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Atom's Monster on YouTube!!

1/21/2019

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I just posted my first YouTube video!  A friend (Scott Gaul) helped me take the video and edit it. Very exciting!
I haven't quite figured out how to load it here. I followed the directions, and nothing happened, so here's the url:
https://youtu.be/nthXcDN0JlU

The video is me, reading my first Children's Picture Book, Atom's Monster.
What do you do when you wake up with a monster in your room? When my 4 year old son woke up screaming, "there's a monster in my room!" I told him this story and later made it into a book. He and his little brother modeled for the illustrations! Now the son is a father and has shared the story with his 4 year old son.
When I made the story into a book, I was interested--still am--in ways to overcome fear without violence. We are taught that there are three ways we react to fear: fight, flight, or freeze. I believe there is another way, the hardest way of all: Stand and meet the thing that terrifies you with love, or at least without hatred.
I'm still learning this technique.

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Pink Power

1/17/2019

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I'm working on a new story, The Seagull's Gift, inspired by our many field trips to the beach when I had Suzanna's School. I'm playing with different ways to depict my main character for picture book, Aria. She loves sounds, colors, and feels. She's a bit bossy. Here's my first attempt:
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I think, though, that Aria is a bit sassy:
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Too sassy? How about this?
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What do you think?

Here are some more thoughts on illustrations for the book:
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 Here are the twins. They may or may not be in this story, but I'm sure we'll see them in a story soon!

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Studying the Quilts

1/11/2019

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It was a typical hot dusty day in the town of Oatman, in about 1978, when I bought these quilt tops from a swap meeter beside the road, Old Route 66. I paid only $25, but to me, they seemed truly precious.

Before I put them up out of reach of my toddler's hands, I examined them a little more closely. Each tiny piece was hand sewn to the next. One quilt was made of blue or white triangles 3" on a side; the other of hexagons cut from various patterns of fabric--1" to a side! The blue and white quilt had a blue ribbon pinned to it from the Crowley County Fair, 1928. The note with it was faded and pretty much unreadable. 

I kept meaning to finish these quilt tops, or to at least display them; instead, I occasionally took them out of storage to admire the meticulous work and to wonder about their maker, then put them carefully back.

A few weeks ago, I took them out again, remembering the day I bought them and intending to write about that in my memoirs. This time I noticed the state (Colorado) and city (Sugar City) on the blue ribbon, and was able to decipher the faded pencil writing on the note to discover the name of the maker, Amalia N Bates, age 77. I got a strong sense that if I could find her descendents, it was time for the quilts to go home.

I googled Sugar City--it was a boom town that grew up around a sugar beet factory about the time people were flocking to Oatman to search for gold. Like Oatman, it's population has dwindled (from about 1500 to about 200--400). I googled Crowley County and found contact information for the Crowley Historical Society and Annette. Annette and her team were able to find Amalia's great great grand daughter, Shelia Burns! Annette got me in contact with Shelia and we talked.

Two days later, the quilts were packaged up and on their way home! Now I'm working out why these quilts meant so much to me for so long. I'm painting, drawing, and writing to deepen my understanding and to honor the quilt maker, Amalia N. Bates, who sewed each little piece to the next by hand, at age 77!


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Those hand sewn quilts I got from a swap meeter in Oatman almost 40 years ago--why did I hang on to them for so long? 

I've been writing and drawing, trying to get to the bones of their meaning for me, remembering that hot dusty spring day--I think it was spring--when my neighbor was clearing out his grief when his wife died by selling the pieces of her life.

I tried painting the quilts before I sent them home.

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That didn't come out well.
I tried drawing them as they might have looked in the old steamer trunk where I found them.


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.Still no good.
When I touched them, there was something about the maker in every stitch, something that spoke to me over the years. Something that gave me hope that my chaotic life with young children and a stoner prospector life mate could someday have some order.
I tried to draw that. Twice.



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I'm still not satisfied, but I think--I THINK--I like the bottom one best. What do you think? Any suggestions? I'm a big girl; you can tear these apart with ideas about what would make the images work better.

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