The Heart Outside of Yourself

This mid winter I started to explore paper cutting and blogged about my first Valentines.  I have continued to make new paper cuts and this is the first that I have incorporated into an encaustic piece.

  

When I had my first child, someone said to me, "Now a piece of your heart will always be outside of yourself - out in the world".  That sentiment inspired this piece.

At first, it was just going to be a mother holding the strings tethered to her heart.  The attack on our city of Boston reminded me of how fragile those strings are.  The world is full of sharp objects but I won't change how I live my life.  I will protect and hold onto those strings making memories every day because tomorrow things could be different.

A fund has been established to help the victims of the bombing.

The Girls I Knew

I went to summer camp. "Camp Avalon, a sailing camp for girls" was special, a place where kids from different parts of the country and world came each summer to live together and build shared memories. I was fortunate enough to attend for 11 years and it had a big influence on who I have become as a person. The camp has been closed since 1988 but this past weekend we had a reunion. I did a lot of reflecting on my time spent there during the weeks leading up to the event. Finding old friends on Facebook jogged memories and inspired the start of a series, "The Girls I Knew". The amazing thing is that everyone was just the same (with a few lines of wisdom around the eyes) and I found that our shared memories and experiences bind us still.









I was so sad when the camp closed. I had hoped to send my daughter there one day but this weekend I realized that Avalon lives on in each girl that attended, whether it was one summer or a childhood of summers. I'll share my memories with my daughter, teach her the silly songs and hope to find her a wonderful camp where she can enjoy a similar experience because it's not necessarily the place but the people that made it so special.