Hollywood Cemetery

For me, one of the great joys of a road trip is the anticipation of discovery. What's around the next bend? What detours or diversions await?

Leslie, Irene and I are now home from our wonderful journey to the Art & Soul art retreat in Virginia. As we drove down the interstate on Day Two of our road trip, Leslie suggested I pull out the CAA guide book for Virginia and have a peek at the attractions in Richmond. There were many listings, including Hollywood Cemetery. A few moments later the GPS -- a.k.a. Evil Lola -- was set and off we headed into Richmond.

Hollywood Cemetery, despite its name, is not where you'll find movie stars; it's named for the abundance of holly found there. Despite the lack of popular celebrities, it is the final resting place of many notables, including Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America (please read up on the Civil War if he is unfamiliar to you). It's a large cemetery and we never did spot Davis's gravesite but we did see many lovely stone angels. It's a beautiful, peaceful place.

We arrived back in town yesterday; today, I have no energy -- likely a combination of the heat and the return from vacation. I have been content to fiddle on the computer and it's been enjoyable playing around in photoshop. All three of these photos were taken in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery and altered by me today. Above, at the very top, is one of those wonderful angels. For this artwork, I owe thanks to Marie Otero for one of the textures I used, received in her excellent Lovely Layers class at Art & Soul. And if you're interested, I have added the second angel to my RedBubble account, where you can purchase it as a greeting card or print. Click HERE if you'd like to have a look.

I will be blogging about my classes soon, but if you have plans to attend Art & Soul in Portland in October, I strongly suggest you take Marie's Lovely Layers class, mentioned above. Her Surface Magic class is also amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed them both!