EHAG giveaway

The "A Few of My Favorite Things" August EHAG Emporium Giveaway

"Zombies and werewolves and black cats with kittens,

Witches with cauldrons and potions unwritten,

Ghosts, ghouls and goblins on their ghastly flings,

These are a few of our favorite things."

Spooky treats.....for free.  Who doesn't love a freebie? 

 EHAG Emporium is having a giveaway.....AGAIN! 

 Don't miss out on the chance to score a piece of Halloween art from one of these talented folks. Click on the title above to check it out and leave a comment or better yet, a verse of your own.  The Emporium doors will creak open at 9 pm on August 31, to reveal spooktacular delights and the draw will be held the night before at 9 pm.  

After all, Halloween is just around the corner

FALL is in the air..........Yahoo!

This is my first post in what seems like forever, but summer has been so darned hot and humid and icky and stormy and sticky and long that it's hoovered up all my energy, creative and otherwise.
I can handle the otherwise, because what doesn't get done, will hang around to be done another day.  Never been much of a Susie Homemaker type anyway, and as long as the family is fed and watered, and the Board of Health doesn't close us down, we're good. Besides, cobwebs are kind of a Halloween thing, and now I don't have to buy them at the dollar store.  Nuff said.
BUT.....life without being creative is kinda sucky.  Makes me feel a bit hungry and empty inside.  Like a little creature is in there needing to be fed.   
No new pieces on the work top. It's like a wasteland and far too neat. The only mess there is the dust that's accumulated over the last few months. Very few new ideas banging around amongst the old grey cells either.  It's darn lonely and dusty and echo-ey up there.  Sort of like an abandoned warehouse.  That's what I've done!!  I've abandoned my creative spirit, and it's gone up into the dusty old warehouse to curl up in a corner and die a lingering death.
Can't have that.  NUH UH, no way, no how, ixnay on the ethday. 
So here I am trying to squeeeeeeeze out some enthusiasm for getting myself back to work....shoulder to the wheel.......down to business......in the groove.......nose.......grindstone. Like that. 
Cooler nights and more restful sleep should help, and although we've been blessed with both lately, I'm still scrounging for ideas, and the oomph to transform them into art. 
Looking for inspiration, I've been cruising blogs and online studios, flipping through magazines and whining in my best friend and my hub's collective ears about it for long enough.  Watching what's selling and being published, I can only see what a great job others are doing and still can't figure out how to get my get up and go GOING. Not happening.  Part of the problem is the self doubt that we all must feel from time to time, especially when other artists around you are so prolific.  Their ideas and creativeness just make me withdraw all the more, and that's just it.  They are THEIR ideas.  Not mine.  Much as I admire the work of others, it isn't what I want, nay, need to do.  
Eureka!!! A brainwave!!!!!  
Revisit some of MY old works, notes, sketches, pieces that I still have on hand and try to recapture some of the satisfaction I felt when I completed them.  That's what it's really all about. The satisfaction of creating.
Case study number 1.  
I remember I had such a great time with this guy.  It was the first Fall, Halloween, Autumn piece that I had ever attempted and it came together quickly. I remember snickering about his corn cob chest, and his open shirt with the straw hanging out.  Both ideas came from vintage post cards that I saw online.  His pot belly kept getting bigger and bigger. His stance more and more 'in your face.'  I loved the fact that it didn't have to look like a person and that I could be fast and loose with proportions and facial (yeah, right) features.  Could use bright colours. The crow didn't have to look 'real'.  It didn't have to be perfect.  It just filled the niche in my soul that it was created for.  I didn't make it to follow a style or trend.  It just was, and that was good enough.   
I still have him, in spite of offering him for sale online at one time.  My DH actually bought him from me.  He didn't want me to get rid of this piece, and I was glad I didn't have to list it again.  I'm glad he's still here, sitting on a shelf.  The scarecrow.  Not my husband.  That shelf would never hold him.  He sits in the recliner.   
Feelin' a little somethin' somethin' here.  Think I'll go and open a new package of clay and see what happens.  I'll let you know.

"Plum Sauce"

Each Halloween she waits by the gate for Trick or Treaters, but they don't dare venture down her dark lane.

  It's sad , because she's very fond of children ..........especially with plum sauce.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://ehagemporium.blogspot.com/

a scant 9" tall, hand painted glass eyes,
cotton shawl, bodice, skirt and scarf.
 Silk apron, nylon stockings and leather shoes.
Wooden gate with sculpted pumpkin.  She carries a little
metal lantern....'all the better to see you with, my dear' 

In the beginning.......

fully sculpted (with exception of upper arms to allow posing)
 over strong wire and Apoxie Clay armature

back view

with her mohair wig, leather shoes,
droopy nylon stockings

"She waits by the gate......"


Please contact me for further information about this lovely lady.  
Thanks for looking.

                     

Watching...........

She's watching............could it be for you?  


Watch for her and hear her tale of woe on the update of 
EHAG Emporium April 30th.

 http://ehagemporium.blogspot.com/  

Lots of creepy goodness will be available then.... so get your spook on and join us.........bwahahahahah!

Caught in the Act

SOLD.....thank you Amanda.  He's on his way :>)

Poor little Foo Foo.  He’s only doing what comes naturally,

 but it doesn’t meet with the approval of the majority.

 I guess we all celebrate Spring in our own way.

“Little Rabbit Foo Foo –Caught in the Act” comes from my slightly warped mind.
  He's 5 ½ inches from his big rabbity feet to the tip of his longest ear.  His whiskers are from a paintbrush, his backside sports a grey woollen tail, his little shirt is cotton, and his slightly stunned expression is inherent.  I take no responsibility for that :>)

He is a One of A Kind and is for sale right now at http://www.ahaartistsstudio.com

Please note that no field mice were hurt  in the production of this piece  ;>) 

The Kee Kee Bird

Chickies and Bunnies and Pumpkins, Oh, My!!!  I have been so busy lately that I have hardly noticed that our friend, the ground hog, seems to have told a BIG FAT LIE!!!!
Last year at this time it seemed like Spring.  This year the robin's song sounds like the kee kee bird.............kee kee kee cripes, it's cold!  Sigh!!!!!!!  This chickie is just a little harbinger of Spring to give us hope for better days ahead :>)

Is it Spring yet????

Well, Spring ain't here, the grass ain't riz, but I know where the bunnies is............


Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the winter......usually.  For some reason, though, this year I am yearning, nay, jonesing for Spring.  Maybe I'm just tired of shoveling the beautiful, crystalline carpet that keeps covering the driveway; perhaps it's just that my old body is tired of slip sliding (or is it slop sliding) through the icy ruts as I make my daily trek ALLLL the way up the street to the mailbox only to find that the mailman hasn't been yet, has only brought me more junk mail or more likely deposited a neighbour's mail in my cubicle, and that while I was on my journey, the snow plow has piled more of the beautiful ground cover at the end of our driveway.  Windrow.  It's such a beautiful sounding word isn't it?  Could also be that I'm sick of having to bend over (gets harder every year) to tie my boots.  Or perhaps I'm feeling the loss of the 5 single earrings that I've lost in the beautiful snow because they catch on my necessary scarf, fleece headband or the lovely earmuffs that my DH bought me at Christmas. 
Whatever,  I almost welcome the slight rise in temperature that will cause the icicles to lengthen, the robins to return, the crocuses (crocii?) to appear, and the beautiful landscape to turn mud brown and sloppy......Almost.
If you are thinking winter treats you badly, you should check out the Feb 6th post on Sharon Gerger's blog. http://sharongerger.blogspot.com/ The laughter that is sure to ensue will likely raise your temperature and your mood.   Just don't let the tears freeze on your cheeks.
Ciao for now

In the Beginning.....

The beginning of the New Year held such promise when I looked at it from the perspective of 2010.  I was going to be so on top of things, so full of ideas and energy and really productive.  Well, here it is ten days past zero hour and I'm............not so much. Being down with yucky bugs for a bit more than 3 weeks has kind of eaten into my plans, but today is a new day.  The sun is shining.  The birds are singing. Ideas are percolating....maybe that's my tummy rumbling...no brekkie yet....nevertheless it's never to late to make a start.  Off to the studio to see what little characters await in the clay.
I mean, look at me.  I've already made a start.  I'm in contact with the world again.
It's going to be a great day.  Wishing you the same.