Secular Prayer Flags

What do you do on a day when it's too hot to go outside? 

You drag out your ancient Singer sewing machine and your stash of fabric, and you make PRAYER FLAGS!The idea behind most prayer flags is that with each thread that unravels and flies off in the wind, a prayer is sent to whichever deity the flag honors. Inspired by my neighbor's string of colorful flags, each stamped with a Sanskrit prayer, I decided to make my own set.  Immediately, I encountered a philosophical problem: Since I don't subscribe to any particular religion, wouldn't it be hypocritical to be sending "prayers" to gods I don't believe in?
 Solution: "Secular Wish Flags!" Just because I'm an atheist doesn't mean I don't want to express goodwill toward my fellow Earthlings. Why can't each tiny thread of my flags represent positive thoughts and wishes streaming into the atmosphere?
This was my first effort (above), and I strung it up in the kitchen to observe the full effect.

Then, I surveyed the still-huge stack of fabric, most of it left at my house when my older daughter (who was a quilter) moved to Florida.

Why stop with one string of wish flags?  I made another and another...

...and soon, my kitchen was festooned with wish flags of all colors and patterns. I hung strings on the porch and in the garden.

Still, the stack of fabric seemed undiminished.
Before I knew it, the strings of flags had spread to the living room.With all this fabric to work with, where will it end?

Help!

The Shaggy Garden

A couple of months ago, a FaceBook friend posted about "The Shaggy Garden." The term seemed to be particularly applicable to my garden, because I associated the word "shaggy" with "shabby." Shaggy shabbiness reigns at my house, because I use recycled materials to furnish my yard: old fence wood, salvaged wire, reclaimed bricks, etc. Early in the Spring, the garden does look "shaggy," barren, and dry. See photos below:

As Spring moves into Summer, however, fresh greenery takes over, mitigating the shagginess:

I love my beautiful, shaggy garden!

Electrified Pineapple, Part III

"But You Promised"

"Homunculus"

"Ingesting Love"

Electrified Pineapple, Part II

"Observe"

Mary writes: My sketchbook is about how we are all connected on this planet. Like this bird, who walks about and seems a free bird, but he's connected in by the electrodes to the universe (sort of like a twist on the whole astral plane cord thought).

"Hooked"

"2 Become 3, 3 Become All"

"Bee Mine"

The Electrified Pineapple, Part I

"The Electrified Pineapple" is the title of my daughter Mary's sketchbook, which is part of the nation-wide Sketchbook Project. Each registered artist receives a bound paper book, on which to create his/her contribution to the project. Once the sketchbook is completed, it is digitized, and then it joins the other sketchbooks in an exhibition that travels throughout the United States.

"Layers of Betrayal"

Mary writes: "I heard about the Sketchbook Project from a friend I made through the ATC forum, but it wasn't until this year that I felt like trying it out. In previous years, there were themes such as "dirigibles" that felt too restrictive to my muse, even though on the Sketchbook website, they said the themes were just a way to get a person started, that anything basically goes."

"Under Seige"

She continues: "This year, the themes are book-like categories: the atlas, almanac, chronicle, etc., and that sparked my muse. When my blank sketchbook arrived, I started working on a piece. I was sitting at the table, and Holly's fish, Wilson, was swimming in his bowl in the middle of the table. Wilson swam in and out of his pineapple house (see photo below) as I began to sketch. Pat came in and looked at my work, then looked at the fish bowl, and said, 'The Electrified Pineapple.' Zap! There went the lightbulb above my head, and my sketchbook had a title and a direction." 

"Forging Ahead"

Wilson's pineapple house

To learn more about the Sketchbook Project, go to: http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject