2010: The Year of the Dragonfly

There is only one word for it: besieged! With the dawn of summer in late May 2010, I began being visited daily by a red dragonfly...yes RED! I had only seen blue-green ones in the past and not very often at that. But this beauty visited me in my backyard and stayed for more than an hour while I was working on my recycled glass art. I thought I must be dreaming.

Flight        2004

But it kept coming...I saw it every day I was home until I moved in late October. It found me wherever I was in the yard or driveway...almost flying through my driver's side window one afternoon as I was getting into the car. Tickled, I laughed wondering if the fact that I drive a red Beetle had anything to do with it.

Soon, other dragonflies began entering or re-entering my life. For the re-entering part, I found a pair of silver dragonfly earrings and a pendant (which I thought I had lost) while cleaning out an old tote bag; a purple forgotten to-go cup covered with dragonflies emerged from somewhere in the back of a kitchen cupboard and I stumbled upon this painting I had done on a bathroom tile back in 2004.



Time to Go         2010



In the entering catagory, my friend Linda gave me a beautiful copper one, handcrafted by Maine artist Gail Barker Miller, my friend Barby gave me a beautiful card noting that the dragonfly poses "an opportunity to soar," and finally, my friend Johnna gave me a recently deceased one which she found behind her husband's truck in the driveway of Ye Olde Forte Cabins in Pemaquid Beach, Maine. She suggested I might want to use it in a window...and here it is at the left.

Making this work was a challenge as the star was extremely delicate...in both substance and coloring. My work usually consists of much bolder colors and I wasn't quite sure where to start. Ultimately, I went to my "white" sea glass collection... to discover that almost none of it was white but pale pastels, which only looked white while wet on the beach. This started me on a whole new series of pastel glass works, two more of which have been completed since. It will be interesting to see if my dragonfly communion continues at my new location in summer 2011. Stay tuned...