As our father has been having some alarming, possibly heart-related difficulties these past weeks, my sister and I have been processing the breaking of our own hearts.
What I noticed was that breaking and overflowing can feel like the same thing.
I like the graceful heart-shaped pods of the dying milkweed,
breaking open, spilling their ethereal seeds:
I got out the reds:
but pretty much ended up only using a few - mostly the papers on the right.
So, this first prototype:
I didn't bother to add the little hearts next -
I just wanted to see how it looked with white sheet music instead,
and centered higher on the page:
I liked the brown music better.
More visceral.
The Fixin's
The hearts are edged with strips of Wasps' nest 'paper':*
Production Steps - The Movie:
The Steps
40 steps this month
I don't know why I felt so compelled to include this strip of grey dots
maybe it'll reveal some apt relevance in the future, or to another viewer...
I ink 'stamped' these 'ventricles' with my own 'stamp'**
silver strips cut from salvaged cigarette pack liners***
Here come the Wasps' nest strips:
And now all the little heart seeds:
Panel of 21 of February's postcards:
Fin.
*My friend, Barb, found this Wasps' nest and brought it to me years ago. I have enough scraps of 'paper' from other, not-intact nests that Mule and my friend Andy have salvaged for me over the years that I don't ever peel any off this beauty!
**Made from a piece of some plastic greenery that I glued onto some matte board and then inked:
***My friend, Joy, sent me these silver papers:
Addendum
(Warning!! Might be disturbing viewing.)
So sadly, a(nother) deer was hit up on the road across from the house, while I was working on these cards.
They travel their long-established corridor, right across our property.
The game warden came and swiftly dispatched the poor girl,
(she was otherwise nice and big - @140 lbs. - and healthy)
and left it with Mule to butcher and put in the freezer.
I don't think I've ever seen such RED meat!
Mule's considering doing another venison chili for the upcoming Nectar's Chili contest.
