CATCH-UP POST : PART 2 : DREAM REALIZED -PUBLISHED!

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEVER in my WILDEST dreams did i ever think i could actually be published in, not just any magazine, but THE magazine, my favorite art magazine, an inspiration to millions of really awesome artists, SOMERSET STUDIO!!!!

i must say, even now, 2 and a half months after finding out, the words still evoke a surreal tingle in my brain....(yes, one much like a seratonin reuptake party in the cerebelum). not only did they accept my work, they thought enough of it to give me a TWO-PAGE spread!!!!!!!! (ask me and i will not deny that i think they just didn't have enough entries to publish, so they threw in mine at the last minute). i chose to take the leap last summer, when Somerset announced an upcoming deadline for their black-and-white challenge. it didn't even take a minute and i was doodling away with my relatively-unused markers, doing small line drawings like i have done my whole life, and i soon pulled together a small pile of ok pieces, not really 100% acceptable to me as Somerset material, but you have to know that i have dreamed of this goal for about 8 years, when i saw my first issue of Somerset and made my husband pay several dollars for a magazine a never read. i fell in love by sight of its cover alone (may/june, 2000, art on cover by lynne perrella) - yes! exactly 8 years!

so, i have this pile, and i'm happy enough to be back at drawing, but my husband, daughter and dad and mom convince me that it's good enough to try - so it goes - off to stampington.

i didn't even decorate the box because i waited until the last minute, ok, AND because i thought it would just be tossed on the no stack anyway....but a tiny part of me decided that a black-and-white challenge was a perfect start. i admit that i was at the brink of giving up my goal of calling myself an artist and resigning myself to maybe making scrapbooks out of all the stuff i've bought, retiring as a mom who liked art.

i am very proud that Somerset thought several of my entries were worth printing in their amazing somerset studio. i am most proud of my "paper charm: bird loft", and will do more of these type of pieces (funny - i used to make mobiles all the time as a kid). i am also going to pick up my work on iconic paintings and ATCs, and i have even, much to my own disbelief, reserved a storefront on ETSY in case i can actually come up with enough to sell. i would like to put together some inspiration bags of art-scraps to share, and maybe throw in some other stuff for fun!

i accomplished a lifetime goal - and it makes me want to become better at what i love. art is my therapy, my passion, and my constant way of seeing life, and i am making a decision to keep going. thanks to everyone along the way who has encouraged me to try, i hope i can inspire others to take a chance too.

here is the paper charm bird loft,

as with all of my drawings published, it is actually much darker than it appears in the magazine.

 

 

here are the other items of mine that were published with this:

 

  

  

  

thank you somerset!!!

what wasn't published for B&W challenge

 

being my first submission, i sent a lot of things, not confident in any of it!

these are a few things that didn't get published...

 

OLDER BEAD PROJECTS

 

  

 these are older bead projects of mine. the skeleton is some vintage white beads and some shell and the head is old glass. the blue beaded cross i believe are all newer beads. for both i made basic wire forms.

the gaurdian angel i made in 2004 when i learned i was finally pregnant with my second child (4.5 years trying). both of my grandmothers introduced me to these pocket prayer cards, i've been in love with them since. i took this to church with me to pray and showed it to my grandmother. the small baby is a gift from her. on the back i stitched a Blessed Mother medal. i ended up losing this child, we believe she was a little girl, maggie.

in 2005 i became pregnant with my precious boy, which eased the pain somewhat. this little thing (it's all of 2 inches top to bottom) represents maggie and the fragility of life, this proves she was here long enough to change our lives... :)

more music!!!

well, i am proud that not only have i taught myself to partition one of my external hard drives ( i am completely self-taught when it comes to computers), but i also have completed a power point project (never even knew what power point was until my ten year old told me about it), and i printed the cd i put it on, AND, i got more music....how slow am i??!!
here are my newest "adoptions":
green day -wake me up when september ends
alanis morissette -everything
lifehouse -you and me
john hiatt -have a little faith in me (looove benny and joon)
edwin mccain -i'll be
chris daughtry -home (loved him from the first)
i also tried to grab keke palmer's tonight (night at the museum) but RHAPSODY didn't have that one!
and train's ordinary is only available as an album -you think they would have includeed it on the spiderman special edition i bought..
dam, i need better earplugs - but i'm afraid of ones that go inside my ear (claustrophobe)

CATCH-UP POST : PART 1 : TIME LOST

i last posted november 18, 08. since then i have lost three people in my life. but i also ....finally....got published!!!!!!! i will use two separate posts to elaborate, because it is such a bittersweet combination and seems irreverent to put them together...
i need to start with my losses....

within days of my last post, my father lost his second brother to stomach cancer. my uncle always came across as a very reserved kind of person, but one who everyone respected and could look to for anything. he worked very hard his whole life to provide for his wonderful wife and 5 kids. then he took-on an eight-year battle with cancer. he had his stomach removed years ago, but absolutely never gave up a valiant fight to suck every last minute out of life. he is as inspirational as his brother who died of similar cancer, and that brother's wife, who died of cancer as well. all of my 10 cousins and their families went through an incredibly difficult and painful battle with their parents' illnesses, and i now hold cancer survivors and their families as heroes in my heart. love and prayers out to you all....

on december 11, 08, my husband lost his brother to cirrhosis after a very depressing and really painful few months of suffering. we moved our family down here to be with the rest of our family, and my husband was eager to get closer to his brother, who wasn't much of a socializer. time lost.
so, a sad thanksgiving and then even more sadness leading to christmas when 10 days after the death of his brother, literally not much more than a week after his funeral, on december 21, two policemen come to our door, asking if we had been in touch with my husbands ex-wife that day (another whole blog-but they had 2 sons, now 22 and 20). as my husband tries the phone number the policeman gave him, the officer comes close and tells me that one of our sons has been killed in a car accident. as many times as you watch this drama play out on tv, you cannot imagine the horror of those words. it was as if a fire started down in my legs and seared up to my brain, rendering me faint and screaming in denial. my 10 year old daughter looks at me and begs - "what happened, mommy" and cries desperately with me as my husband now breaks down on the phone....my 3 year old son just cries and stares...

what are you supposed to hold onto as far as faith goes when everything is being pulled out from under you....which, i have to say in retrospect is not the case ( we are very lucky at this point in our lives to be as fortunate as we consider ourselves). why did his life come to such a tragic and immediate end? he was in the marine reserves, was scheduled then unscheduled to go to iraq, had a wonderful new girlfriend - a girlfriend who was with him in the car, and also lost her young life with two other friends - four deaths in this one accident on an icy indiana toll road.....3 days before christmas. all of these families and the poor soul of the truck driver (not injured physically) who probably still can't sleep at night - who tried to avoid the head-on collision as best he could.

the nightmare darkened as the hours and days passed - many articles about the accident were published all over the internet and people, as they always will, varied in their responses to the articles, many directly blaming the "stupid kids" who were probably speeding...many others sending prayers for all the families....some even saying they drove past the accident and how horrific it was - that is how we got information. protocol prevented his body from being sent back home immediately, so for days we wandered around, not mentally able to make the 12 hour drive in winter storms, and not able to get an immediate flight (for 4) just days before christmas....then the extreme nightmare of the actual flights and missed connections and sleepless hours traveling to our child's funeral....

what i did not understand to this point was why he wasn't given the chance to have a "real life", with a wife and kids, a career and house....and what could possibly be the reason for such an abrupt ending to his story....then the people started flowing in to pay their respects....many schoolmates and friends, but just as many people of every age...saying such extraordinary things about him...how sweet he was, and friendly, goofy, always wanting to make others laugh, always putting everyone else's needs before his own.....

then, in between my burning tears, and dizziness, while trying to convince myself that the cosmetically "repaired" person in that coffin was the boy i watched grow up from age one....it made itself known to me. all of a sudden it was i who felt humbled, it was the guilt of giving him a hard time about not having a job or his own place. it was never about any of that. as i stood there, in a blurry state of calm, desperately trying to disappear, i saw it. here was the culmination of 20 years of this young person - many friends and family who were remembering fun times, others crying for the loss of a friend who at some point made something in their lives better. in 20 years, he made more friends and touched more people than i have in 42 years....he had already accomplished his life's "work", making people feel good WAS his purpose. he was taken swiftly, but painlessly (we pray). he could have lived and been paralyzed or otherwise brain damaged, he could have lived a long, difficult life with the gift of being extra-sensitive to the feelings of others, which some of us know is a curse more than a blessing- but instead his life was short and sweet, tied up neatly to be remembered eternally with a smile and that goofy laugh....

right after the last person spoke about how they knew him, a sudden complete silence struck the entire room full of mourners, and lasted for what seemed like minutes...he came to us, feeling like a breath across the room...hi, bud, we'll miss you dearly, please stick around and keep making us laugh........

blog void

nothing posted from november 18, 08

to march 12, 09.............................................................

misc from 2008

this is actually my very first ACEO....

i named it   "art til i part"  thinking superstition would bring me luck?

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ABOUT ME

**i am under construction**

i want to connect with some of the thousands of incredible artists online...i have been hanging out for years and have been so inspired by artists i have found in somerset publications and on their blog links that i have decided to make art a more important part of my life. i will be working on adding as much as i can while trying not to completely neglect my family...thanks for coming and check back soon!

THE BASICS.......

• name: CHRISTINE ECHELBARGER

• location: southeastern USA

• dream: be able to concentrate on art and creating all day & all night

• reality: husband and 2 kids (10.5 and 3.5)

• grind: after losing his job at ford, we relocated 800+ miles south, where i promised i would never live, to be near family. he's now in school to have a new career in medicine, i'm a sahm

• education: bachelor's in liberal studies from bowling green state university, ohio - majored in psychology and art therapy with a well-rounded dose of fine art

• art background: i have loved and learned about art since i could hold a crayon. my dad is an artist/photographer and taught me basics and love for art/vision, my parents sent my brother and i to many summer community art classes taught by really great people (there i learned calligraphy, cartooning, woodcarving, sewing, drawing, photography, and painting). i can't remember life without glue, scissors, paint and pencils! through grade and high school, i was asked to re-scribe the school constitution, create program covers/signs/newsletters, and made our high school graduation banner/buttons. college courses included acrylics, life drawing, jewelry, enameling, fiber arts, ceramics and art history. i was also commissioned with a friend to paint character and original wall-murals inside 3 kindercare centers.

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GOAL

ART IS MY PASSION AND MY THERAPY
i want to pursue that passion.
  
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WHY AM I SITTING HERE TALKING ABOUT MYSELF?

i would like to break down the different aspects of my journaling and my issues with OCD, bipolar and depression. i have many things i want to share with anyone who would like to listen. hopefully you can benefit either by starting your own art journey or by gaining a better understanding of yourself or someone you love who might be experiencing some of the same things as i do.

here is the fine print:

I AM NOT A DOCTOR, NOR DO I PLAY ONE ON TV. i do not have training past my bachelor's degree in art therapy and psychology. i write here to share and offer ideas, not to diagnose or prescribe/provide treatment. what you do with your art supplies is your business- just don't hurt anyone, keep the pencils out of your ears, and don't eat crayons, and if you have paste (ahh, the smell....) don't eat that either.

i also love to scrap, and i love to write.
the combination means piles of scraps with details
which always get lost or misplaced.
so i come here to journal so it doesn't disappear....
i'm really not out to bore anyone,
i just love to make lists and make my memories visible.
here, they can't vanish...hopefully for now anyway.

MORE PERSONAL JUNK FOR YOU VOYEURISTIC TYPES....

* love everything nature, obsess about recycling/garbage and loss of earth and wildlife

* avid junk collector - see my post on collections.

* extreme homebody and night person, love overcast and rainy, cool days.

* love movies of all kinds, take way too many pictures, scrapbooking is my life passion.

* mandate family meals, try to mandate cleanliness, and demand lots of play/enjoy-life time with the kids.

* favorite reading: anything to do with scrapping, art-journaling, paper arts, altered books, art, anything psychologically educational, like to read others' blogs, their lists and their scrapbooks and journals

* favorite colors: browns, olives and baby or intense indigo blues, lavendar/blue

* favorite meal: flatiron or porterhouse steak, baked potato w sea salt crust, asparagus
choice of beverage: sprite, canned not tap, in a glass with ice.............no coffee, ever

* favorite snacks: pop secret extra butter, hersheys milk chocolate (w jif p.butter), krogers black cherry or blackberry pie (only at half-off), and lo, the ultimate--- turkey hill philadelphia style vanilla bean ice cream....................none down here, i yearn for it.

* favorite sport to do: used to swim, bike and take karate

* favorite outfit: smooth, cool cotton t-shirt and lounge pants, no shoes

* tv shows: recently ditched cable for netflix, but loved and miss house, top chef, all shows forensically oriented, iron chef (japan), project runway, anything on discovery, nat geo, or history channels

* favorite metal: stainless steel, favorite rock: smooth round rocks from a maine shore, any smooth rocks with deep colors or striation, favorite wood: smooth, white or deep colored and hand waxed, love love love exotics - despise rainforest destruction though

* favorite crayon: periwinkle

* cake: absolutely white with sugary white frosting (sometimes my milk chocolate with chocolate frosting from scratch).

* nuts: yes.....hazelnuts, followed by cashews and almonds (looove jordan almonds)

* flowers: white daisies and blue/purple hydrangeas, passionflowers, my baba's wildflower/weed bouquets from her garden.

* favorite way to waste time: magazines, collage, cut and paste, drawing......uh, doing this