Artsy Gemini's Crazy World: ' Rencent reading an art friends missing home'

Artsy Gemini's Crazy World: ' Rencent reading an art friends missing home'

' Rencent reading an art friends missing home'

I recently read one of my art friends blog that was about her visiting home and how much it always hurts when she comes home. while I was telling her how much I could relate, in a comment I left her...........I thought wow....there are some bottled emotions there with me still too, sooooo lets blog it. who knows maybe there is someone out there that feels the same way as the two of us. I grew up in a very small and beautiful mountain town of Hayfork California. 23 of my married years were there, including the wedding, we raised our beautiful kids there and included many great foster kids to our family as well. A year ago in Sept. we moved only two hours away to a bedroom city to the larger city of Redding California. that may seem just a little ways to some.............but it is a total world, no a total planet from here. Our wonderful home town is isolated with breathtaking mountain scenery and is almost an hour from the nearest town .....on a very long and curvy road that most 'city' visitors either just hate........or get car sick. Most of the town is related (either actually, or by being adopted into the fold). you always get waves and hellos when you drive into or through town. most people have neighbors, but you 'might' be able to see their house, but you sure don't see them or hear them......unless you visit. Every time I visit it is like this total mix up off emotions for me. I almost hate/love it. To go from such an amazing community and friends, to another kind of community can shock the system. There are things that are totally cool and I love about our 'new' home, like mail delivery to the door, garbage pickup at your drive, great 'big' stores and restaurants right around the block and most of all the ..........omg..........really fast Internet. We had just gotten cell phone coverage within the last few years before we moved , and unless you wanted to pay huge prices for satellite Internet.........you put up with very slowwwwwwww dial up coverage. Now the things I miss so very, very much.......not just the waves and hellos up town, but the fact that when you go to the stores , post office or to eat out.....it was a lengthy thing because you had these wonderful visit with those that you know and love, and they know and love you. Even if you had a few disagreements somewhere in the years past, or even yesterday......you still were a part of their lives, they yours and you still cared about them. Sports of course plays a huge role in the tiny town, since most of the kids have not much else to do........and parents have not much else to do but watch and encourage their kids. At the games you see 3,4 and 5th generation kids playing along side each other, with a spattering of new additions. Then in the bleachers yelling and cheering you see their parents, their grandparents and even a few great grand parents, not to mention the aunts, uncles cousins etc. The coaches are friends, relatives and probably have kids next to yours on the playing field and went to school with the parents watching. We always had what others called a rag-tag bunch of kids with a notorious reputation for being fighters, come-backers, and most of all proud and never give-up to the last seconders. Now I know that my grammar stinks and spelling too I am sure, but that is the way I would describe those many, many kids that grew up in, still live in, or moved from but are still 'from and part of' the family of Hayfork. I miss driving 2-8 hours to the games to be amazed that we had more parents and fans in the stands than the home team, and being ohhhh soooo proud of that. I miss feeling like what is that , that made such a huge part of 'who and what' I am. I miss a little tiny fair, where you could see everything in a couple of hours, but you spent all day and evening there. I miss the wonderful people that, when a crisis or death saddened a family, everyone in the town feels it and jumps to help in any way they can. Someone that has a medical condition that taxes their finances and so a town dinner and auction is held and with only a few hundered poeple even in the the town population, they dig deep and raise thousands to help. When the football or other teams need money to attend a sports camp, many of those kids can't afford new cleats each year, let alone the entry cost to the camps, so the town pulls together and raises what is needed ,so no team mate that wants to attend is left out. If you visit from another town to watch the games.......it is almost always commented that the equiptment and playing fields are so nice and even better than their 'big' schools. That is because most of those working at the schools, once attended them and have emmence pride it how their school looks, it also has to do with a very deep pride in a community for where the kids play and participate.
Even those that do not return often after moving.............they still say their 'home' is Hayfork. I am one of those and I must say, it was much harder to leave and move to another part and step in my life. I have two children that hope to move back some day, after making their way in a career, and I have two kids that say they will never move back............but they still consider themselves part of that Red and Black Timberjack Family, and so do I. We may call ourselves many things, others may joke about the hicks from Hayfork, but I have never had anything but pride of that title. It can not be too bad, since having married a man who lived in and went to school in a 'rival' town.........and if you asked him where his home is, he also would say Hayfork. Like many people who did not decend from their, that moved there, he grew to love the people and consider them his extended family and part of 'who and what' he is as well. That is the best note to leave on........................ lol

Some very exciting and fun news in my world!

Hi my few and mostly far away friends! I wanted to take a second to say that although this has been a really, and I mean really tough many past months, that I finally have something exciting and fun to share. all of the good karma, happy thoughts and fairy wishes everyone sent seem to finally be finding me! (those of you close to me know that I have struggled with a spine issue that makes my life difficult sometimes, and then on top of that I lost the core of my universe, my grandma Hartzog, who was more than a grandma, more than a mom and just very special to me. if that was not bad enough I lost my other grandmother and my mother as well. any way, although I am sad that they are not here to share in my little bit of excitement, I know without a doubt they are smiling and clapping around me.
Several months ago I was pm'd by someone that worked with a band called 'The Dresden Dolls'...........she said she had seen one of my altered art mini lunch box tins and thought the band and singer Amanda would love it if I made some in a similar way but with the bands theme. She said they were going to branch out and form ' The Post-War Trade' which would be connected to the band , but its own entity. They wanted to offer high quality hand made art work. So I designed one and sent it off to them to see if they liked it. they did, and started out by ordering 20. I spent a lot of time making sure that the design was my 'style' but also showed the bands personality. I think I accomplished that. the site is up and running now and they are featuring my item and have a wonderful artist profile feature as well. here is the link to the page of my item...... http://www.postwartrade.com/products/mini-lunchbox I encourage you to take a look at their total site, it is done soooo artful and I love it. (the pictures of the altered mini lunch box above are of the proto type that I did in a shrine style, the bulk order was not a full shrine)
And if that news is not enough to put me on the moon...........I was honored to have two pieces of my artwork featured in the Art Trader Magazine. you can visit the online magazine at http://www.arttradermag.com/ my items are on page 14 and page 23. It is a tasteful and beautiful magazine that has projects, instructions on how too's as well as featuring many artists pieces. It has really opened up the world of artists and brought us all together with the sites where we all come together also. I know I have grown in huge leaps and bounds because of the influence and interaction of other artists from all over the world that come together to trade, swap, share, encourage, teach and even sale their work. I truly is amazing how the internet has just blown every corner of the art world up and out to reach others and bring us all together. Not to mention bringing some recognition that would never be for those of us that have been in our own very small parts of the world and very unlikely to ever be 'known'. The known part of course is so encouraging and exciting, but just as important to me.......is those of you that will be reading this and sharing in my joy, I could never have met most of you without the crazy, maddening, confusing.........but wonderful world of the internet! sandy

okie dokie............I survived some of the uploading info!

I truly think that these kind of programs were designed by someone, who sits back and laughs at those of us who feel like we are in the twilight zone! I don't know.....maybe it is just me. I did get some of my art work uploaded, a few pictures and a little bit more info about me. I am not totally happy with all of it...............especially after I took a look at my friend tanya's and eggstudio's. geeeeeezzzzz , mine looks like a kindergartner did it. BUT I did find their page, so we are making baby steps. since I was able to mail of some chunky pages from gnome page swap, I am now trying to catch up on the newest obsession, or should I say addiction....in the art world 'picture profile cards' they are very similar to the rolodex cards we all made and swapped, but you use a 4x6" card and do not put the tab holes like a rolo card. you can store them in a recipe box, but I think that is not as fun, so I put mine in a photo album that you can slide the cards into the slot. I remove the white paper incert they always have (save it for who knows what in the future, but a true artist can't throw anything away) and then you see the artwork and pic on the front and when you turn the page you see their info. I just made a dragon themed one for someone who made me a jester one. I am always looking for ways to do new art and challenges with different mediums. this project is just fun becuase it is a larger size than ATC's. kinda like making the journal pages too. I did a friend themed 6x6 journal page for Ria recently and it was so much fun working with that size. I am going to keep this short, since it took all day just to get the tiny bit done that I did...........I am going into art withdrawels, so must go get a fix. any of you out there that happen to find me by accident or however it works, please add me to your list, and I will keep trying until I eventually get you added to mine, hopefully in the right place. friends in art, sandy

OMG........................this is scary for me!

I will try and figure out what I am doing, will take lots of mistakes and mishaps, I am sure. Those of you that are my friends know what a oopsie doopsie person I am. I have been down with a back problem and have not been online as much as usual, I am hoping that now that I am getting back into the swing of things, I will figure this blogging thing out. please be patient with my mishaps, misspelling and other mistakes..................I am sure there will be plenty!

those that do not know me:
my name is: sandy sappington-broschat
my user name: is Artsy Gemini ( in one form or another on my other sites)
Art is my passion and love, next only to my hubby of 23 years and my 4 beautiful kids.
I have galleries in several places. I do just about any form and medium, but altered art (I often call my style ' Altered Collage Art style'. I love collage, drawing, painting and trying to blend different mediums to see what the final effect is. I have been doing art most of my life, into high school and college. now that my kids are all grown and on there own, we recently moved from our real home "Hayfork, CA' to the city of Shasta Lake, which is about 2 hrs from our mountian home. we still live in beautiful northern california. all of our kids are near by except the middle son who is in the army. I am lucky enough now to have a room that is nothing but my ART SPACE and room. I love it! I can start many projects and leave out the mess until I am done. I have decorated it all with some of my art, my kids from childhood, my hubbies photos (photography is his hobby), different art work like the stitchery that my great grandma did as well as many prints of famous artists. I also have my raggedy ann, elf and fairy, jester/jokers collections and many hand written funny quotes. Though my room is not a 'perfect and beautiful' room, it is what I wanted, it is full of things that make me smile, laugh, think warm thoughts of the other artists and finally to inspire me.