Monday, January 9, 2017

Famous Characters

Happy new week everyone.  Hope everyone had  nice weekend and you are ready for a new week.
Its a  pretty cold morning here in the northeast US, but it is suppose to warm a bit as the week goes on. But lots of grey skies and moisture. Ugh. Not sure I am looking forward to this kind of weather for this many days. Hopefully all the weather models are wrong, but in case they are actually correct, anyone know a magical way to make the weather more spring like? Ha-ha!
This month's theme at Art Journal Journey is "Every Journal page Tells a Story",
 and my latest page  came about when I was thinking about  famous story characters. One of the first to pop into my head was a strong woman from a classic American novel .
The novel ( and movie) is Gone with the Wind  and my character is Scarlet O'Hara. Gone with the Wind was written in the 1930's by Margaret  Mitchell. It was her only book, but what a good one. According to Wikipedia this is the second most read book in the US behind the Bible. source
In case you aren't familiar with the long story, it is the story of Scarlet O'Hara, the daughter of a plantation owner in the southern American state of Georgia. Shortly into the story the American civil war begins, and this is the story of Scarlet's life during the 4 years of the war and then the period following the war called reconstruction. The American Civil War began in 1861 and reconstruction went on from late 1865 until 1877.
If  Scarlet may not be the most likable woman in American literature,  one of the other woman in book, Melanie Wilkes, might be. Mitchell did a great job of playing these 2 very opposite women off of each other throughout the novel.  Scarlet is headstrong and self centered while Melanie is caring and kind. The whole trouble is that Scarlet has always thought she was in love with Melanie's husband, Ashley. Wilkes. This ends up destroying Scarlet's third marriage to the "scoundrel" Rhett Butler, who she finally comes to realize  is really the right man for her. But through it all, Scarlet also learns the most important thing of all is the her childhood home, the plantation called Tara.
So my page today shows the plantation house at Tara with Scarlet in her fancy  late 1800's clothes. I created her dress from some little pieces of assorted ribbon, and I used a magazine face. The quote was cut out of my old Flow magazine, which just by chance ended up being full of book quotes! 
So I'm slowly working into the new year, trying to figure out what I want this year to be for me. With all my husband's health issues in the last couple of years I am ready to take back my life. In ways I am a little bit of a Scarlet O'Hara right now and not enough Melanie Wilkes. :) 
Oh well, enough from me.  Have a great start to your week!

7 comments:

Valerie-Jael said...

Wonderful page as always, Erika. Hugs, Valerie

froebelsternchen said...

Oh yes-- what a timeless, classical story.. and you made a beautiful "Gone with the wind"
{(Vom Winde verweht) in german }- page!I love this painterly style..so artsy!
I have just one tip for living with the winter- weather: Let's put some spring-flowers in our hearts!!! ♥♥♥
Happy new week dear Erika!
Let's take it however it comes!
Thank you for being such an inspiring hostess!
oxo Susi

leekrek said...

love your story and your collage, very cool

sheila 77 said...

I love the dress you have made for her, very pretty. And what a sweet house too.

Meggymay said...

Its a fantastic page for the Story. The film still gets top marks from me, black and white but the acting was brilliant. I wonder what a remake would be like now in the 2010's.. A new year brings its own twists and turns, my option is one day at at time.
Yvonne xx

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

This is fantastic, Erika. I love it. I remember seeing Gone With the Wind as a very small child. My grandmother took me, and I got bored and didn't remember a thing, except it was SO loong. Seems we saw it in the mid-70s, because my Grandmother had seen it years before. It was brought to our small town by some organization (can't remember which) that put the money together to get it shown again. I'm so glad you explained it to us, because I didn't remember a thing about it.

I have a Flow, too. It was sent to me by a friend in the Netherlands. You found a wonderful quote, and your beautiful page is fantastic. You drew it so well, too.

Jeanie said...

Hi Erika,

I'm so far behind... getting ready for a big event for Rick's mom is eating my blogging lunch!

Thanks for your comments! I think you are a good American and if you aren't I'm not because I don't believe in the work till death idea either! So here's to hygge! And I love that enjoy so many of the same kinds of books! I'm definitely into my winter reading now! Enjoy that good story!