Continuing my journey to fabulous Etsy shops....
My first stop today is Donna Batzer's shop, Twin Mountain Pottery, which you can find here. I love pottery, though I don't dare buy it because I have two very curious felines who would just love to investigate it and knock it over in their enthusiasm. However, I'm taken by this particular piece which is a lovely blue bowl for salsa or other fun foods. Donna has several other pieces just as lovely, and I encourage you to visit her shop soon.
My next stop is at Sarah Scott's Grandma's Vintage Bling. As you can guess from its name, this shop sells cool vintage stuff that belongs in your home, or would make a great gift. I like the vintage jewelry that she sells, especially since I've begun to look for jewelry to add to my collages. This item is one of my favorites
Another interesting shop is Punch Place Plus, owned by Jamie Omahen and found here. It's a great shop for craft supplies, including jewelry findings, tape, dog tag blanks - so much stuff. I have my eye on a couple of things, including this item which might make good mixed media bracelets.
Our final stop of the day is Laura Williams' shop, North Highlands Art. Absolutely gorgeous artwork can be found here via this link. I particularly love her drawings, like this one of a horse. You can find a number of great items to buy for yourself or use as gifts - remember, Christmas will be here before you know it. Go and visit Laura - you won't be sorry.
I'll take you on another tour of great Etsy shops soon. If you are an Etsy shop owner and want me to visit, leave me a comment.
later,
lin
I've done two posts thus far highlighting favorite items from Etsy shops (here and here), and this is the 3rd edition. I must say, though, that it's very hard to restrict myself to one item from each shop.
First in line is one of my favorite professional photographers on Etsy, Ivy Ho, who owns the Etsy shop Angsana Seeds Photo. Her photos are gorgeous - flowers, street scenes, landmarks - that will definitely look fabulous in your home. This black and white photo of a Prague street is one of my favorites (but as I said, it was hard to restrict myself to just one.
Another shop that I particularly like is Anthem and Object, operated by Sarah Pagliaro Hammond. It's a vintage wares shop, and I am in love with vintage - not surprising, given what I do - and Sarah has lots of cool things including this vintage jewelry box. For years I collected little boxes and I'm still fond of them.
A third shop I want to showcase is Kathy Chausse Huntington's Threads and Pins. Kathy sells vintage clothes, jewelry, and sewing supplies, and there are some really cool things in her shop, such as these vintage opera glasses, dating from around 1909. I can just imagine a fine lady viewing the action on stage while watching La Boheme.
My final favorite item is this wonderful ornament by North and South Shabby, located in Attleboro, Massachusetts. about 2 miles from me . It's run by a mother-daughter team, one located in Massachusetts, the other in Florida, and Patricia, the mom, has become a friend. But that doesn't influence my love for the shop at all - lots of cool things can be found there.
There you have it - four more of my favorite things. I hope you'll visit them and see what else they have to offer. And join me soon for another trek around Etsy.
later,
lin
One of the Art Challenge Projects I dreaded was the self portrait. Let's face it - I am not a trained artist - I don't draw or paint. My drawings tend to be stick figures and my paintings of faces look like, well, messes.
And I didn't want to do a selfie, either.
About self-portaits, Peter Conrad wrote a review in 2014 of the book Self Portrait - A Cultural History by James Hall, in which he also pondered the importance of self portraits as a psychological journey. He wrote that selfies basically look the same - identical poses, look-alike grins, taken only to mark an occasion or for self-aggrandizement.
Which was something I noticed on Thursday while I was waiting for a bus home. Two women were entertaining themselves at the stop by taking constant photos of each other on a cell phone as each posed in increasingly suggestive poses. Their antics were cheered on by the guys waiting at the bus stop, as well as guys driving by.
Anyway, Hall says in his book that a painted self portrait is a sort of surgical penetration, an intense study while photographed portraits are instantaneous and ephemeral, skin deep in fact. I would disagree with this, at least in the case of portrait photography done by the truly great photographers.
The portraits done by Dorothea Lange, for example, are searing looks into the sitter's soul.
Who can forget Diane Arbus' photo of Germaine Greer, or her photos of circus people?
And of course Yousef Karsh's photographs of Jessye Norman, the great soprano
These photos really do get to the heart of their subjects. I cannot call them instantaneous and ephemeral.
Hall sees early self-portraiture as reflexes of Christian conscience, and a way of checking that the artist is still here, not just a figment of his or her imagination. The great artists painted their portraits with all the warts and wrinkles, like this one by Rembrandt
and Gustave Courbet
Contemporary self-portraiture in his eyes, however, is but a means of self-promotion, not self-review.
In light of all of this, I really wanted my self-portrait to serve as a way to review my life and the things that have created ME.
And because I am, again, not trained to paint or draw myself (or anything else), I have to use photography.
I'll show you what I did soon.
But the next time you see a painted self-portrait, as opposed to the ubiquitous selfie found on FB, Twitter or Instagram, appreciate the amount of time and skill it took to create that intense look into the soul. I know I will.
later,
lin
