A look back at 2015

At this time of year, as one draws to an end
& another begins to unravel, I like to reflect on my creative work.

I tried several different things, but there are two projects which stand out for me.

I joined in with ICAD this year, on my own terms,

but still following the general idea & prompts.

Here is a short video of the thirty-six index cards that I made.

If you are interested in learning more, just click on the ICAD2015 tag.

The second was a year long project of my own, which I called Waddington Weekly.

Here is a short video of all fifty-two altered playing cards.

If you are interested in learning more, click on the link above or on the Waddington Weekly tag.

I have a few ideas for 2016, but nothing certain as yet.

Blogs per se seem to be fading into obscurity,

but mine has always been about being a place where I just record my art projects,

like an art journal.

Visitors may be few & far between,

but I will continue to leave it as an open resource.

I have enjoyed my creative journey this year

& am looking forward to seeing what adventures 2016 brings.

Don't lose your head

My final altered playing card in my

Waddington Weekly

series,

which I began at the beginning of this year,

using selected poems from Poem for the Day One

This week I have chosen a poem by Rudyard Kipling.

If you can dream and not make dreams your master

If you can think and not make thoughts your aim

Here are all fifty-two altered playing cards.

Poets you may know

For my

Waddington Weekly

altered playing card project this week, I have chosen a poem by Francis Thompson.

From stones and poets you may know,

Nothing so active is,

as that which leasts seems so.

Everness

Altered playing card number 50 of my

Waddington Weekly

project uses a few lines from a poem by Jorge Luis Borges.

everything is part of that diverse

Crystalline memory, the universe;

Whoever through its endless mazes wanders

Hears door on door click shut behind his stride

Tread softly

A poem by W B Yeats is my choice for this week's

Waddington Weekly

altered playing card.

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

The image of the shoe is from The Graphics Fairy.

The Lonely Sea

Starting the countdown to the end of this year long project,

Waddington Weekly

my altered playing card this week

uses a few lines from a poem by John Masefield.

I must go down to the sea again,

to the lonely sea and the sky

And all I ask is a tall ship

and a star to steer her by.

I added Glossy Accents by Ranger to create a star.

Captain of my Soul

I have chosen a poem by W. E. Henley for my

Waddington Weekly

altered playing card.

I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul

Using an enlarged image of a stamp from my collection.

Original stamp

We must go ...

The poem I have chosen today for my

Waddington Weekly

altered playing card project is by Charlotte Mew.

The world is cold without

And dark and hedged about

With mystery and enmity and doubt

But we must go

Though yet we do not know

... what marks we shall leave upon the snow.

Remembrance

Waddington Weekly this week falls on Remembrance Day.

I have chosen a poem by Dylan Thomas for my altered playing card.

Where blew a flower may a flower no more

Lift its head to the blows of the rain.

The Gale of Life

My altered playing card for my WaddingtonWeekly project this week,
uses a few lines from a poem by A E Housman.

There, like the wind through woods in riot,

Through him the gale of life blew high;

The tree of man was never quiet:

This week I have used an image from my stamp collection,
together with three glitter gems.

Autumn Fields

Waddington Weekly

My poem this week is by Alfred Tennyson.

Tears from the depth of some divine despair

Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,

In looking on the happy autumn fields,

And thinking of the days that are no more.

Eternal Joy

A complete poem by William Blake is my choice for this week's

Waddington Weekly

altered playing card.

He who binds to himself a joy

Does the wingèd life destroy;

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity's sun rise.

Circle round the Earth

Charles Madge's poem is this week's choice for my altered playing card as part of my

Waddington Weekly

project.

The sun, of whose terrain we creatures are,

Is the director of all human love,

Unit of time, and circle round the earth.

Autumn Postcard

Autumn is here & with it I feel a change

in the poems chosen for Poem for the Day One,

which is the book I am using as the inspiration for my

Waddington Weekly

altered playing card project.

This week, I have picked a few lines from a poem by A E Housman,

as these lines remind me of my train journey to London last week,

seeing the pine cones laying abandoned

on the rail tracks at one of the stations I passed through.

On the russet floors, by waters idle,

The pine lets fall its cone;

The cuckoo shouts all day at nothing

In leafy dells alone;

The road less travelled

The poem for this week's altered playing card in my

Waddington Weekly

series, is by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Autumn

My Waddington Weekly project ensures that I do at least one creative thing a week.

This week's poem is by John Keats.

Hedge crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

I added three silver glitter gems & an image from The Graphics Fairy.