Articles for the Month of January 2021

Jan 27 2021

And then… Fairy City turned 6

Author: Kerry

Globally, as of 27 January 2021, there have been 99,638,507 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,141,468 deaths, reported to WHO

I find myself blogging less and less about the pandemic as we are at its one year mark… maybe because I have gotten used to being in my home all the time… maybe because though my heart hurts without my adult children and grandchildren… my heart hurting is starting to feel normal… the vaccine is making its rounds… front line workers first… educators… then the elderly… as it should be… it has not reached me yet. I went to the outside yesterday just to have some routine lab work done and you’d have thought it was an event… rather than 45 minutes outside of my house. I even wore a bra.

But as the sun came up this morning unnoticed behind a grey cloud filled sky I took a trip down memory lane… which for me… with short term memory problems… was quite a bit of magic within itself. I have completed my prep work for Fairy City’s annual emergence. I say prep work… because my trip down memory lane showed me how much more I do once it is out…. who knows what this spring will bring… I do know my San Diego Fairy is coming to set up… and at the moment that is what I look forward to the most… Spring will bring warmer temps… and the return of outside time with my friends and family (and babies!!!) until the vaccine can be widely distributed and I have hope we can put this pandemic to rest finally…

Ode to my San Diego Fairy: guys… this girl… when I got the tumor and had an existential crisis about my new normal… I thought I’d have to give up my shenanigans… I already depend so much on #MrAmazing and my kids to take care of me … this was too much to ask… so this daughter of mine from another mother… and father… said she’d be my legs… she flies herself out here to lil #bountifulutah to put my art out… and to pick it up… and I just couldn’t be anymore grateful #fairycity wouldn’t exist without her and I love her like my own. (And I love my own sooooooo much) and we recycle everything!!

From my Facebook page

I looked at the very first fairy doors I made in 2016 (they can be found with enough research either on this blog or on my insta) it was april… I made six doors just as a random act of kindness and asked someone to be my get away driver… because I didnt know how they would be recieved (thanks fluff!!!) … I ended up doing about 40 doors… some mushrooms… some lady bugs…. that year… I got my first thank you note from kids… and I was hooked… That was the very year I got sick… though we didnt know what it was yet… it certainly was something… and I often painted and hot glued in bed the second year- 2017 -I made my first flowers… I wanted to branch out and gave the Thought Bubble project a trial run… along with about 80 fairy doors here in town… I shipped another 20 or so all over the country… and a few even internationally. In the fall of 2017 I did the arts festival… and the reason box campaign (yes I would classify these as campaigns of kindness) In 2018 (Year 3) the thought bubbles gave way to rocks… as I was constantly trying to get rid of the few remaining pieces that were not biodegradable (the wire, the glaze) 2019 brought those solutions… the project was now fully nontoxic and biodegradable…. This fairy season between year 3 and 4 also brought the Tumor… the Lymphoma… and a Lupus diagnosis.

2020… Rumblings of quarantine were around… but I had prepped my biggest year yet… this was the year of the street signpost… and the opening doors… this was the first year I was going to try to do more to remind people of more than kindness… to do more… and on the first day of quarantine… fairy city emerged… all at once… in a big way… because I couldnt see staging it with all the hope deflating from this planet like a popped balloon. I put out around 100 doors… many tiny games… and small fun items… the fairies joined in the “Black lives matter” movement… and the health initiatives about masks…

It is now 2021- I have a new goal of Upcycling all of my street art… making it from things that were something else before… of having no waste… and still being completely biodegradable and non toxic… I would estimate I am 99% there… I say that though some of the material was bought… it was bought in the pandemic… when businesses needed support… it was given to me as gifts… for my birthday… for christmas… as acts of love and kindness… I consider this an upcycle… as it served 2 purposes…I am six weeks away from the San Diego fairy coming for the great emergence…. This is the year of the Fairy Houses. Im nervous and excited. I hope they find who needs them the most. I hope however they are received they bring joy… and if not… they have brought me much.

Joy even in the pandemic.

Here is to year 6… Happy Birthday Fairy City…. and many more.

and now… to think upon year 7… what shenanigans can I get up to?

Jan 20 2021

A Brand New Day

Author: Kerry

Globally, as of 20 January 2021, there have been 94,963,847 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,050,857 deaths, reported to WHO. The United States broke the threshold of 400k…. Utah broke the threshold of 1500.

After all this time…. the year that seems like a decade… President Elect (as he was still at the time) finally acknowledged our loss in the most beautiful Covid Memorial service last night… the bells in DC tolled 400 times… here in Utah… ours tolled 15 times.

“If there are angels I think they’re the nurses (medical staff) working through this pandemic”-President Elect Biden (for the last day!)… I completely agree… Thankyou for the memorial and reflection…. yes these are photos of my computer screen… yes I always want to remember where I was. Ready for some more pictures of my computer screen… because lets talk about today!!!!

It started for me at 5:30 am… at which time I declared loudly I was not getting out of bed until he (who must not be named) was gone… see I live in the Mountain Standard Time Zone… and the departing President was in the Eastern Time Zone… and scheduled to depart at 8am… so I closed my eyes again until it was so…. I then leapt out of bed and hopped in the shower… singing “I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair” the entire time. Note: this is the only time in my life I remember singing in the shower.

Then I moved my office (back to the living room) and put on pants! yes pants for work… because I am ready to try again… I am ready to work on the world again… I am brimming with hope.

Yep! Tons of more pictures of my screen… sure… there are the professional pictures online… but I want to remember where I was… that I was sobbing uncontrollably.

Soooooo many tears of joy and soooo many tears of release for what we’ve been through… not just the prior administration … but being a woman! The barriers and ceilings of race and inequality – Kamala Harris broke them!! “This is our historic moment and unity is the path forward!”- President Biden!

And I was Singing the National Anthem! Clapping like a fool! Hand over my heart alone in my living room! Amazing!

I washed my face… and continued my day of work… but the smile never left… and I have so many reasons to smile.

YEP!!!! Grandbaby on the way!!!!

and so I leave you with this…. as so PERFECTLY said during the inauguration.

Brave enough to see it (the light) and brave enough to be it.

Amanda Gorman
Jan 14 2021

The Pandemic… The Country… and Time… They all rage on

Author: Kerry

Globally, as of 14 January 2021, there have been 90,759,370 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 1,963,169 deaths, reported to WHO.

Christmas came… and went…. so did New Years… the vaccine arrived and began distribution… I am still in my house… waiting patiently for my turn… I spoke to a friend today who has the virus… she is tired… she is sick… and she is a lucky one…This is how we Christmased… in a pandemic… I have not seen them since… My heart feels like it is breaking… but wait for it…

My heart is not broken yet… because it is getting hardened…. Oh why the hell not just throw it out there and save myself some time…. There is no sex trafficking ring underground the pizza parlor – they use Epstein island or the phone book… there’s no doubt someone’s got something somewhere on a laptop – I really don’t care… I’m sure my kids have things on their cellphone they don’t want me to see…Obama is not hiding in the publishers clearinghouse van coming for your guns… there’s no storm… no kracken… no conspiracy… there was no steal… the FBI has stated it was not antifa… they’re not deep state… there’s no deep state…. they flaunt their actions in public proudly and people cheer…. we voted… a winner has been certified… the time stamp of someone’s tweet or where they’re looking in a photo is not a code or message…. why ya all making the bald eagle out to be some angry pro wrestler? It’s a bird- I like it! But it isn’t wearing an Uncle Sam hat and beating anyone up… and then… the insurrection happened… because apparently they did not read this rant filled paragraph…. Trump was impeached AGAIN… and President Elect Biden will hold his inauguration with the National Guard sleeping on the hard marble floors of the capitol building…. Hate is a stranger to me… it is not something I’ve experienced very often … but it fills my heart this morning… I’m ashamed of “nearly half” … how were the lies believable when clearly the words “nearly half” by definition is not the majority … I’m ashamed… I hope they’re embarrassed and ashamed… disgust churns in my gut… don’t worry about me I will work through it.., love will win the battle inside me… Trump deserves to be in prison… Giuliani and Rubio as well as Hawley should serve time…”Removing Trump will only make his followers more violent” isn’t a call for unity. It’s extortion. I suggest you take care of your own battle… for it is so much uglier than mine.

And so I paint… and I work… and I talk about it… and I fight that battle that much like the things in the title of this post… rages inside of me…

They’re all on the instagram…. same name as the blog… incase you needed to be reminded why we keep fighting… why we keep loving… So I will close with that… so much light and love to you all who have found your way here… it is hard… this is effing hard… but we can do hard things.