One of my goals in life is to someday earn a living from my creative pursuits, whetehr they be "real" or "virtual". To chronicle this journey, I developed an art blog called Art on the Edge, which began with the intro post below:

"I am an artist at the edge. Not necessarily the cutting edge of art, mind you, although sometimes I have great flashes of inspiration... but, literally speaking, I am located at the edge of the Grand Canyon here in northwestern Arizona.
I am a bit of a dabbler, with projects in a variety of media from photography to collage/assemblage, from jewelry making (my current main focus) to representational landscapes in acrylics!
I am in the process of (once again) pursuing the arts as a serious vocation rather than a hobby.
So please join me and support me in this journey!
Stay tuned for updates on projects, events, goals, triumphs, set backs, observations, etc."

My Other Life... "Real" Life

"Today, I decided to set up a blog for "other stuff", the stuff of everyday life, not related to my life of creativity. A blog devoted to mundane thoughts and the boring notes which make up my passage through time and the geographic world.
Hello, world.
Why should you be interested? Well, for me, reading about other people's "real lives" is a way of validating the commonalities we share. Everyone is a unique individual. But even when life is not exciting, we all share certain day to day experiences which, when we discover others doing them, make us stop and say, "Hey! I do that!" And we feel less isolated, less freakish. (well, at least I do).
So I am going to allow myself to ramble, and perhaps you will see a bit of yourself in me, or vice versa. And maybe my experience will make you laugh, or cry, or want to comment on what you've read. (I always love getting comments on what I've written!)

Besides, since I'm not working right now, I have plenty of time on my hands, so why not share it with the public in a way that is at least somewhat productive?!"

"Places I Have Seen, Places I Have Been! - a somewhat intermittently updated travel blog

I am sitting around this afternoon thinking of ways I can best share who I am with the world. Yes, I am an artist, and my main blog remains Art on the Edge .

I am also a world traveler, which is what I wish to share with you here. So, my goal is to post an image at least once a week and write a bit about the location itself, the journey it was taken on, memories associated with it... what have you.

Let me share a bit of my traveling background...
I was born and raised in York County, Pennsylvania and graduated high school there in 1986. (Yes, that long ago!!!) I briefly attended West Chester University where I studied French and Creative Writing and lived in the International Dorm, which exposed me to many other cultures. In 1992, I relocated to central Florida where I had retail jobs in areas with high tourist traffic, another gateway to meeting "foreigners".
One of these acquaintances became a friend with whom I took my first trip overseas in 1995, to Ireland. I spent nearly 7 weeks with his family in County Donegal and was also shown Galway and Dublin. I returned to Ireland twice after that, in 1999 and again in 2000, both times living in the Dublin area for several months.
In 1998 I was treated to a week long drive around the south of France by a friend from church with whom I have since lost contact. The Roman ruins and regional specialties of Provence mesmerized me.
Sadly, all these trips were prior to my introduction to digital photography, and the (many) prints are stored in albums in boxes in the garage of a friend in PA).
More recently (ie SINCE going digital) I have spent close to six months living and traveling in the UK, New Mexico, and Arizona, plus a short vacation in Paris. The images from these, and future, trips are the ones I will be sharing here.

I am temporarily residing in central Florida with friends until early May, when my next job assignment begins, at which time I will be relocating to the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming to work at Grand Teton National Park.

In case you are wondering, yes, at some point I am hoping to stop all this eternal bouncing around and have a permanent home base! I so love the travel adventures and pray they never end, but... I long for a place to call home, to travel out from, to know I can look forward to at the end of each road. At the moment I am planning to work another 18 months as a seasonal park/hospitality employee while saving for a relocation to the San Diego area.
Of course, 18 months is a long time, and anything can happen...

So in the meantime, please enjoy some armchair travel!"

"Welcome to CrypticFragments Lens a Day!

Okay folks, here we go. My Squidoo blog has arrived! Each day I will select one of my lenses to feature on this site, providing a direct link as well as an introductory description of what you will find there.
As of today I have 59 "live" (published) lenses, with 8 more in the works.

For those of you who don't know about Squidoo, follow the link to their site to learn all about it and sign up now! It's a fun easy way to earn a little extra dough... depending on ad revenue and affiliate sales, you could get (these figures are based on myself and lensmasters I have heard from directly) from $5- $300 per month. If you register by clicking on the link above, my referral link, we both earn $5 as soon as your revenue tops $15. How great is that!?!?

Here is a lens about why you should build your own lenses: Why Build a Lens by Squidoo founder Seth Godin.

Most of my lenses fall into the following subject groups: travel destinations, arts and crafts, authors, foods, shopping, blatant self-promotion of my own art, and pets.

Again, welcome, and have fun checking out all the great stuff you can do with Squidoo!"