Instead of blithering on about whatever pops in my head I'm guessing I should share some shop/work/sales updates! I'm still working through my order list and am about four months out with orders which is perfect for Spring so if you're thinking of getting a house number for the big Spring spruce up when you can put your cushions back on the chairs and plant a flower or two in a planter now's the time to for us to start talking! I promise next week will be more blithering! Thanks so much!
After spending the interminable early '20's watching lathe turning videos for mental health and suspense I finally got to try it! Whoa boy! It was so much easier than my catastrophic mind lead me to believe! And in the true fashion of everything, people that know what they're doing showing you how to do something make it look soooooo easy. So it's an activity that's easy to be bad at. And sometimes that's all I can ask for. More to come!
“This decoration, which appeals both to the eye and to the fancy ...It seeks its inspiration in the very heart of life - in nature as seen through the eyes of the peasant, who is free from all the conventionalities of civilisation, and whose eye is unspoilt by the constant contemplation of the ugliness which is so unsparingly distributed around us." Day-umn Netta Peacock from 1905! This is a quote from an article extoling the virtue of peasant folk art and I agree with this 120 year old opinion, Sh*ts ugly out there, Buy Art!
I've been trying so hard to capture the maudlin nostalgia of a winter's dusk drive home through the fields. The fragile golds and browns fade into mud and the delicate silver clots into the grey of neglected sweat socks at the back of a closet. Fleeting like the fond memories of childhood winter, the reality is just as empty as my windshield wiper fluid reservoir. I really need to stop listening to Werner Herzog as I work.
Keeping with my Maximalist rules of life and to help cope with the commercialization of Christmas I went down a rabbit hole of the most expensive painting ever sold, Salvator Mundi for $450,312,500, which is ironically of Jesus Christ. I then slipped into a luxurious bath of irony and soaked in the delicious sardonism and had a cookie with Santa Claus. If you need a good Christmas time story I highly recommend looking into Salvator Mundi, it's a fantastic story.
I was going to post my latest pet portrait and then remembered that it's a Christmas present and I don't want to Scrooge up a Christmas surprise! Needless to say it's real cute! So here's a past one that is also very cute, as all pets are. That's why I love making Custom Pet Portraits!
There's something so homey and cozy about Rosemaling that it just innately has Christmas vibes. Waking up to snow the other morning made it mandatory that I make some hot cocoa, put on warm socks and paint a million rosemales and then run around in the snow in just my socks because I had such a sugar rush from the cocoa and now I have a cold. Christmas is cancelled.
I'm so thankful for all my wonderful customers that have continually surprised and amazed me with special requests through out the years! From family portraits to the special pets and meaningful symbols I've had so much fun being a part of people's lives for a short time and made them something that hopefully lasts years and years. This piece is the closest to a Turkey I've made, thanks Mr. T! Glad you're not on the table this year!
These rosemaling pieces were born out of me moving back to my roots to a predominantly Norwegian community in SE MN. The history and community has inspired me to gather wood pieces from construction projects of vintage houses and local woodworker friends and to Rosemale them! I hope these small pieces make the perfect addition to your decor with history, memories and fun!
Years ago my husband and I bought a dilapidated wooden Quonset hut to turn it into our fishing shack get away (which is now our forever get away!) When we were reroofing it the beautiful tortured pine boards came up with the tar and shingles and we were forced to save them. We ended up with a bunch of scrip scraps we couldn't bare to part with. I decided I needed to learn Rosemaling and used them as my practice palettes. Luckily we had one billion of them so I've got a bunch extra to sell! (I've branched out to different wood species too) Coming Soon!
Adding a little bee, beetle or dragonfly turns a mosaic of flowers into a story. Throw in a hummingbird or goldfinch and its a novel. Conflict is nature and without it it's just a pretty picture, which is okay too. Sometimes pretty is just enough.
When we moved to the country I didn't expect to become so interested and immersed in woodworking until my husband tore down a corn crib and our backyard was suddenly full of 100 year oak and pine that needed new life! I've been finding that the oak really likes to be frames for mosaics so I've been developing a new way to frame them that makes them look good from both sides and is suitable to hang in windows or sit on window sills!
One of the many things I love about stained glass mosaic is trying to replicate the bonkerness of nature with the limitations of glass. With painting and drawing you can just paint or draw it. With stained glass you're constrained by the glass and trying to coax it to break the right way or get small enough to make a branch or leaf or sky is exhilarating when it works and maddening when it flies across the room after breaking the not right way. It's a never ending quest for sure.
I'm excited that Fall is here and I'm ready to get back in the studio after a busy summer art fair season! I've gathered lots of new ideas and inspirations for small window sitter wood framed mosaics and suncatchers. Stay tuned for new products all winter!