Your May calendar and the morphing of an idea ...

download and print for your personal enjoyment.

Here is your May calendar for you to print and enjoy.  

Also, this calendar works is part of a body of work that I am currently obsessed with, 

which I call 

#100daysofwomenwonders.

This project has grown out of my dailydress blog, on which I posted quotes of women in March in honor of Women's History Month, #femininewordsofwisdom.  Then with April came the #100dayproject and I decided to continue my celebration and sharing of words/quotes of women which I named, #100daysofwomenwonders. 

As so many of my projects go, in the first few days of posting women's quotes with a mixed-media dress collage I felt the need to do more, so now I am sharing women's quotes with a drawing of the woman and a brief bio of her.  

Who knows how else these project may morph by the end of 100 days?!? I do know I am loving doing the project, finding different quotes and researching the women. My head is swimming with amazing women that I hadn't heard of.  I feel like I student again (which is a wonderful thing) and my desk is a mess of library books.  

If you want to follow along with this project there are a few ways you can:

you can follow or subscribe to my dailydress project blog
https://dailydressproject.blogspot.com
or
follow my #100daysofwomenwonders on my Instagram account, virginiacreates:
https://www.instagram.com/virginiacreates/
or
you can join
'the dailydress project ...' group on FB
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bookofmotherlove/

Also if you want a 'virginiacreate's monthly calendar in your inbox'
you can sign up here.
https://virginiafitzgerald.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=8978699b24201ab4b3138cbdf&id=4a8fde0071


“In a world where thrushes sing and willow trees are golden in the spring, boredom should have been included among the seven deadly sins.”  
Elizabeth Goudge, The Rosemary Tree

Today is International Women's Day!!

March is Women's History month and today is International Women's Day.

"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights."

Gloria Steinem, world-renowned feminist, journalist and activist 

International Women's Day

International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated annually on March 8.
The day has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911.
The day is not country, group or organization specific - 

Poster for Women's Day, March 8, 1914, 

demanding voting rights for women.

Karl Maria Stadler (1888 – nach 1943)  

(Scan from an old book)

it belongs to all groups collectively everywhere.International Women's Day  is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.No one government, NGO, charity, corporation, academic institution, women's network or media hub is solely responsible for International Women's Day. Many organizations declare an annual IWD theme that supports their specific agenda or cause, and some of these are adopted more widely with relevance than others. International Women's Day is a collective day of global celebration and a call for gender parity.International Women's Day is all about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy, and action - whatever that looks like globally at a local level. But one thing is for sure, International Women's Day has been occurring for well over a century - and continue's to grow from strength to strength.

What's the history of IWD?

Women's demonstration for bread and peace – March 8, 1917, Petrograd, Russia

International Women's Day (IWD) has been observed since the early 1900's - a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

The history of International Women's day is quite intriguing - click below to read more ...

In 1908 great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

https://www.internationalwomensday.com/About

here is a video showing the details of the image I created for today's post of my 'dailydress ...' blog.

Announcing the rebooting of my dailydress project ....

Though I started making dressart and my 'dressproject'  since 2005, I started my 'dailydress project ...' on May 31, 2013.  It stemmed from a personal need to have daily positive and inspirating messages because that year was pretty intense for me. And as is my nature I wanted to share the words of wisdom that I found so I started my 'dailydress project ...' blog.

click here to go to blog

I posted daily for over a year, May 31, 2013 - July 11, 2014. Then my posts became less daily so that I could focus on other projects of my life. Then when my oldest, Maya, headed off to college I turned again to my daily posting, this time focusing the posts on topics and themes that I wanted to share with my daughters, my book of motherlove. I posted 97 days of 'motherlove', and once again life demanded my attention and my posts became more sparatic and far between.

Now loved ones of mine are going through a difficult transition,  so I am rebooting my dailydress blog!!  And honestly I couldn't be more happy! My 'dailydress' blog has been one of my favorite things to do.  I am a quote junkie, jotting down inspiring quotes whenever I see one, the more obscure the better. So if you are interested in "a collection of art, quotes, advice, recipes and life hacks to help us all navigate this brave new world ...." click this link to visit the entire blog.

I have also created a 'dailydress' project group on FaceBook, so if you are on FB please join the group! the more the merrier.

'the dailydress project ...' Public group · 384 members Join Group 'the dailydress project ...' @ https://dailydressproject.blogspot.com a collection of art, quotes, advice, recipes and life hacks to help us all navig...

click here to join the dailydress project group on FB

thank you and peace, 

Perks of summer ...

One of my favorite perks of summer is getting to visit Poetry Hill Poetry's Summer Writing Program and leading these lovely kids in an art project.  These visits are particularly enjoyable as these kids are wonderfully creative and take my art activities and create pieces beyond my imagination.  I am always awed by their ideas and finished pieces.

picture created using thumb and fingerprints
 (and pen) note how the flowers
feel like they are flying!

This past week we created graphic novel pages/comics using thumbprint art.  Thumbprint art is basically using an ink pad and either your thumb or fingers to make a print which you can then make into ANYTHING by adding lines.  You can also use your prints in a group to create larger shapes and images.  You can see by the finished pieces below that these kids did both.  

I started the session by demonstrating some possibilities and then handing out ink pads and scratch paper to let them play and get a feel for the process.  While they were experimenting I asked them to think about a story for one of their thumbprint characters.  After a bit, I handed out a page with empty 'storyboard's and ask them to create a story using thumbprint art.  The stellar finished pieces are below, many with lovely narratives.  And just in case you too want to play, here is the link to the printable template.  

True confession: thumbprint art is HIGHLY addictive, as you will see by the piece I made for my 'dailydress' blog. 

the adventures of Joey!! climbing, hanging, jumping and more.

the story of a person looking for a place where
they are accepted. 

Lastly, Potato Hill Poetry's Summer Writing Program has one more inspiring week left and if you are local and have a budding creative in your house, I highly recommend that you click here and check it out!! http://www.potatohill.com/summer-writing-program/

a peacock beauty pageant, click to expand and read the captions,
the outcome is priceless. 

story of a mole who gets sick and is helped by other animals
and they all end up living together.

'love birds':  the wedding, making a home, having babies ...

based on the games, apples to apples

a picture of the beach by her house in maine

'how I feel about houses' ... the sun shows its opinions about
different styles of home.

made by Andy Green, award-winning poet and writer, and leader of this program.
He continued playing and experimenting and check out the last panel,
totally thinking outside the box with his bunny ears!!  

as the kids were diligently working away I continued playing on the board,
first creating a Ferris wheel, then putting all types
of characters in the buckets of the Ferris wheel and then a
created the crowd waiting for their turn!
TOTALLY ADDICTING!!

And in response to a conversation about 'weirdness' that we had as we worked on our pieces, I created the illustration below, using my thumb and fingerprints.

illustration for my 'dailydress' blog -EMBRACE YOUR WEIRD!

and as always ...

Follow your Art and Peace