Winter Sunset

Winter Sunset
It's getting late and you are out crunching uphill in the snow.
The shadows grow long and the colorful sky has you almost convinced it's warm.
Almost - not quite!

Pichincha - Rosario - The Argentine Chicago

I live in Rosario City, Argentina.

There's a neighborhood called Pichincha, which at the beginning of last century was famous for its many brothels.

At the beginning of the 20th century, it was a den of prostitution, mafia gangs, police corruption and disease, at a time when Rosario was called "the Argentine Chicago"; a natural consequence of the unchecked growth of a port city overflowing with poor immigrants and uneducated workers moving in from the countryside.

Pichincha, at one time the city’s red light district and home to the notorious brothel of the equally notorious Madame Safó. Purpose built as an exact replica of a French brothel and decorated with the finest French furniture, the journalist Albert Londres exclaimed in 1927 that it was like “finding a miniature homeland when you’re far from home. Inside, everyone speaks French. The patroness is from Montmartre.”

Nowadays, people can visit its fairs, the old train station Rosario Norte —which today houses the Department of Culture and the Museo de la Memoria— or have a coffee or a drink in its bars with tables on the tree-lined sidewalks.

I have created a painting and collage series,: titled “Pichincha Girls”, inspired by this neighborhood and dedicated to all the women that had been part of our history.

Showing in the slideshow are some paintings of this Series, most of them belongs to a lady who lives in Chicago and she has bought them to me.

Enjoy!

Patricia Vidour



http://www.patriciavidour.com

Holiday Greeting Cards

Tam Moody Greeting Cards

Lots of new Holiday Greeting Cards are now available in my shop! I hope you will stp by and check them out! Leave a comment or rate a card- even add one to your favorites!

Some cute new Christmas designs are available as well as Thanksgiving!

I am also accepting custom orders for cards- so send me a request! We have a special for USA customers going on right now- order 25 or more cards and get free shipping within the USA! Use code PHOTOSHIP09 during your check out for free shipping! Offer valid until November 20th!

Words On Retirement...

I have to share with you the latest in my saga of being retired with my husband, also retired. He has been spending a lot of time on the computer lately and has become quite adept at ordering online. He has the UPS truck here quite frequently lately.

A couple of weeks ago he told me, "Honey, we will need a few boxes to mail gifts in and can use them for things we sale on Ebay so I went to USPS.com and ordered some flat rate boxes. Now I thought that was a good idea, yes a very good idea as I have some vintage stuff on Etsy and it will fit. He finally did something useful. Or so I thought.

Today, our mail lady pulled in and started unloading all of these boxes, what on earth is going on???? I was very curious but watched from a distance while my husband talked to her and helped her carry the boxes into his shop. He came into the house with a very sheepish look on his face. "Honey, he says to me, I think I put my finger on the wrong spot on the USPS site. Instead of getting a box of 25 boxes, they just delivered 25 boxes of 25." That is 450 boxes so you do not have to do the math. And as usual, the next thing out of his mouth is, "Honey, can you call the post office and see how I can return all but 25 of these?"

Yes, Retirement is fun and at times can be quite unusual.

Don't forget to stop by my shop on Etsy to take advantage of the Bounty Holiday Sale that a few of us are having. Just search for ABHS to find some great deals. I have a few new items listed, here are a couple of them:

I Have a Romance with ACEOs

I have been on a romance kick lately showing romance through photography at my personal blog. Now, all of my photography prints are available as ACEOs.

Let me back track a little. I started out doing ACEOs as a mixed media artist primarily and then expanded into doing some painting, but I feel I have finally found my niche with photography. It just gradually took a hold of me and that was it. So now my main focus is photography and when I buy photography it is always an ACEO.

I am an avid collector. I own between 150 and 200 ACEOs at the moment. I think one of the biggest draws for me is that they are so easy to collect and do not require a lot of wall space. In addition, there are so many ways to display them.

Albums (all shapes and sizes)
Miniature plate holders (to sit them around on tables in groups)
Magnetic frames for the fridge and for metallic bulletin boards
Hangers for knobs on furniture and even walls
An ACEO tree...what is that you ask? Find a branch outside and bring it indoors and fill it with ACEOs.

One of the things I love to do with my ACEOs is to buy seasonal ones. I decorate my house with them for the appropriate season. I just put away my Halloween ones and out come my Thanksgiving ones, then Christmas, then Valentine’s, then July 4th and so on. It is much easier than hanging out seasonal flags or changing clothes on a goose sitting on the front porch. LOL

And, I will always collect my cat ACEOs. I am cat lover from way back. Another favorite thing for me to collect are animals in general and flowers. :)

I love earrings too, but that is another story and another collection....LOL

Link to the slideshow from the DAWG TEAM

Take a moment and enjoy!

Elevation

Snowing


It's a matter of elevation. Here it's just rainy and grey but a few miles away (uphill) there's SNOW on the mountain.
So I get up, look out and see it's another rainy day.






There's a lot to be said for living just a few feet above sea level. Winter is mild and very green. Today, I caught the squirrel snatching a big bunch of ferns and dragging them up the tree so he could safely munch them.

Meanwhile, on the mountain it's...

Still Snowing


Oh, and skiing season is here.

An Artist?? Does that include you??

What makes an artist??

So many people call themselves an artist.

Are you an artist???

* In the dictionary Artist is defined as "One, such as a painter, sculptor, or writer, who is able by virtue of imagination and talent or skill to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts."

*Artist is a descriptive term applied to a person who engages in an activity deemed to be an art. An artist also may be defined unofficially, as, "a person who expresses themselves through a medium". The word also is used in a qualitative sense of, a person creative in, innovative in, or adept at, an artistic practice.



There is so many wonderful artists in our Dawg=Designing Artists Women's Group, We love the Lord and we love art! There is all kinds of artists in our group, our main format has been ACEO'S for the last few years. They are easy to work with and you can complete one and move on to the next one. We have so many different types of subjects. I hope you will take the time to browse our work!! We have so great buys for you to choose from!

Here is some of our works on Etsy! Check them out, you can also search out the word Dawg or Dawg Team.

Etsy Buy Handmade DAWGTeam

Are you an artist that loves the Lord and would like to join our group?? Come and join in the fun!
DAWG GROUP