ULLABENULLA

Victorian Paper Folly Class this Saturday at the CASTLE, and a Peek at My Inspiration!

I will be teaching my 'Victorian Paper Folly' class this saturday at the CASTLE!  There is still plenty of room. Here is the description:

Victorians loved to create elaborate 'tableaux' for holidays and other special occasions.  Often these tableaux mimicked architectural follies popular at the time, which were miniature, nonfunctional buildings designed to enhance the natural landscape.  You'll create your own romantic structure from a concoction of small paper boxes, paper tubes, antique printed paper, crepe paper, and Dresden.  Yours will look charming as a picturesque centerpiece or under a glass dome as part of your collections.

Fee:  $115.00, includes all materials

Saturday May 23, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

Please call (510) 204-9801 to reserve your spot.

My inspiration for this class came from a lovely paper folly owned by a dear friend of mine - whose taste is exceptional!  I loved the simplicity and charm of her piece and knew instantly it would make a fabulous class! This antique was possibly used at a wedding, but I like to imagine it being created just for the pleasure of having something beautiful around...

Embracing Dusk...

DUSK

The darker part of twilight...

When the sun goes down...

(and interestingly a word created in the 13th Century whose roots mean 'dust')

Do you ever think about 'if you were a time of day - when would you be?'  

I know deep in my soul that I am indeed dusk.  I don't think I have always been dusk, as I remember once being afraid of the dark...  Can a child be 'dusk'?  

  

When I think of dusk, I think of that special time of day when the light dims to a certain mood, when colors seem to blend together, when the air is still and the heat of the day is slowly waning, or the cold getting colder...  I also think of dusk as a feeling - one of calm after a busy day, perhaps a bit tired, and definitely moody.  Those who know me well, know that I am definitely NOT a night-owl, and yet I adore dusk.  This time is not always happy for me, as my depression seems to dig deeper when the sun sets.  I do not fear night, dusk helps me to embrace it. 

I remind myself that I was born in October, and love Fall.  To me, dusk can be seen as the Autumn period of the day.  Although I am only one year away from turning 50, I am not ready yet to embrace my inner crone, so my dusk is still a growing woman... 

 

NOSTALGIA

Longing for something far away or long ago...

Mixed feelings of happiness, sadness and longing...

Akin to Greek 'neishai' to return; and Old English 'genesan' to survive...

I have always adored this word, and live my life in many ways with nostalgia in mind. How wonderful that its roots are 'returning and surviving'!  As I age, there are times when I feel myself drifting back in time, while searching for the meaning of life.  I dream of being a child again, and try to recall those feelings of delight.  But the reflections are always dimmed, as if seen at dusk... memories do that...

When I ask myself today why I create, and why I teach - the answer I hear - the answer I am shown...

Is simple.

Because I need to...

This past week I had a couple of incidents that made me question the WHAT, WHY and WHERE of my creativity and teaching.  I asked myself  'Where do I fit in?'  and 'Who do I create for?'   And ultimately that led me to feelings of 'Why even create?' 

I tend to be someone who takes these kind of questions to heart, and perhaps spends too much time in my head.  

As a dear friend of mine recently pointed out, "perhaps the reason bad things happen is so that we can see the path to good more clearly".  We know we must travel down a different path, and leave the old one (bad one) behind.  

My path is cast in a 'dusky' light right now.  I am fragile and tired, tender and a little heart sick.  Yet, I am also happy and grateful!

Daily you my dear readers, humble me - with your love and continued support.  

For this I thank you...

My dear husband was the one who reminded me of the quote:  "When God closes a door somewhere he opens a window".

It was pure providence that I should find an antique Dutch 'teaching poster'  with not only a window open to the heavens, but Dusk and Nostalgia shown in all their glory, while out antiquing this weekend.  I have hung it on the first wall you see as you come into our tiny home...  a place to remind me of open windows, soothing feelings of dusk and the inner beauty of nostalgia.

A place to embrace life...

   

When God Closes A Door, Somewhere He Opens A Window...

Thank you for your comments and emails... 

I am better, but still not ready to open up.  

Sunday is for HOPE...

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needing to escape...

My emotions are raw today, and I am in need of a few days alone.  Hope to be back soon...

Blessings

Ulla

Santos Hand Reliquary Class At The Castle!

Yesterday's Santos Hand Reliquary Class at the CASTLE was a true delight!  Every single one of my Eight students had taken one or more classes from me in the past, so it really felt like family!!!  It would be impossible for me to chose a favorite reliquary as they all turned out marvelous... have a look for yourself!

Fantastic job Ladies!!!

Animals from Finland...

I'm off to the Castle today, to teach my Hand Reliquary Class!  I thought I'd leave you with these truly delightful collages by Reetta Isotupa-Siltanen from Finland!  I love her use of pattern, and the implied simplicity of her work!  Truly delightful!!!

Prints available HERE!

Diary of Flowers and a Ghost...

"When I got out of graduate school, I stopped Painting because it was overwhelming and because I couldn´t find myself in the material. But I also stopped because I was forcing myself to be a painter because I thought that was what my education had taught me. I realized I had accepted a lot of belief systems that were not necessarily mine. From then on, it was just a slow process of deconstructing this education and breaking things down to simple words. And 'beauty' was one of them.... I felt that I was part of a long tradition investigating what beauty is all about—the mystery of it, the elusiveness of it. So, I set out to understand what that word meant for me." 

 A Diary of Flowers - Above the Clouds, Jim Hodges, 1995, Ink on 100 napkins with pins. 

PRESS ON IMAGES TO SEE LARGER!

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"...a tangled diorama covered by a large bell jar...  Inside, a lump of earth seemed to sustain a few examples of scraggly plant life, as well as a scattering of dead leaves and a couple of brightly coloured butterflies. Above it, a larger plant might have given the scene some shade were it not made entirely of clear glass. This strange form gives the lie to the rest of the construction: every element in the piece, from the pine needles to the ladybird that can be spied in the undergrowth, is realistically rendered in coloured glass... Its preciousness shouts down the melancholic echoes indicated in its title – one ghostly form rising up over other (differently) ghostly forms, all of which conjure some bucolic and cutesy illustration of a hedgerow wilderness that is itself a ghost of something that perhaps never existed."

GHOST, Jim Hodges, 2008, hand blown glass.

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Happy Mothers Day!

"To be a mother is the grandest vocation in the world.
No one being has a position of such power and influence.
She holds in her hands the destiny of nations;
for to her is necessarily committed
the making of the nation's citizens."

---Hannah Whitall Smith

Drypoint etching by Paul Herrmann, 1864-1940