So, here I am again.  At the beginnings of endings and the ending of beginnings it seems.  I have found three very new projects to keep myself busy for the next six months at least. 

One is to start a comic book for Native American young adults of the Red Cliff band of Ojibwe -- the title of which I do not yet know nor do I know what the story will be about.  The tribe is still taking suggestions and working out the funding.  I almost thought the project wasn't going to see the light of day until today when I got a call from Andy Gokee of UWSP's Native American Center.  I've long dreamed of taking part in such a project and now that it looks like it's going to get the green light, I'm optimistic.  In light of the tragic events that happened with my relatives at Red Lake, Minnesota (I'm Menominee and Chippewa -- L'Anse), it's important that we reach Native youth.  I, for one, grew up without our sacred stories, I didn't have many mentors to look up to, and was teased by white kids for being "Indian." When you grow like that, you develop deep anger and sorrow.  I see this as my chance to do something more with my art than just paint a pretty story.  However, I'm not your typical AmerIndian artist -- when I draw or paint people from various tribes I don't place us in feathers or fringed leather -- I'm more contemporary and that's something that might be seen as either an advantage or a flaw. 

My other project idea is to update or re-create a Marie-Anne Adelaide Lenormand cartomancy deck.  After finishing the Tarot cards, I wanted to design a new kind of playing card deck.  While brainstorming ideas, I came across an old deck of fortune telling playing cards an old friend from Germany gave me.  Similuar to a regular playing card deck, it has only 36 cards and was mainly used in the early 1800's by a famous Parisian card reader named Marie-Anne Adelaide Lenormand who was acclaimed as the Sybil of the Salons and known to be the confidante of Josephine Tascher of Pagerie, countess of Beauharnais (Josephine Bonaparte-to-be) amongst other famous (and infamous) characters of the turn of the18th century.  Fascinated by her story, I thought it would be absolutely wonderful to do a bit of research and make some old fashioned cards with a 21st century twist.  Since I'm used to working with Tarot, I find Mlle. Lenormand's cards a bit tricky to use -- kind of like learning to ride a bike backwards.  I called a couple other psychic readers I know to see what they thought of the Lenormand cards and none of them had used or even heard of them before.  I'm not sure if I will go on with the project because, after looking up several of the Lenormand decks online, I've discovered I'm not the only cartomancer who has been delighted by the Lenormand cards.  Still, it's worth a shot.

Whether or not the first two projects pan out, I've been meaning to continue with more of my genealogical research on my family.  I recently found out that I am a direct descendent of Charles Michel de Langlade  -- he was my great/great/great/great/great/great grandfather.  More on that later...