Another Crafty Creation To Share

Hello Bloggy Friends~

Happy Friday the 13th! I hope everyone's day & weekend are going well. I am just popping in to say Hi! & to share with you one of my recent digital collages -

"True Friendship".

I had alot of fun creating this one. I used some new techniques, and also spun an imaginary tale to go with it. Well... actually, the story was my way of coming up with the inspiration for the peice.

It goes like this...

This is the tale of Boots & Bettie- Two lifelong best friends who grew up together & lived in the French Quarter in New Orleans. They were flapper girls in the late 1920's & who met & dated two men, fell in love and were separated in the course of life and love.

Though their lives took them in different directions, they faithfully kept in touch through letters, pictures & small momentos sent through the post. This memorbilia is all that is left of their friendship, and the young girls they once were.

I pictured how some friend of mine had gone to clean out one of their deceased relative's home; and had come across the box of 'old junk'; full of old photos and letters, and long forgotten memories. This friend of mine- knowing my love of 'old things'; and my artsy ways knew that I would have a use for the treasures that seem to lose their meaning over time.

I imagined sifting through the bits of muslin & lace, napkins & crumbling bouteneires; and photographs & letters, lovingly written decades ago. As I created this digital collage, I pretended that I was crafting a shadow box, with all of these momentos- after reading & discovering the bond that these two friends had, and learning of the trials & jubulations they each lived, and later shared with each other through their correspondence.

Everything was preserved within the treasures in the box. Each heartache, the hardships they faced during the Depression, and WWII. The births and losses of children. The joys & accomplishments they each experienced. The celebrations & marriages; the pride they felt as their children went off to live their own lives. The loss & lonliness of widowhood. All of these contained within the words of these two women.

I saw myself finishing my work, and hanging the shadow box on my wall; having preserved these Ladie's memories... for myself, if no one else.

Then... I thought about my own life. I wondered if some day my life's memories will be reduced to a box of castoffs. I wondered if my children will treasure my art & scrapbooks & jornals. Will my writings & blog posts mean anything to anyone? Will the thousands of words passed between me & people all over the world be forgotten, all for nought?

I like to think that no... someday, somewhere.... some young artist may come across my own work; and it may inspire something within their own self... and that they too may create something wonderful of their own. :0)

~Danae