My Art Assignment: To re-create a Gee's Bend Quilt using paper

To go the extra like the women of Gee's Bend, instead of simply using any scraps of paper... every piece of paper you see has special meaning to me ♥ its a love story between me and my husband...

To see the beautiful history on these quilts, The Quilts of Gee's Bend, and here are some amazing images of them... Gee's Bend Quilts In Photos

Here are a couple pictures FINALLY of my Greek fresco wall fragment painting... I took the pictures with my cell phone so the quality isn't the best.) They are mounted, and ready to go to voting... I guess lol.

Yesterday was my Pop's funeral... it was awful and sad. Looking at him... made me feel empty. It broke my heart. I was looking at a shell... the man I knew wasn't there anymore. My Pop passing away has caused me to question everything. Where we go when we die. If he can really see us down here. If there is a heaven and a hell. Do we really meet up with our loved ones when we are in heaven? I'm taking this harder than I realized. It made me miss my childhood to such a painful degree. I remember hints of feelings I used to feel, and it made me long for those feelings again. And wonder why I don't feel them anymore. And wonder why things change. I'm scared. Scared to die. Scared to live. I often think life would be easier if we were alone. I wouldn't be so afraid. I want life to slow down. I want time back... this all hurts too much.

I just keep thinking of his laugh. And how I wish I knew him better. I wish we talked more... saw each other more. I hate this line of thinking. Why does this always come too late? I hate it.

I really love everything about winter, but I feel I really need a day far out in the ocean on a boat with the warm sea air against my face, the smell of the sea, the sound of the waves crashing and the sun beating down on my skin. I need that great feeling of being lost, and away from the rest of the world and having absolutely nowhere to be for hours...

For the service, I made a collage of memories of from my Pop's life. It made me happy and sad to see all these memories starting March of 1937 to now. Beautiful, amazing memories. My Grandmom wanted to highlight his love for the Eagles... in a respectable way. She picked the closing hymn to be "On Eagles Wings," I made wings for the flower arrangement from the Grandkids, the flower arrangements colors, the mass cards and service booklets displayed eagles, the collage was all different shades of green and had an eagle in the center, and finally I made feather keepsakes for all people who attended to remember him.

This Sunday at 12:37 a.m. my Pop passed away. When I found out I couldn't sleep so I did what I do...



I'm going through all sorts of emotions, but right now I just feel numb. Every time I walk into my grandparents' house I feel so sad. I feel exhausted. I am trying to stay strong for my Gramom, and take some of the load of things that need to be done off of them.

When the morning came on Sunday, I felt a deep pain in my chest. The weather had been so dreary at the end... bitter cold and cloudy. When I looked out the window that morning, the sun was big, beautiful and crisp. The entire sky was orange and blue. The sunrise took my breath away. I knew it was him.

Perfectionist

In art class last week, we were to re-create Pygmy Bark-Cloth from Africa.

To see actual Pygmy Bark-Cloth pieces, visit this site... Art from Africa.

I have been extremely self-conscious about my work since I haven't been graded on my art for almost 10 years! So the perfectionist in me wanted to strive to impress my Professor the way I did on our first project of re-creating Greek fresco fragments. After that project, she submitted my piece to be voted on to be on display in our campus art gallery. I wasn't entirely pleased with my finished product Pygmy Bark-Cloth, but she said it was great... and asked "How could I not give you an A?" Well I felt better after she said that, but today I noticed she didn't mount my artwork the way she did for my previous project. I'm bummed even though I did in fact receive an A. I guess not all A's make the cut.

Here's my finished African Pygmy Bark-Cloth...



Anyways this week we are working on re-creating Gee's Bend Quilts. Mine is taking a long time to complete, but I hope it turns out amazing. We'll see.

The story behind the making of these quilts is so interesting, and the quilts are beautiful! To see the history of Gee's Bend quilts, please visit... The Quilts of Gee's Bend.