Tuesday, January 8, 2008

ROSEMARY OLLISON, Milwaukee, WI

"Relationship: Woman and Man", 11"H x 8"W, marker on paper
"I have no professional training in art. My ability to create is a gift from God. My journey to enlightenment had its beginning in 1984. After ten years of keeping a daily journal of my “Constant Communicational Arrangement” with God, he directed me to draw and paint illustrations that would give me a better understanding of the words he recorded in my mind and heart. My works mirror the years of anguish I experienced because of enduring years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse as well as my continuing journey to enlightenment. When I am creating I am satisfied, I am free! I no longer just exist, I am alive! I do not feel worthless, hopeless, alone, sad, afraid, ashamed, guilty, down hearted, unloved, uncared for, doubtful, and discontented and the like. Above all I am able to love my Creator and my fellow humans. My experience is gratifying! I can see the real me in my works. At the beginning what I recorded in my journal and drew and painted was very difficult to deal with. I had to come face to face with the real me. There were many times that I wanted to return, to close my eyes to the truth in order to stop the pain. But after twenty-three years I can look at the images and words and laugh. But only because I love the woman I have become. As I started to enjoy the moments I started to enjoy the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months and yes, the years! The more I created the more I begin to live. The more I practiced living the better my living became. The more I created the better my creations became. In time I stopped praying to die and started praying to live a L-O-N-G life. Now that I enjoy each day I expect to enjoy tomorrow. Now that I value who I am, I am beginning to value my creations. The Bible says that we can know God’s invisible qualities by his creations. And since I am created in God’s image, in his likeness I am beginning to know who I am by my creations. "
BIO
I am a 65 years young retired educator of special children for eighteen years. I spend on an average of five hours each day journaling, from which I have written three books, over forty articles and about 150 poems. I have drawn and painted about 2000 images all with messages. I am a designer of clothes, jewelry and crazy quilts. I love taking pictures. My latest passion at this stage of my development is creating computer art and my web page. I have over 8000 images of computer art and I have 34 images on the Internet at MOCA ( Museum of Computer Art ). I was enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as a 60 and Over Auditor for the spring 2007 term to learn more about the computer. I just completed creating a web page at MATC. I will be returning to computer classes on January 22, 2008.

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