the goblin and the grocer

i am in full speed christmas make presents mode.  this was a cut i had originally made for the lovely lady that gave birth to me almost 31 years ago, but decided that it didn’t stand alone quite well enough.  it is from an old folk tale called the goblin and the grocer.  i have been thinking as of late that i want to do a large series that retell old folktales.  so this was a good study, but i think more panels are necessary for the full retelling.  but this little image is about 9″x12″ and is up for sale if anyone falls in love with it, just email me about the price.  in more exciting news my sister had a baby!!!  i am now auntie stacey.  ezra james lewis was born last thursday, weighing in at 6 lbs. 8 oz.  i saw a picture, and he definitely looks like a newborn alright.  all newborns sort of look like human piglets in a hat.  but i can tell he will be a looker, after all he is half malasky.  if i do not post again until after the holidays, have happy holidays!!!!  oh by the way if you are looking for some last minute gifts my friend eve makes the dreamiest leather bags i have ever seen, check her out her etsy shop.

art and work

i wanted to share a link to a publication that contains a piece of my artwork.  the artworks is from a previous post of hands and jars.  the newspapers just came out.  i haven’t seen the physical papers yet, just the electronic version.  my artwork is under the detroit section.  i was surprised at how wordy the paper was, as i expected more image.  anywho check it out if you like

grrr. . . animals

i got some new toys in the mail today that i ordered.  i ordered some felting needles.  if you aren’t familiar felting needles are longish triangular shaped barbed needles that bind woool fibers to one another to allow you to create firm objects.  i have never needle felted before but wanted to learn how as i had seen my friend megan doing it on several occasions.  i also bought some beautiful balls of wool rovings when i was in belgium.  once again if you aren’t familiar wool roving are carded, and often dyed wool that is used for wet felting or spinning.  the needles do not cost very much so i ordered a 3 pack in different sizes.  the needles came with a small sample pack of wool.  so this evening i pulled it out and decided to make patrick a dinosaur.  it was so easy!!  plus the dinosaur is very mini!!  i even gave him a set or scarlet spikes up his back, blue eyes and a nice set of sharp teeth.  it took me under an hour to finish the dinosaur so i started on another creature using the wool rovings i already had.  unfortunately they do not work that well as they are too fine.  so the dog started out as a horse, then a pig and finally a pit bull.  there you have it.

sea turtle

here is another holiday commission.  a sea turtle.  i had a good time painting this one!!

jellyfish

here is a new painting i just finished.  it is a commission from my beekeeping apprentice.  if you can’t tell what it is from the title or the image, it is of some jellyfish, and they are swimming.  it is  a gouache painting with ink over top.   after i completed it i read an article about how jelly fish are ruining fishermen and women’s livelihood in japan.  they are getting caught in the fishing nets and can weigh up to 400 lbs and are the size of a refrigerator.  wowsers.  i remember swimming in the chesapeake bay as a kid and once august hit, it was no good.  too  many sea nettles.  i have a distinct memory of jumping off my dad’s crabbing boat into the water and almost immediately being pulled back on due to a large cluster of sea nettles headed our way.

baba yaga’s house

when patrick and i were out visiting the upper peninsula we took a walk through the woods in marquette.  we lost the path and ended up bushwhacking off the path for the majority of the walk.  but the early part of the walk was through a forest of pines, i am not sure entirely as to what type of pine they were, as my tree i.d. especially with coniferous trees is not so great.   i kept expecting to see baba yaga’s house over the next ridge.  there was something otherworldly and magical about the forest.  as of late i have been reading a lot of folktales, as i have been playing around with creating a larger body of work that revolves around the visual retelling of old folktales.  i tend to be drawn to the eastern european tales most of all, and i contribute this to my lithuanian heritage.  granted if you set me down in lithuania i would be as much of an outsider as anyone else, having grown up purely american.  baba yaga is an interesting character, she is typically the evil witch or hag.  she flies around in a mortar and uses a pestle to steer while sweeping up her tracks with a silver birch broom.  her house rests upon dancing chicken legs and the front door will not reveal itself unless you ask.  if you do ask the keyhole is a mouth filled with sharp teeth.  the entire house is surrounded by a fence of human bones, as fence posts, and each bone is topped with a human skull.  baba yaga also kidnaps small children to eat.  the nice things about folktales is that there are always more than one version, so you are able to pick out the details you would prefer and use those.  some tales portray baba yaga as a wise old woman who helps lost souls find their way, or offers advice to heros.  women almost always seem to fall into several predetermined roles in fairy tales and folk tales.  there is of course the virgin, or the maiden if you prefer, who is beautiful,  innocent, and usually victimized in some way.  she is either clever and does the saving, or she is helpless and needs to be saved by some privileged  dude on a horse.  another role would be the benevolent mother, nurturing, kind and helpful.  but the third is the crone, witch or hag, who is nasty.  she may be an old witch in the woods or a scheming stepmother, but there are no doubts to her nastiness and malevolence.  baba yaga is definitely malevolent.  so when i returned home i started working on a papercut of babyaga’s house in the woods.  this particular one is for sale at the detroit artists market.

art show opening at the detroit artists market

I wanted to invite you all to the opening of the Art For The Holidays Show at the Detroit Artists Market. “This DAM annual favorite offers original art from more than 100 local artists in a fun and festive market setting. With hundreds of artworks at every price point, Art For The Holidays helps you shop local, shop smart, and shop with style!” I have some work for sale in this show. The opening is this Friday from 6-9pm. The show runs from November 06, 2009 – December 23, 2009 and is open on Noel Night. The Detroit Artists Market is located at 4719 Woodward Avenue Detroit, MI 482014719 Public Opening – Friday, November 6, 2009, 6-9pm Noel Night – Saturday, December 5, 2009, 5-9:30pm

p.s. these pumpkins are attending, and they are selling themselves

portrait of a lady

recently patrick and i have started helping our neighbors, and friends, eiton and joanna with their chickens.  it is a quite a lovely arrangement.  the chickens live at their house, which is a 2 minute walk across the street, and we take every other week.  we also split the cost and burden of buying feed.  i usually stop and buy feed when i am on my way back from washington, mi checking the bees as there is a grain elevator not far from there.  i really love feeding the girls, even if i am grumpy in the morning i love hearing them cluck and make funny chicken noises when they see us coming.  especially if they are out of their coop, and they see us heading towards the back gate they come running.  i think we have conditioned them to the fact that we often are carrying rotten milk with us, and chickens love some rotten milk!!  at one point patrick decided to create some chicken profiles and took some portraits of the ladies.  this particular ladies name is goldie, and she is a large stately buff orpington.  she is the kind of chicken you want to squeeze because she is so round.  i used patrick’s photo as reference when making this.  this paper cut will be displayed and for sale at the detroit artists market for $125, starting next friday november 6th.

art for the holidays

it is hard to believe that november is right around the corner.  earlier this month patrick and i went on a week long trip to michigan’s upper peninsula.  it was one of the most beautiful places i have been.  we came home and had two days to readjust before jumping back into normal, busy life.  immediately following reentering said life we had a weekend of honey extraction.  we extracted all of our honey in two days with the help of al least 60 or so volunteers, at various times throughout the day.  it was great fun, but quite exhausting.  a few days before honey extraction i received an email from the detroit artists market (a gallery in detroit) inviting me to take part in their art for the holidays show.  the gallery turns into a gift shop for the holidays that sells work made by local artists.  all the work is smaller,  under 24″ in size so prices are reasonable for one of a kind hand made objects.  i accepted and set out to make some creations.  i only had three days to get everything done to be able to drop it off by 6pm on Oct. 22nd.  of course i, a woman of lofty goals, decided to make all new things for this show.  so in the course of 3 days i made 2 stuffed owls, 2 stuffed pigs and 4 paper cuts.  i had to make a new owl pattern as well since i lost the other one i made, either that or i never made a pattern and just made the previous owl.  i still had my faithful pig pattern, that was made last year with my very first stuffed animal, the amazing piggy!!  one of the great things about this is that it opens on november 6th, but runs through december 23rd, which means i can keep making things and dropping them off to sell.  hopefully some will sell. it is also open on noel night in detroit.  for you non detroiters noel night is the first saturday in december , where the detroit institute of arts, and over 30 other museums and galleries and stores have a huge open house.  they are free of charge to the public and usually have choirs or musicians playing inside as well as hot chocolate and goodies.  they close down a large section of woodward avenue (a main thoroughfare in detroit) and have carriage rides and people singing as well as people playing bells.  it is always really fun.  the last 2 years it snowed and was quite beautiful.  we always ride our bikes there as parking is hard to find.  but there is a ton of foot traffic on noel night.   so here are photos of the creatures, i will post the paper cuts soon as well.

big owl

small owl

pink piggy

yellow piggy

chicken

ok so this is the last image i will post until i get back from vacation.  this is an image i made for my friend/neighbor eiton for his partner joanna for her birthday.  they have chickens that we help feed on a rotating weekly basis.  joanna also has a fabulous cover photo for a magazine with her holding a chicken.  those 2 things inspired me to make her a chicken!!  i also really liked only cutting out a small image from the center of a large piece of paper.  thats it!