Long, Long Ago

Posted on August 22, 2014 by AM Roselli

Dear Friends,
When I was little, I wore my brown hair in a cute pixie. Next, I sported a mussy shag that I adored at age ten. My chubby cheeks were in full view. As I grew into my insecure teens so grew my hair. I realized if it grew it long enough, I could hide behind it. My face would be concealed, as would my thoughts. When I found my roaring twenties, so roared my hair. If I wore it big and crazy enough, people would run. In my thirties, I grew tired of hiding, I secured my hair in a heavy ponytail – like a sword.

Hair Hiding

Heavy as my hair got, it made my heart feel lighter.

One bright day I realized, hey, this freakin’ hair is really heavy and it hurts my head. I was ready to lighten the load. What made it much easier was knowing my ‘Linus Blanket,’ went to help make others secure. It has been donated a few times, the last being October 2013.

I don’t hide anymore. I can’t. My kids make it quite impossible, as does the giant husband. They always seem to find me. I miss my old friend. So back it grows, but this time for the right reasons.

Thank you. May you all be happy in your skin, and if your skin has hair, may it be as long as you like. Dream well…

Here’s to Daphne, a dear friend taken by cancer, a long time ago. Daphne and I used to peruse wig catalogues when she was up to feeling pretty. And to my valiant Aunt Lenore, also claimed, but was ever-valiant for many years…
Little Miss Long Hair created with Prisma pencil August 21, 2014 with my hair tied back. Photo is of me and my beautiful, younger sister Dolores in 1980. Sorry if I grossed anyone out with the shot of, My Hair in a Bag, 2013

A Sexy Green Dragon and an Old Black and White

Posted on August 20, 2014 by AM Roselli

Dear Friends,
A bulletin board hangs in my kitchen. It supports a collection of photos spanning a few generations. This morning, while tidying up (I must speak with the house elf) my mom’s sorority picture caught my eye. What is is about old monochromatic images. I’ve never met an old black & white that didn’t jet my heart back into a romantic world – the classic dress, the heavy-lipsticked smile, the proper pose, and of course, the sophisticated hairstyle with curls and waves set in their geometric place.

I was staring at this classic photo and thought it would serve as a perfect leveler for my ‘sexy’ dragon. Why did I draw a sexy dragon? You know, I don’t know. She just came to me, and like my other little creatures, I had to release her from my brain or she’d stay in there and get me into trouble. 🙂 I’m sorry for the brief nudity. Think of her as old-school voluptuous.

The lovely sorority lady below is my beautiful mother. I added the green tint because I think she’s still sexy. 🙂

Thank you and when you dream this eve, let it be of gorgeous, gentle dragons in your choice of color. Love you mom.

Sorority Photo (sorry, don’t know photographer’s name, but it’s a lovely shot)
Sexy Dragon created with Prisma pencil, two days ago while drinking wine 🙂

Tackle With Love, Son

Posted on August 19, 2014 by AM Roselli

Dear Friends,
The big son decided this year he’d like to give football a try. He’s a gentle soul by nature – a pacifist at heart – but, he’s discovered a love for mannish sports. I look at him, smiling with his gigantic football gear on and pray it keeps him safe from injury. Though, I know it’s impossible to ask for such a divine favor – so I’ll just ask that he has fun and that he’ll only require a bandaid from time to time.

We can’t protect our children anymore than we can make ourselves less vulnerable to life. What we can do is arm them with self-confidence. So when their young minds are conflicted or they find themselves in a precarious situation, they can remember the mantra, “I’m better than this…”

After I took this silly-faced picture of the big son, he said, “I’ll feel bad if I hurt anyone, mom.”

I responded quite motherly, “Then tackle them with love, my son.” Then I glanced up at the sky and thought, I hope you’re tackled with love too.

Love Tackle

On the way to the big son’s 5 and 1/2 hour practice today, we saw the sun’s rays peeking through. We both took this as a good sign…

Thank you. May you dream this evening of the world’s children being safe from harm.

Big Son with Goofy Face photo taken August 14, 2014
Blue Footballer drawn August 18, 2014 with Prism and fingers crossed (right hand only, needed left to draw)
Sun rays taken this AM, August 19, 2014

Sparkling Eyes

Posted on August 12, 2014 by AM Roselli

Dear Friends,
His laughter will continue to touch us long after this day…

May you rest your tired eyes in peace…

Thank you for the laughter, Robin and the poignant moments

Moonskin and a Blue Monster

Posted on August 10, 2014 by AM Roselli

Dear Friends,
The saturday night moon… Something about soft blue light bathing parts of vulnerable skin, the bedroom window allows to be touched. So peaceful this moonlight. Smiling, forgetting my head sinking into the mattress because that old pillow has seen better days. Like a child – I was – in that satin light. Our dachshund curled under the comforter; a tunneler by trade. Shouldn’t he be howling or something?

A few months ago, the big son was perusing my high school yearbook. He found my senior picture, looked a few moments then said, “Mom, you looked pretty.” I smiled. He made me feel young like that satin moonlight, if only for a moment.

And of course, now that I’m lots older, more wrinkled and much wiser, the moonlight also inspires other things. I like to call this lovely birdie, Bluebell. He rises with the sunset and enjoys all things in blue moon light.

If you should meet him please don’t worry, he harbors a sweet disposition, but just to be safe, I’d let him be…unless the moon is extra bright…

Thank you and goodnight. May delicious blue moonlight guide you to dreamland…
High School grad photo taken 1981 yikes! Bluebell images created in 2010…

Dappled Sunlight

Posted on August 8, 2014 by AM Roselli

Dear Friends,
Was it so long ago four little feet shuffled up the silent, curving driveway? The trees were especially kind that summer day as they cooled your bright bodies. Filtered sunlight painted dappled patches on your skin. You held your brother’s hand. Your brother held tight both your hand and his blue, plastic golf club. Our Shepherd guarded you both as if you were her own pups.

But as fast as the leaves left the trees, you both grew. Your feet wandering off that silent driveway and onto other travelled roads. Today, tomorrow or wherever your paths take you, keep in your hearts that dappled day when the sun was warm and the light was cool and we had a picnic lunch on the soft green grass…

How quickly the young gallop away…

Thank you and goodnight. May you count your blessings instead of sheep this night…
Have a beautiful weekend. 🙂
Delicate daughter and big son taken 2002 at our old house in the woods, zebras rendered in Prisma 2008

Animal Bullies

Posted on August 6, 2014 by AM Roselli

Dear Friends,
There is something so absolutely pacifying in a wagging tail or a wet nose against a palm. Animals bring magic to our lives. They make us smile-

It is so very sad when animals languish in shelters. Are we not their caretakers? It is so very sad when magnificent creatures are cut down because it is easy. One wouldn’t dare approach a gorilla bare-fisted. Our power is in body-splitting metal equipment only, we own nothing naturally. We trigger from a safe distance then take our prizes in hands and horns and leave the rest to waste. How sad for us.

I hold hope, as many of you do. We are better than those few who maim for profit. We are better than those who buy then throw on the street because the puppy didn’t fit ‘the dream.’ We will be better. We are good and kind and animals too…

Thank you and goodnight. May you dream of fantastic jungles and leap from vines of silken pillows.
Peace my friends…
Delicate Daughter and Mojo the Dachshund taken in 2013, gorilla and rhino sketched in 2008

The View from Above

Posted on July 31, 2014 by AM Roselli

Dear Friends,
What is it about leaving our ‘normal’ lives if only for a few days, that throws off the brain’s trajectory? The trajectory being any forward motion beyond a REM cycle. How different we are from one another, whether two streets or many countries apart. Yet despite distance, we constantly seek out similarities. We ache for common ground on which to rest our feet. Beyond grasping the universal necessities of breathing, drinking, eating, sleeping and reproducing, we are often perplexed. The bravest of us dive deep to skim emotional distances beyond invisible borders. But many of us are not brave. We take comfort in comfort’s sake. Our superficial observations block insight. Languages are walls of jumbled symbols. Unfamiliar comfort zones are not easily navigated.

I wonder – as I’m quite sure many of you do – what non-earthly sentient beings would deduce from our world, both past and present. Would they consider us intelligent, performance-driven, altruistic and neighborly? Or looking down at Earth, would they believe us devoid of any compass, moral or otherwise? Lacking universal sameness, would these sentient beings comprehend our world? Would they conclude we live well together?

This outdoor sculpture stands behind Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island. As I took this photo, the sky bright all around, I contemplated what a non-earth entity would make of this particular subject, hence what they’d think of us earthlings…

The little green visitor below would like to give us, ‘the benefit of the doubt.’

Cheesy Alien

Thank you and goodnight. May you slumber deep and float upon sparkling space dust…
Alien Ragoo created July 22, 2014 with Prisma pencil while listening to Lincoln’s Biography.

We All See

Posted on July 24, 2014 by AM Roselli

Dear Friends,
We look up from Tahiti. We look up from Andora. We look up from French Guiana. We look up from Chile. We look up from Belgium. We look up from Gibraltar. We look up from St. Vincent. We look up from Macedonia. We look up from Cuba. We look up from Armenia. We look up from Senegal. We look up from Nepal. We look up…

We all see the sky. We all share the azure. We all see the clouds. We all share the billowy white. We all see the storm. We all share the ominous gray. We all see the sun. We all share the bright yellow. We all see the sunset. We all share the crimson. We all see the moon. We all share the silver-blue. We all see the stars. We all share…

We all see…

Thank you and goodnight. May you dream of the world’s people gazing up together, thankful for the sky…

Lady of Sorrows, 4′ x 3′ oil on canvas, 1997

The Pointy-Eared Dog Who Admired Art

Posted on July 20, 2014 by AM Roselli

Dear Friends,
There once lived a pointy-eared dog who admired art. He marveled at flat empty spaces of no significance brought to life with color, line and form. His great canine imagination soared whenever he gazed upon brushwork harmony –

One day he met a lovely blue-eyed woman. They spent the afternoon sipping Harley & Sons Peppermint Herbal Tea – his favorite – bantering about the merits of sable brushes infused with hog hair. He asked a passerby to take a photo of this lovely smiling day. For the pointed-eared dog feared, if precious moments were not captured on canvas or film, the memories would be lost forever-

Concern for his own lasting image began haunting him. The pointy-eared dog once heard of a legend. A pointy-eared dog like himself – a Queen in her day – who had her image committed to canvas.

He wished for the same and set about the task of gathering the portraitist’s location. During his info quest, the pointy-eard dog heard another legend. This one painted terror in his heart. After the Queen’s death, the royal portraitist became a recluse and had moved beyond the border of Werewolf Wood. If one desired their portrait painted, one must make it through Werewolf Wood alive.

The pointy-eared dog contemplated his motives for desiring a portrait of himself-

He questioned the intelligence of risking life and limb –

The pointy-eared dog even tried imagining the mighty Werewolf fearing itself-

Lupogoggle

In the end, the pointy-eared dog smartly decided not to risk a journey through Werewolf Wood. He’d have to do his best to remember himself from the inside. He’d try to summon his best qualities and paint an image in his heart. The pointy-eared dog reasoned if he focused on his good qualities everyday, his image would be a masterpiece…

Thank you. May you dream a dream free of werewolves and hobgoblins…
Hope you enjoyed this little tale. Incidentally, Rocky the Shepherd is a ham 😉

Photo: Rocky posing with Captain -acrylic on canvas, 1998 Photo: My lovely sister Dolores with Rocky 2011 Photo: Chama posing with her portrait: oil on canvas,1994 Photos: Rocky the Shepherd closeups – 2013
Werewolf art – mixed media 2011, Werewolf with Goggles – Prisma 2014