beth in Art, Personal.Tags: Art, Personal
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This past week I tried a new art technique: encaustic. This is painting and collaging with beeswax. For more information on this medium, check out the website of my friend and instructor at Open Studio. I have already learned a lot. I am intrigued with experimenting to improve my ability to capture my ideas concretely.
Here is my first attempt:
I made many mistakes….some of which I was able to correct. Others I have accepted as just part of the piece.
I’d like to learn how to further soften the edges of Lady Justice, and I have some ideas to try.
I want to see what happens when I embed flower petals and other fragments from nature.
And what will it be like to try and actually create a realistic image using the beeswax “paint”? I can already tell that it will be pretty tricky.
Oooo. I love new things!!
NEA – not about education or the children July 11, 2009
Posted by Beth in Education, Politics.1 comment so far
Independence July 6, 2009
Posted by Beth in Personal.Tags: Personal
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Last year was the first year in 15 that I wasn’t IN the our local “small-town-America-4th of July” parade, walking or biking all decorated up along with my children.
This year was the first year in 16 that I did not even go to watch the parade–instead I stayed home with my in-laws while my 13 year old and her two neighborhood friends dressed up in red-white-and-blue and traipsed off on their own.
Now that’s independence (for both of us) !!
Yipee!!
Declaration for Life July 4, 2009
Posted by Beth in Personal, Politics.Tags: Personal, Politics
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Today is not the 4th of July I had envisioned.
I love the 4th of July—its celebration of all the things I love about this country, in particular, its recognition of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The past several years I have invested much time and energy studying these core individual rights and attempting to defend them from the increasing onslaught of attacks. Instead of protecting these rights, our government’s actions are primarily intent on eroding the distinctions between private individual rights and public claims to the life, labor and property of its citizens. Government is usurping more and more of our private lives through regulation, taxes, welfare and entitlement programs, and “public options.” Having taken over banks and auto companies, it is now poised to control the health and energy industries. What will be next?
The past few weeks, I have been focused more on the pursuit of my own personal happiness: listening to my son’s tales of his recent trip to Italy, accompanying my husband to 2 concerts (first Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood, and just last night, Yes.) The bulk of my time however has been helping my in-laws deal with the diagnosis and treatment of a recently discovered cancer. There is nothing like a life-threatening illness to force the clarification of one’s priorities.
So the past few weeks my time has been much more focused on my less abstract and more immediate values. This has heightened for me the toll the state of our government takes on the quality of my life. Instead of being free to live my life according to my own personal values, a substantial part of my life must be spent fending off those who would deprive me of my liberty and property. In a freer world, with a greater understanding and recognition of the right of each individual to his own life and only his own life, much less time would be spent on self-defense, and more more time would be available to the pursuit of positive values.
This is not to belittle how much better off I am than many who live in more oppressive countries, or who lived in more oppressive times. Also, I recognize that one can never completely rest in defending one’s rights. It is simply that these past few weeks I have been made so much more concretely aware that time spent defending my rights is time I don’t spend with my family, and vice versa.
The more the ideals of the Declaration of Independence are implemented in our daily lives, the more we can truly live. It is not just a declaration of independence and of individual rights. It is a Declaration for Life.
Cross posted at Wealth is Not the Problem.
