Saturday, March 24, 2012

Salton Sea

This month at ARTastic the challenge is to use "Chinamen's Beach" by Ken Done as inspiration.

As an additional challenge you are to include palm trees, a photo taken at the beach, and 2-3 beach embellishments.

I almost made another pair of pages from our trip to Rosie's Dog Beach but I felt like changing things up and wanted to use some pictures from my family's trip to Salton Sea when I was a child. I was going to do a 9 photo layout on one page but I really wanted to tell the story of one of my first memories which is from that day.

The patterned paper guided me into doing more of a collage style. I typed and printed my story onto pink paper, cut it into strips, and added a little blue ink. I added white brads and a seashell sticker to the crown to give it an ocean princess feeling, as well as button brads to the boy's suit, a clothing tag with a palm tree, and an epoxy sand sticker.

I chose to cover the boy's eyes since my story is about not being watched.

Here's the story if you care to read it:
One of my earliest memories is of this day -- the day I almost drowned.

I saw a man dive head first into Salton Sea and watched him swim away effortlessly. I wanted to do that too.

Everyone's mission seemed to be to keep me away from the water that day, so I waited until they were distracted from organizing the coolers and lunches. I jumped in like the man. I remember the dissonant sound of the water...tasting salt water...popping above the water and seeing my family back on the beach, still distracted. I only remember feeling calm.

I can't remember anything else but my mom says they had to give me CPR. Is this why I struggled with a fear of swimming in deep water for so many years?

8 comments:

Jane said...

Very clever indeed. Love your arty take on the challenge - well done.

Mrs Rogers said...

YOu are so creative with your pages, it is great to see. Thank you for also sharing your story about your experience at the beach as a child, how scary.

DebiJ said...

I just love your creativity Nic! Love the photos you choose & that fab title, & it is good to see you have scrapped an event that stuck in your mind for years..thanks for playing along at ARTastic again!

amanda73 said...

very creative, i love everything youve done here

Shazza said...

Well done Nicole! Great you were able to scrap this story! Thanks for joining us at ARTastic :)

auntangi said...

Great story and beautiful page!

Chantelle said...

It's great to record your own history - love these photo's and your story - thanks for playing along at ARTastic.

Helene Bogren said...

I love your story! This is what scrapbooking is about – to tell and remember stories! Lovely!!