With Love From Friends! 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

For the past three years I have been delighted to volunteer for With Love From Friends (WLFF) by making Valentine's Day cards for people who are without family or friends to remember them. 

The fabulous Eve Elzenga developed and coordinates this project. WLFF is such a wonderful program. I adore Eve and her work. I'm not alone... Eve was the recipient of a Jefferson Award in 2011 for her public service for WLFF! 

Eve strives to have high quality cards made with great materials and by artists in our community. She really wants the cards to be well made as the people who get them really do cherish them and deserve nice cards created by adults for adults. In years passed she opened her home for all of January so people could come over and make cards. Her collection of high quality supplies, papers  embellishments, ribbons, and little gorgeous what-nots were made available to artists to pick up and use this year. She collects Valentine art supplies all year round. 

As someone who has been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with my grandparents and great grandparents, I appreciate and value my elders. Now that they are gone, as well as my beloved father - who will always be my first Valentine - I felt like their memory needed to be honored, especially on a day all about love. So in memory of my loved ones passed, I made ten cards for With Love From Friends. 

"You Are Loved"
acrylic monoprint, paper, mixed media
4.25" x 5.5"
© 2013 Victoria Porter

My cards started as Artist Trading Card sized (2.5" x 3.5") original monoprints made on my Gelli Plate. I added red and pink cardstock mats behind and stitched them together. The heart is crumbled red cardstock inked to add some dimension. Don't you love the tiny staples?! Everything but the straight lines on the mats behind the monoprint are all hand cut by me. The words are all hand stamped. The wings are my design and took a long time to cut out. (I do not even own a die cutting machine. I do it old school!)

Each card I made is a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork as all of the monoprinted backgrounds are different. 

Every card donated to WLFF is stamped with "With Love From Friends" on the inside. Did someone say 1500 cards need to be stamped?!?!?! I am so on that. My mother and I spent many hours stamping the inside of cards last week. We had a ball hanging out with Eve and her partner! 

This year WLFF is in need of a Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutting Machine, Valentine themed cutting dies, and cash gifts so they can update their website. Supporting Eve in her efforts pays off in ways you can't even imagine. Hop on over to WLFF and see how you can help for next year! 

- Vickie

The Lake House Trip 2011

I’ve been on a little trip this past week or so. Just got back last Thursday. We (and by “we” I mean me, Mr. M, my sister and her family, and mom and her friend) went down to a very special place for a very special reason. We finally got to lay Dad’s ashes to rest at The Lake House a good seven months after he died. Since he died on New Year’s Eve and got fireworks we figured he deserved the fireworks of the 4th of July for a proper final send off.

The Lake House is in the Top Two Places I Love. The first place being anywhere Mr. M is, of course. So having Mr. M at The Lake House was bliss!

A Little Background on The Lake House:

My father’s parents bought land and dock access in Georgia on Lake Lanier in the early 1960s (we are figuring at best). At first my grandparents and their four sons (my dad and his three younger brothers) would camp there on the tent platform they made. Then part of the cabin was built. Just the one room that was the kitchen, small dining area, and small living room area. Not really big enough for a family of six.

Mom & Aunt K

So they just kept adding on. Soon a bathroom, laundry room and shower. Then a master bedroom with a loft for the kids. Sometime in the late ‘70s (I am guessing from all the burnt orange decor and carpet) a large living room and in-ground basement was added as the brothers were having families and more room was needed for grandchildren to visit. Also Grandma and Grandpa retired to the cabin and they needed more room.

Much of what is there is built with material that was taken from the ground with their bare hands. My uncles shared stories of the stones in the fireplace being pulled from any stream they happened upon. Some are poured concrete that hold special rubies and gems they sifted at those find-your-own-treasure places you see a lot in the south. The brothers also striped the bark off the lovely timbers that adorn the ceilings. I never knew those two things.

We would go to The Lake House every summer when I was a kid no matter where we lived (Charlotte, NC; Plano, TX; or Rochester, NY). I have the best memories of that place. I learned to swim and water ski. Grandma taught me about gardening. I caught and cleaned fish. The Lake House is paradise to me.

I have not been there much since I moved out of my parents’ house when I turned 18. Sad really. Dad and I went a couple times together. I went when Grandma and Grandpa died in the late ‘90s. Otherwise I haven’t been able to afford the airfare or a car trip.

But that is going to change. My pennies are going into an airfare jar!

Being there instantly made my whole being calm down. The swimming did me good. The sun and lake water made my skin happy. It turns out that boat rides make me smile involuntarily. And I knew Dad was there with me always just wanting us to have as much fun there as he had. Plus it’s ridiculously fun to drive a 30-year-old golf cart down an off-road, tree-root-littered pine forest path down to the water. It’s 50/50 if you’ll make it!

One of my uncles lives very close to The Lake House and takes very good care of it. He uses it a lot and keeps a boat at the dock. His kids use it. It is still being loved. I think that is wonderful!

I do plan on trying to go again this season when it’s a little cooler. The 90º F temps kept me inside too much. A little week-long art retreat up there alone sounds like heaven.

RIP Daddy! I love you!

- Vickie

It's About LOVE, People

I know I already gave y’all the craft show update from the St. John’s show on October 11th. But I left out a very big part of the story, as that post was getting long. And this part needed to be separate anyway. You will see why.

It’s no big secret that I’ve been going through a lot lately with pain, intractable chronic daily migraines and now hemiplegic migraines, which brings occasional sudden paralysis to my right side and with it an inability to make art. To say the least, my emotional state has not been great all the time. This has been difficult to accept and get through sometimes. I get mad. I cry a lot. Much lamenting is done about wanting to just quit all this. Yeah. It’s bad.

Last Monday was a big smack in the face about why I keep going despite all this suffering. It’s about LOVE.

I already told you about how I got sick Sunday night and my mom, Heather and Mr. M packed up for me and did the set up Monday morning. That was about LOVE. Specifically their LOVE for me and their belief in my work. Then my LOVE for them deepens because they totally didn’t have to do all that but they did and I LOVE them even more for it.

Fast forward to around noon on Monday. I finally make it to the show. I’m there with my mom and Mr. M at my booth. Lots of people at the show are commenting on how beautiful my work is. People are buying. More LOVE.

Then something strange started to happen. People started to show up just to see me. My twin sister came with her 2 small children; my father arrived; my friend Christi came (who works 70 hours a week and I never get to see her so I was so happy to see her); my good pals Heather and Maggie (who really helped a lot to get me ready for this show); my new friends Jack and Lorraine (who were old acquaintances and now are good friends thanks to Twitter and Facebook); a friend from high school who I have not seen since 1993 (who we caught up with through Facebook and through which he was spammed by me about the show); a totally random coincidental meeting of a youth group leader from when I was maybe 14 or 15 who lives in Charleston and was visiting Rochester and happened to be at the show; and (finally) my mom’s very helpful neighbor who came to help us pack up as Mr. M had left to go to work.

Including my mom and Mr. M that is 14 people total. My booth was a rocking party all day long. People, food, laughter, hugs. LOVE. One person would show up and go and then another would show up so it was spread out all through the day.

Then add all the people who stopped to just look and/or buy my work. And add other vendors who knew me and my work through other people or being online who wanted to meet me. That was weird. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Throw in a couple 55-gallon drums of validation while you are at it.

I was starting to wonder when the “This Is Your Life” cameras were going to pop out from behind a corner. Seriously. None of the other vendors were having loud reunions with friends all day. I wonder if we got to be annoying after a while!

I am getting all misty just writing about this. I think The Universe may be trying to tell me something like, “Good grief, woman! Don’t you feel all this LOVE? You can’t off yourself! Imagine all of these people at your funeral. How could you do that to them? They really really LOVE you!”

So I feel the LOVE. I feel it in my chest so much that literally my heart aches with all this LOVE. And, yes, now I am crying full blown tears as I write. Wah. This isn’t going to appreciate itself, people!

How did I get so lucky? What set all this good in motion? Me? How on earth could that be?

There are not words in this language to accurately express the depth of my gratitude to have this kind of LOVE happen in a time of such suffering and desperation from a loss of hope that this pain will ever go away and I will get my life back. But then again this LOVE has been around me all along. It just happened to kick me in the pants all at once in one day last week. Quite powerful stuff!

Yes, Universe, I am listening. I am spinning string made with this LOVE and how it makes me feel safe, valued and needed and I am weaving it in and out through my ribs and around my heart so I won’t forget it; so it will be my light through the yucky dark places.

Go share some LOVE!

- Vickie

Upcoming 2010 Shows

Saturday, October 23, 2010

St. Rita’s Craft Sale

9:30 AM – 4:00 PM

St. Rita School

1008 Maple Drive

Webster, NY

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Mayday Underground

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Village Gate Square

274 N. Goodman St

Rochester, NY

The first 50 shoppers will receive a free swag bag!

Mayday Underground Flyer

maydayunderground.wordpress.com

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Irondequoit High School’s Arts & Crafts Sale

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Irondequoit High School

260 Cooper Rd


Rochester, NY