Seventeen

Abominable Snowman Walking in a Blizzard

Acrylic on canvas covered foam
4'x8'

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Sixteen

A dance with a vampire can leave you drained...

OK, so this is a photo of Jack...the son of my oldest and dearest friend whom I met in middle school, who decided it would be fun to spend spring break with me (he lives in Ohio). I've had a blast this week spending time with him for the first time in many years. Anyway, as today was his last day in town, we spent the afternoon touring places that were important to me and his father "back in the day," including our boyhood homes, schools, churches, and one graveyard in particular that still kind of haunts us.

Way in the back of this old cemetery in town, tucked in amid grave stones dating back to the 1800s, is this brick mound, about the size of a coffin. In high school I was told that a vampire was buried there and they bricked in his grave to keep him from escaping. I've also heard folks say it is a witch. There is no marker nearby to give us any kind of clue. I spent many evenings there under the full moon with friends...reading cards, maybe drinking Boone's Farm.

Anyway, I still don't know if a vampire or witch buried there. Jack is convinced it's a large flying magical cat with giant teeth. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't...who am I to say? But this special visit to the resting place of a mythical monster from my youth, definitely deserves a spot in my Year of the Monster.

Besides, Jack picked out the hat for my homage to Cousin It (number 15, below). :)

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Fifteen

Second Cousin It Once Removed

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Fourteen

Dirty Little Devil

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Thirteen

watercolor on tea-dyed copy paper

twelve

Construction paper

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Eleven

brown rice, yellow onions, orange carrots, black beans, green olives on Blue Willow

Ten: When Citrus Goes Bad

Evil Lemon

lemon, pipe cleaners, googly eyes.

Maybe this is the future if we don't support organic farming practices.

You have been warned...

Nine

Snot Monster

It's that time of year when this little guy takes up residence in my nose.

Inspired by a Facebook conversation today with my friend Meg of Pushing the River. She's a great friend and an amazing photographer...you should check out her blog...you won't be disappointed. :)

Eight

Little Sea Monster

Thumb print, sharpie, and watercolor (my nemesis) on a business card.

First in the Little Monsters series. (because I have a bunch of old business cards and need to practice painting with watercolors)

Seven

Thing In a Jar. I'm not really sure what it is. Evidently, there are others.

Could have probably done without the wax. Maybe next time.

Six

My favorite painting shorts had a hole in them so I thought I would cover it up with a quick zombie patch. Turns out it wasn't as quick as I had anticipated...my sewing skills have gotten a little rusty. Nevertheless, I'm happy with the first machine applique project I've done in probably a decade, and I'm thrilled to pull my fabric stash out of the attic and find it still in good shape!

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Five

A small tunnel book to celebrate the full moon. I still made it in before midnight! :)

Four

Made this little guy for a birthday e-card that I posted to a friend's Facebook wall. I picked the green fun fur because that's her favorite color. Happy Birthday Beth!

Three

So I started this project with the goal of trying some of the craft items in my stash that I've never used. Here then, is my first attempt with polymer clay. The whole thing is approx. 3.5 inches tall.

Two

I think I worked through my pipecleaner phase with this one.

One Down!

To watch over and guide my year of creation:

My very first Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I have no idea what to do next. O.o

A bit of an re-introduction

Well, the time feels right to dust off the keyboard and crank up the blog again. For those of you who don't know, I started this blog back in January 2006 as a space to explore a daily creativity challenge with one of my oldest and dearest friends, grafxcowgirl. We had a blast giving each other random daily assignments designed to get our creative juices flowing...and flow they did. Right up through April 2006, when the challenge of working two jobs while staying up until 2AM to finish my assignments began to take its toll, and I had to bow out of this project.

Then, in January 2008, I really started missing creating things for myself, so I jumped into the 365 self portrait community on Flickr. I loved that project...made it 131 wonderful days before my two jobs started catching up with me again, and I made the very difficult choice to let sleep win out over my personal creative life.

Fast forward to February 2011: my friend Kim mentioned Noah Scalin's Daily Creativity Journal in a Facebook post, and I decided it was a sign that the time was right to start a new 365 project...one I would finish this time. We were joined by Kim's friend Gary (who is now my friend...YAY!) and over beverages on a couch, picked March 15 as the day we would all start our respective projects.

So here we are at the beginning of a new project: 365 days of monsters. (That's just my theme, they're both doing something else...you should check them out, they're incredibly talented and beautiful people.)

Anyway, now I'm re-learning Blogger, and I don't have the slightest idea what I will get into in the next year. I hope to use up a lot of my craft stash, while following only one rule: "Make it up as you go along."

Feel free to come along for as much of the ride as you like.

I think you have to know who you are. Get to know the monster that lives in your soul, dive deep into your soul and explore it. ~Tori Amos