Max and the Wild Things by Maurice Sendak

After so much anticipation from my young son Finn we finally made it to the local theatre to see "Where the Wild Things Are" on the big screen. There are many things I am certain about in life one being the hours of pleasure my sons and I have enjoyed falling into the pages of this classic tale. For me as a young child it was the illustrations that reached out and pulled me into the world of Max and his Wild Things I think partly because my interest is aroused first from an artist perspective and really how can you not LOVE the master illustrations in this book.

Now, on to the heavy stuff. The stuff is keeping me up at 4:00am pondering life again because of the viewing of this movie. I asked my teenager who had seen the movie the night before not to fill me in on the details of the flick as I wanted to be "surprised"!

Surprised I was.

Indeed I did not expect the content or the adaptation of this book to be so grim and depressing filled with so many issues I dealt with as a young child like being raised by a single parent living a lonely life burning inside for attention from my parent. Also the strong story line revolved around the depression that the "Wild Things" lived under and the anger they were controlled by when Carol was mad, oh and yes, the depressing thought that the Sun is going to die...

For me the book shared with my children was magic with my thoughts always preferring the content to be happy. Maybe the movie seemed dark to me as when I was a child I lived in a house where we were all controlled by anger watching my mother and us be abused by one persons emotions??? So when the bitter dark side of the Wild Things developed as well as the anger that Carol exhibited when hurt brought me to a place that I know all too well.

I thought the movie to be dark and depressing even though I can respect and admire the wonderful job done with the costumes and emotions portrayed by the characters...Max was a fantastic roll played by Max Records...and the movie itself had a dream scape quality equal to independent films.

Maybe the movie did for me exactly what the director wished it to do for viewers? I just left the theatre feeling sad, lonely and depressed the exact opposite of how I feel when I close the pages of the book.

Don't know how Spike Jonze wanted me to feel but I will revert back to my own interpretation of this classic...

My happy place with the Wild Things!

Why don't you let me be, leave me alone

you start a fire inside that I could never control,

well here's your reaction.

"Stand Up" Trapt.

I think we have crossed over into fall, the rains are starting and all of our glorious hot weather is being tucked away is seems for next year.

Crossing over into the days of warm baking, hibernating, cuddling...(if I am lucky) and of course back to creating more art.

Another year of school has started for the boys as well as me...Woo Hoo last year for me!!

I just have to keep telling myself I can do it, May will arrive soon.

My positive attitude has carried me through many dark days so this hurdle can be jumped for sure!

Concentrating is hard with so many things on the plate but this year I feel much stronger, healthier, free. Finally I am free from the constricting emotionally abusive marriage I was chained too and have an opportunity to breath. Feeling confident, strong and happy is what I wish to share with the world

Today is International Day Against Homophobia

A day that has special meaning in our house...my middle son Aden is a homosexual youth with courage to walk his walk proudly amongst us.

He is an honour roll student , plays the violin, is a junior volunteer at a seniors home...is so very loved and accepted by our community and his peers at school. I think most of this is because of his shining amazing personality and soul carried by his confidence and joy for living.

He is just 14 years of age and already possess so many qualities humans 20 or 30 years his senior will never ever get. I LOVE my boy, I am proud of him for being who he is and not who society wants or thinks he should be.

Anytime a new family member or friend of ours finds out that he is gay, we always get the same response "but he is so young", "how does he know"......

REALLY??

When you were a young person starting to have feelings of love an desire for the sex of your liking were you not young, did you not pine for the cute person you had a crush on?

Think about it.

His feelings are normal feelings at a normal age. I think the misunderstanding surrounding homosexuality lead people to think that when you are a homosexual you don't really know until you are much older so I am happy to write this post and add a link to information so that understanding and tolerance will hopefully be the norm one day!

The LOVE for my child will always win...

Day Against Homophobia

Words of Perception worth listening to...

Creativity to say......I Love You

This little scene was made by my youngest son, Finn. I was in my studio studying and oh so quietly I hear a little Sneaky McSneaky coming up in the rear...."Oh" I say , "you little sneak", "You got me again"....There he was standing with his arm stretched out holding a handmade paper image of what he described as "mommy I made you". He has also crafted a house for me to live in including a TV for all those days I am bored and might want to watch a show or two...

Treasured they will be for sure.

I have been in the mood to create with my old trusty stand by, fabric and thread. I love creating pictures with thread...embroidery is kind of meditative, stitch by stitch. This piece is created by using basic muslin fabric in which I have embroidered an image of one of my girls then added paint for detail. I have attached the textile piece to a pine box frame.

I have been away for a little while catching up on some projects, getting children ready for the start of a new school year, and starting a new semester in the degree program I am taking!!! Gosh I am out of breath.....I really have wanted to post about this for a while now and feel really good about putting this up for Ya'll to see. One of my customers, a sweet person Michelle sent me a message one day asking if she could use one of my sketches/mini quilt designs for a tattoo she wanted to have done....she said it reminded her of herself and her daughter. I really love that first of all Michelle 'got it', the meaning behind this sketch as I designed it as a tribute to two of the most amazing residents I work with at the long term care facility....Myrtle and Eileen!! They are two ladies who have found each other and are always walking around holding hands, cuddling and just giving and receiving LOVE from each other.

Human contact that is what we crave, unconditional love, connection to another, to each other! We are all humans, does it matter if we are different in belief and or appearance??? I think not.

At the end of your life will you care?

Trust me I see it first hand from the lovely humans we care for....all they want is love and affection and understanding. I thank you Michelle for sharing this with me and everyone who sees the tattoo of you and your daughter!! If you want to check out Michelle's blog you can find it over at http://vintagethriftcraft.typepad.com/vintage_thrift_craft/