Festive Season - Hermitage Publications

Travellers!! If anyone has anything they would like to add to the Hermitage Publications Peddler's Cart for show, buy or trade most welcome, please email the details to me.

The plan is to get a Christmas spirit going and trading is fun!

Hermitage Publications - Imogen Crest

http://hermitagepublications.blogspot.com/ (link takes you there>>>)

dark gardens

Silky Oak Divinations

We have set up the divination tent beside the Silky Oak and visitors can go inside the Oak, with the Silky Oak Spirit and have a mystery unravelled. Any takers?

gift of the sea

Sunday Market

Sunday Market
Originally uploaded by FranSb.

The Secretary is on her way to the Sunday market as she wants to replace the wings for her tiny donkey. Her first set has been worn out in the long distance flight to the Farthest North. She has a basket of very nice blankets for sale, much like the one she is using here.

Gypsy Camp stamps for trade

Gypsy Camp First Day covers are still up for trade. I have had some beautiful trades already from some of the brilliant artists here. If anyone would like to trade art for a first day cover with four Gypsyt Camp stamps, just contact Gail.

Don't Drink Koschey's Punch

For goodness sake keep the lid on Pandora's Box. Too many people have been drinking Koschey's Party Punch and we all know what untold misery that has generated. We need to make sure 'hope' stays safe.

Old Photos Found

A trunk filled with old photos of the Duwamish Marina, and its regular side shows, have emerged. These two photographs are a part of a collection that will be shown in Duwamish in the near future.
Collection by Heather Blakey

Beau ty is in the eye of the beholder 

Carousel Memories

Today I spent hours sitting with Darryl in the Oncology day ward as they dripped chemotherapy into his veins. As I sat I drew and we remembered the days when we were young and went to Luna Park together. The Carousel bought back memories of carefree days, of the giggle palace, mirror maze, river boat ride and old ghost train. These days we ride a far different carousel and wonder when the ride will end.

Life Drawing - Baba Yaga

A lovely way to spend a Sunday. In partial sun life drawing one of the more interesting subjects I have had of late. She stood with gentle timeless curves deep in thought. Perhaps it was those thoughts that transformed her in my eyes from one drawing to the next. The image was not of one woman but all the women she had been during various parts of her life. Not just the more elderly woman who stands before me here.


I saw in her also the young woman full of promise, not yet worn out by life's obstacles. She was soft and gentle and danced in moonbeams and in front of delighted audiences, the young gypsy dancer. In her own right she was a draw at any box office in the Northern towns where she toured. Not perhaps the first string of dancers, but assuredly the second. She worked hard and was given respect and an income. Who could want more.



She had kept on dancing no doubt, past where she was really up to years of one night stands, at times mounting a production all by herself, making her opportunities where they did not just simply present themselves to Baba Yaga. To get a few extra gigs here and there she danced under various names and each of her performing persona took on solo performances. It is a wonder she could even keep her bookings straight. Then I could see slowly life wearing her down. It was no longer about dancing but in surviving what very often were some very unpleasant realities. Still she could muster a straight, strong back to face the next day, and the next.

At other times of desperation made her so tired she could not even stand up. Life is hard for someone living by heir wits. Talent does not always happily meet up with opportunities to put them to use. That is the very sad thing that by now those days are gone, and the great talent has been betrayed by a body that just simply can no longer keep up with the demands of just talent. Never having reached the stature of "star" performer no allowances would be made to help her earn a living through dance anymore. so she was back, just a gypsy doing gypsy trades, as her mother and grandmother had also done before her.

Life is etched on our faces by the time we are fifty, our bodies are no different. Aside from the lines of time and trouble many women, and Baba among them, have a poetic elegance that though changed by time still is a thing of beauty. I could not help adding this portrait as she sat deep in thought. Not just the sum of her years, but the sum of every emotion, experience and inherited trait. Each of us are precisely so unique not just because of out DNA but the life we live.

Wintra And Summra On The Silk Road

Two of my friends insisted on leaving their home in Duwamish Bay because they're desperately searching for a cure to help a sick friend...this is the first of their adventures over the Silk Road. .



The two women wore a bright yellow dress and stood under a sign, hand painted by the finest painters from the Sideshow back home that read:

" We Buy, Sell and Trade in The Unique and Curious...please inquire within "

Jesse The Cyclops had designed it and his friend Caliban had painted it and the Twins were very proud of it for that reason alone.

" I wish the Benandanti was working here with us...She'd know how to liven things up " Wintra said to her conjoined twin Summra.

" Well, we’re not here to pull any theatrics, we're here to drum up some business for the Curiosity Shop back home. Things haven't been the same since Akela went looking for Livia...Akela’ s poor Mother just doesn't have the heart to run the place proper anymore. So it's up to us to find some inventory until things are back to normal. "

Summra looked up and down the Market Place stalls and she shook her head. " I don't think we're in the right place...Plus I'm not sure this is how you're suppose to stock the shop..."

Just then a woman with an armful of brightly colored fabrics folded neatly and smelling faintly of oranges raced by and then stopped dead in her tracks. The pile of cloth fell to the ground and she pointed a long bony finger at the shrunken head hanging from tents entranceway.

" Is that what I think it is? "



" I don't know, what do you think it is? " Summra asked.

Actually the Twins knew exactly what the woman was thinking, but unless you crossed their palms with silver they'd keep it to themselves.

The woman leaned over grabbed the fabrics and raced away, her face as dark and murderous looking as any vampire or ghoul that the twins had ever seen in their entire lives.

The Twins looked at each other and winced. " We didn't handle that well..." Summra whispered.

They turned to their table of wares and Wintra tapped on the Fiji Mermaids Jar but her eyes remained shut and the Twins knew the little Mermaid didn't like being so far away from home. They didn't either, but the Mermaid would always react to danger and the Twins had never been away from Duwamish Bay in their lives.

She was all they had to watch out for them here.

It surprised Wintra and Summra that no one stopped to ask about the little Mermaid in the jar. She had a wonderful story to tell...Couldn't all these people see that? And look, her little monkey face was sweet and kind. Didn't they see that either?

This Lumurian Archipelago was a strange place. That's what they'd heard...That's why they'd come here.



A little while later an older man walked back and forth in front of their stall before he finally walked in. " Is that a severed head in that jar? "

Summra told him, " No, its a peeled off face. We're willing to trade him for..."

But the man was gone.



" This isn't going well at all Wintra. What on earth are we going to do? If the Curiosity Shop doesn't get stock soon...Its going to die. Isn't it? "

Wintra reached for her Sister's hand and squeezed and they stood there...They stood there all day.

Alone.

Studies in red

These are three spreads I did in Rachel's book entitled "Miss Scarlet goes on her travels"


This is a picture of the doll Miss Scarlet against a background of red oak leaves. The haiku reads:
Red autumn leaves
softly floating down to earth
Drift of memory


This one is called "reaching for red"


this one is called "Lady in red" - the background is made up of the words to Chris de Burgh's song of the same name but the red ink doesn't show up very well in the picture

Shady Oaks - Sunny Market Day

Warm, golden weather at the marketplace,

the Oaks moved in to provide some shade.

Figures mill around Baba's classes, sketching this and that.

The sun sends dappled light over the figures in still life beneath oak leaves....

copyright Monika Roleff 2005.

Seen and heard during the life class break...

It’s never too late
To put on a red dress
And dance

It’s never too late
To put butterflies in your hair
And dance

It’s never too late
To kick off your shoes
And dance

When I’m 100
I’ll put on `Money for Nothing’
And Dance.

Eclectica sneaks in...

Madame Eclectica, always one to steal the spotlight,

muscled her way into the life drawing class.

I hope Baba will cut her some slack.

She does look rather fetching, though.

Baba's Biographer

Baba's Biographer is at the market providing some insight into this fascinating woman. She writes that "The story of Baba Yaga is prime among many images of the Black Goddess. The Black Goddess is at the heart of all creative processes and cannot be so easily viewed. Men and women rarely approach her, except in fear. Women are learning of her through the strength and boldness of elder women who are not afraid to unveil her many faces.Sofia as wisdom lies waiting to be discovered within the Black Goddess who is her mirror image. Knowing that, until we make that important recognition, we are going to have to face the hidden and rejected images of ourselves again and again.

Read about Baba Yaga and let her be your guide during the coming weeks.

Baba's Life Drawing Class

Baba is modelling for life drawing classes. Consider:
"All that is left of her natural beauty.
Her skin is intact,
Her bones are as they are
No need of paint and powder
She is as she is no more, or less.
How marvellous."
Ikkyu (fifteenth century)

Amazon Queen Arrives at Baba Yaga's

The Amazon Queen has heard that Baba is organising the Advent Calendar this year and has 'all hands on deck'. So she has made haste to be at Baba's and help with the preperations. The Golden Spinning Wheel will be heard whirling late into the night.

The skies above Baba's are full of traffic as travellers make their way to her house to work on the annual Advent Calendar. Going to the House of Baba Yaga will be like attending an artist's convention and Baba is, frankly, excited. She has her Soul Hands working their fingers to the bone to have the place ready for such distinguished visitors.