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Writings
Portfolio
Books by Eileen Slifer, Artist
My Etsy Store
My Patreon
About the Artist
Contact
Subscribe

Margaret Ruth Linger Slifer

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A Woman Named Emma

January 9, 2023
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings

As I was thinking on this piece today there were several different scripture texts that popped into my mind and I almost wanted to start with one of them, but when I read the surrounding context I’m not sure it is well-suited to the main theme of this piece. On the other hand, perhaps it is a perfectly-suited opener. My fear is that readers may become diverted with all the controversial mess-and-mucky interpretations/applications/conversations that have likely been surrounding this chapter...

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By eileenslifer
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My Mother’s High School Poetry

December 31, 2022
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Personal Writings, Writings

There is a lot to discover as we browse through the type of items people typically save from childhood homes when parents must leave, and eventually pass. Among the items I have in various boxes and browse at times is a type-written book of poems that I never gave proper attention to previously. This past summer I scanned each one and more closely observed that my mother had typed this booklet up. And, she had contributed a poem to what...

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By eileenslifer
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Mountain Daisies of West Virginia

December 7, 2022
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Artwork For Sale, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Uncategorized, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings

In July of this year I took a trip to my mother’s hometown of Buckhannon, West Virginia. It was a personal pilgrimage of sorts. I had only been to Buckhannon once (and very briefly) during the summer of 1978. That was the summer between my father’s retirement in 1977 after working over forty years with the Soil Conservation Service in Elkton, MD, and his death in May 1979. We had gone from the annual Slifer family reunion in Boonsboro, MD...

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By eileenslifer
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When Peculiar People Decide That You Are Acting Peculiar!

November 21, 2022
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings, Writings on Violence in its Various Forms

(written 11/5/22 to 11/2022) In April of 1946, three of my mother’s siblings decided my mother was acting peculiar. Peculiar enough to permanently end her college pursuits and dreams (it is appearing she was interested in getting a degree in music rather than business), by withdrawing her from West Virginia University without her consent when she was a student in good standing, gainfully employed and a twenty-two year old adult. Peculiar enough to be violent with her. And peculiar enough...

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By eileenslifer
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Eating KFC and a Front Row Seat

October 30, 2022
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Illustrated Short Stories, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings, Writings on Violence in its Various Forms

I feel like I must have told this story a thousand times in my life. And often, in my younger years, in a fast-paced comic style as though I were recounting a freak show that I had the amusement of watching. Indeed, it is probably the first of many life stories that take on an almost rehearsed recounting of the highlights of this day, evening and the many days, months and years that would follow and be influenced (in my...

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By eileenslifer
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When the Spaces in Between Words Do Not Add Up

October 24, 2022
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Personal Writings, Writings

As in most families throughout human history, the passing and preserving of family stories is considered a worthwhile pursuit. For me, family stories seem to hold a critical space and I mean this in two ways. Critical as in essential to me in my continued understandings of my own life and self, and critical as in information to deeply analyze, explore, interpret and otherwise not simply take at face value. This morning, as I muse through a writing in a...

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By eileenslifer
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Acknowledging My Mother’s Birthday Today

October 21, 2022
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Personal Writings, Writings

Taking a few moments from my busy day – after having noticed the date – to mention that my mother, Margaret Ruth Linger Slifer, was born on this day ninety-nine years ago. Last night before bed, I opened my mother’s red diary to browse through her notations from April 1946 and then her large-hand-written notations in the same journal in January of 1967. I was three years old then, and apparently, she was quite upset around that time (reflective) about...

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By eileenslifer
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Freely Emotional, Distorted and Intentionally Child-like Illustrations

October 10, 2022
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Life Stories, Personal Writings, Short Stories/Creative Writing, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings

In the process of working here and there on written out expressions of various life stories, going back to my first one done in 2006 called Crime and Punishment of the Problem Child, I continue to illustrate various parts in a very spontaneous (few preliminary pencil details, just enough to put on the marker) and loose style. My goal in these is first speed (I work these in as some type of reward in between doing commissioned watercolor – a...

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By eileenslifer
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The Words Which Were Actually Spoken…

August 14, 2022
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Life Stories, My Poetry, Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings

On any given day, I have a lot of words in my mind of all sorts. On any given day, I take in a lot of words from external sources. On any given day, I output a lot of words, more or less…in various ways, for better or worse. During the past year or more, I seem to be taking more note of the full moon and various related things that seem to come my way during this time. While...

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By eileenslifer
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The Mirror: A Short Story Written in 2005

August 8, 2022
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Illustrated Short Stories, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Short Stories/Creative Writing, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings

(Preface: This story was written in the fall of 2005 and dealt with both the death of my first marriage covenant and the death of my mother, originally written in an intertwined rumination of sorts. It was written in a free-association and free-form style, actually in one single evening, from a friend’s beach house where I went alone with a key, to pore through the paperwork involved in filing for divorce through a simple mediated process where we worked out...

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By eileenslifer
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Eileen Slifer

I am a visual artist who works in a variety of mediums - producing fine art, illustration and design commissions/products for clients. I have been creating since childhood and sharing my giftings for hire since 1989. I also love to write and have been expressing in this way for a number of years in private poems, stories and journals that have been shared with treasured friends or publicly. Thank you for visiting my blog. I value the time and interest you spend on my expressions, and I read every comment.

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