I Need a Remedy

My sweet friend from Alabama so clearly described a feeling for me one day. 

While talking about a funk she was in, she lightheartedly said, "Oh, I've got snakes in my head."

I loved that phrase on so many levels. 1) It was said with an Alabama accent, 

2) It so perfectly described the frustration of being in a funk, 

and 3) Snakes can be driven out. 

Instead of thinking about the blues as a lingering fog that stays with you indefinitely, 

the concept of snakes implies a temporary nuisance that will slither out rather quickly.

After years of struggling with fog issues, 

I have finally learned that making stuff helps me clear out the snakes. 

There is really no need to over-analyze a funk. 

Most of the time it is caused by something random that creeps along my path.

I don't try too hard to clear it out on my own, I just notice it and get busy with my hands. 

The snakes leave on their own while I am working.

The remarkable remedy drives them out.

The Junk Collector

When I was a girl, I was quite a junk collector. I saved every trinket I could find and 

traveled with my Junk Collection, an assortment of gumball machine toys, Cracker Jacks prizes, 

feathers, broken jewelry, and rocks delightfully housed in an old Pringles can. 

I still have trouble leaving sparkly bits and trinkets behind.

Thankfully the world of mixed media art has renamed junk and raised its status in doing so. Useless pieces of junk are now called "found objects." What was previously a greasy chicken sandwich wrapper found on the side of the road is now called "found paper." I love the new terms. 

They reflect the sense of mysterious good fortune I feel when I find something to save.

I like to find such objects and paper in junk mail, on the floor, and in the scrap pile left behind when I work on a project. Last Saturday I decided to tear all 

my found pieces into tiny bits and sew them together. These are some of my creations.