SPA--Illusions

A complex and thought-provoking theme this week from Kris. So many ways to interpret--optical, magical, spiritual...I do hold with the idea that life is illusion--so often we see what we want or hope to see in the world; hope that our illusion is really real; and rise up when our illusion is shattered, and "wake into another dream."

The image is Maude Fealy, an American silent screen actress. Although some of her films -- Moths (1913), The Runaway Princess (1914), Frou-Frou (1914) -- were popular enough, audiences simply failed to warm up to the actress' glacial beauty. Hhe was always more appreciated on the legitimate stage. Longtime friend Cecil B. DeMille, whose loyalty to former co-workers was legendary, employed Maude Fealy in most of his sound films, including his last, The Ten Commandments (1956). In her retirement, Fealy told an interviewer: "Actors never give up acting; it gives them up." She died in 1955. To learn more about Maude Fealy or to find images of her, follow the likk, or try Google.
http://www.answers.com/topic/maude-fealy-1#ixzz1FpOG1EnL

The background/overlay was created with pieces by Tanya at T4L and by Jerry Jonesat Shadowhouse, along with the application of filters, brushes and blending modes.
The quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of Americas Transcendentalist poets and philosophers.