Remember this is a time to reflect and enjoy ...

for your personal enjoyment

December is a time to reflect on the past

 year’s blessings and embrace 

the opportunities of the coming one.

 Oprah Winfrey

Wishing all the best during this month ~ peace

Make kindness your daily modus operandi ...

 

free for your personal enjoyment

“Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? 

Make kindness your daily modus operandi

and change your world.”

Annie Lennox

“Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.” ALA

October brings Banned Books Week, a reminder of how dangerous censorship can be. The First Amendment protects our right to free speech—which includes not only the freedom to write, but also the freedom to read what we choose. This month’s #virginiacreates calendar addresses that subject directly.

In this collage I’ve included an “I Read Banned Books” bookmark alongside 2 covers of books that have been challenged - Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderlands and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Along with the quote from Katherine Paterson, 

“Reading can be a road to freedom or a key to a secret garden, which, if tended, will transform all of life.” 

"Once Upon a Time" with tags at the Morse Institute Library

Katherine Paterson, is an American writer best known for her children's novels.  Her book, Bridge to Terabithia, won the Newbery Medal in 1978 as well as been on the top 100 banned/challenged books since it's publication in October 1977.

I feel strongly that any form of censorship undermines the very fabric of our Constitution and the safe, imaginative space that creativity depends on. Right now, as our freedoms face increasing threats, this issue feels especially urgent.

look at these awesome tags!!
added after just a few days on display

In fact, the Natick Public Library invited me to create an installation for their October programming on banned books. The piece, Once Upon a Time, is participatory: visitors are invited to write the title of a banned book they have read, want to read, or want to reread on a tag, which is then added to the work. These tags are attached to a cape made of safety pins and beads that drapes over a tunic constructed from book covers—just a fraction of the many titles that have been challenged or banned in the U.S. Together, the piece grows as a communal celebration of literature, resilience, and freedom.

This year Banned Books Week is October 5 – 11, 2025 and the theme is “Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.”  Many libraries and organizations celebrate the right to read for the entire month.  

With the escalation in attempts to ban books in libraries, schools, and bookstores around the country, George Orwell’s cautionary tale "1984" serves a prescient warning about the dangers of censorship. This year’s theme reminds us that the right to read belongs to all of us, that censorship has no place in contemporary society, and that we must defend our rights. https://www.ala.org/bbooks/banned

do what you love!!!!

free for your personal enjoyment

 Trust in what you love, continue to do it, 

and it will take you where you need to go.

Natalie Goldberg

Love the moment, it is full of beautiful energy ...

free for your personal enjoyment

“Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries.”

Corita Kent

 

bringing attention to the everyday to elevate it to the sacred ...

My roommate during my artist's retreat is very eloquent, as well as being a beautiful person inside and out. She described my work saying, “You gave a clear and compassionate vision for bringing attention to the everyday to elevate it to the sacred.”

That statement sums up my creative vision. Bringing attention to the everyday is a constant thread throughout my creative journey, from creating an international business selling jewelry and gift items made out of ‘used’ bottle caps to an 8 foot dress sculpture out of eggshells. 

Thank you Siobhan for such a succinct description of my creative process.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, in San Gimignano I started this series of site-specific mixed media collages. I created around 20 of these pieces, and was reluctant to stop.

Of course I had to bring back some of my found treasures. Needless to say, I was waiting for customs to question my need to bring ‘trash’ back with me. But that’s the point, it is not trash to me.  

Fortunately I wasn't searched or even questioned. So I have a few of my treasure with me, however I feel that an interesting element of this series is that it is site specific so I am applying to the Gallery 263's  2025 Artist in Residence to see what the streets of Cambridge might inspire! Wish me luck & peace.

Look at the little things ...

feel free to print this calendar for y9our personal enjoyment

“Find magic in the little things, and the big things you always expected will start to show up.”

― Isa Zapata

Your #virginiacreates May calendar is coming to you a bit late because I was on an artist's retreat in San Gimignano, Italy and, blessedly, I had little WiFi.  The retreat was run by Michael Dowling of Spoke, www.spokeart.org, an amazing organization that I highly recommend you look at the work that they do!!! 

This month's #virginiacreates calendar is featuring one of the collages that I made during my retreat.  Inspired by a story that Michael shared on our first morning.  He spoke about a woman who was committed to an asylum and who collected stuff out of the trash to embroider and to create with.  The asylum staff saw this habit of going through the trash as proof of her mental sickness and medicated her.  This story broke my heart on so many levels.   I am a woman who has used trash and debris in much of her work - from an international business of making jewelry out of used bottle caps to a room sized installation centered around a n 8 foot dress sculpture made out of used eggshells. 

the magical city of San 
Gimignano   

So on my first day of retreat,  I wondered the magical streets of this medieval town with Michael's story replaying in my head.  Soon my attention was drawn to a discarded museum ticket and this series began.  Below are some more of these collages.  Most are created on 4x6 watercolor paper, though as the series progressed I was just working with my found treasures, creating unique art objects.

peace

many of the 'collages'

property of Virginia Fitzgerald

property of Virginia Fitzgerald