The Good, The Bad, and the Sloppy. And the Scary!

Happy Monday!

Double post today, with a mosaic for Mary's Mosaic Monday at Little Red House, and also a metamorphosis for Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. (Thank you, ladies, for providing us with inspiration and connection!)

Click here for other Mosaics, and here for other transformations!

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First, my metamorphosis, which I call Before, During, After, and Aftermath!

We begin with the "before" -- the front end of our upstairs hallway --
wallpaper and all -- as it was when we bought That Old House:

And, the "during," as the painters stripped wallpaper, repaired old plaster, and painted:

Now, the "after" -- clean walls and woodwork, serene and tidy!

Now ... the "Aftermath!" Look if you dare. What has happened?

Those of you with college age children can guess:


Our daughter Anne graduated, and brought all her stuff home. Oy vey.

(She gets a brief dispensation; she's been out of the country, first in London
and then in Guam, since shortly after graduating. She comes home today.)

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One thing she hasn't yet brought home is her senior art project -- and that's the subject of my Mosaic today.

Anne chose to depict "Ragnarok" in fabric and other media. She sewed, painted, knitted, molded, used feathers, fur --- and who knows what else to create this enormous figure.

"Ragnarok" is part of Scandinavian mythology (fitting, as my family is Norwegian), and it loosely translates as meaning "the twilight of the gods." (Anyone hear Wagnerian music in the background?)

Anne's figure is nearly 13 feet tall, and was hung from the ceiling of the gallery at her college. It is an abstract depiction of a Viking warrior god's armor -- now empty, and in tatters, ruined. . . the gods have lost their powers.

It is power, defeated.




Quite honestly, I found it terrifying. And when Anne gets home she will go back to her school, take down this installation, and bring it home.

Where do you think we should hang it at That Old House?
Anne says she can dismantle it and put it in the attic. I'm sure our ghosts will love that! -- Cass