Day 37

This was another camping trip to The Chesapeake Bay, during which we took a day trip to the boardwalk at Virginia Beach. We found this magnificent sculpture of Poseidon, the God of the Sea. We enjoyed the juxtaposition of this beautiful octopus to my round pregnant belly.

My partners in everything, Ken and Jean-Baptiste.

Ken discovered this little fellah' off to the side, all by his lonesome.

Another little loner...

Day 36

I took these pictures while on a camping trip with my family at The Chesapeake Bay. It was one of the most surreal things I've ever seen...well, in my waking hours at least. There were just dozen and dozens of jellyfish washed up on the shore. Many of them lay gathered in groups, dying under the hot sun, and others were cast far off by themselves, long since passed. I even went back to the beach that night, while my family was sleeping, and just walked the shore, finding more and more jellyfish the further I walked. I eventually sat down in the middle of a large cluster, and spend the rest of the night there, watching the sky and feeling blessedly small.

Day 35

"Do you know what I would answer to someone who asked me for a description of myself, in a hurry? This:

?? !!

For indeed my life is a perpetual question mark--my thirst for books, my observations of people, all tend to satisfy a great, overwhelming desire to know, to understand, to find an answer to a million questions. And gradually the answers are revealed, many things are explained, and above all, many things are given names and described, and my restlessness is subdued. Then I become and exclamatory person, clapping my hands to the immense surprises the world holds for me, and falling from one ecstasy into another. I have the habit of peeping and prying and listening and seeking--passionate curiosity and expectation. But I have also the habit of being surprised, the habit of being filled with wonder and satisfaction each time I stumble on some wondrous thing. The first habit could make me a philosopher or a cynic or perhaps a humorist. But the other habit destroys all the delicate foundations, and I find each day that I am still...only a Woman!"-Anais Nin

These are but a few of my tattoos, and these are masterpieces, indeed. All work pictured here was done by my dearest friend and creative genius, Nutchild.

Day 34

"Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them."     - Henry David Thoreau

I often get asked about my body modifications, and I never knew just what to say...it is something so deep and personal, that even if I could sum it up in some simple way, I am not sure I would want to tell. Stretching my earlobes is one way I have modified the substance of my body, and I am quite pleased with the results, both aesthetically, and spiritually. The lovely, hand-carved earrings, made from water buffalo tusk, were a gift from Jean-Baptiste.

Day 33

An impromptu, imagined tentacled friend, created with the help of my friend Heather, one beautiful day at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens with our children.

Day 32

A collaboration with my dear friend, the lovely Heather...my art, her artful hands. See her beautiful project here:  http://365daysofheather.blogspot.com/

Day 31

"We would be warm below the storm
In our little hideaway beneath the waves
Resting our head on the sea bed
In an octopus' garden near a cave

We would sing and dance around
because we know we can't be found
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade"

-The Beatles











I always loved that song when I was a child. Ken and Jean-Baptiste and I painted this while I was pregnant with Griffyn, and it has hung where he sleeps ever since.