What makes a gator a gypsy?

teacher, traveler, photographer, political junky, smash and bash artist, grandmimi, mom, canine companion

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Mixed Media Mayhem-Documented Life Project - Two LuLu's


February Theme
Layers You Will Love!
February 21
Art Challenge:  Repeating Elements

Journal Prompt:  It's Worth Repeating




And now for the cognitive part..."worth repeating"  I began thinking about my name, LuLu which is a repeat.  I made three Gelli printed layers of repeating elements (alphabet) finishing with the luscious Pebeo purple/blue.  I made a effort to reserve some white space.  Now for the journal prompt.  I began calling myself lulu when I made a major life change and it stuck. My jewelry is made under the name of "It's a LuLu" and my students call me Ms. LuLu.  I hadn't put much thought into this change...my dear friend Jeanie Goddard had always called me Lindy Lou, a teacher in my department, Gail Vaccaro, always called me Lu, and a dear boyfriend used "LuLu" as an affectionate term. Years later when I was researching Ancestry.com I came across two old census reports in which my grandmother, Lucretia Gates Badgley, had been nicknamed LuLu. Gave me a chill.    So for "Worth Repeating" it was natural to think of two lulu's and the letters needed to spell that making for more repetitive elements. I went through family pictures to find photos of me and her at similar ages.
The bottom left is Lucretia in her twenties, the top two are me at close to the same age.I used the photos which I hand colored to establish our identity, added the painted, embossed letters to spell out our names, and wound a thread among the pieces to hold it together.  I painted the letters using the gelli plate.




I always write the challenge in the margin so that it shows through for that reminder-"Repeating Elements, It's worth repeating."






4 comments:

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  2. Lovely spread, and I so much appreciate the 'coincidence' of the story behind it. It's a LuLu, indeed.

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    1. thank you, Win. In all the years, I never knew any details about my grandmother

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  3. Beautiful pages and a great take on the repeat in elements challenge. It is cool to find out unexpected similarities with our past loved ones :)

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