THE CREATIVE CONNECTION
THE CREATIVE CONNECTION
Two big boxes of my paintings were sent to Earth Angels...
so now I'm getting ready for Chrishanukwanzmadan , which is happening in Hudson, Ohio November 7
Oddmall - Emporium of the Weird: Chrishanukwanzmadan Edition
http://www.oddmall.info/
BIG notes and news--I have an etsy shop open for prints of my paintings, including some really cool one-of-a-kind type stuff that you won't find anywhere else because a lot of it is samples and experiments...things I'm thinking about.
The address is www.pinkyandlilly.etsy.com
A lot/most of it is collaborative work between me and my daughter, Tatiana--we're working on a secret project...
Here's alink to a brand new piece:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33253631
it's in a very very cool old blackwork frame covered with STRAWBERRIES--I got the frame at the Country Living Fair specifically for this print
This weekend I'll be having fun with my kids at URBAN SCRAWL in Franklinton, an artsy neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio (kinda south of COSI and otherwise known as The Bottoms before it went artsy and semi-hip).
I have a bunch of CHEAP URBAN ART available for sale as well as some more Pinky and Lilly pieces.
I am a spoiled child
I hope
Every moment is as beautiful as crayons
I hope
I can draw on my beloved paper
a clumsy freedom
an eye never cry
a sky
a feather and a leaf belongs to it
a light green night and an apple
I want to draw the morning
the dew
all the smiles I have seen
draw all young love
which never experiences pain
...
Gu cheng I am a spoiled child
Of course we're all excited about the Country Living Fair 2009--not just the artwork but about what we're wearing. Sophia and I have spent the afternoon wrestling over an exciting package that came in the mail today...check it out:
They're not from Anthropologie, they're from ETSY!
Here's the link to idea2lifestyle's shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5874423
I was totally lured in by the poetry and the great photography--the shipping is super fast and the talented seller is awesomely friendly. Love it. Got it!
<p>Previously I've written about people who have influenced me (let's not get into whether Midge counts as people--I'm talking about Will Barnet and Rhoda), now let's talk about people who appear to be under the hypnotic effects of me...</p>
<p>Rather, let's get down to it and talk about something that's really just so uncool--the little trolls of the folk art world that feed off of other people's work. </p>
<p>I received this email yesterday--</p>
<p><em><span style="color: #336699;">"Dear Laurie,</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="color: #336699;">As a big fan of your work and as someone who has bought your paintings, I want to bring to your attention (if you haven't noticed already) there is an artist out there who sells on Ebay and on Etsy who is blatantly copying your work and making a VERY good living at it. There are pieces of your work she seems to have copied including colors and format. I can't abide the fact that she is doing it and if I were you I would sue her for copyright infringement. The name she sells under is XXXXXXX in both places. I would be furious if I were you. She has taken your main character with her dark hair and facial characteristics as well as the body type. I had never seen tyour style before until I saw your work and you were selling on Ebay long before this person started. She seems to have started on Ebay when you stopped. Please check into it. I love your work and your original vision and to have someone take it whole hog and just steal, steal steal is a criminal act that should be stopped if not punished. I wrote her once and told her she was infringing on your art but she never said a word and kept on going.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="color: #336699;">Best to you. I still follow your art on your web site, your blog and earth angels. I'm an artist too and seeing this done makes me stay off the internet with my stuff.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="color: #336699;">One of your paintings has a place of honor next to my fireplace in the living room. I still enjoy the ones I bought from you."</span></em></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">This isn't the first time I've heard about this particular troll--she's been stealing my designs for years and apparently thinks nothing is wrong with what she's doing...</span></p>
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okay, stop...I started this post over a year ago after receiving yet another letter from a not-happy collector but decided against posting it and instead contacted the other "artist" and warned against how lousy doing this not only makes me and my collectors feel but also it's just not good for our art community--(I'm thinking of the somewhat small contemporary folk art community in particular). I feel the situation improved.
But still I do keep a file I call the "Hall of Shame" and it clearly shows when my designs and copyrights have been violated. It's really unfortunate--when I look at it I get a stomach ache--I wonder how it affects the trolls psychically as well as physically.
So I'm still not going to say anything more because quite honestly I think plenty has been said already, but y'know, what goes around does come around and it's just not fun now is it.
Danita just posted this copycat-alert
Thanks to Ro for this:
There are two ways of being happy: We may either diminish our wants or augment our means - either will do - the result in the same; and it is for each man to decide for himself, and do that which happens to be the easiest. If you are idle or sick or poor, however hard it may be to diminish your wants, it will be harder to augment your means. If you are active and prosperous or young and in good health, it may be easier for you to augment your means than to diminish your wants. But if you are wise, you will do both at the same time, young or old, rich or poor, sick or well; and if you are very wise you will do both in such a way as to augment the general happiness of society.
-Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TASIE!!!
and Thank YOU to Darren for the fun at PARIS TO THE MOON in beautiful Costa Mesa!!!
CHICKEN FARMERS 2008 (their ethereal little bodies are egg tempera--no pun intended but now I do think this sort of thing is funny of course--maybe I thought it was when I did it, too--god knows what I was thinking) --this is a work-in-progress and is about 30 x30 inches on cradled birch. From a series on TRUTH/CONCEALMENT/REVEALMENT inspired by Heidegger's POETRY, LANGUAGE, THOUGHT and discussions with an old friend from high school last summer...
and another from that series...
ME (on a good day)
and what I did today to entertain the children...
(they're little vintage wool-paper-print quilt-things that were supposed to be ornaments but they're a bit on the large side and I doubt that I'l finish all the details any time soon since there's a LOT of hand-stitching, too-------the wool is from the day Kitty B and I got lost on the way to Jill Weiner's mud-fest)...MORE ON THESE NEXT WEEK
and tomorrow I'll start BAKING COOKIES!
these guys are small--like 11x13 or something like that, maybe 10 x 12--I'm sleepy and going to bed for a change--more tomorrow...
and ps I am NOT getting along well with my new camera and I'm grumpy----grrrrrr....
notes--Bev, I think I found them!--I will write when I wake up
a little larger...maybe 10x20...
and 20x20's:
and one I'm stillllllllllllllllll working on aptly titled "Tossing Some Ideas Around" (I love the look of terror on his face)
And finally Bob's Christmas presents...my husband is competely facinated with Kitty Babendrier (and is apparently trying to amass the world's largest collection of her work) and also has a thing for squirrels so this was a natural ...
And I'm keeping the next painting for him not because he liked the smoldering eyes...
or the rockin' body
It's his because he said he really liked the black gloves (gotta love a guy that notices these things!)
http://www.whodoesshethinksheis.net/
(Thanks PJ! now we're even)
Is it just me or is this really the Christmas "must-have" of the year--I really think I need this... http://fashionablygeek.com/jewelry/rubber-chicken-necklace/
Instead of a lot of talk about why I feel the need for such things I'm posting images--lots and lots of images since that's all I really look at on other people's blogs. I have lots of shots inside my house and studio (which are both always works in progress as well as the paintings) so you can see what it's really like living with all of this artwork (mine as well as by my kids and friends and my kids' friends).
These are from the Ohio house...
(if anyone feels bad for my husband after you see all this mess and my version of decorating for the holidays then feel free to email him at [email protected] )
Next I'll post some naked ones so stay tuned--here's a preview...
While I pack my bags for another adventure-filled summer in Woodstock, I leave you a musical interude for those who share my love of hip-hop and ukulele:
"unquestionably genuine"(inspired by a sailer's valentine) 24 x24 x 4, mixed media on cradled birch--vinegar paint, vintage mother of pearl buttons, vintage silk velvet, vintage game piece, ephemera, hand-stitched
When I heard that Jen O'Connor's spring event would have the theme "Under the Sea" my first thought was base my work on one of my favorite-favortite poems--Romance by Robert Louis Stevenson:
<<Red Vevet Cake (vintage silk velvet)
Are Jennifer Lanne and Nicole Bowen adorable or what?
The final painting (it's very large--like 36 x 48 or something like that--on cradled birch) was inspired by another poem and sums up my feelings of longing and fear of the sea--years ago I lived in Connecticut on a property directly on the beach. As much as I loved watching my children play on the beach I was also constantly vigilant and cautious of the hurricanes and stormy weather. A real love/hate relationship...
O Captain! My Captain!
By Walt Whitman'
Jen has these paintings now so please ask her if you would like to see details--many of the larger pieces are on cradled birch--there are LOTs of fancy paint techniques so if you want to know anything feel free to email so I can explain. The hand-stitching is not just on the surface so these are quite a bit more labor intensive and quite honestly I'm pooped so I'm not going to paint or sew or anything for the next week while I get the household ready to head back to Woodstock.
And now you'll have to please excuse me while I brag about how cute my kids are--check out David's prom pics:
Let me clear something up--it's not simply that I don't care for grass as I so glibly announced in the prior post.
My vigorously non-competative nature begs me to clarify that I am, in fact,
POLITICALLY OPPOSED TO LAWNCARE.
It's true--I do try to keep it a secret because if word got out really, what would the neighbors think
I live in Marysville, Ohio--home of Scotts Lawncare.
There's a sign posted for all who enter this town proclaiming, "Marysville, Where the Grass is Always Greener."
A few years ago I thought my neighbors won the Publisher's Clearing House prize-thing--at 4 a.m. the street was lit up with camera crews, helicopters, etc--they were filming a commercial because their lawn was so gd fantastic.
That sort of thing makes me ill.
I'd take a sandy beach anyday--or a big pile of leaves.
Here's a quote from one of my favorite websites:
Studies show that the rich have large and beautiful lawns, while the poor often have no lawns or small lawns of poor quality. This is patently inequitable and unjust, and can have traumatic effects on self-esteem and social growth. The Federal Government must step in to ensure that every American realizes his or her right to have the self-esteem that only a thick, green lawn can provide.
Further, we see strong evidence of social injustice in means of providing lawn care. Rarely does a rich man provide lawn care for a poor family, but the poor are often found serving the rich in providing lawn care. Low-paying jobs in which the poor serve the rich include service activities such as mowing lawns, raking leaves, weed removal, and chemical lawn treatment. Social justice demands rectification!
Okay, enough about grass--I'm going to go watch re-runs of Pinky and the Brain and fix homemade pierogis to protest Saint Patrick's Day--
Na Zdrowie!
1) I do not like grass. Although I love being in Woodstock, I'm only there for the trees. I try not to look down.
2)I LOVE hiphop and love to bump when I'm driving. I drive a Landrover because of the Bose system with the doubled-up base.
3)On the subject of music, if I weren't a painter I would probably want to be an opera singer, although apparently being tone deaf could prove challenging.
4)I'm an ice snob. I drive over an hour twice a week to get Sonic ice. I'm addicted. True story.
5)I can feel my brain thinking--i'm serious! i can actually feel different areas of my brain thinking and sometimes it actually almost hurts. (i swear i don't make these things up)
So now i'm choosing Debrina Pratt since she's new to Earth Angels and I'm not sure she knows what she's gotten herself into!!!
Since I'm back to painting and drinking way too much Red Bull, I suspect I've finally recovered from Jen's Winter Extravaganza-O-megliarama, otherwise known as The HeART of Winter. I mean WOW!, it was pretty!!! And pretty amazing to have all of us Earth Angel-ists together--we were so noisy that Jill Weiner had to be appointed dorm moniter to keep the giggling under contol.
Back at home... the kids have been keeping me really busy--David and Jacob are having band practice at my house 24/7 and now they're both playing rugby, Sophia has declared herself a vegetarian, I suspect because Adam sustained a cracked rib from being tackled by a vegan as he put away his groceries, and Tasie has finally figured out how to get out of Puerto Rico and is now searching for errant Rolling Stones on Mustique.
And I've been house-shopping...I think I've found a good one, although since it's an abandoned mansion and I'm truthfully the biggest chicken you've ever known, I suspect I would probably not last one night there alone. But it is really nice--and a bargain!
It's directly across the street from the Franklin Park, home of the Franklin Park Conservatory, AND it's right down the street from the Columbus Museum of Art so I can't help but think what a nice studio it would be, don't you think?
Just in case I needed to throw an all-night dance party (that happens, you know) the third floor would be just great--it really does have an orchestra pit and a ballroom--perfect for my disco ball collection!
It is a bit large--I think I could get my entire studio AND my art collection AND all my kids and animals in there:
(Bob says as long as there's a basketball court he's fine with it--I have to admire his sense of priorities)
IN THE MEANWHILE...
What has garnered my irrational exuberance is my new paintings.
Well, to call them paintings isn't quite accurate, and the hint is they're sitting sideways.
If we still have internet service after the blizzard hits tomorrow I will post secret sneak peak images, otherwise they're being bundled up and sent to NY.
If you want to be first in line you might want to start emailing Jen now--she LOVES it when you guys do that!
So about that freshly stripped table..
Shockingly, I ended up painting it.
I really was going to vinegar paint it but all of my dry pigments are in New York.
So while I was paint-shopping at Sinopia I noticed they have some cool stuff in their clearance section including Iron Glimmer from Morocco. I probably need some, afterall if you're going to use an iron oxide god knows it's always better when it's from Morocco.
(If you have no idea what to do with Iron Glimmer from Morocco stick around because as soon as I get my hands on some pigments I'll do a demo here. I'll do demos here occasionally as time allows. This blogging is really cutting into my naps)
I know the table looks hideous now but just wait.
Honestly I think most of what I paint looks hideous until the final days.
Case in point:
By next week they'll look less Edward Gorey-inspired.
Frightening, aren't they. They look like me in the morning after I've been up all night painting.
Actually it is kind of like looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning. Well, maybe it's just me but I cannot survive without a small boudoir-type lamp in the bathroom. I can't say enough about how much my disposition improves when the first image I see of myself is in low, chiaroscuro-esque lighting. Try it if you don't believe me.
I'm not saying it makes you look ravishing or anything. But looking less freaky first thing in the morning can seriously set the tone for your entire day.
I swear I look like this if I don't do the lighting trick:
So instead of doing the final-finish paint job on the table I'm getting myself back on track with my stuff, for the HeART of WinTer show which is like next week. I'm so seriously not ready. As per usual.
And now it's time for make up for me then glitter and garniture for these girls...
"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards" --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
If you were actually in the right place at the right time do you think you would realize it? I didn't realize I had been there until many years later so this post is about the importance of being in the right place at the right time.
And I mean it's very important so listen up...
The summer before my first epiphany I spent a great deal of time wandering the streets of NYC. Early mornings on the weekends were my favorites. A warm bialy from Kossar's was reason enough to get up so I'd head out the door for coffee and usually would not return for hours.
Let’s be honest, getting up early on the weekends and hitting the streets isn’t the easiest thing in the world but it was on one of these warm summer mornings that I met the man who was to be my greatest influence.
By the way, chickie babes, we're talking like 30 years ago--and he wasn't Lewis Carroll. I'm not that old. Not quite. Very funny, but thank you for asking.
Back in the day (late 70's), I had absolutely no aspiration to be a painter--I honestly did not like being in painting studios or even being around painters--I was filled with total contempt and disdain--yuck! The attitudes of the "2D" or two dimensional students (painters, print makers, paper people) were so stiff, so lofty, so linearally abstract that I found it difficult to carry on a conversation with them. Sculptors, glassblowers and the rest of the "3D's" are generally more playful, rowdy and you know, fun.
But I was very attracted to one painter's work and would go back to look at his work often. One morning I was surprised to find out that the older gentleman sitting next to me was the artist himself. He, too, was staring at the paintings, because that's what we painters do--kind of like looking in the mirror. Ah-so! Now I could interrogate him...
I remember standing close to the paintings with him, looking closely at his under-painting that was still quite visible and asking him why there was so much pencil showing?! why was the paint so thin? why? why? why?
And he would patiently do his best to elucidate and to get me to stop making up so many rules about art!
I was young, an ingenue!, and loved being in the city--what did I know?--I thought I knew a LOT if not everything. His work was a world apart from what was being shown in the hip galleries--courageously bright, bold work that everyone would emulate in the 80's.
Except him. And because of him, of course, me.
He made certain I kept the questions about painting coming but told me to draw--"forget about the paint for now."
And PS, I didn't paint for at least 10 more years.
So I met with him occasionally throughout the summer. In the warm mornings--before the galleries opened. He was always dressed casually in a dark suit--so unintentionally elegant. I liked that about him. If you want to know the truth I think it made me pay more attention to what he was saying.
At the time I knew I really liked his work and he was really great to be teaching me so much about stuff I had never thought about. But I, with my great plans for changing the world with my architectural designs, didn't exactly realize what an important person I had the good fortune to know. Perhaps he was charmed by my mid-western innocence although I suspect it may have been more that he was shocked at my impertinence on top of my general ignorance of painting!
His name was Will Barnet. Mr. Barnet. THE Will Barnet.
I sense his influence in my work, if not in subject then in mood, and know he is why I paint the way I do. And what my propensity for drawing is all about. And I know how really lucky I really am that somehow I was in the right place at the right time...
...even if it was only because I really like bialys.
`It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, `but it's rather hard to understand!'
(You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.)
`Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas -- only I don't exactly know what they are!
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
Old images of my paintings are the centerpieces of my NEW Mixed Media Necklaces that will debut at the HeART of WinTer show in early February. I don't have files of all of my old paintings but there are plenty to choose from.
If there is a painting in particular that you would like on a necklace please get in touch with me(not likely) or the ever-more-accessible Jen O'Connor--I am willing to customize a little but I can't do true custom orders without getting nauseous...
The centerpieces are mixed media on stainless--the backs are cool papers and everything is oxidized and really pretty in that old jumbled way I love. They look like paper in the images but they're actually very,very solid--I had to go through several orders of metal to get it the right thickness--not too thin but not so heavy that give you a headache. There are brass castings from vintage molds, escutcheons, old transit tokens and important "stuff" I've been collecting for years, semi-precious and otherwise cool stones and old czech beads, and whatever else I can get my hands on that has some kind of Bohemian chicness. The oxidized, solid brass chains are all different styles--different lengths are fastened together with more objects d'art. And the fasteners are mostly pretty cool oxidized copper or brass swirls and toggles but I am trying to get some others that are old and you know, just something that looks like something I would use--so stay tuned!
Tasie grabbed a few when she was home for the holidays and reports that they're a hit at Sundance.
"My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage!" --Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic
Do you ever find yourself in the midst of a Obsessive Creativity Disorder -style creative frenzy and suddenly do something so bizarrely normal that no one believes you did it? How often do you ask yourself, "What was I thinking?"
Sophie and I cleaned out the armoire in the room-formerly-known-as-the-dining hall. I'm not saying that this doesn't happen often but this is the armoire Joe Thomas was found in--alive--after he had been missing for three or four days.
--insert image--
In another highly controversial act, something else as equally uncharacteristic occurred:
--insert image--
I stripped the paint off a table. True story.
Understand that this is groundbreaking. Ornate Bavarian dinner plates, full services of silverware, centerpieces and requisite food is more likely to be painted on the table top than to have something colorful removed.
Babette's Feast has been on my mind for the past week--possibly fueling some sort of Gustavian fantasy where my life suddenly becomes cool, ordered and serene. And my upholstered furniture is all professionally linen-covered and frumpled.
Professionally frumpled. Now that's some kind of goal.
And the wood furniture is stripped and waxed or painted a rainy Scandinavian grey.
Is there a possiblity that I have Seasonal Affective Disorder and I'm secretly getting depressed?
Who am I kidding? I think I'll get Bob to finish stripping it so the surface is even. And then maybe I'll vinegar paint the table top next week.
Something more vivid and compelling than grey.
Last month at the Country Life Gallery in Warwick, NY, I had a conversation with Cheryl Kuhn about grey--it's her favorite color!
and PS, Joe's armoire is now filled with paint and I donated the armoire's former contents, a bunch of the fabric and yarn, but I'm not giving up my stash of Noro...never!
I am a full-time artist and have been for like my entire life
(sorry I couldn't resist)