A HUGE BENCHMARK, STUPENDOUS, MIRACULOUS, AWESOME, LIFE CHANGING BENCHMARK!

98,231 IS TODAYS TOTAL SO FAR!

Wow! Wow! Wow! We are about to reach the biggest benchmark of Rabbit's Moon Studio's two year History! With in a few days we will reach 100,000 and then my loyal readers and accidental readers we will CELEBRATE! 

The Rabbit's Moon Studio story for those who joined us along the way and not at the beginning.  In August 2007 I was vacationing in San Miguel Allende, Mexico with friends.  The wonderful old villa we rented for five with outside living room and open windows with no mosquito nets.  Unbeknown to us, the beautiful fountain in the middle of the complex had sat stagnate until the night before we arrived. 

Mosquito's  had bred for months and months in the compound.  The evenings we sat out and the nights as we slept we were bit repeatedly by mosquito's.  We all became ill, but two of us with immune deficiencies were very ill and hospitalized.  We had dengue fever.  
For the next year we were in and out of hospitals and confined to be with bone breaking fever and debilitating fatigue.  

So on the days and days I lay in bed I began to think what could I do with my time.  I retired fully  from teaching in 2008 never returning to the classroom, but missing art a great deal. 
 Then I found out I had Hepatitis C due to the dengue fever.  My immune system was so compromised that a virus I had carried since 1985 when I was exposed to the virus during an operation before blood was tested.  Now I was in a fight for my life and more bed ridden that ever.  

Me on the left,  My friend Peruvian Monica and her husband Brian

My young friend Monica, from Peru, had an idea about doing a blog, and I thought why can't I do that as well.  It will be about my art, supporting other artists, and being an art advocate, and helping others see through the eyes of an artist the process of creating art.  

So Rabbit's Moon Studio was born.  Now two years later, I am still writing and still sharing rarely missing more than a day or two.  I had no idea I would be so committed to doing this with such attentiveness.  But now a little more that two years later here we are facing a new benchmark of 100,000 visits from people worldwide...from Nepal to the Philippines to Bali to Australia, to England to Russia to China to Bangladesh, to Africa and around the world we go for the love of art and the good it can bring in this world, for you and in your community.  

I thank you loyal readers!!!  You have made this successful by your committed readership.  I honor you, for two years ago I sat ill in my bedroom in my bed ill and started typing to the world.  Now I am healthy, doing art, traveling and meeting other artists who I have made friends with through this blog.  I thank you all for the bottom of my heart.  I am trying to think of a way to honor you back and share something special with you. 

Mary May( my niece, really cousin, but I claim her as my niece, my closest cousin friend's daughter), Olivia Murray(adopted niece) Sally Murray(best buddy who contracted Dengue also and was hospitalized) and June Berkey(long time friend who I depend on for sage advice)

 ps.  an addendum...you may ask why Rabbit's Moon as a name.  That to is more than it appears.  I do not own rabbits nor did I chose the name because it sounds Indian or from a Japanese tale.  It too began as an accident during a difficult time. It is an act of positive affirmation when I was working for a horrible principal who was abusive to her staff, and put on an open stage in a cafeteria with no curtains or wall to three lunches of severely emotionally disturbed teenagers who jumped on stage to fight with my class, taunted them and me, threw food on stage and more.  One 19 year old disturbed young man who had a history of hitting teachers threatened me and I stared at his cocked fist for thirty minutes while I talked him down and talked the class into getting him to calm down.  The principal wanted to punish me and not the disturbed young man, that is how disturbed she was.  So what did I do, I counted Rabbits in the middle of an interstate where their seemed to be no sustainable living situation...little brown marsh rabbits.  One day I saw one, and then two ....I finally got up to five.  I decided in my mind they brought me good luck and not matter how bad my day might be, I could consciously trick my mind...like on a Friday and I knew the weekend was coming, no amount of bad stuff was going to bother me.  Counting Rabbits got me through a horrible horrible year.  So I learned the basis of positive thinking 

The Blog that built Dreams Come True
Martin Stynes, British Abstract Landscape Artist that read my blog, became
friends with Kathie O'leary(red head in the back and fellow art teacher)..and then we
all started to talk and share weekly.  So now here is Martin, blog friend, and his wife
Barbara(printed dress) here in Florida like a miracle realized due to Rabbit's Moon
studio blog!  Amazing!

that year.  So that is the whole story readers.  Now I continue to place my trust in you to love art, share art, build art in your community and to use art to educate and elevate!  Art saves lives, I know I taught 37 years and saw the magic in action.  I have been an artist all my life, all 66 years save the first two...but at two I started drawing and never stopped nor lost the passion or the urge to do art.  Art is my life, art is me, and I am art.  

Looking at Life a Little Closer

TIME LAPSE PHOTO'S OF LIFE IN PROCESS

I was driving on the interstate back from doing a round of errands when this reflection of lights on the back of a truck.  It was almost like a mirrored surface it was so reflective.  I found the oval shape interesting as well.   The traffic all came to a stop several times, so it gave me an opportunity to study the visual effects closer and photograph what I was seeing.  I almost always have a small camera with me. I use the camera for many reasons, as a journal, documenting events or things I want to come back and look at closer.  There are millions of images we see daily and filter out.  We are busy, rushing here or there.  Whether you are an artist or not, living life takes precedent.  But I have tried to train myself to look at the things that catch my attention, as this truck did, or things out of the corner of my eye..just on the edge of my vision.  There can be so many things we miss in a day just because we are too busy to focus and life is such that these fleeting moments may never happen again in the same way.  As humans we think oh, tomorrow I will see this again or the next day.  The reality is in our short life span as human beings on this Earth there is a myriad of things that just happen for that moment never to be repeated the same way again.  

How will I use this in my art work?  I am not certain, but I know if fascinates me.  I particularly like all work trucks and day workers going or coming home from the job.  I love the colors on the back of trucks, the tools, the lights, the warning labels, and government stamps...I love the symmetry and organization of images.  

You know how they say in the movies, don't try this trick at home?  Do take pictures, but not while driving!  I am sometimes tempted to do just that.  I even love the movement the photographic image makes when there is movement and it is a blur.  

As I look at the progression of this image, it almost seems as if my car drove right into the truck..entering a time portal.  Hmmmm...idea emerging...artist at work, artist at work, beep, beep, beep.

MY LIFE IS ART, AND ART IS MY LIFE!

photo by elizabeth gordon  

HAPPY NEW YEAR AROUND THE WORLD TO YOU ALL! 


MAY 2013 SURROUND YOU WITH ART!

DALI MUSEUM                                                   ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA

Drawing Palooza/Be a Part of this!

If you haven't heard of the Sketchbook Project this is a neat idea.  It may be for only the USA, not sure, but for the price of a sketchbook and registration you can be a part of this national project. You just list the area your sketchbook fits under like travel or memoirs or other..the start they send you a sketchbook and you start sketching.  It becomes a part of a national archive others get to see and share.  You literally can see and check out other peoples sketchbook and write and tell them if you like it.  I think it is a great idea.  So lets all get drawing!!!!!

from google image

Here is the site for the Sketchbook Project(click)

La Familia /Barcelona                   Gaudi      photo Elizabeth Gordon

Art is a human activity which has as its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feelings to which men have risen.
Leo Tolstoy(click)


It might seem odd to pair a photograph of Gaudi's(click)Church Architecture with Leo Tolstoy, but it tells a story about the highest and the best of ourselves. Gaudi worked a good bit of his later life on the designs and construction of La Sagrada Familia,(click) he actually died while begging money for the continuation of the building.  When I visited in the early 2000's it was estimated the workers working today on the cathedral would not live to see it finished in their life time.  Gaudi had passion and talent, but people recognized that what he had started was so brilliant and exceptional it was worth building on another hundred years!

Poodle in Bottle caps!

Poodle in Bottle Caps

I found this artist work while window shopping in Asheville, North Carolina. Bellagio is a wonderful store with hand made artist designed clothing. Someday I will own a piece! As I walked by this art work caught my eye, a dog made in found objects. It is so interesting how an artist creates and how an artist creates. I thought it was funky and fun and creative. How about you?

I like to think of all my readers as an extended world family and perhaps together we can find a little spot together where it is peaceful and all the world's problems are at bay for awhile. So let me introduce you to another family member. This is Zafer. He is eight now. He was brought home by partner, who works for Hospice, one day. His owner had cancer and had to find a home for some kittens. Zafer fit in the palm of my hand the day he came home. He is part Japanese Bob tail and has a unique personality. He is skittish with all but us, and aloof like all cats. He decides when he will accept your love! As he gets older he has mellowed and has become a big time night cuddler. He likes to like in my art studio on top of my drawings. The sun comes in for him just right there and he can laze and sleep all day dreaming of mice dancing in his head!

Zafer is a Turkish name. We named him after one of our very best friends in Izmir. I will always thing of him as Rick in Casablanca..so handsome. Here's to you Zafer in Izmir!

Weather is always a factor in doing raku because it has to be done in the open air due to fumes, heat, and smoke. It is the rainy season here in Florida and we get storms almost daily. The heavens open and the water pours, rushing off roofs, into downspouts and off on the concrete. Thunder booms and lighting pops, but artist are not daunted. It is sort of like the postman...in sleet and snow..it is hard to put off a love of something so exciting and fun to another day.

Leonardo Da Vinci drops in

This is Leonardo Da Vinci, if you do not recognize him! Of course an art teacher like me would name their dog an artist name. I call him Vinci. He was a rescue dog found wandering on a four lane highway. I have had him now three years, he is five now and weighs about 10 lbs. I have no idea what kind of dog he is except cute and loving. You will see him appear often in my blog. He sits in my lap for hours as I do my art. Here he is modeling a fused glass necklace for you on the patio! Say hello to Vinci...he will accept his own mail as well!