HANDCRAFTED

“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?    -Dr. Seuss

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

My plan every year during the holiday giving season, is to create something for everyone. It is an amazing feeling to give someone something that you made. With little time and feeling a bit dry in the inspiration department. I had a trip to New York and checked out the windows at Bergdorfs.  One of the windows had a display of these lovely little dolls made of vintage parts. The artists are called Primitive Twig. I decided that the concept was brilliant and that doing a bit of tweaking on my own....such as heading downtown to Pearl River for some new tea tins and hunting through my own selection of doll parts and found objects and of course getting out the copper to make clothing, I got started.

I decided to call my little "frankendolls" TEAmates (that was my daughter in laws suggestion) Thanks Jordana!! A handcrafted gift of a doll, tea and quotes about teas.

Here you can see one of the pieces in the window. I would imagine that they did quite well!!!! Imagine, having your work in the Bergdorf holiday windows!!!

This doll had no eyes, so I cut out eyes from my own self portrait sketch and added them myself.

I bought new tea tins and used sand paper and paint to age them.

Inspiration

This is my favorite. Most of the pieces I found in France at a flea market. I gave it to my daughter and she loved it. The head and base are from a damaged lamp.

THE ART OF OBSERVATION-THE OBSERVATION OF ART-ANSELM KIEFER IN NEW YORK

"There is a special border, the border between art and life that often shifts deceptively. Yet, without this border, there is no art. In the process of being produced, art borrows material from life, and the traces of life still shine through the completed work of art. But, at the same time, the distance from life is the essence, the substance of art. And, yet, life has still left its traces. The more scarred the work of art is by the battles waged on the borders between art and life, the more interesting it becomes."
--Anselm Kiefer

I dare to try and blend some pages that I have done in a book, with the brilliance of some of the work by Anselm Kiefer, that I saw a few days ago at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, titled, Next Year in Jerusalem. My critique is simple. I was in awe. It was inspiring in so many ways. Installation, sculpture, painting, photography. It was theatrical, interactive and drawing on every emotion.

While taking the time to observe as much detail as possible, I became immersed in watching how other people were observing each piece. They became as much a part of the work as what I was seeing inside the huge glass cases.

Around the corner from Gagosian you will find a building full of galleries. On one floor is the Sears Peyton Gallery. There you will find the work of painter Robert Schmid.  The top photo is a detail. he works in oils, combining images from a variety of photos and the result is magical.

I shared this wonderful day with some friends. Elizabeth (who happens to be the wife of Robert Schmid), Isabel and Seth.

ABUNDANT TREASURES-THE RUSSIAN ICON MUSEUM

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."  ~Thornton Wilder 

I am thankful to have many treasures in my life. Thanksgiving was spent with my dear family. With plenty of food on our table and many things to laugh about, we enjoyed a beautiful day together.-------- "Black Friday" proved to be a successful one for our business. Being an independent retailer, selling electronics, in what has been a very difficult time eonomically, I would say that yesterdays showing means we must be going in the right direction. I am very hopeful.---------------- The weekend before Thanksgiving, I was honored to be included in a group of extraordinary women, brought together by Lynne Perrella, to spend time together in Massachusetts at the Museum of Russian Icons. We toured this magnificent museum near Worchester and then spent 4 days creating together in response to what we saw.

Our group came together beautifully.

......like a colorful , well used box of oil pastels.

Our tour guide, was well versed in the complete history of this collection, the largest outside of Moscow.

The work is particularly of interest to me because of their use of metals, usually silver and gold, to frame and embellish each piece and the colors used are similar to what I like to use in my pieces.

We shared our own work.

We created new work.

We shared techniques.

.......and proceeded to try them out with creative exuberance.

I have been working on a project for the last few weeks and this experience gave me an inspirational boost that could not have been duplicated.

The last evening, we discussed and admired each others work.

Thank you Lynne and....Anne Bagby,  Shirley Ende-Saxe,  Ginna Brooks,  Leslie Aja,  Ellen Kochansky,  Barbara Block , Bonnie Benson and Inese Kaufman.