Artful Memory

As I was cutting the little bunny rabbit image from a mail order catalog this morning to create this atc, I thought, "OMG, I was creating altered art when I was but a mere child !! " My sister and I would look at all the beautiful dresses (or at least, what we thought were beautiful at that time) in that fat Montgomery Wards catalog (that featured absolutely everything), cut them out and "design" clothing for our paper dolls. I always thought my sister's "designer dresses" were prettier than mine. She always had a natural artistic talent. Do little girls play with paper dolls anymore ? Do they even know what they are ? Thinking further about what other kinds of altered art I might have been creating, this memory popped up. Television was a new media in the 40's and 50's. There was a 30 minute children's show at 4:30 in the afternoon called "Magic Window", timed just right for after school and before evening "chore time". ANN was the "host"- a beautiful lady full of artsy ideas for kids to create. One of the projects was to cover a shoe box with wallpaper which became our "kit" to keep ALL of our tools and materials in. I wonder how many shoe boxes I could fill today ??? I will be pondering that question for at least the next day or two !!