In Awe and In-spired

So I have a small shop where I sell a small portion of my art and photography, and there’s so many other wonderful artists there who do the same. The temptation to spend as much or more than what you earn since we who sell there are surrounded by a plethora of wonders is great, but I have discovered that one way to have your cake and eat it too is to make a trade. Once established that a trade would be agreeable to both parties, items of similar values are swapped.

There is an amazingly creative artist on Etsy who goes by the name of Sushipot. Her name is Suzanna Scott, and I am just so moved by what arrived in the mail from her the other day that I simply must share. I traded my print called Porridge, for one of the items from her Petit Four Series, a camel figure on a block with the letter “C” on it and antique dictionary snippets. It arrived so beautifully packaged, every detail attended to from the round antique ephemera sticker on the envelope which held a thank you note, a vintage game card and two of her wonderful magnets, to the dainty kraft jewelry box tied up with simple black string. Even the way she ‘signs’ her work is beautiful!

And the whole thing was shipped in a nice, roomy box filled with plenty of white tissue. I swear, I feel like I’ve robbed a bank.

Order of the Day

I can’t believe it’s mid-May. The year is almost half over and there just never seems to be enough hours in a day to do all I ‘plan’. My list for Monday had over a dozen things on it. Most never got attended to but here are some of the tasks I did get to:

1) Print out and photograph my “Craggy” bush photo. The original is from a Polaroid, and the wonderful, lushy low contrast makes for a lovely depiction of dreams and nostalgia. This will be the newest item in my Etsy shop, and will be sold at a very reasonable price.

2) Giftwrap this ‘siamese triplet’ bud vase. I found it at a place in my neighborhood and will make a perfect gift for my friend.

3) Set about the massive task of documenting (photographically) my toy collection, even if one piece at a time. Das Osterhasenbuch is from the turn of the century and is filled with wonderful chromolithographs. I love the bunny on the cover, showing his little teeth. It came from an estate of another collector in Massachusetts, much of whose collection was on loan to a nearby Toy Museum …I can’t remember the name of the Museum. Sheesh

4) Made magnets. From some of my illustrations and photos. They’re fun to make.

As The World Flickrs

Episode 2: Brett Walker's Freak Show
(Flickr is an international photo-sharing site which is directly responsible for inspiring me to be better as a photographer, and to see things with new eyes. The source of impressive talent is vast and continues to show me how much more there is to learn. Each week I will be featuring one or more of my ‘faves’ or a specific artist.)

Entering Brett Walker’s Flickr stream is like being let into an exclusive fine art exhibit on another planet without having to pay the fare. You’ll feel honored. You’ll feel stunned, (often freaked out) in a very good way. You’ll never look at faces or photography the same way again. And you’ll want to keep coming back. [This last is easily accomplished by the sidebar link under my banner.]