Elysian Field Originals

Yes, I know, dear reader, I am a bad blogger, and as many of my artist friends would say, “Valerie stand in the corner!”

Ok…now that my stint in the corner is over, I’ve trudged back over to my laptop in tutu and combat boots to write to you.  (I am very unorthodox fey you see in dress and deed)

For those of you who are newly come to my art…WELCOME!  For my regular readers and friends, I’m glad to see your lovely shining faces once again.

Things have been crazy busy at Elysian Fields, many new techniques to try out and I’ve been working on stretching the boundaries in my work with polymer clay.  I’m also thrilled that the medium is enjoying new kudos and has begun to be taken more seriously as “fine art”. Many amazing artists have pioneered and paved the way to make it easier for the rest of us to focus on creating, and for that I am truly grateful and inspired.

I also want to give a very special Thank You to Karen Kay, editor of FAE Magazine in the UK, for launching my first exclusive feature as an emerging fantasy artist.  She is a truly amazing lady and I’m looking forward to the day I can fly over to give her a hug in person.  Thank you also to the many emails I’ve received from all of you on my art as well, it really is great to hear from people and connect with you all…it is inspiring and always a welcome surprise when I open my mail.

So, now the seasons are changing and we’re heading into Winter, and that means all ten fingers and toes will be very busy creating new and unusual Nature Spirits, as well as a return to some

of my popular miniature sculpts.  If nothing else that will silence, Silas, my house Brownie, who loves to sit amongst them like he is High King of it all and they his court paying homage.  I don’t dare correct him for fear I’ll lose another necklace to his mini rampages.  In the past if I forget to leave him his milk and honey he wreaks havoc around here and scowls most ferociously at me.  I act duly chastened but really love the scolding he gives me, he sounds like a squirrel chattering away.

That’s it for the moment…I’m busy today finishing up on some new pieces to add to my Etsy shop.  For those unfamiliar with Etsy it is a venue for all things hand made and a neat place to show and sell my art.  Stop in, take a peek around and let me know if I can help you with anything, if I’m busy I’m sure Silas would love to help, although I’d keep a close eye on any sparklies you may be wearing…

Valerie & Silas

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”

Winter’s here and tree spirits are slumbering. Here is a quick peek at a dryad as she sleeps in her Maple leaf.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This has always been a favorite poem of mine, where Robert Frost speaks to the value of independence and personal freedom. I have always wished for a simpler time in which to live, and, as I grow older find myself creating just that.
This picture is in Brownfield, Maine where I go each year to relax, watch birds and sculpt.