The Living Memorial Sculpture Garden . . .

As you all know (or for new visitors, now know - lol), I am a Veteran. I signed up for the Navy during Gulf War I, and have nothing but respect and admiration for my fellow Veteran's and Active Service People. A great BIG shout out to all the brave Men and Women currently fighting our battles for us!

So when I see a Veteran's Memorial, I have to pull over and check it out. I found this one on the way to Klamath Falls, Oregon and it is amazing. If you get the chance, go see it in person. The landscape (with Mt. Shasta dominating the skyline) is as much a part of this artistic tribute as are the sculptures themselves! My pictures are not the greatest here - I was in a hurry to get to where I was going, so go check out the official website for much better pictures and information.

Excerpt of description from the Official Website for the Memorial:

"The Living Memorial Sculpture Garden rests upon the northwestern slope of Mt Shasta, 13 miles north of the City of Weed, on Hwy 97 in Siskiyou County, California.

It is situated on 136 acres of land provided by the USDA Forest Service, which were replanted with tens of thousands of trees by countless volunteers.

The trees are living tribute to those who have sacrificed their lives in war. The sculpture garden, a place for reflection & remembrance, healing & reconciliation.

The LMSG pays homage to all honorable veterans, in conflict and in peace.

The LMSG was founded by a group of veterans in 1988. Today, the Garden is proudly sponsored & maintained by the Kiwanis Club of Weed/Lake Shastina.

There are currently ten sculpture groups by artist Dennis Smith, with an eleventh to be dedicated in November 2007."

The website is a bit dated, but their photographs are amazing and there is a lot of great information on the Memorial and its environs. Here are some of my photos.

View of Mt. Shasta:

The Hot LZ Memorial Wall :

Gene Breceda Memorial Sponsors Wall

"Near the entrance of the LMSG, stands a small granite wall dedicated to those special people and organizations who have sponsored the LMSG with substantial contributions. The LMSG is a community based non-profit organization. Twice a year, the names of new Sponsors of the LMSG are placed upon this small wall, in memorial, as a token of our gratitude and respect for their generous efforts."

These are few of the sculptures that I photographed. They were so powerful - bigger than life and as stoic as an actual service member. My pictures do them no justice, it should be experienced in person. The official website has all the information on each sculpture, for brevity I am only posting a few of my pictures below.

To show the perspective and amazing detail, I am posting multiple angles of a couple of the most heart wrenching Sculptures. No matter what angle you view them from, you really feel like you are in the action - in the heart and soul of the captured moment.










There are so many more, along with actual graves (so please be respectful) and a Labyrinth with nearby picnic tables:


Lastly, the POW/MIA Sculpture was the most one that affected me the deepest. It is so heart-wrenchingly depicted that it's a good thing there are benches to sit down on to take it all in. In front of the Sculpture is a shrine that says everything you need to know about those that visit this Memorial . . .

Visit the Official Website here:
http://weedlmsg.org/01garden02whygroup.html

Motor Bike Acrobatics . . .

I took these photographs at a local county fair in 2005. The acrobatics started early evening and I think the dusk really accents some of the pictures. I am really pleased with how these came out, and it shows one of the coolest aspects of photography . . . the magic of the 'result' - knowing you were able to capture a split second (of insanity) forever! :)

The Lunatics - er - Performers:

This Photo gives you an idea of the speed these guys are performing at:


Basically they are flying off one ramp and landing on another, while doing their best to 'barely hold on' once they hit the air! No one crashed or was injured in the show - it was pretty amazing!

Cricut Cards . . .

I made these cards for friends and family. They were made on my Cricut with SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot) from Susan's cut files.

For one of my best friends, Michael, who likes toads :)
It was my first pop-up card, the only thing I would do differently next time is use heavier card stock for the foundation:

This one was originally made for a contest/challenge for National Ice Cream Day (It had to include ice cream in the composition) but it ended up going to a good friend. The background of the flipped front is holographic, and I used lots of iridescent chalking for sparkle all over! Wish it photographed better:

This 'Thank You' was made for a wonderful lady named Pat. I blocked the private parts of the card, I know you understand. :) It's hard to see in the pictures but there was a lot of paper piecing on the front.



Close up of inside front cover:



Another hard one to photograph is this Acetate (clear plastic) based card I made as a thank you to the great people at the V.A. for helping me out so much! I know the V.A. gets a bad rap at times, but the people at the V.A. in Oregon are all exceptional people! I have nothing but good things to say about my doctors, administrators, and case workers!

Another big thank you shout out to them!

Photography . . .

I love photography! The composition only, not the developing (thank you asthma, lol). I have so many pictures that I thought I would try to post them by theme. :) For this first upload I am posting pictures of my furry babies. Some are no longer with me and I will always miss them . . . You can make the images larger by clicking on them. All together now . . . "Awwww . . ." :)

Drawings . . .

I have a few drawings from school to share. I've only had an Intro to Drawing class at the Art Institute Online, but I got a lot out of it. I would probably be better if I practiced, but there are too many other things I'd rather work on. I included a couple class projects including my final (I got an 'A' and was voted most improved - woo hoo). :) It doesn't seem to come natural to me, but once I get into it I enjoy it. Here they are . . .

An early one - I see so many errors lol:

Progressing:

And my final project - this is where I used to work. You can't tell, but this is really big, I had to use my camera to capture it as it didn't fit on my scanner! There are still problems, but it's the best work I did in that class. :)


Close up of a section:

Beadwork . . .

Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated with beads. As an adult, I find beading to be a relaxing (albeit expensive!) way to express myself. I have no trouble losing hours and hours in the intricacies of beading tiny delicas into a pattern that seems to come straight from my heart. I've tried to follow patterns but it drives me nuts, I just have to change something! I'm not sure why this is true, but it is for almost everything I create, be it bead work, paper crafts, or anything. It just feels wrong to replicate someone's work in its entirety.

So to share some of my work with you, I've created a slide show of the tubular peyote style bead work I have done - some of which took first place at my local county fair. I have more bead work, but this is a start to show you my designs.