At Last! February's Bead Journal is DONE!!

Yes folks, I really did finish...and I bet you thought I faded off in the beaded air, right?
NOPE!...here it is.

As I wrote in my last post, I had based this piece on the song "Tapestry", and my colors were already set in when the "music phantom" stole the song from "Playlist"!!  Really!
Some woman is singing a song in it's place...it's kinda funny actually, but I was ticked off when I first heard it.  I had to find a new song to set to my piece!   Well, lucky for me, I have had a bunch of songs on my playlist that I listen to while I bead, and one just spoke to me as I beaded this...It's called "SING" - from Annie Lennox's CD:
"Songs of Mass Destruction" .  This song has haunted me for a very long time.  I was just drawn to it and couldn't grasp the reason...I loved the SISTERHOOD feel with all the women singing and kept thinking, boy a few of these voices sound familiar (never thinking to actually read the pamphlet with the words and information that comes with the CD - duh!).  I just felt like every time the song would come on, it was like some theme or anthem I was belting out (in the privacy of my beading studio)!  Finally I decided to look at the info inclosed with the CD and there it was!
Well, actually, here it is, in part:

"Several years ago I personally witnessed Nelson Mandela, standing in front of his former prison cell on Robben Island, addressing the world's press.  His message was that the pandemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa was in fact, a genocide.  Since that time I resolved to do as much as I can to bring attention to the HIV/AIDS crisis...


I would like to thank the choir of 23 who are...
Anastacia, Angelique Kidjo, Beth Gibbons, Beth Orton, Beverly Knight, Bonnie Raitt, Celine Dion, Dido, Faith Hill, Fergie, Gladys Knight, Isobel Cambell, Joss Stone, K.D. Lang, 
Kit Tunstall, Madonna, Martha wainwright, Melissa Etheridge, Pink, Sarah McLachlin, Shakira, Shingai Shoniwa, Sugababes..."  


Boy was I surprised!  I knew I recognized some of those voices!!  They sound great.

I had already put some cut out pieces of fabric and some beaded areas on my felt backing when Tapestry disappeared, so the foundation was set way before I decided on SING as my song.  As I beaded, I began to see shapes, faces, things that represented ideas to me.  Here is MY interpretation of my work as it relates to the song SING:

I see two women's faces - profiles - they are African, one with a headdress of sorts, the other with very very short hair.  I also see the shape of an unborn baby. 

                                                              

There are some very dark beaded areas - invaders, AIDS viruses...these HIV/AIDS areas are invading the otherwise colorful worlds of these women and the child.  

All women...all people!

 As my husband says, "I don't need any explanation...

                           I just think it's a pretty beaded piece as it sits!"

                                                 And that's ok, too.

                                                            

 One last thing...  Robin,  I let my inner artistic child loose here and this is what she did!
The lighter side of this experience is that I had a lot of fun and shocked myself at how I pulled things together without lots of planning.
Now on to March...I am just slow I guess!
Debi W.