(Inside A Black Apple)

A Squirrel On A String

I finished work on another new painting last night:

Squirrel on String     11"x14"x1"    Acrylic on canvas

I've been poring over all these old (and mostly out-of-print) books on 18th and 19th century folk portraiture this summer. I love this stuff...and I know lots of other folks do too. It's one of my primary points of inspiration. The static poses, the beautiful strange visual quirks of the artists (many of whom are unknown, or historians are really unsure as to what work they are responsible for) manifesting themselves in these wonderful, bizarre, sometimes hilarious portraits.

One of my very favorites is this one, Portrait of Two Children (1760), which is attributed to a man named Joseph Badger.

This painting was found in an antique store in the 1950's in London, and the identities of the sitters is unknown. I loved the gesture and garments of the little boy (not that his little no-necked sister is without her charm), and decided to paint a black apple-ish version.

The Black Eyed Susan

The Black Eyed Susan       8"x10"x2"     Acrylic on canvas

Another new painting...and I swear that I began this piece before the recent "unpleasantness", so nobody worry that this is a portrait of my current devastation or anything so timely. ;)

This girl was one of those that really grew on me the more I put her down and picked her back up again to work on. One of my favorite things about painting is how their expressions just kind of "happen", and they are always, always just right. I mean, I suppose I have a log of expressions that I love in my head, and they intuitively present themselves, but still...it's almost like the visual version of watching your character or story unfold before you as a writer.

Happy Monday, everyone!

PS: I've gotten lots of emails about th paint colors in my hom. The color of my bedroom (the pretty blue from the last post) was already here when I moved into my flat! My whole apartment was already painted my favorite colors. Can you believe it? So, sadly, I can't tell any of you the color, because I don't know it myself!

Let's talk about Housegirls with pigtails

Housegirl at Tea     8"x10"x2"    Acrylic on canvas

I managed to get a little painting in this weekend, and one of the pieces I finished is a for-now-secret little collaboration with an indie business that I really love! I'll let you know more about it soon, and have more new pieces to show you as well! It feels like the shop is in need of a nice update, so I'm hoping to have one soon.

Oh! Also, I forgot to show this framed nice-ness the other day in my framing post. I had the two dunces (the only originals I've held onto) framed as well, and now they are in the pretty blue bedroom:

Again, with the crummy, low-light photos. But you get the idea!

I closed the comments on the last post, because truthfully, I probably should've never allowed comments in the first place. I wanted to defend myself + my blog, and had no other venue. I'm sorry if I have seemed condescending or hurt people's feelings, I had no idea this was the case...know that was never my intention.  Also know that I can't change the way that I deal with the world, and I don't know any other way to be.

xoxo

*Just a little public service bulletin*

Not to steal any thunder from my gushing, recent post about the lovely Jennifer Murphy, but I've got to issue a wee statement here, to the lovely commenter from my last post, who wasn't gracious enough to leave her legitimate email address.

Dear Negative Nellie,
IF my blog or the terms of endearment that I choose to use on it trouble you so, I think there might be an option you've forgotten:

JUST STOP READING IT.

JUST...STOP.

And, please, if you are going to bother commenting to air your unfortunate and hilarious grievances against the way that I choose to conduct my personal weblog, don't be a coward. Use a real email address.

All the best,
Emily

Jennifer Murphy by way of other hands, still amazing

I got a few of my Christmas-y decorations from Ms. Lovely Jennifer Murphy's line with Midwest of Cannon Falls in the mail yesterday, and I've been poring over them since the hopped out of the box.

I have to admit, it threw me for a loop initially to see, for the first time, a friend's (well, crafty-internet-friend) work reproduced in this fashion, especially since there are so many special, hand-crafted details. They did a really nice job, and I think that it really speaks to her design work and intrinsic quirkiness that the characters translate so well, even if made by other hands and with less fancy materials...see exhibits A, B, and C right here:

So good.
Up til now, there has been nothing that I love this much in the world of contemporary holiday decorations. Now I can't wait for my Halloween fellows.

Congratulations, Jenn!!! They are an unqualified success.
Happy Weekend, all my other applets!

More frames on more walls

We picked up a big load of stuff that was finished at the framers yesterday, and I finally finished assembling the big wall o' art in the living room that I've had in the works. I couldn't be more pleased...

Beautiful photo from Light Leaks, an Adrian Tomine print, and a vintage furniture drawing in colored pencil that I really love.

An amazingly funny and lovely naive-ish vintage oil painting, tiny Nara print, and a  little drawing-on-napkin by my Sarah which I've dragged with me from place to place for the last 4 years.

A great vintage skate label (blown up and printed by the folks at Blab!), a little black fox print by John Golden, and this incredibly beautiful Ray Ceasar print (my all-time favorite image of his) with a frame that seems made for it.

...and a water-damaged, but very beloved, print by big-eye artist "Lee" (my favorite of the big-eye crowd, FYI), a beautiful John Clark piece, and a wee little tom-cat portrait by Sarah Hogren.

Also waiting for us at the framers is this VERY BELOVED BY ALL WHO LIVE HERE Tara Mcpherson poster for the Atlanta Comics Expo that my sweet peas Devlin and Robert scored for me:

I moved the Seonna Hong print that was there to the kitchen. That poster looks so great with the pink couch!

Whew. Sorry the photos aren't the best, the light in there is pretty crummy. 

To make things with now, to make things with later

I split up the H. Potter reading into two days, and finished yesterday afternoon. All I can say is...well...goodness gracious. There was so much provocative moral complexity and so many characters gained so much dimension in that last book, well beyond my expectations. Well done, Ms. Rowling.
Well done, indeed.

On the crafty front, I have just a few little summer goals in mind. One is to make a new quilt for the common good (aka, the living room couch) and this goal has been much thought about, but so far not a square has been cut toward its end. I just bribed myself with some inspiring, amazing orders full of beautiful, beautiful new fabric from Reprodepot and Superbuzzy.

This beautiful new stuff, from Repro, really seems lovely and Liberty-ish to me. Does anyone else see that? Especially that pink one in the center...I love it so fiercely, I feel like I should try to order more yardage (or I'll get horde-y and weird about it).

Wonderful fairy tale fabric from both places! Woohoo...every time I think that those Japanese have done the very best fairy tale fabric ever, they top themselves, like with this stuff:

and, of course, this stuff...the scribbly pink and black on white which I've been obsessing over for MONTHS! Months, I tell you:

I love what the fabrics say the most. The little elephants in the bathtub say "I wish I could melt into the water like a mermaid". And the scribbly guys say "We live in the country of children" (or something along those lines). That stuff I feel like I should mostly horde for future little applets. I always get gripped with the fear that suddenly, when I have a little person, all the amazing kids fabric will just dry up and go away. It is a big time fear of mine.

Happy Monday, my dears!

Have Dissaparated Momentarily...

...will reappear after serious quality time interrogating fiendishly handsome man depicted by fiendishly handsome Alan Rickman above.

I think it is National Reading Harry Potter weekend.

Oh, where does the week go?

In my case, it was eaten up by some really un-fun errands, tons of shipping/packing, and a bit of drawing/designing. Oh, and reading the 6th Harry Potter book so that I can snap up the last one tonight at 12:01 am. Very exciting...

Here's a new little hedgie drawing/collage to say "Happy Friday" to you:

One of my favorite things about summer is the subsisting on fruit and veggies and fish and such. I love winter-food, too, but this is a real summer lunch feast:

I am so crazy for peppered garbanzos right now. We are eating them for lunch seriously every other day! I always loved them when I was little, so I guess it's just like my broccoli addiction...meaning its here to stay.

I hope that good weekends are on the way for everyone! I'll be back with more to say/show soon.

PS: Thank you so much for all the love on the "Tear Papa" print! It means alot whenever you guys give something a thumbs up, but especially something with so much personal history in it.

Tear Papa Print

I just finished work on this print, and I'm so happy with it. It is now available in the shop.

This image has a great deal of my personal history infused in it, and I think has a delicacy of line and a modern-ness of spirit that is really alluring. (I think...no, know that my Ashley's bearded guys are making me really miss my dad). On a more frivolous note, I am absolutely obsessing over the colors. It was fashioned out of two original drawings that I worked on in the last week, and color was partially digitally painted in.

Well, my sweets, it's a nose-to-the-grindstone sort of day (until we get to have a grilling party with my favorite boy and girl later), so I'll be off. Happy Tuesday to you, full of avacados and peaches and cherries and everything else good, too.