Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 5:17PM 
May you find all the passionate kisses your heart desires this Valentines Day.
As always thanks for reading.
Don't forget to head over to The Ravens Crossing before Saturday for a chance to win free books and a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate as part of our One Year Anniversary Celebration.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 8:01AM 
Rattlesnake, part of the Animanity installation, oil on board, by Amanda Corlies SandosWith less than two weeks to go, I am working a bit frantically to complete all of the little details for my next art installation, a show called Marginalized. I'm fairly excited about this installation because it's showing in a very conservative venue in my very conservative town, where I think it needs to be seen. It's not that I think these installations will change people's behaviors in some big epiphatic (if that's even a word) way, but they might make people stop and think, because, at the very least, they will certainly make many of them uncomfortable.
Marginalized includes my own work concerning our connections to and disconnections from animals along with my studio mate Terri J Miller's portraits of third and forth world women. The show will open on the first Friday in May at 6 PM in the Soul Cafe in Lynchburg, Virginia. It's an interdisciplinary show. The installations I am showing are mixed media combining multiple painted portraits of animals with quotes from various literary and historical texts about those animals. The quotes show how we learn from various sources a hierarchical language which serves to disconnect us from the idea of ourselves as animals. After all, Homo sapiens is simply another species like every other. But, we think of ourselves as something different, something better, something separate from the rest of the species on earth. Surely, we are not animals. Then, we often use that hierarchical thinking to marginalize others, and not just animals or indigenous people, but our very own community members, the person next door who is "different." This art installation is geared towards making people really look at how hierarchical thinking and language disconnects and distances us from others.
Terri and I will be including performance pieces in Marginalized, as well, via our djembe drumming group, Nataraja. We will be performing ancient drumming rhythms from around the world, some of the earliest known forms of long distance communication between tribes. One of my favorite rhythms is one of the earliest known drumming chants called the "Mother Rhythm."It's simple and powerful and has a rich history of being played by and for women.
Anyway, when I say I'm interdisciplinary, I'm not just playing around, folks. If you are a bit of a science nerd, like me, you might say I'm a lumper and not a splitter. I put things together and look at how they interact, where they can combine, what happens when they do. I'm really serious about looking for the power that lies in the places between, where seemingly different and perhaps even opposing forces can come together in new and exciting ways.
In The Ravens Crossing news, a very different, but no less interdisciplinary project I'm involved with, we are a part of the Showers of Books Giveaway Hop for the next couple of days. You can hop on over today to read my Morgan & Holly story and enter to win a $15 Amazon Gift Certificate. All you have to do is leave a comment on one of the stories to be entered. Then, click on the showers icon and you will find a ton of other blogs with giveaways and tons of great authors to read.
Later this week, I'm hoping to have my installation photos ready to share. In the meantime, here are a couple more single images from the two large installations for your enjoyment.
You Can Dress Him Up, part of the Humanimality installation, oil on canvas, by Amanda Corlies Sandos
Emerald Boa, part of the Animanity installation, oil on canvas, by Amanda Corlies Sandos
Friday, April 20, 2012 at 8:00AM As our week ten celebration continues over at The Ravens Crossing (TRC), I started to wonder just what do numerologists think about the significance of the number ten. In my last post, which was also my 110th post, I mentioned not knowing what 10 might mean symbolically, but in the age of internet while I am still able to find pretty much anything at my fingertips, there is no excuse for now knowing. So, while researching Hammerhead Sharks for a new story I am working on, I took a little side trip and found some pretty cool explanations to the possible symbolic power of the number ten. Here are a few of my favs:
For Pythagoras, 10 was the symbol of the universe and it also expressed the whole of human knowledge.
Sum of 5 + 5, the number 10 represents the two opposite current directions of the conscience: involution and evolution.
According to H.- P. Blavatsky, the 1 followed by 0 indicates the column and the circle, meaning the principle of the female and male, and this symbol would refer to the Androgyne nature and also to Jehovah, being at the same time male and female.
The zero in the form of a circle is a symbol of unit, completing then the meaning of the number 1 to show that the number 10 contains all preceding numbers as a whole contains its parts. The number ten is regarded as the most perfect of numbers, because it contains the Unit that did it all, and the zero, symbol of the matter and the Chaos, of which all came out; it then includes the beginning and the end, the power and the force, the life and the nothing
Yep, so ten seems like a pretty cool and powerful place to be. Today, Sharon & Alex share their week 10 triumph over at TRC. We have also joined a blog hop, which means another chance for you to win an Amazon gift certificate if you make the jump and comment on a story. Happy week 10!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 7:38AM This week at The Ravens Crossing you can help us decide the prom theme for the WHS prom this year. It's quick and easy and it automatically enters you to win a $20 gift certificate at Amazon. Everybody could use a few more Amazon bucks, right? So head on over and join the fun. Good luck!
Now, I'm off to our weekly TRC meeting with fellow authors Andi Lea and West Thornhill. Shenanigans are sure to ensue!
