Thursday, November 5, 2009

Putting Stretch Marks on My Comfort Zone

When my friend Elizabeth Owen asked me to participate in a Tarot card exchange, I said "yes" even though I truly don't know that much about Tarot. However, I like to occasionally do things that frighten me. The cards needed to be based on a work of Edgar Allan Poe. Well, when I got the Page of Wands panic is exactly what I did for days. This was not going to be easy. I read Poe poetry for days and my panic subsided a little when I came across his poem "Dreams" which seemed to fit.

Dreams

Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awak`ning, till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow:
Yes! tho` that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,
`Twere better than the dull reality
Of waking life to him whose heart shall be,
And hath been ever, on the chilly earth,
A chaos of deep passion from his birth !

But should it be - that dream eternally
Continuing - as dreams have been to me
In my young boyhood - should it thus be given,
`Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven!
For I have revell`d, when the sun was bright
In the summer sky; in dreamy fields of light,
And left unheedingly my very heart
In climes of mine imagining - apart
From mine own home, with beings that have been
Of mine own thought - what more could I have seen?

`Twas once & only once & the wild hour
From my rememberance shall not pass - some power
Or spell had bound me - `twas the chilly wind
Came o`er me in the night & left behind
Its image on my spirit, or the moon
Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon
Too coldly - or the stars - howe`er it was
That dream was as that night wind - let it pass.

I have been happy - tho` but in a dream
I have been happy - & I love the theme -
Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life -
As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
Of semblance with reality which brings
To the delirious eye more lovely things
Of Paradise & Love - & all our own!
Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.

My first attempt failed. I tried to not let it get me down and now that the second card is finished, I'm actually quite happy the first attempt failed. This is done with a collage technique that uses polymer medium and heat. I'm new to it and really like it. I drew the sun and colored it in with Prisma color pencils and rubber stamped the stars and "Page of Wands." Since the Page is young, I found a photo of Poe as a youth. The checkerboard is from an envelope. I do love them. Anyway, I stretched, overcame fear and failure and lived to tell another tale. Now I can only hope the other artists are happy. I am.

3 comments:

  1. I love the title of your page! The tarot card turned out great. It is wonderful that you used several different materials and mediums to create it.

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  2. I've had the opportunity to learn a lot about Tarot recently. I don't think they are scary anymore. They are really just symbols that speak to our unconscious and another tool for self-discovery. I think yours turned out great. Good for you that you worked through the fear!

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  3. Susie and Sherrie, thanks for the kind words. They are appreciated!

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Love comments! Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me.