⋆⊱༻𖥸Dracula & A Canvas Kraken𖥸༺⊰⋆

Happy sleepy Sunday, y’all! How are you doing today? Was the week kind to you? Today is my baby girl’s ELEVENTH BIRTHDAY and I have been fighting back tears and emotions ALL DAY. I literally can’t believe it was 11 years ago that I became a mom. 11 years ago we had just moved to the Muskegon area from Mount Pleasant. We moved into the trailer park off of Pontaluna Rd. which is where we first became parents. We were young, and inexperienced, and broke as hell, but even then, I was so in love with my little growing family that it felt like all our struggles were covered in gold. Maybe that is just the memories being gilded over time. Anyway, ꧁ᴴᵃᵖᵖʸ☆ᵇⁱʳᵗʰᵈᵃʸ꧂ to my sweet baby girl!!!

Yesterday we successfully threw our Sculpture Garden Shindig at the Marilyn Voss Garden for Sculpture in Montague. This was our rescheduled date as the original date ended up being smoked out by the northern wildfires. I think it went really well and, though, we really didn’t get the numbers we had wanted, the people that DID come through had an incredible time! We had rock painting and chalk, we had a ceramic artist with clay to get hands-on with, we had the Urban Sketchers of West Michigan out doing plein air in the garden as well as supplies to do your own plein air work, we had free wildflower seeds, AND a free polaroid picture opportunity in front of the backdrop I painted earlier this summer. I had a TON of compliments and a few people took my cards for more artist info. We also decided to name the giant kraken monster Jephrina… She is beautiful and was the belle of the ball. There was also a music act that played and THEN my daughter grabbed her mic and got her karaoke on! I hope everyone had a great time, I sure did. BUT I’m also thankful it’s over and I can focus energy on other things! ( •᷄ᴗ•́)

Photo Captions- Cover Photo: The polaroid of Nova and I on our sea expedition (the boat sculpture with the canvas backdrop I painted!) Photo 1 & 2: Bowling yesterday at Pigeon Hill’s SociBowl for Nova’s birthday! We had a great time! I won no games. ◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜ Photo 3: The polaroid opportunity at the sculpture garden from Saturday (Jephrina) Photo 4 & 5: BOTH my girls had artwork in the “Water Wonderland” exhibition this month and I’m SO proud of them both. They are incredible artists! Photo 6: I ALSO worked with kids and a nonprofit program out of Muskegon this week and we made collaged gratitude cards for someone we are thankful to and discussed what it means to practice gratitude. Photo 7: I found this tee at a thrift store and assume it meant “rip waves” but 💨>ᴗ< too funny. Photo 8: This week I stopped into the jewelry store to have some pieces looked at and LOOK AT WHO GREETS YOU WHEN YOU WALK IN. Bless. Her name is Bailey and she is the best employee there!

I am still chugging along on Dracula and am REALLY enjoying it. I did NOT realize that Nosferatu IS the story of Dracula… Did you know that? So Dracula (Written by Bram Stoker) was first released in 1897. The story itself was instantly popular but then a few years down the road, Nosferatu (1922) which was a German Expressionist silent film version of Dracula popped out… but this was highly adapted for a German audience (and I don’t believe had full permission to use Dracula.) This first version was a silent film. Then in 1979, another film adaption was released that played further into the plague aspect. Then the 2024 version came… which was… a weird sexual version of the original Dracula story. But in ALL these versions of film, they play into the count’s role as a bringer of the “plague”, portraying the actual pestilence sweeping through the city. Specifically in the 2024 film version, the Count brings the “plague” with him and decimates the population with the illness. I don’t think they ever come out and SAY “bubonic” but the portrayal of rats WITH the illness is indictive. However, in the book, the time period would have seen the CHOLERA epidemic and Count Dracula’s move to London from Transylvania and feeding off of humans and filling them with fear was actually a metaphorized concept OF the “Blue Death” (cholera epidemic) infecting westward. I listened to an interesting podcast that contemplated if Count Dracula’s pilgrimage to London from Transylvania, bringing with him horror and uncertainty, was Bram Stoker’s (and much of the country’s) contemporary attitude and prejudices towards the groups of people moving from their seemingly wild and rural western homelands to the “civilized” East. Bram Stoker was a prolific writer of his time, and though he is really only remembered for Dracula, he has more incredible works out there as well as being in the same circles with other greats such as Oscar Wilde, Percy Shelley, and Arthur Conan Doyle. However, his final work, published in 1911, was deemed his WORST work and was written as a horror novel but was so bizarre and confusing that most found it either insufferable altogether or comical. (It was even adapted into a comedy film in 1988.) Many historians believe that this book was a result of Stoker’s declining brain functions from syphilis, and, unfortunately, from these complications he died the next year. I kind of want to read it even though H.P. Lovecraft stated: Stoker “utterly ruins a magnificent idea by a development almost infantile.”

Okay, sorry for the nerd fest up there. I usually go all in when I’m reading. That’s why I’ve enjoyed reading 19th century literature, there is always such a rich history behind all of the works and the authors. I also am absolutely enthralled with the idea of art outliving it’s creator. When you think of “Dracula”, you think of a pasty-skinned, pointy-fanged, cloaked villain. You may think of horror films or Halloween costumes. You’ve also heard the names Van Helsing and Renfield BUT you may not have had any idea that all 3 of these characters were written up by Bram Stoker in the late 1800’s and put inside his novel. I hope I can make something timeless that will LONG outlive me. ( • ᴗ - ) ✧ A gal can dream. Alright, friends. I’ve cut it real close tonight, as it is almost 11 PM! I hope y’all have a fabulous week and I will see you next Sunday! ♡

xxx- Kanda𓏸𓈒𓇼𓆉𓈒𓏸