Beginnings, Inspiration, About Me

WELCOME to my art blog. I'm Deb (DeeJae). I have an artistic heart -- I'm a independent, self-taught, mixed media, collage, assemblage artist who loves to tell a story with images and color by using vintage paper, photos, fabric, textures, color, and emphera. I also love, love, love the paper, book and needle arts.

Things that inspire me and my art the most: my family, nature, faces, old books. My blog header is made from a scan of one of my old books. Yellow, butter cream yellow, is my favorite color.

Art and handmade is a natural for me. I come from a long line of artistic, creative, imaginative, resourceful women who were/are “makes, savers & preservers" of art and history. Although they are not famous or never made it into huge art museum, and spent the majority of their time in their homes, they had a profound influence up me, forming my desires and passions for imagining beautiful created things. They took time to think about what they were going to make, they took extra care, time, skill,and love to produce a unique item. They are and always will be part of the reason I love to make and create art. This blog is dedicated and in honor to those women I love so much -- my women family historians and creative artists of the "Hidden Home Arts" kind!

This is my place for keeping my completed projects and for anything else of interest that is of interest to me. Hopefully I will be able to upload my photos of completed projects here soon.

Until then, I'll start with photos of the two little girls, who aren't so little any more, part of the inspiration for my first collage banner below. They have changed a lot since these pictures!












Here below are pictures of them now, MUCH older.....



















My oldest daughter on the left will be 20 this summer. My youngest daughter on the right is 14.5 years old. I won't say a whole lot about that subject -- in this phase of my life, I'm able to weep easily about these sort of things so I'll leave at that. It's a bittersweet time right now as I'm finding out again in a new way just how quickly life passes by...

I've been married to Dave since 1982 and I enjoy being a work-at-home mom and home educator of the eclectic, unstructured sort, using a personalized adaption of the Principle Approach (FACE) in a "tutorial" fashion, combined with the gleenings from Charlotte Mason and Ruth Beechick. We've been home educating since 1987 with our two daughters in our Cornerstone Home Academy. My oldest daughter graduates this June 2007 with our local home school group in a class of 40. My youngest (the one on the right) is in high school and will graduate in 2011. I'm also adopted mother to our cat, Perdita, abandoned in our garden. She is the real "Princess" and lets us live with her. :-) I've lived all my life in the northern, flat cornfields of the Midwest & in the heart of a downtown, old historical district with my my dear mother, sister, and mother-in-law near by. They all three have some physical conditions and health issues so I help them out a lot. We're very close and get together often.

Besides enjoying and loving being a wife, mother, homemaker, home educator AND of course ART, I also enjoy gardening, yard sales, flea markets, thrift stores, used book stores, photography, music of all kinds, cooking and keeping a Pantry. History fascinates me. Finding and fulfilling my place in history has been and will continue to be a great journey! My days are often filled with thoughts of what I'm learning in my personal Bible and theology study: the Bible Principles for all of life for how to learn by heart, do in love, live in joy and liberty -- my true heart's desire.

In the past couple of years I have enjoyed having this blogging about the things I love. Reading is one of my enjoyments and our home is overflowing with books. I've been working on building a home, family library for 20 some years now. It's a work in progress too. We have a "Generational Home Library" which I plan to pass on to my girls some day. Some of my favorite vintage and collectible, good children's books I've recommended at my Seven Pillars Book Nook blog. I also have a small blog (due to time limitations), Let a Woman Learn about our home education philosophy and method. Now, here with my art! I have lots of interesting things to think about and do so I'm rarely bored.

My blogs may or may not be of interest to any one. That's ok, I will not be offended at all. Discovering how to have joy for yourself as well as discovering which of the two ways to live you desire is by far more interesting. :-)

My most favorite place in the world other than home:

Lake Michigan

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Definitions from Webster's 1828 Dictionary

AL 'TER,
v.t. 1. to make some change in; to make different in some particular. to vary in some degree, without an entire change.
2. In general. to change to more generally to substitute one thing for another, or to make a material difference in a thing. v.i. to become, in some respects, different; to vary; as, the weather alters almost daily.

HEART,

n. 1. the inner part of any thing, the middle part or interior; as the heart of a country, kingdom, or empire.
2. the chief part; the vital part; the vigorous or efficacious part.
3. the seat of the affections and passions, as of love, joy, grief, enmity, courage, pleasure.
4. by a metonymy, heart is used for an affection or passion, and particularly for love.
5. the seat of understanding; as an understanding heart. We read of men wise in heart, and slow of heart.
6. the seat of the will; hence, secret purposes, intentions or designs
7. person; character; used with respect to courage or kindness.
8. courage; spirit; as, to take heart; to give heart; to recover heart;
9. secret thoughts; recesses of the mind.
10. dispositions of mind.
11. secret meaning; real intention.
12. conscience, or sense of good or ill

Blessings!
Ded (DeeJae)

My Other Blogs:

 My Family Generational Library & Vintage Collectible Used Children's Books:

This blog -  my current banner button - altered heart works: 

My first collage banner: