I've been toying with the idea of publishing a monthly newsletter for some time now, but I didn't want to send a boring one filled with nothing but text, yet I know virtually nothing about HTML and know myself well enough to know I'm not going to learn anytime soon. After considerable web-combing, I finally found a place that offers templates that don't make me gag, so I've been playing around and have come up with something I'm quite happy with so far:
It's not quite ready to go, but should be by the end of this week. I realize reading both someone's blog and their newsletter might seem a little redundant, but I'm offering for some people who might not have time to keep up with a blog, or who just prefer the immediacy and efficiency of a newsletter. There's a little buttony signy-uppy thingy in the right-hand column. And, of course, I promise never to spam or share your email address...I am a hater of spam!
So, do I have any news worth a whole letter? I do! I can't go into details just yet, but it involves plenty of dolls, and here is a little preview of some things I've been working on:
I used those soft focus, fuzzy edges to mask what is in fact a very messy studio. And here is little Simon, who get his own picture because he just looked so sad, I had to try to cheer him up...
In my last post I added some photographs of my grandmother and her mother in Brazil, where she and my mother were born. Those photos are so dear to me, because they are a record of my family but also because they are so beautiful in and of themselves, and - as someone who tends to romanticize the past - they evoke a time and feeling that I can never really know. Looking at them again made me think of a movie I love, Black Orpehus. It was made in Rio in 1959, is set during Carnaval, and is based on the myth of Orpheus. It is funny and beautiful and dark in places - basically my three criteria for good art. The very last scene is so sweet and charming, and I yet I always cry when I watch it...isn't it strange how you can be nostalgic for a place you've never been, for a time in which you've never lived?
And if that doesn't make you want see it, here is the trailer...love, beauty, magic, music, evil (but vanquished!)....sigh.