Oh My.......

I have been honoured with two awards! The first one, The Kreativ Blogger award was given to me by two very creative artists: Abi of An Angel At My Table and also by Yve of Freaky Little Dolls . I am humbled and very appreciative. Please check out their blogs!

Here are the award rules:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you.

2. Copy the logo and place it in your blog.

3. Link the person who nominated you.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.

5. Nominate seven 'Kreativ Bloggers'

6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

Okay, 7 things about me:

* I hate the smell of wet peanut butter

* I'm a thrift store junkie

* Love the sound of rain on the roof

* I don't like the heat

* I like kicking fallen leaves and inhaling that fabulous Fall scent of decaying leaves.

* Love to cocoon inside on a blustery, snowy winter's day

* I'm a book/magazine addict. If I have money to spend, invariably it will go on something to read/look at.

The 7 Blogs I Nominate are:

When the Spirit Moves Me

PinkGlitterFae Art

Baroness Bijoutery

Fractured Fairytales

Bellabelle's Blog

Cart Before The Horse

Joyce Stahl

The Second Award

The lovely, fabulously creative and talented Zan (Wild At Heart Art) honoured me by presenting me with this award. Please check out Zan's blog, as she truly is a Superior Scribbler! (and a very talented artist).

The condition of accepting this award is to pass it onto five other bloggers that I feel also are great scribblers. This was a tough one as there are so many out there!

My Five Are:

Renee of Circling My Head

Tristan of Enchanted Revelry

Yve of Freaky Little Dolls

Kerin of Remnants of Olde

Denise of DLynne Art Dolls

I was going to do a Wordless Wednesday post, but that obviously would not work today!

Inspiration Pause #6.........A Journey of the Imagination

False magic

I discovered James Christensen over ten years ago when I came across the most delightful book in an art shop.

This book, "A Journey of the Imagination", enchanted me. The artwork (and the book is packed with it) is creative, fantastical and so imaginative. The colours are rich and the pictures along with being witty and whimsical often remind you of the absurdities of life.

Many art books I will devour the pictures and read the odd blurb of text, however with this book, I was as engrossed in the text as I was the artwork. James Christensen is not only a fabulous artist but he is a brilliant and very humourous man. I was so inspired by this artist then and remain so to this day.

Some more examples of his work (paintings and prints)

Fiona

Serenade an Orange Cat

Finding Your Fish

A Man and His Dog

A Couple of Sculptures:

Sleeper Lost in Dreams

A Lawyer More Than Adequately Attired in Fine Print

To see a very comprehensive collection of JC's work, please visit World Wide Art, Inc and if you ever come across the above book, pick it up - it is a treat!

This is Rather Amazing

Kseniya Simonova

a 24-year-old "sand animator" named Kseniya Simonova draws a constantly evolving series of illustrations, in sand, showing how ordinary people suffered in the wake of the German invasion in World War II.

The above was actually part of the Ukraine's Got Talent show. Kseniya went on to win the top award.

Read the full article here

On an added note - I apologize for my lack of blog postings. I have not had much time on the computer lately. I'm hoping that things will be back to normal shortly. I also have not been able to check out all the blogs I usually follow .. Always so inspiring and motivating..I miss that and also need it!

Pause

R.I.P. Mary Travers

Inspiration Pause #5......Mags

As wonderful as the internet is for reference (and in my case, wasting time LOL), I love hardcopy magazines. There are so many publications that offer constant inspiration. Doll mags, fashion mags, decorating, craft ideas, jewelry publications, the list is pretty close to endless. There are also countless art magazines.

Two of my favorite art/culture magazines at the moment are Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose. Some of the artists and the work profiled is so off-the-wall and bizarre, however the sheer creativity of it inspires me.

We've Come a Long Way....

1908

1908

1908


1917



1918



1918

1942

Labour Day

The holiday originated in Canada out of labor disputes ("Nine-Hour Movement") first in Hamilton, then in Toronto, Canada in the 1870s, which resulted in a Trade Union Act which legalized and protected union activity in 1872 in Canada. The parades held in support of the Nine-Hour Movement and the printers' strike led to an annual celebration in Canada. In 1882, American labor leader

Peter J. McGuire witnessed one of these labor festivals in Toronto. Inspired from Canadian events in Toronto, he returned to New York and organized the first American "labor day" on September 5 of the same year.

(from Wikipedia)

Wishing everyone a Happy and Safe Labour Day Weekend

Pictures via Shorpy.com

Inspirational Pause #4....A Couple of Artists

Steven Kenny

My work is three dimension, although I often find inspiration from those that do two dimensional work. I recently acquired a book on Gothic artists and discoved a couple of artists whose
work got the ole creative juices flowing.

Steven Kenny is one such artist. Many of his works have the lighting and softness that old masters have, which is visually appealing to me. Personally, I do not care for the bright, garish colours that I see on alot of fantasy artists paintings.

Below are several examples of Steven's work - please visit his site to view more of his galleries.

Natalie Shau is another artist I discovered recently. Natalie's work is quite a bit different from Steven Kenny's and reminds me a little of Lori Earley's wonderful long-necked women (Natalie's ladies do not have the long necks).

Natalie is a young (23, according to her website) woman living in Lithuania. She does illustration and also some fabulous photography. Please visit her site to see more examples of her creativity.

Natalie Shau

There are a couple more new (to me) artists that I have found while I was waiting for my muse to return and I will post about them in the coming days.

As for my muse, yes, she is back and I'm itching to get into the studio. My hubby however is off on a couple of weeks holidays and we have been doing various fun (and a couple not-so-fun) things around the house and elsewhere. I find that I cannot go into the studio and start a project, only to have to leave it within an hour's time - it just doesn't work for me. Next week, is looking pretty darn good!

An Award....

I am thrilled to have received the Domestic Witch Blog Award from my very talented friend Pattee of Odd-Dolls . Please check out her blog to see her work. Her pieces are quirky, charming and absolutely enchanting.

I'm not too sure about the magical housecrafting part of this award - magically messy maybe! I sure do love the striped stockings and shoes though and I love the fact that Pattee honoured me by presenting two other bloggers and myself with this.

In keeping with the award rules, I am going to pass this along to three other artists/bloggers, and they are:

*Angela, Angela Recada

*Abi, An Angel At My Table

*Julie, When the Spirit Moves Me

Please do yourself a favour and check out these blogs!

Now I'm off to notify these ladies. It was very tough to only list three as there are so many of my blogger friends that I know are also deserving of this award.