A Sister Act

Those Prim and Whimsy girls...Carolyn, a Jersey Girl and her sister Sara started working together in 1985.
Now 25 years later we've decided to stop doing local art/craft shows and sell exclusively on Etsy. So today I spent several hours getting the shoppe set up and tomorrow I'll start listing our Ghouls Jewels made exclusively for Halloween.
I spent a week doing the designs and my sister spent a day cutting them out of recycled wood from the inside of vintage cigar boxes. We're very into upcycled, recycled and repurposed items. And this wood has a distinct distressed appearance just perfect for the folk art designs I painted on them.
Tomorrow I'll be sure to add a link to the shoppe and post a few of my favorite necklaces. We're going to be working hard to promote this shoppe because at our age we don't want to get a job. After all women of a certain age need to keep working at what they do best!

TURNING CORNERS-Part 2

Here are the rest of the girls in the family. I wanted to keep sketching all night but the area where I was working only had lighting over the counters. The center table is under the skylight and it turned into night before I had a chance to stop playing. But tomorrow is another day. Hope you enjoy meeting the rest of the family.


While I was on a roll I decided to add some family members. So I grabbed that big ole white bristle brush again and some forest green paint to outline her. Hey...remember I said no rules were the rules in this game. This is really hard work breaking out of my mold!


Here's the sister. Dressed in her Sunday best. I used a bunch of flower punch outs that I'd been keeping in a drawer. Seemed that the smaller ones were perfect for her dress. I don't usually paint this big OR this bold. I'm loving this whole experiment. Can't wait to do more. But first I've got to finish up the rest of the family...see some of them below.


This is the first little baby that joined the family. I think she'll be holding a balloon or maybe a kite


These faces just keep appearing. How cute is she?


These little sweetums will be finished sometime this weekend. I am having so much fun 'just doing art'. I imagine though that as always I will be selling them because that's what I do. I can probably stop being a perfectionist but I doubt that I'll ever be happy making art for art's sake. I've made my living for almost 40 years as a professional artist...I really DON'T want to get a 'real' job..those are soul-sucking things!

TURNING CORNERS

I've had a creative block that has refused to move. It's like my Muse went MIA and left me in a dark void. This has been going on for months and I've despaired all summer that she might never return to full time duty. I can't see the road ahead and I despair daily at my lack of creativity.

I knew how I wanted to paint but not how to go about quieting that voice in my head that has always said "it's not good enough, you're not good enough". So today I decided to unblock once and for all. But to go about it I needed to use supplies that didn't matter.


Messy but ready to be put to good use.


Bristol paper, paper palette, kids tempera paint, some big brushes.

Getting down with the paint. Gee, I think this might be fun!


I grabbed that big white bristle chinese sumi-e brush and quickly sketched a girl and cat.


I dug around for a folder of old handmade papers. Might as well put them to some use. I've been saving them for a 'special' piece...this is it!


Adding some collage elements


I've been adding crayons, paint and collage elements at this point. She's starting to speak to me!


Adding a piece of commercial scrapbook paper. My feet are getting tired of standing but this is really a lot of fun!


Papers added and background painted in. Sloppy but freeing. Cat needs some work.


I can't believe I did it. I've painted for years but I've never PAINTED this way before. No thought if it would be good enough to sell I was able to just paint and lose myself in the work. Tomorrow I'll show the whole family that decided to join her.

I haven't been this excited about my work in years. I painted freely, loosely and happily. Welcome home my dear Muse. Please don't ever take an extended vacation any time soon...PLEASE

Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul

Watching any loved one grow older is always a saddening experience. This last weekend was hard for me. My Mom has been going to her ophthalmologist of 25 years for the last six weeks complaining of fogginess in her right eye. He reached the point last Monday where he said I don't know what's wrong, you'll have to see another doctor. On Tuesday I took her to her cardiologist who said "have you seen an eye doctor? You have an infection in your eye". No joke...we've been telling her we thought it had to be something more than an irritation. Cut to the chase. My sister is leaving for a short vacation and I'm left in charge of Mom so...I tell her to call the ophthalmologist and tell him that you need to see him again STAT!!! She calls, he passes her off to a younger doc in the practice who does a thorough exam and says her eyelid is infected as well as her cornea. Come in Saturday at 9 am. In we go, she sees the pediatric ophthalmologist because he's on call and he recognizes right away that she has eye margin disease. Which is apparently what kids get when they get foreign matter in their eyes. So Sat & Sun at 9 am we had a date with the pedi optho and now today we're back to the young associate who first recognized the problem.

I hate to admit that I was getting rather annoyed hearing about her eye since the Dr. was basically telling her nothing was wrong. I even was harsh with her on the ride up telling her she was concentrating too much on that eye. When we sat down on Friday to see that new doctor I saw my Mom's hands shaking on her cane and realized she was afraid. Of me (wow, what a reversal) the doctor, and her own beliefs. I've been much more gentle and understanding finding that those big brown eyes, now dimmed by age, are infected. So now the aggressive treatment begins and hopefully the last reading she got of 20/400 will improve enough for her to once again be able to read. God Bless you Momma...I'm sorry for acting the brat once again!

FOLK ART FRIENDS

It's been almost two months since I posted to this blog. I broke EVERY rule of blogging! The first being: NEVER GO MORE THAN TWO DAYS WITHOUT POSTING TO YOUR READERS. So an apology is needed to all of you followers. Forgive the lapse but this long HOT, HOT, HOT Jersey summer has just about done me in! The day after day of 90+ sunshine is debilitating to say the least and I truly had nothing to say that would have added to your life experience. During this time away I:

Took Kelly Rae's e-course
Honed my illustrative techniques
Developed a new line of art work
Colored and highlighted my hair
And...oh yes...celebrated 39 years of marriage to the SAME guy!

So it's not like I wasn't busy but I simply had nothing to add to your reading pleasure until NOW. For those of you who are of an artistic bent, I invite you to join me over at my new ART ONLY blog. One of the most important things that was stressed in Kelly Rae's course was to have a place where a reader could watch your artistic progress and help yourself define your identity as a business person. I apparently set up this blog back in '06 when I was setting up this one and then promptly forgot about it. I stumbled across it quite by accident about two weeks ago and now will be posting there regularly as I develop my line of "Kitty and Cat" paintings.
So please venture over and follow me there as well. I'll be posting regularly to both but strictly my art will appear on that one. Enjoy the day ahead and be happy that you've been given one more day to experience this wonderful world we live in!

Finding the Sacred in the Ordinary

I have personal validation that I will never grow old! In gathering items for our three family yard sale, my sister and I combed my Mom's basement. In a box of 'garbage' I found this zip lock bag filled with 'useless' junk.

At the age of 61 I responded to that bag like an 8 yro on Christmas morning! I was so excited to open it up and see what was hiding in there. I have always been addicted to anything that can make a mark on paper. To some they are called pencils and pens but to me they are magic wands. Placing sacred lines on ordinary paper that then becomes art. So here are the results of what was hiding in that bag of useless junk.


Pens, pencils, erasers, fountain pens...Magic Wands!!

Notice the bottom one...a Bible Marker...when did you ever see one of those?



I totally LOVE nib pens and these holders are perfect for the dozens of nibs I already have!


The Esterbrooks will require some TLC but I've found a site for replacement nibs and ink sacs.


Far and away the best finds in my opinion are these marvelous vintage mechanical pencils! There are two Scripto brands for which I luckily have a box of vintage leads so these will be the "stars" of my future sketching...I'm in love...check out the logo on the best one!



I could go on and on about each of the pieces I found. They are sacred in my world and I know will add to the pleasure I find in sketching and drawing in the weeks and months ahead.
The next time you get ready to throw away some old 'junk' see if there is anything that can be re-purposed or salvaged and made sacred. In the ordinariness of our life there are pockets of the sacred that are often overlooked.
Just a last thought I wanted to share. Most of these were giveaways and are remnants of a Jersey Shore that no longer exists.