the business of art....and a puzzle

yikes! i am simply frantic...sort of...i don't really have enough energy to be truly frantic. :) blogs are a wonderful, beautiful, thing...but keeping up with posts, visiting other folk's digs, replying to comments. and now, of course, there's the whole new friending-networking-facebooking madness... all wonderful, but mighty time-consuming. how does a girl manage?! to top it all off, comcast changed their entire email format/system thingy on sunday--i can't seem to use my address book, write an email (unless it's a reply)--it's horribly inconveniencing!! and the last thing i needed to add to the stress of keeping up with orders, shipping, and general customer service. (sigh) i've no idea if i'll be able to do a newsletter with my current email address!!

¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨

in addition to the logistics of their only being 24 hours in a day, and the horror of my new inbox...there's also this creative niggling going on in my noggin...

i've long suspected that one point all of my mediums would "crash"...would make a merry little wreck of arty goodness...and it feels sooooo close!~~but it's just not here yet. (sigh) and i know it's always worth the wait....but i HATE to wait!!

it's 3D. buy it's also cloth...and my new poppets are surely a part--i'm painting on little chunks of wood, but i'm not sure i like what i'm coming up with...

is it just me, of does she look a little under-impressed? :)

¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨

so what does this new "it" look like???? (except i can't see "it")
i think there's some embroidery, and maybe a bit of clay...and all of these different elements lead me to believe "it" is some sort of scene...but WHAT sort?! arrrrgh!!!! and stranger still, "it" might be a bit "goth". what?! is this me??? a dark sweetness...a bit creepy...good heavens!

i do know that so many of you have written or commented that you miss my cloth dollies, that i used to offer on such a regular basis...

i should let you know, i suppose, that i miss them too!! LOL...it just began to feel as if i was a dollie machine...it's so important to me, even if it's just a wee poppet, that my work is "honest"--not lost in trend and artifice.

¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨

anyway. do you struggle with these same woes, gentle reader? how do you organize? how do you cope? how do you unlock the elusive work-to-be from a busy artist's heart?

signed,
a completely nutty-meg

*Izannah Little Red*

There are many, many, interpretations of this little fairy tale~~what do the woods symbolize? The wolf? Why is the little girl wearing red? A quick bit of research will reveal all you ever wanted to know~~and more~~about

°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨°º©©º°
Little Red Riding Hood...

°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨°º©©º°

To be honest, I usually enjoy "the annotated version". But not so with this classic tale. I prefer, in this instance, to take away my own impressions...my own thoughts.

The woods can be unsettling when you're all alone...terrifying when you're not alone. Critics and literary scholars return again and again to the childhood fear of "being devoured"~~a much more realistic fear in early 1800s Germany where Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published a series of stories collected from peasants and villagers...Grimm's Fairy Tales. All of these tales have a "moral", or lesson, to teach their audience (children). It was a very good thing to be afraid of wolves if you were a child who lived in the scantly populated countryside and often~~or seldom~~ walked alone in the forest!
Little Red Riding Hood remains universally popular, even being used for political propaganda upon occasion, throughout history. While the psychological elements and symbolism within the story can be a bit overwhelming, the tale has certainly been utilized for many different purposes~~probably because of all of the "layers" and psychological suppositions...
So what is my personal connection?

¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨

A memory...of walking alone, in the woods. Leaves that crunch and twigs that snap...being so deep into the thick oak trees that a sunny afternoon seems just a few moments before nightfall, the light is so dim and hazy. Knowing that you ought to be completely alone~~aside from harmless deer and perhaps a stray songbird...knowing that you should be, by all reason, alone. But that you are not. And then imagining, planning, rehearsing...
what you will say to the wolf.
©2009 Megan Wommack

¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨°º©©º°¨¨¨¨

This latest paper poppet is available in my etsy shoppe,

or on eBay~~

twilight

Okay...I admit it. I'm a book-snob. (But I am NOT an art snob!!)...and, to be quite frank, I've been known to watch all manner of drivel on the glass teat* while I'm working. We were in Barnes Noble to get loot with our Christmas money and gift cards and I saw Twilight (which is everywhere!)--I had the book in hand and listened to some young women in front of me talking about it. It's teen fiction. I put the book back. (snob!)

But then, more and more, I began to hear of reasonable, smart, interesting, people reading and talking about The Twilight Saga. And though the name in itself may imply something along the lines of Flowers in the Attic, I assure you, gentle reader...it is not something along those lines!! In a word, Stephanie Meyers is a brilliant writer. Of course, I enjoyed her stay-at-home-mom how-did-you-ever-do-something-like-this!? story on her site--that's always "nice to hear" when stay-at-home mamas prove their talents and skills....but. Ms. Meyers is a brilliant author!

*****************************************

I noted--and if you read it perhaps you'll note as well?--that Bella (main character) is never completely "described" to the reader. Sort of. She can turn in to whatever the reader wants, or so it seemed to me. Which was a bit of a struggle for me...I'm really well past the teen-age years!...and i couldn't imagine my daughter falling in love with a vampire! (She's 7. And, well, I should hope she'll meet a nice boy without fangs...). It seemed a transient characterization--Bella can be "any girl" who's reading the book. Which is a darn good thing for teen fiction! (and certainly didn't "lessen" my experience...)

by the way please remember that i have scars on my brain and if the book does thoroughly describe Bella and i'm dead wrong don't send me any plastic vampire teeth or leave a snarky comment. thanks. :)

I got the book Saturday afternoon and instantly devoured it (heh-heh). I was reading the part where the vampires play baseball as my husband and I were travelling Sunday afternoon, and it was so cool!, I read it to Joe as we were driving...now we're going to read Twilight aloud together. (We did that with the first Harry Potter books....how sweet, huh? Why did we ever stop reading to each other??? We haven't done that in, like, 6 years! Why would we--oh, right. Chloe's 7. We had kids.)

So then, Monday, I traded in some stuff to get New Moon, the second book. And, um, yeah. I really don't have time for all of this reading!--However, at present I can count on at least one or two out-of-commission days... I'm going to send Ms. Meyers some roses!

I will say too, after finishing the second book (no, it's not like an addiction. I read fast. really. i did those classes where they have the little rolly-machines and questions at the end and....okay. I admit it. I really need to do some laundry. And I need to clean---wait! enough about me, let's keep going with my book review....).

Alright. Second book. New Moon. Meyers totally avoids the usual ennui and angst of the vampire quandary~~the whole damnation conundrum, if you will. I mean, sure-sure (inside joke), there's some of that...all vampires everywhere could be, quite possibly, darned to heck. Or maybe they're in heck now??? hmmmmmm.............. But, so far, The Twilight Saga doesn't "do" that. There's action, not too much violence, not any "language", and a sweet, beautiful, love story (no sex)....I'm doing that whole parent-rating thing, aren't I?

The first song on my playlist is "Bella's Lullaby"... But I can't tell you anymore than that. Go read the book! And yes, I hope to see the film soon....

It seems to be very well done (clips are here!

If you've read it, tell me what you thought!!

blessings,

meg

*Stephen King refers to Television as "the glass teat" in On Writing. I think. Again...the scars...

*The Paper Poppet*

In a questionable attempt to become more p-r-o-fessional, I have opened up a second etsy shoppe, *The Paper Poppet* (it's right here, if you'd care to visit!)

This location will carry all of the paper dollies, note cards, prints...and hopefully, some little theatres & small *scenes* of some sort. Perhaps cloth dollies with paper dresses? I'm in that place where ideas are just little snippets and thoughts and images in my head...little brain doodles, if you will. I would like to have scenery that could move, different backdrops, etc. Wouldn't that be fancy?! I'm thinking Midsummer's, Rome and Juliet....Peter Pan....maybe some Jane Austen? Emily Bronte?

Maybe just some little folky nonsense scenes...a little wooden dollie (think Hitty) who goes to visit her family (a grove of trees...!)...she'd have all sorts of lovely adventures...

And what is a poppet? many things, evidently...(i'm thinking more along the dollie-child line than voodoo). And i do like the fragile aspects of paper--you can sew on paper too, you know! And i must admit, it's much, much, less expensive than wool or mohair. More portable--you've no idea the lengths to which I went to take my rug-hooking to Grand Lake for five days last summer! I think too, these little prints and dollies should be limited editions? What do you think?

I'm in the middle of an Izannah Walker paper doll~~her dress is a scene from Little Red Riding Hood...hope to show it to you soon!! That dollie (Izannah) is such a mystery...I had a theory about her eyes...they seem to me to be spaced "close"...like a little old woman's. But I may not be correct about that--it was just my perception when trying to draw her little face. However, as these dolls were made one-at-a-time, there seems to be some variance within the face structure. (Like this Izannah on Dixie's Blog). hmmmmm....any thoughts?

blessings,

meg

just a note to say....

For Christmas I received this lovely Levenger pen set~~

)))))))*******************************************(((((((

...possessing a rather spattered & murky past with the whole calligraphy thing, I approached aforementioned pen with some reservation & no hope whatsoever that I would be able to use the darn thing...much to my dismay...I wrote a thank you note! And it was legible!! And there were no ugly blotty things!!!

It was quite fun to sit and write thank you notes on my new Thank You Owl note cards with my new woo-de-doo pen...

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

*Unexpected Music~~Winter Roses*

Completed and in the etsy shoppe~~i think i "got it right" with my photos (i am quite scanner-less!) Anywho...i do believe there's more along the lines of "unexpected music"...

have a cozy winter day,

& blessings,

meg

Unexpected music....

*winter roses*

...this sweet lassie is awaiting some finishing touches! She was inspired by those roses i saw, a few weeks ago, just outside our nest...(they're at the very end of this post.)

I was thinking about everything around us, every day, that we "don't see". Just small treasures that are sewn in to our daily lives...so tiny that they are usually lost in the busy fabric of calendars and phone calls. These small moments are my "unexpected music"...I hope i remember to listen.

blessings,

and listen--just for a moment,

meg

Fairy Tales....Hansel & Gretel

*Mother?*

Really, at the center of this queer little tale is hunger...and so, there is an oven--a witch's oven--precisely where this doll's stomach would be...there is day (a sun) & lonely night (a crescent moon), both helplessly watching a family's journey...

The four travel from their cottage into the woods...the children go further on, of course, after their father and stepmother have abandoned them--further on into the witch's candy house with feather beds and plenty of sweet food. At least, for the moment. But when your stomach is empty--truly empty--the moment is all that matters....

Maddening white birds flutter throughout this tale...and why white? For they only lead the children further astray--they are the witch's birds, and should really be crows or something like. Tiny white dots embellish the entire scene--they even illustrate the tattered lace on the witch-mother's dress...they are snow and cold...bread crumbs...light and flowers...and the lace...things seem different that are really quite the same, depending on which part of the forest you are in.




In this old, old, fairy tale...the children do escape (but you knew that). When they return home to their father, the stepmother is "dead"...do you think, gentle reader, as I do, that the stepmother died precisely when Gretel pushed the witch into the oven?

Megan Wommack©2008-2009

Each paper doll is laser copied onto acid-free card stock from my original *Paper Poppet Prints*, adhered to substantial paper, cut out & jointed with tiny brads.

*Mother?* is styled after a c.1600s wooden doll~~This doll has the unique feature of a "spinning head"~~she may change from witch to stepmother....did you ever make your witch, er, stepmother's head spin?????

By the by, I do love my stepmother, very much...she is NOT a witch! :)
measurements are as follows:
witch w/ boots folded up: 10" (includes hat)
witch w/ boots folded down: 12" (includes hat)
skirt is 8+ inches across at widest point

stepmother: 8.5" high (no boots)

this piece is available from my etsy shoppe, or eBay~~as you see, you may display her on an easel frame, though there is a double-loop of thread should you wish to display as a wall piece. Or, I suppose you could "frame" her...she does all sorts of things--don't you love dollies you can play with?! Her head spins 'round and is designed precisely so...the witch's hat is completely hidden when she is the stepmother. The witch's boots fold up as well, which can be a display option (or it makes the figure of the stepmother a bit more "different" than the witch...)

A happy accident with this piece: this doll's "form" is styled after the famed "Letitia Penn" wooden doll (whose year of creation and travel to America is somewhat debatable...). But, she is indeed a 1600-1700s dollie, which times out exactly with the Salem Witch Trials.

And another note~~these paper poppets of late are mixed media & then some...gouache, pen, ink, colored pencil, watercolor pencil, opaque pen...I am appalled at how much a set of watercolors costs these days, and so, have been foraging ahead without...and making many fun discoveries with the mediums I have on hand! (Although, I must procure some tubes of gamboge and payne's grey~~my favorite watercolor hues...)

Happy New Year blessings,

meg