Pink Flamingo Florida Mixed Media Cottage
This is a photograph of a home in West Palm Beach, Florida. The owner meticulously renovated this home and takes great pride in it. His fiance commissioned me to create a mixed media composition. I don’t often get to work with such a charming home, so it was such a great experience for me.
8″x10″ stretched canvas with acrylic paint background. I had to add the flamingo, as the house is located in flamingo Park. The coconuts are made from cork! These are my first palm trees.
Poem
The owl from the steeple sings
in the silence of the monastery of my heart
the sound pierces the echo
left behind in scattered leaves of orange and brown memories of
you and me when we were we
and I was not alone.
I walk the sidewalks lined with oak trees
and wonder where you are
and why we were not meant to be
because I’m cold and tired and lost
my hand aches where you once held it
in the summer sunshine days of we
when all the world sang
and we were so happy as we
but now I’m just me
and my world has become gray tattered edges of moments
moving too slowly
waiting for space and time to fill the distance
from we to me.
The Truth is in the Details…
detail of "Jazz" mixed media
- detail of “Jazz” mixed media
- detail of “Jazz” mixed media
- detail of “Whitman” mixed media
- detail of “Whitman” mixed media
- detail of “Eyes of the World” mixed media
- detail of “Garden” mixed media
- detail of “Poetry Trees”
- detail of “Poetry Trees”
Painting on Glass
- Painting on Glass
“Reading”
The process of art is more important than the end result –
I tell my students in the classroom
classic Marcel Duchamp.
I want them to risk themselves to create more than they thought they could…
Risks I’m willing to take myself… except that I do not believe in my own poetry.
even though it’s not the point – the end result is irrelevant… it’s the process…
The movement of black ink on white space
The mechanism of filling the page
The magic of creating art from nothing
The knowledge that my time has not been wasted
because I’m creating… and then there is the inevitable result:
my dissatisfaction with my own words on the page.
In the classroom, I command my stage-
I’ve got my shtick, my jokes, my turns of phrases
I lead high school kids through the real voices of poetry
Throwing inhibition aside and embracing the language
I lead them through Whitman- blade by blade
use the dramatic pauses with Dickinson’s slashes
ask them to stand on their chairs,
fists high in the air to Still I Rise
tell them to close their eyes and imagine…
I am no longer a white woman-
picture me rolling through Tupac when that’s just the way it is
and humming Black Stacey as only Saul can do: ya ya ya sha clack clack!
And then, in the spring when the heat descends,
I take them outside and sit under the trees
where Shel Silverstein flies and swoops
and in each and every poem, I believe in the role-
value their voices and respect it enough to
give it my all- intonation and resonance
I command that stage of other people’s voices-
but not my own.
And, if the process of creation is more important than the end result-
Why bother to read?
Keep my poems in a book for another ten years
And another…
But, then… this wouldn’t exist
these gatherings would not exist.
What would we be, but a group of people
sitting together in a room?
Or we can hum an energy and create
Take a risk and speak our words
Polish and craft text as art
Spin the process of reading
not just the words on a page
that’s not the end result
the reading is the art.
elizabeth beck
Bahama Birds Painting
- Bahama Birds Painting
This painting is rendered on an 8″ x 10″ stretched canvas using acrylic paint.
Mixed Media Cottages: The Four Seasons
- Mixed Media Cottage: Autumn
Mixed Media Cottage: Summer
Mixed Media Cottage: Spring
Mixed Media Cottage: Winter
Mixed Media French Provincial Cottages
- Mixed Media French Provincial Cottage
Mixed Media French Provincial Cottage
- Mixed Media French Provincial Cottage
After I had finished these three houses, I then began the second part of the series as the four seasons. A separate post of those works will be forthcoming. Finally, I took an MLS photograph of my sister-in-law’s new home (colonial style) and created a custom design, including her actual street address. That composition can be seen as a model in the display at Decoratifs in Lexington, Kentucky.
Mixed Media Tree Painting
- Mixed Media Tree Painting
- detail of mixed media tree
A Stay Home Mom’s Day…
I am fascinated with the projects stay at home moms immerse in during this time of being “at home”. Aside from the inevitable care for the children and the creating/maintaining of the home, mothers who do not work outside of the home are the most industrious women. We do not watch television and we rarely waste time. We speak on the phone to each other while also attending to many tasks, such as emptying the dishwasher, folding the laundry and wiping the counters and floors. We shop and make meals. We organize closets and buy our family’s clothes. And in our “spare” time, we feel an obligation to be productive every moment of the day, every day. The catch phrase for a typical middle-class stay-home mom is, “I’m just so busy…”
Many moms devote themselves to altruistic endeavors. Some moms join the PTA and actively involve themselves in their kids’ schools (helicopter moms). Many moms volunteer with their kids’ sports and other activities or just spend their time shuttling their kids to all of those games, rehearsals, practices. Some moms join boards of directors with philanthropic endeavors. Some volunteer at their churches/synagogues/mosques/temples. Others immerse themselves in what I call “focused shopping”.
Now this is an interesting middle-class woman phenomena. The mom does not shop without purpose… that would be frivolous and “good” moms are always frugal. Consequently, an event prompts the mother into a week or month long journey of retailing to find the right outfits for their entire families. The event may be a formal family portrait or a vacation or an event that will also include the inevitable photographs. Outfits are bought, brought home for analysis and inspection (many times including the opinions of another mom girlfriend… but never the husband). Then, after the final selection is made, there is the inevitable returns on discarded items (another time consuming event in itself).
There is another brand of mom who is immersed in home design and will spend endless hours decorating her home appropriately for the seasons, buying exorbitantly expensive window treatments, the right silk throw pillows, montages of family photos in white mats and black frames that are all in black and white, preferably. This mother regularly watches HGTV, but usually never watches any other television programs, as she is too busy removing wallpaper and inspecting paint chips and tiles obsessively.
There is another creative category of stay home moms, who are the moms who spend countless hours making elaborate scrapbooks and hand-made cards. There is an entire industry devoted to this craft and the end result is the modern-day equivalent to the traditional women’s craft of quilt making. Women choose to go to scrapbook stores that house workshops to be able to chat and connect while creating this montage of their family’s history.
Whatever the activity, almost all middle-class stay home moms work out and diet or at least struggle to work out and diet and are always battling the issue of working out and dieting… Some moms go to the gym or rec centers. Many moms walk or run. Some of these moms pair up and walk together. Other moms use the elliptical machine or treadmill during their children’s naps. A few moms practice yoga and others use work out videos. And some even do sports like tennis or golf.
Reading books is a split topic among stay home moms. Many moms plead that they are simply too busy to read. Other moms can indulge in this pleasure and feel proud that she is a reader. These moms go to the public library on a regular basis and request their books “on hold” from the best seller lists. This also serves the other practice of taking their children to the library to instill of love of literature in their lives. Some moms socialize thorough book clubs and meet on a monthly basis.
Finally, there are two last activities popular with some stay home moms. Gardening and cooking. Most moms plant flowers in containers at the front door, at the least. Some have elaborate gardens and planters that take care and consideration on a daily basis during the growing season. Many moms grow their own herbs and tomatos to use for cooking. Cooking is an interesting activity, in that we moms discuss dinners with each other regularly and share recipes. We can make our mom’s pot roasts, a chicken dish and a reliable side dish or appetizer we take to parties. A few moms take cooking to an artistic level, while others are glad to be done with a simple evening dinner that was edible and nutrious.
My day begins with journal writing and coffee. After I send my son to school and my husband to work, I then spend time on the computer. I use the last hours before noon making art in my studio. I eat and then I run. I then bang on my drum. I lie down and meditate for an hour before my son gets home and my time is devoted to him. In between, I clean the entire house bit by bit each day. I shop purposefully. I cook dinner. I care for my two dogs. I read obsessively. I am endlessly decorating my home. I organize photos into albums. I send birthday cards and presents. I make my own cards. I water my plants (inside and out). I clean closets. I volunteer in my son’s classroom. I teach one class a week.
Being a stay home mom is the most rewarding career I have pursued thus far.
Elizabeth Beck Art, Poetry and Musings 
