N is for…

      is for North Star

I feel a great connection to Polaris, our North Star.  And at one level it makes me laugh – as despite my affection, I am for all intensive purposes extremely directionally dyslexic.   

But I cannot look into the night sky and not remember that I’m part of something bigger.  I distinctly remember knowing that as a very young child looking at the stars.  I know many people express feeling like an inconsequential speck of dust when they consider the sky with its star and planets and the moon.  But that isn’t how I experience it at all.  It always reminds me of that there are bigger parts of me, and playing in this game of my life on Earth as Deborah is an interesting and fun, if myopic point of view. 

Because a pole star is relatively aligned to the Earth’s axis of rotation, its position appears to remain fixed in the night sky even as other stars seem to move, which is of course why they are/were so useful for navigation.   When I look at Polaris I often think of her other beautiful name, Stella Maris, which means Star of the Sea.

Thinking about navigating by Stella Maris often leads me to think about one of my favorite story poems/love tales – Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat. 

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

In a beautiful pea green boat,

They took some honey, and plenty of money,

Wrapped up in a five pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

And sang to a small guitar…

I’ve written a bit more about my love for this poem here.

Today’s index card art for Daisy Yellow’s ICAD challenge is a version of going to sea on a crescent moon boat under the watchful eye of Stella Maris.

I’m also linking to Summer of Color.  The challenge this week was to create something/anything using the colors citron and turquoise.  (You’ll have to trust me, although my colors don’t seem to be showing up correctly, the card is actually citron and the waves turquoise).   I do encourage you to check out both ICAD and Summer of Color and see what folks are posting. And do play along if you’re inspired!

All this talk about stars has me remembering a movie I like to watch periodically called The Book of Stars.  It’s the story of two sisters, but what immediately captured my attention when I first saw it (I think it was released in 2000) was the fact that one of the sisters was creating an artist journal, which she named The Book of Stars.   That title had been in the back of my mind for years as something I wanted to create, and it was kind of exciting to see a Hollywood movie showing an artist book.  Here’s a link to the blurb on Amazon so you can see if it’s something you’d like to see.

And as an aside, some day I WILL do my own version of The Book of Stars.  Yes, I will!

Today, being Friday, is also time to show a little link love.  Pop over to CraftyPod where Diane is hosting this summer’s Share the Link Love  and see what other folks are listing as inspirational blog to stimulate their creative mojo.

Today I’m linking to 5 bookarts blogs.

• How fun would it be to wander around in a colorfully painted gypsy wagon?  Find out at  Wandering Book Artists.

•   Cecilia Levy’s blog A Matter of Form  is a delightful look at her work and others, and all kinds of paper wonders.

•   It’s My Party is the blog of Aimee a paper junkie.  She particularly likes to work with hanji. 

• Anna Mavromatis’ paper and book work is impressive.  Her latest post offers a peek at how nature influences her work.

• Hand Held Gallery is a gallery/exhibition space in Australia and they blog about various exhibits, artists, paperworks.  

So there you have it.  That was a bit of a trip around the universe, but I hope you found some things you enjoyed.  Now it’s your turn.  Do you have a favorite star – of the celestial variety?  A movie recommendation about books?  Are you the owl or the pussycat?  Have a link to share about some blog that fires up your creative juices?  Please leave a comment – you know I love to hear!