On A Stuffed Horse?

Why "On A Stuffed Horse?"

Last year I decided to dissolve the Corporation that my boyfriend founded with me, SpiralXdesign, Inc. After five years, I was tired of the business of web design. I wasn't tired of Web Design, just the business -tired of explaining why a web design costs more than $499, tired of explaining that you can't steal images and photos from the Internet -tired of explaining that my illustrations aren't 'freebies' and they are actually worth more than royalty free stock!

I have a photo of my Grandmother that I have always loved and a careful examination last year, revealed that she was posing on a stuffed horse! I found this hysterically funny. I couldn't stop thinking about it. It became an important metaphor for me. Her life was hard and so much lost to family mythology. Her husband wanted to have fun in 1935 Boston; he didn't want to be saddled down with a child, so he divorced her when she became pregnant with my Dad. Her very-religious family rejected her being 'good' Catholics... She tried it on her own, she tried and failed. She had some kind of a nervous breakdown and received all kinds of scary treatments and drugs. She was forced to go live with her former husband's family and she was not exactly welcomed with open arms -particularly in her fried, drugged state. Amazingly, her ex-husband's brother fell in love with her and married her -was a father to my Dad and grandfather to us. And while she was far from normal, she was lots of fun, he took care of her, supported her and loved her until the day she died.

I look at this picture and I think "This lady was a survivor" -what a great legacy she passed on to me! So, my new life-resolution is to ride the Stuffed Horse! I have created two new web sites and ready for the Stuffed Horse Trail Ride!

In disrepair and under construction:
crisnaugle
christinenaugle