Tag Archives: folk art
online yard sale…
just a quick note to point you over to my facebook page –> artbymags.com where i’m throwing pics up of some old art/craft stock i’m finding around the house. stuff’s going fast so check it out!!
an army of lovers cannot fail!
so this just happened. (click any picture and it will take you to the order page.)
i’ve been wanting to make a shirt with this phrase for many years but just never got around to it. this year, i finally have both the time and the motivation – i’m broke and i really want to go to fest! so here it is.
i’ve posted several pics of the different types of shirts that are available, just so you know there’s a wide variety. and a few styles even go up to 3XL in size. the color of the shirts will vary slightly from brand to brand and style to style, but generally they will all be a light grey/silver colored shirt, with black and red type in a distressed stencil style font. the shirts will be silkscreened professionally and i think will look better than anything i could print up at home.
as for the backstory… the concept of “an army of lovers” is attributable to plato in ancient greek times. the phrase “an army of lovers cannot fail” was adopted by activists in the early gay and women’s liberation movements and used widely, and rita mae brown popularized “an army of lovers shall not fail” in her poem “sappho’s reply” in the early 1970s. it’s something that has often been said in workerville amongst my family/tribe of womyn at the michigan womyn’s music festival and so, what with the whole summer of love feeling of fest these days i figured it was time for this shirt to appear.
i almost put a women’s symbol (with or without a fist) into the design but ended up deciding i’d rather leave it more universal, since it was a battlecry for the early queer and women’s movements, therefore hopefully making its appeal more widespread.
i humbly thank everyone for their support ahead of time. for the past several years since i started the pet business i haven’t really been creating art or designing anything, and i’ve really missed it. so i set an intention a few months back that i wanted more free time in my schedule so that i could get back to doing more creative stuff.. and lo and behold, several of my pet clients moved on and freed up some time in my schedule. so i’ve been working hard to get back into the creative swing of things… and designing tshirts is one of those things!! so i appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm and feedback and support – more than you’ll ever know.
ok.order away here:Â http://teespring.com/armyofloverscannotfail
and she’s back!
look what i did last weekend!!
and the best part? i sold all three within a few hours of posting them up on facebook, twitter and/or instagram!
mind you, these were all half-finished projects staring me down in the shed for over a year. it didn’t take all that much to get them finished and ready for sale. but it is movement… out of the rut i’ve been in for the past little while. and so i am celebrating that hopefully i am getting my groove back.
all it took was 3 hours out at jazzfest last friday (thank you alice and jen for making that free ticket happen!), wandering around all the artists’ booths in congo, louisiana folk life, and contemporary areas, seeing all the amazing and beautiful artwork out there. and hearing some awesome music. and eating some yummy food. and hanging out with wonderful friends. and just celebrating and honoring my anniversary with new orleans – since it was jazzfest that basically convinced me that new orleans was the home i had always yearned for but never had before i stepped foot on its shifting, swampy soil. yep, my 24th anniversary with new orleans was this jazzfest (i really don’t count the years i was away due to katrina – my heart was still here) and well, it delivered quite a lovely anniversary present to me: i got a little creative spark back.
so stay tuned. hopefully lots more to come!
jazz fest funky lil’ art show!
ok, so i have the info now about the opening for the art show i’ll be in during jazz fest:
creative outlet presents:
the 6th edition jazz fest funky lil’ art show!
2909 ponce de leon st. (corner of n. white).
opening event: friday, april 22nd, 6pm-9pm
open-house and porch party each night after jazz fest from 6pm – 9pm
featuring some fabulous lil’ art from these artists & crafters:
alice atkinson, whitney cato, yvette chapotel, nicole crochet, margaret coble, chris cressionnie, john d’addario, carina gale, chris kirsch, rachelle matherne, jeanette meyer, bud moore, laura rapp, alice redman, giselle robert, carol springer, valerie turgeon, and maybe more….
——
i’m so excited! i brought a whole bunch of stuff over to jen on sunday and i have a few more clocks to bring her tomorrow. the openings are always a crowded but really fun event, a sort of pre-jazz fest kickoff party. and all the art and craft is really reasonably priced – nothing is super expensive and all of it is really funky and different. much of it from artists who don’t do the gallery scene or even the market scene. always some rare and interesting finds to be had. come early to get all the best stuff, cuz stuff does sell fast!
hope to see y’all there!
back to basics.
i’m not really sure why, but i’ve been moved the past few weeks to pick up a paint brush and go back to my folk art roots. it’s been really therapeutic and also fun. i’ve been tweeting occasional pics of a wooden chair i’ve been in the process of painting, and though it’s not quite done yet, here’s what it’s looking like right now:
i’m really stuck on this purple/red/black/white color scheme right now for some reason, too. but it’s working pretty well on the chair, i think. i might go back and change a few things, and i still have some detail work to do on the legs and maybe the red horizontal parts of the back of the chair… not sure. but generally speaking, i’m really liking how it’s turning out. will let you know when it’s done.
i also have a few small canvases in process, also folk art in style. it feels really great to use a brush again, after so many years of doing mostly spray paint stencil work. not that i’m abandoning that technique or anything – it’s just nice to get back in touch with how i started, and that zen feeling i remember having when totally “in the zone” of applying dots and squiggly lines in repetetive patterns all over a piece of furniture. there’s something to that process that’s just magical and calming and puts my brainwaves in order like nothing else. so i’m doing it, and hope to keep doing a lot more of it.
stay tuned, too, for another upcoming sale. i feel it coming on. perhaps after my saturday appearance at the picayune street fair with miss malaprop. a girl’s gotta pay rent, after all.