Memorial Day

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.  This is not to be confused with Veterans Day which is in November that honors all military, both living and deceased.

Years and years ago, now largely forgotten, Memorial Day was sometimes referred to as Decoration Day.  Flags are flown and poppies are sold by veterans groups such as the American Legion, American Veterans (AMVETS), and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).

The red poppy officially became the national emblem of remembrance in 1920, but the resilient flower has roots that run deep, in fact all the way back to the battlefields of World War I.  Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was particularly moved by the red flowers he saw popping up all over the European battlefields. He noticed a cluster of poppies in Flanders Field in Belgium that spring.  History records a huge battle tore through the area, killing 87,000 allied soldiers, including one of McCrae’s close friends.

Overcome with sorrow, he wrote the poem “In Flanders Field” to channel his grief. Told from the perspective of the fallen soldiers buried beneath the poppies, the poem honored the troops who died in that battle and others during the war.

I started this back in April when I was recycling everything I could think of,

including a recyclable paper mache pulp egg carton.

As an aside, these should never be used to make handmade paper.  They are made from recycled paper pulp, which is great for mache, but not handmade paper.  They usually include some form of grass product in the pulp.

It was time to finish cutting the egg carton

and cut it into flower shapes.

Because these were going to be poppies, two types of red fluid acrylics were my colors of choice. 

It took forever to paint the fronts, backs, and bottoms of these "flowers."

Some turned out looking better than others.

Originally I planned to attach them to a wooden plaque and hang them on my front porch for Memorial Day.

However, at the last minute, I realized I could enter these poppies into Mia's theme at Art Journal Journey. 

Here is the poem written by John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

 I thought I had been really careful removing all the pilling that accumulated from my using 110 lb card stock instead of water color paper.  However, it appears, after I uploaded my photos, I still missed a lot of it.

Happy Memorial Day to all my visitors from the United States.  Everyone else, have a lovely Monday and I'll see you for T time.

For this page, I began with eight of the 12 egg holder pulp cups I colored two colors of red fluid acrylic and turned them into poppies.  When dry, I colored the inside of the poppies first with black water soluble crayon, then, when dry, I added the yellow dots.  For the background, I used blue, green, black, and white water soluble crayons.  I made the cross using a gold metallic gel pen.  The poem was computer generated and printed using my laser printer.  The poppies were glued in place using E6000.

Thanks so much for joining me today, this federal holiday in the states.  I am really grateful for your visit and also hope to see you at Art Journal Journey.