After watching & agonizing over my husband as he recooped and then spending 5 days in the hospital being cleansed from the over medication by my own doctors...I think I deserve a break!
Just relax and "breathe 1-2-3"...BUT WAIT...I HAVE TO CATCH UP WITH MY ETSY SHOP! Need to make more things, need to find out what more neato stuff Etsy has cooked up for us...AND OF COURSE MY CUSTOMERS! ...how about a Fall Sale Oct.1-22
A while back I asked this amazingly talented artist, Simone; curator of the online gallery Ammiki.com , Etsy shop owner of Honeycup and others, and writer of the blog, girlstartup.com to design my blog banner.Above you'll find my new obsession with hair accessories (also have some new brooches too)using old & new elements and adding my "Goodwill" inspired embellishments to the mix.... strangely i'm too close to this work to judge it...not sure if it's good or not.
I met Jacy through an Etsy forum thread...I was so impressed by her spirit & passion, and when I saw her work, I felt it showed through...the following is all in her own words:
"It was the third grade that I knew I wanted to be an artist. Not just paint a pretty picture, but I wanted the life. I wanted to eat, breathe and sleep art and of course make a living off of it. High school came, and a combination of teenagery-emotions mixed with acrylic paint, had me funneling an artistic game plan. It was then that I knew my medium was paint and my fav subjects were anything in creation.
Skip about 10 years into the future, and I was stuck. At some point throughout this "game plan" of mine, I gave into a regular job and settled. I was unhappy and frustrated, sitting 8 hrs a day with no creative outlet. Can you imagine? Can you relate? Up until December of last year, I was working for someone else and not for myself, like I had wanted all my life! I realized at that point that I was scared of change & scared to take a chance. I was too self-conscious about my artwork and didn't allow myself to go through a normal artistic process. Instead I settled on a typical 9-5 job that constantly drained my ideas & energy.
But on December 2nd, 2010, my prayers were answered and I got...fired! What?! Actually, I wasn't even upset or nervous. I knew there was a bigger reason for it and I secretly felt it coming. Dare I say I was even happy & excited about it! I don't know how to explain it except that I knew that God was watching. That day I went home and not even 2 hours of being let go, I was cleaning out my dusty art studio & sharpening my paintbrushes! It was time for action!
It has been almost 3 months since then and I have never felt so free. My paintings are thriving & my name is getting more exposure. I am even able to sell my work in a new Agawam Ma store called "Hidden Treasures", an entire shop of handmade creations. Only 15 minutes away from my home in Enfield, CT! My Etsy store & online blog has been opening doors to so many great relationships & opportunities, including this one. Who would have thought that I would go from doodling on old receipt papers & boxes right into scribbing a guest post on a wonderful blog? (Brownie points! But seriously Ellen is wonderful).
I always knew it was what I wanted, but now I know that if you step out with confidence & faith, it can happen!
In one of my blog posts "How to Get Over Fear", I talk a bit more about my situation & give tips on how to not let Fear consume you. I list the lies that Fear likes to tell us & a list of what we need to say back.
We all come from different walks of life, but we have one common thread: we are human & we were created to create. Whether it's a hand-knitted floral blouse or assembling organic homegrown veggie Easter baskets, we use our hands to bring something new to this world. My hope is that we all can not only embrace that responsibility, but that we learn to see that we do have something we can offer to the rest of the world. That is the true essence of who YOU are!"
"Hidden Treasures"... 143 Main Street, Agawam, MA 01001
Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00am-7:00pm ...Sun 12:00pm-5:00pm
Website: http://www.artbyjacy.com
Etsy Shop: http://thiswayup1.etsy.com
Blog: http://thiswayupshop.blogspot.com
**To be announce later in few days, the new "streetnoodles" blog banner designed by Jacy at Thiswayupshop.
Process: Marionettes with Geahk Burchill from Etsy on Vimeo.
"Fiction Failed This Family" by Ocelli from Ocelli on Vimeo.
Both these videos were reproduced here on this blog from Etsy's blog section, with the kind permission of Geahk Burchill.
We all know the irrational "fear of clowns"...I know I have experienced it, BUT Geahk's work is a bit refined, in that I find myself caught in a "twilight zone" of being fascinated, haunted, and a bit repulsed and uncomfortable by each intity he creates...not because they are so alien to me BUT that they touch upon a "magic mirror"...reflecting & amplifying the image I sometimes see and fear in the shadows of my soul.
The first video concentrates on the artist and his process...the second delves more into the results of his colaborative efforts. I did ask about his "pivotal moment" with the idea of marionettes. The following is a shortened paraphrase version of his response to a similar question last year.
In 1998, Geahk attended the birthday party of a friend's boyfriend. He didn't know anyone there except his friend Sue. It was held at a strange little apartment in Berkeley, CA...it was decorated everywhere with rusty trinkets, old dolls, small animal bones & sixties rock posters. There were children toys from the 1950's and a lot of candles handmade and melted down to the stubs stuck to the fireplace mantle. The carpet had been scavenged from an old theatre by the landlord and was an insane tangle of curling vine patterns with red flowers.
What made the party special was that someone had loaned the host a video camera. They were all poor artists from poor backgrounds...Geahk had never used a video camera before then. BUT like kismet, they all realized at once that they had to use this opportunity...they set up the grey crate (coffee table) as the stage...a little teddy bear with strings & bic pens acted as a controled puppet while more & more objects from all around the house were gathered to create a whole cast of characters with an organically ad lib story line emerged.
The birthday boy was Dave Huckins and the rock posters were his. He had done posters for Phil Lesh, David Crisman, Widespread Panic and Stringcheese Incident. He was also a puppeteer with his friend Adam Bolivar back in Boston. The had a troupe together with Sue Kenney (now Newman), called, the "The Scratch Bros. Presto-Digital Phantasmagoria!" Dave invited me into the troupe for a play called "The Mermaid".
More than a decade later, Geahk can't shake his addiction to puppets and marionettes in particular. In his travels, he organized several small troupes with friends and artists. "Twisted Things" & "Skin & Bones", to name a couple.
He started The CastIron Carousel Marionette Troupe with Adam Bolivar in the winter of 2003 in the basement of a shared house in SW Portland. Their troupe has set a tone for a long series of strange, beautiful, gory and unsettling puppet plays for grown-ups.
Please visit Geahk's amazing Etsy site, where he has new designs every Friday! (OMG): http://www.etsy.com/shop/GeahkBurchill
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gb-Designs/179229085425078
