The Games People Play

That's the theme this week over at Mixed Media Monday.  So you've heard the familiar phrase "house of cards"--well for this art challenge, I created a kindgom of cards--

This is where the King and Queen of Hearts live--click on the photo for a closer view.

This is the King's place, and

here is the Queen's--that must be their son Prince Jack up on the second floor.  Also, you'll notice that what's growing there are Club, Heart, Spade, and Diamond flowers, and the trees are Spade trees.

Growing up, that was what my brothers and I did for entertainment--we played alot of cards.  When we were young, our favorite card game was War.  Does anyone remember that game?  It's basically a never ending game--we would play with a double deck and we'd play that same game for days.  And then as we got older, our favorite was Pinochle--we loved  that game.  As much as I love now and modern technology--I still like the "olden" days before Play Station 3 and computers.  I don't think my kids growing up ever even heard of the word Pinochle.

When I started out with this piece, I knew that I was going to make the houses out of the deck of cards that I had.  I loved the round playing deck that I used for the trees.  I like putting houses in my artwork,  but I didn't know how they would turn out.  I made the houses, and then my muse just took over and they came to life.  When I finished, I looked at it  and realized that it was the King and Queen's kingdom!

 And when I'm in my art room, I talk to myself ALOT.  What scares me though, is that I tend to have a conversation with myself.  But I had an "aha" moment.  I was at Sharon's site --All Norah's Art--the class doesn't start until Feb. 5, but the site is open now. Well anyway Sharon (she's a cool lady :) was telling us that she talks to herself  also, and sometimes things just come out of her, and she told us that it's her muse, Norah talking to her.  How cool is that?   Her muse has a name.  And then that's when I realized--there's nothing wrong with me--it's MY MUSE talking back to me!!  Thanks Sharon, for giving me that insight--I feel better now.  Sometimes my muse (I don't know her name....yet) can be a bit irritating, but I always listen to her, because she's usually right.

I also wanted to tell you that I went to our mall a couple of days ago to get some things, and of course I had to stop in at Michaels and Borders to treat myself to a latte (my drink of choice).    And when I was there, I picked up the latest issue of this--

I haven't had a chance to even open it yet, but I'm looking forward to it.  The main reason is that I am loving all of these beautiful journal pages that I'm finding on alot of your blogs.  I really want to start an art journal.  My first step was starting this blog, but I want to start a real life one.( well I actually kind of started one with my upside down Suzi faces)  I found Jo Reimer's blog One a Day, and on it she encourages everyone to keep a journal, whether it's art or just writing--just basically to record your life.  She tells of her mother and father being married during the Depression and the tough times that fell on them, and she wished that they would have kept  some kind of journal--anything just to know how they felt   during this time of their life.  And don't you wish that you could read things from your relatives that are no longer with you --even if it were just beautiful artwork in a beautiful journal. After I read her post, I felt guilty for not recording anything of what I do.

And also on her blog, she had a very  interesting  utube video of a man who discusses his journaling, and you guessed it--I'm putting up another VERY interesting video for you to enjoy (Thanks Jo)--I LOVED this video!!