Monday, July 9, 2012

An Ode to Ouma Lena

I've been away from my blog for 2 months and I cannot believe how the time has flown! Many trips have since come and gone - and that's my excuse! I have just returned from a trip to Spain - Andalucia to be precise.  I will be posting some images later this week of my favourite spot of architecture in the entire world which I visited for the third time during this trip.  On the art journaling front, my bi-weekly journaling workshops on Friday mornings are tons of fun and very inspiring.  I have also been busy with a couple of mixed media projects.  And a few interesting changes have happened on the music front - more on that later.

One of the mixed media projects that I have since finished, is an ode to my late grandmother, Lena.  It was her birthday on 25 May, and my mom and her 4 sisters met for an high tea to celebrate Ouma Lena's life and legacy.  Each of them exchanged gifts with the other 3, and all the gifts had special significance with regards to her legacy.  She was loving, caring, giving, gracious and had the most soulful gaze with her beautiful blue eyes.  It felt as if she could see your past and your future and comprehend your state of mind at the same time.  She was a creative soul, a wonderful cook, she could sew, knit and crochet.  And she produced 5 extremely attractive and gifted children. But most of all she was a prayer warrior.  A deeply spiritual woman who knew exactly where her inner strength was rooted.  And I am proud to say that I carry her name - Magdalena.

When her birthday came up, I felt that I wanted to make something special to honour her legacy by using vintage photographs of her and the family.  I was inspired by the style of mixed-media artist, Lynn Whipple, and decided to make 4 small accordion books - one each for my mom and her 3 sisters. I used gesso, gel medium, water-soluble wax pastels, 80 year old vintage train schedules, scanned vintage photographs, recycled cereal boxes and I crocheted some miniature red bunting.  I finished off the collaged pages by adding some white and red pen and pencil before assembling the books.  As a final touch, I made small bags out of the vintage paper and attached buttons and string to close them up in order to keep the books dust free.  Thought I'd share them with you, so here they are - enjoy!










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