My first ATC :-)

It's been a long day of website editing... and the last day that I could enter in to this weeks Paper Imagery Designs (PID) challenge. I nearly allowed myself to pass - after all I have spent all day at the computer and surely listing sparklies until a girl's eyes cross allows her to put off creating an ATC at least one more week, oui?

However, I promised myself that when I joined the Paper Imagery Designs list that I would PARTICIPATE. :) I would CREATE. That I would allow the weekly challenges that this very friendly group of ladies put forth to be a catalyst for me to make things that put a smile on my face. Rather than allow myself to slide, I sat down at the last minute and created my first ever ATC. I have to admit that I now sit at my desk smiling at my little PID Elizabeth and feeling quite smug. She makes me happy... and that's really all that counts, isn't it? :)

I hope this finds everyone creating at least one thing this week that makes them happy... because... THAT'S REALLY ALL THAT COUNTS.

I'm Supposed to Blog Beautiful Images and Art

Ok, it's been pointed out to me that I'm supposed to be blogging about beautiful images and art. No one really wants to hear about deep questions, website challenges, and copyright images. (Who knew!) And so, before I jet off to one of my real jobs this morning... a quick blip with a beautiful image and a bit of my altered art. Two birds with one stone, as they say. Well except ... since birds are such popular altered art images... scratch that. We'll just ... be expedient and post a beautiful image with one of my altered art projects in it! Voila! ;-) Au'voir for now... ~Misti Rose

Beautiful Disaster

I am so inspired by Marilyn Monroe ... perhaps inspired by her is not quite the word to use. I'm definitely drawn to her. Most of the world saw her beauty, her grace, and the smiling personae she developed and honed until she perfected what she needed to be in order to achieve what she wanted. Isn't that what we all do to some degree or another? The catch was that on the inside, even after she had "everything," Marilyn was still agonizingly unhappy within herself. Why is it that we, as people, will go to such great lengths to make ourselves beautiful on the outside and yet be so achingly alone on the inside? Even more importantly, why is it that society judges us on our blonde bombshell attributes and not at all on the artist within?

Astonishingly beautiful, America's sweetheart, married to Joe DiMaggio and, after her divorce, linked to some of this country's most powerful men, it seemed as though Marilyn had it all.

Is Imitation Really the Sincerest Form of Flattery?

When I browse through the piles and piles of magazines that I have, I will suddenly come across something that deeply moves me. I immediately think "ohhh I want to make one of those!" Of course, I then think ... "but if I make my variation of those and put them on my website (www.MistiRose.com) for sale am I somehow stealing from the original artist?" "If I make that treasure is it really 'my' art?" "Do I forfeit my right to consider myself an artist?" These questions plague me.

While I bounce thousands of thoughts 'round and 'round in my head about this ethical dilemma I have, I remind myself that all of the great masters (painters) started out as pupils of someone. Perhaps when I see someone elses creation that puts happiness in my heart, and I learn from that style and create my own images or projects in that style or form, I am simply a pupil of the original artist. Or perhaps I am trying to justify my desire to make beautiful things that someone else has already created. I wonder if there are any artists out there who would care to comment?

(Please note that I fully understand and respect copyright and trademark laws. I KNOW how frustrating it is to have your ideas swiped from your pages, copied down to the letter, and then re-sold. That is certainly not art, nor is it the type of work I am discussing.)

Great news from Sandra Evertson!

Ramblings for today... Still battling with installing "official" blog software. WordPress has an Install4Free team that is assisting me and even they are baffled. In some way that means I'm vindicated doesn't it? If even the experts are perplexed that suddenly makes me a bit less of an "un-expert." :) (Hey, you have to take it where you can get it these days!) But the grrrreat news of the day... Sandra wrote and my Birdcage Couture Doll will be done soon!!! And!!! She said I could post the pictures she's been sending via email to my website!! (Picture me talking faster and faster here, hopping up and down... which I assure you is about excited as I get because I'm a rather serious person who sometimes needs to be reminded to lighten up.) [Huge run-on sentence, I know... if the Germans can do it so can I.] Anywho....... Pictures of my doll!!! I'll try to spare everyone the download time and compress them and downsize them and all of that...

WYSIWYG Girl... Is Microsoft Kidding Me?? 08/07/08

July 7th, 2008

Still trying to conquer Expression Web. Aspx pages will load but nothing appears... *sigh.* Microsoft's community web forums are available for assistance... I prevailed myself upon them. Alas, they are not for girls who believe in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web design. They wholeheartedly embrace those of us who *program* our html code. Ha! I'm a DESIGNER not a programmer! They need to come and visit... if they could only see the stacks of magazines I have perhaps then they would understand!! :-)

Was it liberating or ... entrapment? :)

July 4th, 2008 Liberating, that today of all days I finally decide to tackle my website. I've worked on the graphics on and off since January of this year. For some reason, I just couldn't "get married" to it. My husband is pulling a 48 hour shift at the Fire Department, my son (who is home from college) has gone to meet his girlfriend for the weekend, and I am alone for two whole days. I decided I needed to finally face the learning curve of Expression Web (I could just murder Microsoft for cancelling Frontpage but that's another discussion... a serious one!) For a very long time I have lurked around the edges of the type of art that touches me, enjoying it through blogs, web pages, and magazines. I'm such a serious person, with a series of focused jobs in which I am responsible for other people's livelihoods... I decorate with expensive antiques, screech at my family when they don't use coasters, and refuse to use the very expensive hand gilded china made in occupied Japan that was lovingly gifted to me by my mother. (I treasure my china but can't bear the thought of knife marks on my plates... Is it really worth having if you never ever use it? I'm not sure... it is lovely in the hutch.) Overcome by my own seriousness, I've always kept to myself that the art I love is imbued with sparkling tiaras, dusty chandeliers, dragonfly wings, and vintage ribbon mixed in with bits of robins' eggs, mermaids' tails, and a mad dash of German glitter. I think, perhaps, it's time to focus on the sparklies in life... and with that in mind, I have designed this site. I will share my art with you, my thoughts, and sometimes the seriousness that I know I will never escape.