Elysian Field Originals

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I am asked that question.  As a fantasy artist I live and create in a world of make believe, folk lore, and the everyday magic that is nature.

A better asked question might be, “who wouldn’t want to believe in times like these?”

Recent weather catastrophes, war, financial crisis’s, drugs, violence, and the downfall of the “hero” in our society has left us bereft and adrift in a sea of disillusion and uncertainty.  As children we looked up to sports legends, movie stars, and presidents until it become glaringly obvious that they missed the mark, fell or were toppled off their pedestals by their actions or misdeeds.  After all they’re only human, right?

Faeries on the other hand are known to be duplicitous, tricks-y, pranksters, who depending on their type are pretty straight forward.  Most  fairy fall into one of three categories, Neutral, the Seelie, and the Unseelie. The neutral fairies are just that, neither aligned with the good or bad, and the Seelie are generally considered to be light (mainly positive) fairies while the Unseelie are quite the opposite.  With faerie you know where you stand.

We were brought up believing in the Tooth fairy, Santa Claus,  Easter Bunny, and faeries.  Early memories of scouting fields behind our home for dew covered spider webs on the ground with the hope of discovering  fairy balls still going on.  Mushroom rings, dark hidey holes in trees, fallen logs, dense underbrush were inspected for wee folk.  My mom and grandmother would read to us each night of wee folk, goblins, and brownies who regularly stole our toys if we were bad.

My favorite poem is still William Allingham’s “The Faeries”.

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren ‘t go a-hunting    
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather!

Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain-lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.

While we were not rich in coin we were rich in imagination and we believed!

Fast forward some forty years and I still believe. I believe in a world of imagination, of art, of music.  Nature has become my muse, my comfort, and my friend.  I turn off the TV and go for walks in the woods.

The air is clean and sweet, vernal pools are now teeming with life, trees are waking and showing forth their finest buds and blooms.

I believe.

My grandsons are now of an age where Santa, the Easter Bunny, and fairy folk are real.  I will pass on the tales, poems, and stories that were told to me.  The seeds will be planted, nurtured, and if they are lucky, they will have the chance to experience the imagination of a magical world,  something that is slowly dissappearing from their daily life.

So, the next time you lose your keys,  the lights go out, or toys go missing,  blame it on the faeries… you’ll feel better and your children will love the stories.  Use your imagination!  

Fantasy artists do it every day.  We live our lives immersed in music, art, folk tales, traditions,  and when the world around us is in chaos, we find the quiet place that faerie provides.  Our own oasis in a desert of disillusioned humanity.

I ask again…do you believe?

“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.”

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.

I love jewelry and I love sculpting, and both can be expensive at times.   I am also a “casualty” of the current economic crisis in our country that has left me unemployed.  Panicked?  I was for a few weeks till I got it together and decided to suck it up and create my own job.  So how’s it going, you ask?  Well…I’m not living the life of luxury but I was able to pay my mortgage with my new “job” this past month.  Yay!!!  I sell my art on Etsy, a site that promotes hand crafted goods, and through word of mouth through customers and the Internet.  It’s a great venue with some awesome people that I’ve been privileged to meet along the way.  I also have joined a group of local artisans called, ArtsInRI, who sell on Etsy as well as do shows throughout New England.

What do I do? I sculpt.  I go for long walks in the country and collect leaves which I preserve and use to imprint polymer clay to make wearable art pieces.  I also have begun to create jewelry, which I am finding to be loads of fun.  It is a nice way to make some money and I get to create and wear some pretty unique things for myself.  Never mind that gift giving has become a breeze…

The challenge I find is downsizing my life and deciding what I need and what I can let go.  It’s tough when you tend to be a bit of a pack rat.   As an artist , I can find a use for everything and will talk myself into justifying why I “need” to keep a certain thing many might consider tossing.  (just created a nifty pair of earrings from an up-cycled sterling silver watch band)

The easy part has been cutting back on what I spend and becoming more aware of how I spend.  I find now I eat better,  sleep better, and am happier.  I have chickens who help out by providing me with eggs and are a comical group in themselves.  I hardly need to use my car so I’m saving on repairs, gas, tires.  Big surprise, I’ve gotten to know my neighbors much better and by putting resources together (ie. gardening, bartering, pooling).

Is it easy?  No, not at all.  Some weeks I make a sale and some weeks I don’t.  So it’s a constant ebb and flow of adjusting and readjusting my finances.  Is it  worth it then you ask? Yes.  To be able to create a living from what you really love to do is extremely satisfying, and that my friends, makes all the difference in the world.

So buy hand made art when you can. You never know when you are helping someone realize their dreams and allowing them to pay the mortgage.

The days are slowly waning and as autumn approaches many of the gorgeous Maple trees are beginning to change color before they shed their leaves.  It’s an ancient cycle of life/death/rebirth that plays out over and over again.  It is the beginning of the Autumnal Equinox , one of the only times in the year when day and night are almost equally long, it also marks an ancient holiday whose roots are traced back to before the Middle Ages!  On this special day, the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator, from north to south; this marks the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.  In tribute, here is a lovely tree spirit who is ushering in the long days of autumn.

Lovely iridescent colors shimmer in this beautiful 2” sugar maple pendant.  I’ve drawn the face of the tree’s spirit using quality artist pencils, accented with mica powders, and sealed in resin to protect the artwork.  A gorgeous green jade bead, sterling silver spiral, and sterling filigreed bail complete the piece on an 18” buna cord with sterling clasps.

You can see more of her in my Etsy shop.  Please stop by and say hello!

Hello my friends!  The spring/summer has come and gone and I’ve been a very bad blogger, so forgive me dear readers for my extended absence, but now I am back.

I’ve been busy with family, spending time outdoors,  working on new pieces, and experimenting with polymer clay techniques.  Ah, the sweet joy of success…and of failure too when trying new things.

One thing I’ve thoroughly enjoyed is incorporating precious & semi precious gemstones into my work.  I’ve met a wonderful gal, Shelly, who carries the yummiest gemstones and it takes all  my willpower to stay away from buying everything on her site, Sapphire Gardens. Make sure you stop in and take a peek.

I spent a most enjoyable day with Peter today in my yard, he lounging, watching the races, and I working on some new leaf pieces. I kept hearing something hit the screen house and every time I’d look up nothing would be there so I’d go back to work again. This went on for quite some time and finally I looked up to see a huge dragonfly buzzing around my screen house. I went out to investigate and the dragonfly began to do it’s strange flight around me, diving and flitting about my head. This went on for almost an hour, I’d never seen behavior like this before and it really made me wonder why? When I went back inside the screen house, the dragonfly flew against the screen house a few more times before eventually giving up. I guess it realized I did not want to come out to play anymore.

I wonder if it will visit tomorrow?

I‘ve had a few days off from work and saw something the other day I haven’t been able to get out of my mind. I was driving my truck (I work part time for a landscaper) back to the yard this past Friday and saw some commotion in the road ahead of me. There in the middle of this two lane busy road was a tiny Yorkshire Terrier running back and forth in the road!! Cringing because I figured at any moment that the poor thing would get squashed on this busy road, I was even more surprised at the number of people pulling over to try and save this wee beast. There had to be at least a dozen different people trying to get the “poor little dog”!

In the midst of all this chaos all I could think about were the times I’ve seen a “human” in trouble on the side of the road or in a public place and my dismay at how many people walked on by and pretended not to see. Something to think about?

Lastly, here are a few new pair of earrings and a pendant I’ve listed in my Etsy shop! Enjoy and thanks for stopping in!

The days are getting warmer and my Rhode Island Reds are very happy. The youngest are now starting to lay “practice” eggs which started out the size of grape tomatoes and have now progressed to very small eggs. Needless to say the “girls” are very proud of themselves and strut around the yard like they own the place!

I heard someone say that Nature has a way of taking care of itself and watching my chickens gives
me a true appreciation for them. In the past the only concern I had for chicken was if it was to be fried, broiled or baked. I look at these funny feathered fiends now, and realize that they each have their own quirky personalities and mannerisms. How would I ever have known that by looking at that chicken leg quarter on my plate what I was missing?

Does that mean that I’ll stop eating chicken? No, probably not, (I don’t eat it often to begin with) but it does mean I’ll give them just a little bit more respect and will be a little more grateful when I do.

Did I say I love my chickens? Yes, I do… indeed I do!