Call Me Baby and Other Thoughts on Valentine's

The owner of a neighborhood store, which I frequent almost daily, calls me Baby.

Not like “Ooohh baby, baby”, but in a way that means… “Little one, everything will be all right”.  He says it even when I’ve managed to knock over a stack of orange sodas.  Even if he’s just restocking the chicken salad.  Even though I’m not at all little.

Our server at the local Panera called me Baby just this past weekend.  And she’s probably ten years my junior.  But I’ve been suffering with this ridiculous head cold.  And by lunchtime Saturday, the pain and stuffiness must have shown on my face, because she said, “Baby, I hope you enjoy this meal.”  And I have to admit, it comforted me more than the chicken soup I’d ordered.

I live in a community that feels small and where people often refer to one another as Baby or Honey or Sugar.  I try not to use Sweetie for anyone over twelve.  But I do things that might not be acceptable in other communities, whether large or small, urban or rural.

• I make eye contact and smile or say “Hello!”.
• I engage cashiers and drive-through tellers (“Has it been crazy today?” at the grocery store and “I like your new t-shirts” at McDonalds.)
• I thank the bus driver when he reaches my stop and the cleaning crew when I leave the office.
• I stop for pedestrians and provide directions to those who are lost.

Yes, I talk to strangers on the street, in elevators, in line at cafes and stores.

Annoying, right?  But folks usually respond favorably and in kind.  Because we really aren’t strangers.  Our lives have crossed paths.  We’ve shared even the briefest of experiences.  And who knows what the future may bring?

In truth, there are times when I’ve failed to be friendly or show the most basic respect.  I regret these times when I’ve been unhappy about a situation and pass along that unhappiness… usually to someone on the other end of the phone, on the other side of a counter, someone who is trying to help and doesn’t deserve my wrath.  CBS journalist Steve Hartman recently did a story about Mike the postman, from the Penn State Post Office in State College, PA.  Mike spreads love through cheerfulness and compassion and genuinely impacts the lives of others by being nice.  Can you believe it?  What an amazing role model.  Plus he gets his job done without any remorse.

So on this day devoted to love, why not pledge to celebrate love in all its aspects, throughout the whole year?  Let’s start by thanking the people who work hard to assist us every day, especially the many folks in fast food and customer service.  It doesn’t need to be flamboyant.  Just say “Thank you.”

And at the start of this Lenten season, instead of worrying about “giving up” something, why not add kindness to our daily routines?  Compliment a stranger – “that’s a beautiful sweater” – and be patient with a friend.  Tell someone if he has broccoli in his teeth or her skirt is riding up rather dangerously.

And share the love!  Happy St. Valentine's Day.

Building a Collection: Papernstitch



I don’t know what you talked about during Thanksgiving dinner.  But once we had exhausted family news and neighborhood gossip, the conversation turned to Etsy.  Yes, much to the chagrin and confusion of the fellas present, we discussed Etsy.  More to the point: we discussed how to find decent stuff on Etsy.

Etsy has grown into the largest marketplace for crafty things.  A behemoth, really.  Not unlike Ebay or Mall of America in scope and variety.  And since Etsy embraces thousands of vendors, literally, all describing their own creations, it can be extremely difficult to navigate.  For example, yesterday, a search for “Christmas pug” unearthed 802 items.  “Butterfly mobile” brought up 1,194 examples.  And “photographs of Paris” discovered an overwhelming 3,933 options for sale.

Happiness is Homemade by Alyssa Nassner

Plus, the idea of homemade or handmade is really diverse.  And expectations of quality are highly personal.  The beauty or cleverness of an object may be easy to spot at your farmer’s market, but it’s a little trickier to judge via your computer monitor or smart phone.  So what to do?  If you already have a favorite artist on Etsy, you could constantly check out what he or she loves.  Just follow the hearts.

But most of us involved in the Thanksgiving discussion trust blogs – blogs of friends, designers, reviewers, and even Etsy’s own blog – to sift through the huge selection and find what we actually want and like.

Papernstitch is a blog I trust.

Papernstitch is both an online exhibition space for artists and makers of handmade goods, many culled from the best of Etsy, and a blog about design and DIY craft.  Founder Brittni Mehlhoff takes curating the site seriously.  Exhibitions change at least monthly.  Jeff, her partner in life and work, keeps the dual endeavors running smoothly, both technically and visually.  Papernstitch regularly receives accolades from media, such as, Country Living, The Huffington Post and other well-known blogs like Apartment Therapy.

Papernstitch has featured my sister’s prints and photographs by Irene Suchocki.  Plus it’s introduced me to the following artists:

Sally Harless;

Stacie Bloomfield;
Lisa Zador;
Alyssa Nassner;
Derek Sullivan;
and Melissa Lund.

Sally Harless, also known as Sadly Harmless, is based in Bloomington, Indiana, and attends major craft fairs throughout the Midwest.  On Papernstitch and Etsy, she offers prints of her original drawings and watercolors, plus these clever shadow boxes.

Snow Drifter by Sally Harless

I like the somewhat Eeyore-feel to her images.  Life is an adventure… a little tragic and humorous and perpetually in motion, whether we recognize it or not!

Sally Harless' A Crawling Garden

and In My Own Way

Stacie Bloomfield, aka Gingiber, grew up in the Midwest and currently lives in Arkansas with her young family.  She has always been obsessed with animals, and her illustrations manage to capture the individual and the archetype in a minimal but charming style.  Pattern plays a big part.  Gemma Giraffe looks like Kente cloth.

Gemma Giraffe by Stacie Bloomfield

The stripes on Leo Lion mimic handprinted Adrinka cotton.

Leo Lion, also by Stacie Bloomfield

In addition to prints, Stacie sells greeting cards, wall decals and pillows based on her original illustrations.

and her Black Sheep pillow

Lisa Zador is one of the most established artists featured on Papernstitch.  An animal lover and avid collector of retro kitsch, Lisa has been designing textiles and packaging for over twenty years now.  But she may be best known for her Curious Portraits: exquisite paintings and surprisingly poignant portrayals of antique toys;

Steiff Kitten by Lisa Zador

vintage knick knacks;

Salt and Pepper Still Life by Lisa Zador

and rather dapper fauna.

and her Goose Gentleman

Once again, Lisa offers affordable reproductions of her paintings through Etsy and Papernstitch and sells her original pieces, including custom pet portraits, through more traditional venues.

There is no doubt that Etsy empowers crafters around the world and provides artists with a genuinely huge audience – much larger than any single gallery, craft show or wholesale market could supply.  And despite its clunkiness, it broadens our “local” shopping experience by introducing us to new work and helping us connect to craftspeople we hope to support.

Alyssa Nassner is an illustrator who successfully uses Etsy as a storefront and marketing tool.  Alyssa spends her regular workday in design and also freelances as Small Talk Studio.  You may recognize her drawings from Real Simple and Gemma Correll’s blog: What I Wore Today.

Alyssa’s prints, often developed from these extra projects, exude a can-do attitude and pretty nostalgia.

Fortune Favors the Brave by Alyssa Nassner

Let Yourself Be Free by Alyssa Nassner

Even her Mushroom Identification Chart is bright and cheerful compared to the old-fashioned lithographs that inspired it.

Etsy shines as the realm of women, especially young women, in tune to nature, fantasy, wit and the joy of crafting lovely, slightly ephemeral things.  And fellas like Derek Sullivan are significantly outnumbered.  Based in Seattle, Derek is another professional designer who utilizes Etsy as a creative outlet.  I absolutely love his alphabet flashcard prints, which seem influenced by pulp fiction covers and product advertisements from the 40s and 50s.

F is for Film Noir,

U is for Upside Down

and N is for Narwhal... all by Derek Sullivan

Cuteness-overload is an ailment that strikes me from time to time when searching through Etsy.  I become immune to the pleasures of felt and pale pink and almost miss something great like Melissa Lund’s photographs.

Taffy Six by Melissa Lund

Melissa’s whimsical little scenes are beautiful and beautifully crafted.  Sugary treats for the eyes.  But more than that, they draw us in.  The encourage us to look closer.  To pay attention.  And I think that’s what we should expect from art, whether it costs $25 or $25,000.

Pins by Melissa Lund

Cupcake Love by Melissa Lund

I don’t think I’m overstating things when I say these six artists remind us that life is a noble quest…

Sally Harless' Sail Close to the Wind

colorful…

Stacie Bloomfield's Confetti Cat

meant to be cherished…

Lisa Zador's Steiff Bunny Sleeping

full of possibility…

Alyssa Nassner's Be in Love

wicked fun…

Derek Sullivan's Y is for Yeti

and transient.

Melissa Lund's Berry Baskets

So, this holiday season, I hope you will shop Etsy for some of your gift purchases.  And employ Papernstitch as your handy filter and guide.

Building Your Collection: Thumbtack Press

Thumbtack Press is an online community of illustrators and artists.  Based out of Chicago, Thumbtack’s organizers seek out creativity from, literally, all over of the world, and I appreciate that the artists they represent tend to be more experimental than those exhibiting at my hometown galleries.  The scope and diversity of Thumbtack’s collection makes them feel like a gallery, marketplace and art festival all rolled into one.

Like 20x200, Thumbtack Press keeps art affordable by offering giclee prints on archival paper or stretched canvas.  You can customize the size of your print, to a certain extent, and ask Thumbtack to frame it in-house.  Most prints are open edition, but it’s my understanding that they are produced at the time of each order.  Sometimes, an artist will collaborate with Thumbtack on signed, limited edition work, usually between 25 and 100 prints per piece.

Thumbtack’s goal is to support up-and-coming artists and to make art collecting a reality for “the rest of us”.  Artist profiles usually provide biographical information, creative statements and links to artist websites.  Over the years, Thumbtack has introduced me to several artists and motivated me to track their work on Thumbtack and other virtual shops, watch for new illustrations in magazines and books and seek out exhibitions of their art in “real-life”.  Thumbtack actually serves as a gallery and launch pad.

My Thumbtack favorites include Gianluca Foli, Kate Pugsley, Liza Ferneyhough and Marcela Cardenas.  In some ways, these artists have a lot in common.  They continually test new media and bring an element of assemblage or collage to even their smallest pieces.  And yet their work is distinctive and, I believe, highly personal.

Born and bred in Rome, Gianluca Foli is perhaps best known for his drawings and graphics for clients Alfa Romeo, Fendi and Mondadori, but he has also illustrated children’s books like The Bear with the Sword and Il Leone Mangiadisegni.  Gianluca’s ink and watercolor creations are at once delicate and humorous and are obviously influenced by Asian brush painting and calligraphy.

Gianluca Foli's charming Soya and Tofu

Me, Sushiii original watercolor is available as a print from Thumbtack Press.

Gianluca is available for freelance work.  So keep an eye out for his art in your monthly magazines and consider hiring him for your personal project or publication.

Kate Pugsley grew up in Ohio, trained at RISD and now lives in Chicago.  Her prints and paintings capture a familiar everydayness that is just a bit askew.  The relative physical and emotional flatness of each of these scenes is alleviated by pattern, either painted or drawn or applied with paper.  The outcome is quite unique with each image expressing a mood, a feeling… something very close to peace and pensiveness.  I can only liken it to viewing a vintage photograph where you recognize both the subject and his thoughts.

Poppy, Kate Pugsley's original oil painting.

Little gocco print entitled Snorkeler

Kate’s original oil or gouache paintings are incredibly affordable.  But she also creates tiny silkscreen and gocco prints you can own for next to nothing!  And you can commission her to paint a portrait of your beloved pet.

Liza Ferneyhough currently lives in San Francisco but spent her younger days in Asia, England and… maybe not what you were expecting… Texas.  Liza is an illustrator and works in a variety of media: ink, watercolor, pencil, screenprint and acrylic.  I especially enjoy her paintings on tea-stained paper.

This original painting on tea-stained paper celebrates the flora, fauna and food of Malaysia.
It is available in print form at Thumbtack Press.

Gerber Daisy Trike postcards were developed from one of Liza's paintings.

Liza really has a thing for insects and moths, birds and the night sky, and bicycles and flowers.  And her work is fanciful and fun.  Liza also designs custom stationery, logos and signage.

Marcela Cardenas’ creations are absolutely exquisite.  Based in Medellin, Colombia, she takes inspiration from nature in every form, even when it has been reduced to household ephemera.   It is amazing how Marcela juxtaposes the traditional with the trivial and explores our perpetual, if often overlooked, interconnectedness with plants and animals: seemingly antique etchings of elephantine pitchers and teddy bear accessories and, most recently, simple, conventional objects in porcelain… entwined with animal hair.

Marcela’s work is also so very striking because of its fineness and skill, no matter what the medium: pencil and watercolor, oil paint, ceramic or cut and perforated paper.  Her Domestic Landscapes, in sugary palettes of acrylic paint, elevate kitchen tins, collectibles and toys to almost heroic status.  The scenes are both still-lifes and allegorical landscapes, with the figurines and packaging logos populating the story.

Domestic Landscape 2

Domestic Landscape 1

Marcela Cardenas' still-lifes actually remind me of landscapes like
Winslow Homer's Dad's Coming! from the National Gallery of Art.

So check out Thumbtack Press soon.  It might inspire you to start a new collection!

Inspiration from Sohan Qadri

I know I have been remiss in my blogging duties.  Although, I’ve not been writing lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about writing.  And I’ve been waiting for inspiration to strike.

Inspiration is a funny thing.  I consider myself a marginally creative person, which means I rely quite a bit on truly creative people.  And I am always interested in what inspires them.  Sohan Qadri is one of my favorite artists.  He died just a little over a year ago.  But the works he left behind remain alive… vibrant evidence of his being… in every sense of the word.

Megha II

Sohan drew inspiration from within.  He submerged in deep meditation before painting or writing.  His resulting “canvases” are beautifully textural with swathes of color, intensely-dyed, saturated color, on wrinkly-fibrous, handmade paper.  Meditation enabled him to envision and artistically interpret… what do you call it?  The world’s energy?  A spiritual state?  The life force?  And he taught others how to meditate to expand their creativity.

It may sound hokey.  But Sohan’s paintings are pure abstraction and incredibly emotive.  Of course, they bring to mind Mark Rothko’s large color fields.  But they are something very different.  I suspect it has to do with their slightly smaller scale and the way color collects in the pockets and ridges where the paper has been serrated, almost carved, in very rhythmic patterns.  The paintings could be capturing landscapes or maps or conversations or heartbeats.

Dissolution III

Which leads me to think that Sohan also drew inspiration from his life.  And how could he not?  He probably drew inspiration from the lush Punjabi farmlands where he was raised; from what he learned in school and from yogis and monks; from his formal artistic training and friendships with fellow artists; and from travels in other parts of Asia, Africa, North America and Europe.  But perhaps he drew inspiration from just being aware and noticing things.  Noticing the interconnectedness of all things.

A recent visit to the Conservatory at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden reminded me of Sohan’s paintings.  The lush colors of many orchids, the linear repetitions of tropical foliage, the intricate structures of spring blossoms… all of these reminded me of his work and the first time I experienced it several years ago.  Plants and paintings are somehow exotic, primordial and universal all at the same moment.  Not to mention so very gorgeous.  Does that make sense?

Abhasa I

Agni II

Bija II

Purusha VI

Puskara II

Stambha II

Sumaru

Sohan Qadri’s paintings featured here are available at Sundaram Tagore Gallery.  Sundaram Tagore specializes in the “exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures” and has branches in New York City, Beverly Hills and Hong Kong.  They also participate in major art fairs throughout the world where they usually exhibit Sohan’s work.

From Confluence at Sundaram Tagore Gallery

You can learn more about Sohan from books: Sohan Qadri: The Seer and Seeker: The Art of Sohan Qadri.  And if you happen to be in Hong Kong this weekend, stop by Sundaram Tagore for Confluence: Sohan Qadri - Zhang Yu.  The exhibition runs through Sunday.