Turning

I digitally altered this image. Its original title was "Marking Time", 10" x 12" cold wax, oils, metallics and collage. My time at art making with oils/cold wax is coming to an end. The mornings are too cold and damp out on the deck for me. I've enjoyed the materials but now I return inside to my studio and acrylics.

Turning:
For me this is a time to re-examine and prepare for the turning year. A time for looking back in order to move forward with a fresh outlook. I'll be taking time off posting here at Blue Sky Dreaming and will return after Sept. 26th. I have placed a badge of my catalog in the sidebar if you wish to preview my book and visit blurb.com. During this time away, I'll be making changes to this site which are long overdo and will be a way of beginning again.

M.Lehrer-Plansky a catalog 2008-2012

M. Lehrer-Plansky by Mary Ann Lehrer-Plansky | Make Your Own Book

I am so pleased to launch this catalog here on Blue Sky Dreaming! Creating this book with Blurb.com has been a big high riding thrill and challenge for me. All in all I have learned so much and in this case, I can say I'm proud of the results.This catalog is 60 pages containing my writing and images and is offered in soft cover and hard cover with a dust jacket. It measures 

approx. 8"x8" square. An unexpected perk has been the ability to make this book available as an e-book. I would highly recommend this form as the price is extraordinarily low. This experience has opened the door for me to consider creating other books with my art but for now I'm basking in pride and gratitude. Not bad for the little girl who began way back on Clarke St.?!!

Recurring Dream 2

15"x16", paper, oil, cold wax, photo collage, iridescent bronze oil stick.
I'm from a family of big night time dreamers. I'm the actor, I'm the director and they all seem to be memorable and important! I've read dream books and they haven't been helpful in breaking this dreamers code.
Elephants come and go in my dreams. I was very impressed with a movie "Elephant Walk" when I was a little girl and I feel love and sadness and even admiration for their family network. I met this elephant at one of those Animal/Sea World parks and for a brief moment we had what seemed like a sorrowful eye contact. I photographed this elephant several times but never captured what I felt. I had it enlarged in B&W and then hand colored the background in order to rid the image of the elephant's handler in a T-shirt. The numbers below spell out dream....4 for D, 18 for R, 5 for E and so on and on. Does anyone what to share their recurring dream...characters, places?
UPDATE:  good news....I sold "Heat & Smoke"! I like when that happens!

Personal Prayer Flags

These raggedy prayer flags hang on my deck as a reminder of a few ongoing prayers. In no way do they try to represent the beautiful and color specific prayer flags I see fluttering in yards all over our little beach town. These three were made from collage fabrics and papers and include beads, a bell, old buttons and even a photo of a copper heart I made long ago. The wing image is a favorite and I added colored stones. The center one is patched with laces and gauze and the one on the left of the three has prayers printed  on old paper with addition of very old buttons. I have these three suspended from my deck cover (sorry, took the photo at night...) with the hopes they will remind me daily of these prayers as well as a reminder to let them go and be in the wind. Sometimes when I am out on the deck watering or sweeping, I forget that they are there and then a breeze will toss them about and the bell will ring...nice reminder. I plan on leaving them up in all weather as long as they hold together.

The exotic name of Inez

18" x 18" on paper, cold wax, oils, collage and oil pastel.
I think I've solved a family mystery. I am the Matriarch so there isn't too much debate. It began with me as a girl noticing my mother and sister sharing the same middle name, Inez. To me, this was an exotic name and I wondered if the name might be connected to a long forgotten Spanish Land Grant or the name attached in some way to my mothers Spanish made silk dancing shoes? Recently I went on Wikipedia and found a very famous Inez Milholland Boissevain who was a suffragette, labor lawyer, World War 1 correspondent and public speaker. She died young but her fame and popularity was great. About that same time my great grandmother (a follower of the women's movement) named her daughter Inez.. Some years later my grandmother names my mother Inez after that sister-in-law and last my mother passed the name to my sister. My mother didn't make the connection to the popular suffragette Inez as my great grandmother was very old when she was a young girl. I'm just betting I'm right! The code for Inez is APBX. I may go back an add some gold bits here and there. Maybe its the colors but this reminds me of Russian dolls.