erica il cane

now and then

a new year trade~
one forgotten black baby doll, who has at last found her home...

for one small oil painting, pull to pieces by faith magdalene austin. 
http://www.sundrip.com/

dolls for art, and art for dolls...what could be better. 

on this first day of the new year we stand at the gate of a new beginning, the future.  the past whispers to us to not close it's door, but rather unite the now and then.  only with both parts will our creativity be fueled, and we are set free to dream, manifest and wonder.  
x, c

un

octobre's lone dolly shoe has been included in a beautiful treasury.  this shoe has made it's way into several vignettes throughout my living room, but i have *somehow* resisted pulling the listing.  seeing as i am mint-obsessed, doll crazy, and a collector of sad, lost & random things, this little shoe is pretty darn special.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cd45080b95c6d9128f4f2fe/winter-mint#4cd4adcafa5a8eef46a35709

for years, i have owned this delightful little crimson slipper.

when i acquired the shoe, i discovered this note tucked inside~

"Shoe belonged to Jean Cartier - lost the other while walking home with mother from Aunt Judgie's -
Age about four years.  Mother discovered shoe gone when arrived home."

found

my long-lost victorian bear rug! well, we can all sleep a lot easier now...

Camera Obscura - "French Navy" official video

amen

The Bridge Poem
by Donna Kate Rushin

I've had enough
I'm sick of seeing and touching
Both sides of things
Sick of being the damn bridge for everybody

Nobody
Can talk to anybody
Without me
Right?

I explain my mother to my father
my father to my little sister
My little sister to my brother
my brother to the white feminists
The white feminists to the black church folks
the black church folks to the ex-hippies
the ex-hippies to the black separatists
the black separatists to the artists
the artists to my friends parents...

Then
I've got to explain myself
To everybody

I do more translating
Than the gawdamn U.N.

Forget it
I'm sick of it

I'm sick of filling in your gaps

Sick of being your insurance against
the isolation of your self imposed limitations

Sick of being the crazy at your holiday dinners

Sick of being the odd one at your Sunday brunches

Sick of being the sole black friend to 34 individual white people

Find another connection to the rest of the world
Find something else to make you legitimate
Find some other way to be political and hip

I will not be the bridge to your womanhood
Your manhood
Your humanness

I'm sick of reminding you not to
Close off too tight for too long

I'm sick of mediating with your worst self
On behalf of your better selves

I am sick
Of having to remind you
To breathe
Before you suffocate
Your own fool self

Forget it
Stretch or drown
Evolve or die

The bridge I must be
Is the bridge to my own power
I must translate
My own fears
Mediate
My own weaknesses

I must be the bridge to nowhere
But my true self
And then
I will be useful

gazing mirror

octobre's gazing mirror is featured in two very pretty treasuries~

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cacf9252e2f8eef679b054f/hush?index=0

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ca8d25363448eef115ef6c7/the-winters-ghost-goes-a-flutter?index=5

i think hanging on a wall, it would be lovely and unexpected.