Musings on what is considered Beautiful

Looking back at an image of what was considered beautiful and desirable in the 60s, to what is now considered desirable and beautiful today in 2009.

I am shocked that women have allowed this to happen to us....

For whom are we trying to please? Marilyn Monroe would not make it in today's society as she would be considered to Fat by today's weight and measurement standards.

It is time women stood up and took a stand. We are not men, we have curves, we have real breasts that are not designed to point straight up when we lay on our backs...we have the baby pouch, because we carry babies...we are born to have curves....we are not designed to look like 12 year old girls forever....our bodies are meant to go through puberty, to have hips develop, and breasts be of different sizes....not all women are meant to be a double DD bra size....women in third world countries are having pubic hair ripped from their bodies by human monsters before they rape them....women in this country are paying to have the same hair ripped from their bodies to please men who have convinced them that they will only look beautiful if they look like 12 year old children....here we've become a country of females who pay money to be tortured so we are pleasing to the eyes of human monsters.....

Just because they dress in three piece suits does not make them any better than the monsters who are raiding the country sides of the poor countries...pedophiles, rapists in all it's forms is evil....it is time we don't just take back the night, it is time we take back all rights of being a woman and shine light on evil where ever it tries to pervert. Espeically when it is on our magazine covers and in our movies and television programs....

Merry Christmas 2008

From the Hoffman Family to Yours, it matters not how you celebrate it,
or how you say it, We Wish Everyone the Best that Life has at the end
of 2008....

We want to Thank Everyone who continues on this journey with Joshua
as he continues to heal and work towards the new Path his life's
journey now takes.

The news I wanted to wait on telling is out of the bag early...LOL Oh
well; sometimes it just be that way! It is that he is moving his arms
in towards his chest, nothing that they consider functional yet, but
he can pull Heather in towards him for a Hug now.

I sit here and think how different this end of the year letter is
compared to where we were at last year. Our family is so very grateful
for the miracles that continue to happen for Joshua. We listened to
what the doctors said we could not change, but we never gave up hope.
We continue searching for new advances in the medical field. We've
seen Michigan pass the bill to start Stem Cell research in our state
finally!

Last year Joshua had just come back down from ICU, his father had yet
again changed his mind and informed us the day before Christmas he was
going to force Joshua to go to Texas. And our spirits were so low.
But none of us let it take away the spirit of the season we just
enjoyed each others company, the love of both Heathers and Joshua's
family as we gathered around Joshua in his room. We had the love and
support from so many around the world, we did not allow anything
negative to enter that room on Christmas Morning. It was filled with
love, laughter and encouraging Joshua he would make it home.

I look at those photos today and see he was so weak, but he did not
give up his battle. At times it was because of words from his men who
would talk to him via the phone held up to his ear, that gave him what
he needed when Heather and I had not the right words to help him
through a moment in time. I am forever Thankful for those Marines who
stood by him. I am thankful for so many things that helped make that
year and a half journey a bit easier to bare, such as an unexpected
gift of a Mutant Ninja Turtle sent to him...LOL... that brought a
laugh out of Joshua. So much kindness shown to the three of us along
the way.

This year we again have so much to celebrate;

He is Home,
He is slowly starting to eat,
He had a beer finally! YUCK...LOL
He moved his arms.
He has put on weight and does not look like a skeleton any longer.
He is learning to use his wheel chair with the sip and puff now.
He is able to handle his teeth being repaired now.
His home will be ready for them to move in to next month.
He won his Freedom in court!
While he still continues to bounce back and forth to the ICU from time
to time, and
give us a scare. He continues to battle his way back to health and is
determined to
lead a life of his own choosing...Go Joshua!
He has been home to celebrate Family Reunions, Birthdays, Weddings,
see the birth of new babies.
He has gone to watch the Lions play a game...LOL...hey you still root
for your home team even when it is a bad year!
The normal things that happen in every family.

While He still has long battles to fight, I keep praying he will be
able to speak more than a word whispered here and there one day. I
pray that he will one day not need that Trachea Tube and one day it
will come out. That his thoracic diaphragm and his left lung will
become strong again. These are just a couple of the things I continue
to pray for him.

I give Thanks for all that he is able to do that we were told would
never happen. He communicates his wishes, he rolls his eyes in typical
Joshua fashion when he thinks something is stupid....LOL....he retains
his sense of humor. I give Thanks for his warrior heart beating within
him. The courage of which he faces each day of his life and the life
lessons he continues to teach all of us who know and love him. I am
proud of him, I stand in awe of his courage. When so many might give
up, he continues to fight. I have watched him struggle through pain
that makes a woman's labor pain seem like a mosquito bite and keep
struggling to get to other side of it. I've watched him throw temper
tantrums out of frustration of not getting his thoughts across to me
as quickly as he wanted, but instead of giving up. He'd just take a
few moments to breathe it out and think of a new way to get those
thoughts and words out to me. (By the way Joshua, Question is not
spelled Qirth!...LOL...he'll understand that one) To have to struggle
with Dyslexia and have something like this happen, makes me stand even
more in awe of his never give up attitude to communicate his words to
the world.

That is the biggest thing I think I am grateful for this at the end of
2008. It is that Joshua despite the struggles he still continues to
have, is able to experience the NORMAL things that all of us
experience every day and take for granted; Life at home with family
and friends.

So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Solstice, Happy Hanukkah,
Season Greetings...

Mama Hoffman

Life Continues On and On

From my first attempt at doing a CP drawing done while sitting at his side praying he would live, to today watching amazing people step forward and donate their time, muscles, and money to help him pave his way into his new future. Our lives continue to go on and on...

Some days are good, Some days not so much. Here Joshua had one Sargent Hecker take time to visit with him in the hospital. Encouraging him to continue his battle to get strong and reminding him he would make it home.

To celebrating his nephews birthday at home with the traditional nosiest toy he can find to drive his parents crazy with....I love that his sense of humor is retained, the sense of fun and razing among he and his two younger brothers. Despite some efforts made to cause a drift between he and his youngest brother. Joshua sticks fiercely loyal to both of them.

To his being honored at a Lions Football game on the 9th of November 2008....I felt hope with the new elections, Stem cell testing being allowed in Michigan passed, it is our hope for his future.

Pieces of me

Tiny little pieces of my past, learning how to see the world of art through different media, different ideas from those who came before me. Sharing pieces of themselves as they teach the path they walked before us...

Using our imaginations to create from one common photo, thousands of different images, different ideas...showing just how unique each of us really are.

Beginning works

I have not completed what I am working on this week, but here are steps from my beginning....

The montage is a work in progress not completed yet. It was started on a day last year while with my son in Virginia that I needed to vent.

Michigan Fall Weekend

Taking time to see the world around me still has beauty in it, from a old barn glimpsed through Autumn leaves to a hundred year old church being converted into a home.

The recycling something old into something new coming to life is always a good thing, and the history and stories of these old buildings to me is always more interesting than the match box homes built today.

Today I am working on one art card and one page in my art journal, I hope to complete them and post them tomorrow get back into posting something I create each day....:0)

We made it home finally

After a year and a half Heather and I were finally able to come home with Joshua...his unit greeted him at the airport and he got a hero's homecoming, he was the last man to make it home. While we still have a long journey of healing ahead of us....at least it will be on home ground.

His struggles and his battle for his Freedom is still at hand...it is sad that he was shot in Iraq trying to bring Freedom to another country, only to come home and have a judge hand his Freedom over to another human...one whom my son now struggles to be Free of...will keep you updated in his fight for his own Freedom.

Joshua, My Son

I had forgotten about my blog, it has been a year of up and downs with my son, who was shot in Iraq on the 6th of January 2007, we are still in the hospital going through recovery. A snipers shot has left him a Quad, we continue to work towards going home, his fiancee, Heather and I have been by his side the entire time...

Beloved Family and Friends have made numerous trips to visit with us, bringing a little bit of home with them each time...His men from Weapons have kept in contact and made personal visits with him, once they came home, they continue to call, email and keep in contact, letting him know that the Marines don't leave their brothers behind...

Joshua

From a drawing of his first birthday to today at 24 with his girl friend Heather, before he heads back to another tour of Iraq.......

~Love is the heart of a child~

No matter the age of the person, we are all someone's child.....small for a very short time, uncontional love freely given, is one of the greatest gifts a child offers to the world.....long may it continue to shine.....:0)

Back Soon

Be Back soon, life is keeping me to busy to post much, but once I am caught up, I will start a sketch a day post on this blog.....

Why won't I put clothes on them?

I become so sick of that question, why don't I put clothes on my drawings or paintings, the answer is simple block head, because they are nude figure art works!!!!!

Art is a part of us, something within us that we need to express, to release into the universe....and if I want or need to let my little pieces of my soul run around nude, I will.......not all of us feel the need to bury our bodies under mountains of black or white material with only our eyes if even that allowed to be seen........

It is the part of me that needs to be free, to race across the sky chasing rainbows, or frolicking along a meadow with butterflies, listening to the buzz of the honey bees, while the birds chirp among the tree tops........

It is the part of me that needs to skinny dip in the ocean, swimming with dolphins, being chased by waves and collecting sea shells, or wonders what it would be like to make love on the sand under a bright full moon......

It is painting with mud after splashing in puddles after a storm, allowing it to dry on the body and not caring who watches me run carefree through the woods, collecting pine cones and leaves to press, showering it off under the waterfall turning my skin blue, because the water is from melted snow, while dreaming of a lovers kiss, causes a rise in heat from deep within the soul.......

These are images that need to be expressed, and not all can be covered in cloth as if to hide who I am in shame, there is no shame in being me.......no shame in my drawings of the nudes.....