Friday, June 14, 2013

A Unicorn in Moonlight

A Unicorn in Moonlight
© 2013
original 5" x 7" drawing
(available for sale HERE)

If you have an Etsy account, you can also check HERE to see if it is available on the Etsy venue.

(copyright watermarks do not appear in the actual work of art)

Background on this piece:
This is an original (not a print). It is drawn with fine points.
- It is drawn with india ink and artist grade colored pencils.
This is part of a new series which can be found HERE (read from bottom to top to see the first to latest in the series). This is the fourth in the series and is the largest one to date (though I'll probably be making others soon and getting larger as I go!). The previous ones were tiny  at 2.5" x 3.5".

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Large Ceramic Angel Pendant

Large Ceramic Angel Pendant
reversible
wheel thrown stoneware, fired at cone 10
(available for sale HERE)

This is how it looks on its side:

This is the angel on the other side:



These pieces are part of a series. This is the third in the series.

I started these pieces as a way to use clay that I trim off when I am throwing pots (the pots also have these kinds of angels in them). Since I like a packed kiln, I wanted miniature pieces to fit around the pottery. These worked nicely for that! They save fuel, they save clay, they offer an unusual product (I hope!) and maybe they even bless the kiln and its contents (?).

I hope you've enjoyed my latest offering.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Unicorn Heart

Unicorn Heart
© 2013
giclee prints available for sale HERE
greeting cards will be available SOON, hopefully by the end of the day

If you have an Etsy account, you can also check HERE to see if they are available on the Etsy venue
(copyright watermarks don't appear on any actual products of this work)

Background on these pieces:
This is part of a series featuring a Renaissance style unicorn with millefleurs . It is inspired by The Lady and the Unicorn Renaissance tapestries (viewable HERE from wikipedia). The whole series of this kind of work can be found HERE (read from bottom to top to see the first to latest in the series). This is the third in the series, although I made a birthday card years ago in the same kind of vein (still unpublished).
- Painted around Valentines Day in 2013 (greeting cards can be used for Valentines Day for the unicorn lover). 

There is also a hummingbird in this piece if you can find it.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Unicorn Basking in Moonlight aceo

Unicorn with Full Moon
© 2013
(available for sale HERE)
(read here what aceos are: basically mini works of art 2.5" x 3.5"; this one includes a border)

If you have an Etsy account, you can also check HERE to see if they are available on the Etsy venue

Background on this piece:
This is an original (not a print) drawn with fine points.
- It is drawn with india ink and artist grade colored pencils.
This piece is part of a new series which can be found HERE (read from bottom to top to see the first to latest in the series). This is the first with a sepia tone treatment and the third in the series.
Aceos and other miniature artworks became popular on E-Bay because of the affordability. They became available on other selling venes too (particularly art and handmade venues).


Monday, June 3, 2013

unicorn aceos (mini drawings)


(read here what aceos are: basically mini works of art 2.5" x 3.5"; this one includes a border)

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
left: Unicorn with Full Moon (available for sale HERE)
right: Illuminated Unicorn (available for sale HERE)

If you have an Etsy account, you can also check HERE to see if they are available on the Etsy venue

Background on these pieces:
These are all originals (not prints) drawn with fine points.
- All are drawn with india ink.
These are part of a new series. These are the first in the series (the black and white one is the first and the colored one is second. To view the whole series, go HERE and remember to read the blog entries from bottom to top. 
The series is also viewable HERE from my website.
Aceos and other miniature artworks became popular on E-Bay because of the affordability. They became available on other selling venes too (particularly art and handmade venues).



Sunday, June 2, 2013

mini drawings: a tree hearts an angel; another tree hearts a celestial body

1 ULTRA ORIGINAL MINI DRAWING (left) AND ONE ORIGINAL DRAWING ACEO

(the mini on the left is 1.5" x 14.25"; with border: 1.75" x 4.5")

(read here what aceos are: basically mini works of art 2.5" x 3.5"; this one includes a border)

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
left: Angel in a Tree (available for sale HERE)
right: A Tree Hearts a Celestial Body (available for sale HERE)

If you have an Etsy account, you can also check HERE to see if they are available on the Etsy venue

Background on these pieces:
These are all originals (not prints) drawn with fine points.
- All are drawn with india ink.
These are part of a new series (still doing more in the series, so check back if interested). 
The series is viewable HERE from my website.
Aceos and other miniature artworks became popular on E-Bay because of the affordability. They became available on other selling venes too (particularly art and handmade venues).


P.S. My first day back to work after a long hiatus! Maybe my life is back to normal again?

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

my memorial piece for Sally (plus Margie's write-up)


(slightly changed from the original version, particularly names)

I met Sally in 2001 at about the same time I met M.

But it wasn’t until her relationship with L was on the skids that we became fast friends. We would talk on the phone for hours and hours about our common experiences. Very early on I decided I loved her and told her so.

From then on, she became a major presence in my life and in the life of N and M. She put on birthday parties for our family members; she threw a graduation party for N;  she came to most of our local concerts and all of my art gallery shows; she compared height sizes with N as N was sprouting into a teenager (she’d say, “N, do you have to grow? I need more people down here at my level.”). During a particularly stressful court battle that I went through with Allstate, she was there for that too, cheerleading for me in the wings. We had more dinners and get-togethers than I can count.

When M had major surgeries and I wanted to tell family how he had fared, I called N first, Sally second and my mother third. That’s how important she was to us.

Indeed, I often told her she was my adopted sister.

This year, I spent a great deal of time taking care of my father who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. When I would come home for the rare weekend here and there or to take care of M for yet another surgery, I would cry with Sally on the phone. I would tell her how hard it was to lose such a good person with such a big heart. Indeed, my father was the apple of my eye and it was very hard to see him so sick and not be able to do anything about it. She was the ever-soothing presence and she would say “Oh, Lees, I’m so sorry”  over and over.

I was not prepared to get the phone call that Sally had died in the midst of all of this.  Indeed, I often found it too painful. When I went back to T  for the last 5 days of my father’s life, I would sit beside him in bed, rubbing his legs, trying to get him to eat ice cubes, telling him how much I loved him, choking up about Sally. The last day of my father’s life, I wanted to call Sally in the worst way. It was then that I could swear that Sally was with me. She said, “Lees, you don’t have to call me. I’m right here beside you and I’m not going anywhere.”

When my father took his last breath, I was with him. And it seemed Sally was very much there too, welcoming him to the club.

Two people with huge hearts, major figures in my life died ten days apart from each other.

I hope they are the ones I see first when I go through the pearly gates myself. We should all be so lucky.

Margie Rosenkranz's write-up:

Our beautiful and impish friend SALLY passed away unexpectedly last Thursday morning in her sleep... She was 63 years young and I can tell you, no one was expecting this. 
Sally and I would've been friends for 50 years come September, and I cannot count the holes in my life at this moment. She was president of the board for The Eighth Step, the grassroots music presenting organization which I help run, godmother to my son, and a fairy godmother to my girls. Sally raised friendship to an art form; there are so many people out there I have heard wonderful things about - for years! - and you know what? We have been so very, very lucky to have her! 

We are planning a less conventional musical memorial at 1 pm on Sunday, May 19 at The Eighth Step Underground (Proctors). We're calling it "Garden of Friends" after Sal's love of the outdoors, friends and music. (She was due to cook dinner backstage in a few weeks for Tom Rush, Scottish singer Dougie MacLean and probably Pete Seeger - and boy, was she happy about it.) That's the chance to celebrate the joy she brought us all: telling stories, spouting Sally-isms and singing along or even contributing a song. Forget? Never.

Some pictures of Sally and me:

at the Killington Renaissance Faire where we performed
She drove a long way with some of her family members just to see us.
That was Sally. She always went out of her way for her friends.

decorating Sally's tree at Christmas
She stuck bundles of baby's breath in the limbs and it looked fabulous!

I will have some artwork commemorating these two beautiful people (Sally and my father) in the months and years to come.

Friday, May 3, 2013

my memorial piece for my father

my father
photo © the Winne family

We called my father "Dood" because when I was a little girl I couldn't say "Dad." It stuck. And so my younger brother, Tom, also called him that.

Dood was a deep and profound thinker, always writing notes and keeping articles on spirituality, music, art, community and architecture. Our conversations on subjects could drag on for hours and even days. In speech he was always careful and thoughtful about what he said; in thought he tried to see all sides of an issue before formulating an opinion. Never one to be impulsive, his thought processes could get mired in many, many details and possibilities before they were formulated into speech, thus in order to really know Bob Winne you had to be patient enough to hear his words.

He told me many, many times throughout my life that I was like him in health, mind and spirit. Indeed we could talk with ease and intuitive understanding about all kinds of subjects. Our love of long walks and conversation dominated our relationship. We rarely parted ways in taste or opinion.

My father fought in World War II in the Battle of the Bulge. Shortly afterwards, he got to know some of the German soldiers he had fought against. He said he realized how impersonal war was from that experience, shooting and killing souls who could be saints -- only because their respective governments told them to do it.

Because of his experiences in war, he became a Quaker, heavily influenced by his conversations with Ken Webb who had started Farm and Wilderness Camps. From there he went on to study the writings and teachings of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

My brother and I were also brought up Quaker, and in the Quaker way, taught by our parents to respect the speech, identities and life experiences of each person equally, to be humble, to be non-ostentatious, to be careful of our speech towards others in terms of how we effected others. He loved deeply and with sensitivity.

Dood also was constantly working on his own integrity, to be pure and full of heart in his deeds and actions towards other people. He always tried to see the best in everyone around him and take into consideration the challenges they faced; indeed he expressed anger very rarely. During our childhood, I had seen him break into anger only a handful of times and then by the time I was 11, he stopped.

I asked him when I was a teenager why he didn't show anger. His response was that anger was mostly unproductive; it is good only insofar that it serves justice, not hatred or intimidation or for motives which aren't moral.

When I was 18 and leaving home, I thought there were more people like Dood. I came to find out that Dood was rare. Throughout my long life, Dood and I had cross words only 4 times, and three of those times it was trivial: turning down loud music for instance. The more I got beat up in the outside world, the more I sought out the heart and advice of my father.

When he got dementia, it was my cue that I was on my own now and that I had to use what he had taught me to the best effect. Our conversations became about simpler things, but I will always be thankful that his dementia didn't progress to the point where he forgot my name or our common goals and interests.

I feel honored that I was the one who got to spend the last minutes of his life with him. He turned and looked at me as he took his last breath. In many shamanistic cultures, if a dying person looks into your eyes as they take their last breath, their soul merges with yours. I sure hope that is the case and I will let you know...

I don't relish my life without him, but I hope I will hear his voice in my head as I go through all of life's challenges. I hope that I will see certain scenes over and over in my head like the one time Jim and I parked in the driveway where Dood was waiting for us and he outstretched his arms to me and we danced in the driveway. Every moment with him was precious, a gem of enrichment in my life. I hope I can go forward with the joy of having known him rather than the grief of having lost him.

I hope all of you will too.



Recently I lost 2 people within one week of each other: my father and our closest family friend, Sally.

Some of the posts that follow will be about them.

Friday, April 19, 2013

introducing the Tartbeats!

I made the banner 
(except the flying monkey with the shield on the left; that was made by Beth of Great Graphics)

Find out about us HERE (we just started a blog). 

We orginanally all came from Artfire, then became a team of close friends who support each other and chat about everything under the sun. Some of us are in the process of starting up our own e-commerce sites. We are a diverse group of sellers (supplies, vintage, art and handmade). 

I think we are an unusual team because most teams have a medium in common. We have friendship in common. We invite you to become a friend too by following our blog and commenting on our posts. Hope to see you there

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

new series of ACEOs! Trees heart birds ... and other things (wink)

3 ORIGINAL DRAWING ACEOs
(read here what aceos are: basically mini works of art 2.5" x 3.5")

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
left: A Tree Hearts the Birds (available for sale HERE)
middle: A Tree Hearts a Star and a Bird (available for sale HERE)
right: A Tree in the Wind Hearts a Bird (available for sale HERE)

If you have an Etsy account, you can also check HERE to see if they are available on the Etsy venue

Background on these pieces:
These are all originals (not prints) drawn with fine points.
- All are drawn with india ink; one has the addition of artist grade colored pencils.
These are part of a new series (still doing more in the series, so check back if interested). 
The series is viewable HERE from my website.
As stated above, each work is 2.5" (width) x 3.5" (length). Aceos became popular on E-Bay because of the affordability. They became available on other selling venes too (particularly art and handmade venues).

Thank you for having a look! Feel free to comment if you are inclined!

Friday, March 15, 2013

more Jim Manngard digital art

digital image of me by © Jim Manngard
from a photo by © Jim Lestrange

This is actually a digital artwork by Jim Manngard and not a real newspaper article. Jim is part of the Blackmores Night team (a band specializing in in new interpretations of Renaissance tunes, their website is here) and does lot of photos and posters for the band. To see one of his images for the band go here.

You will see that he he did one of these for me too (which I actually used as a christmas card to 11 of my relatives):


digital image of me by © Jim Manngard
from a photo by © Jim Lestrange


Jim has been making digital images of me for a couple of years now. To see many more, go here.

I'm going through a hard time now and this certainly warmed my heart! Many thanks to the two Jims!




Sunday, February 10, 2013

Introducing Scott Petito

SCOTT PETITO AT THE MIXING BOARD
Scott produced, performed on, mixed and mastered my CDs
"Wing'd With Hopes" and "The Goldenrod"

Scott's resume reads like a "who's who" of the music world: he's worked with James Taylor, The Band, Keith Richards, Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck, Jack DeJhonette, Aine Minogue, Pete Seeger, Jay Unger and Molly Mason (background music for many of Ken Burns' documentaries) and many others in the folk and jazz world. He also is a member of The Fugs and performs with his partner, Leslie Ritter. 

He is primarily known for his producing, mixing and mastering of CDs, but he is also a musician. His main instrument is bass, but he is also adept at the piano, guitar, percussion and cello. 

The first CD I did with Scott was the "Wing'd With Hopes" CD. It was a best seller on CD Baby in the Renaissance category for awhile. It also received a lot of airplay in the USA and abroad. Recording the CD lead to winning a grant from the New York Foundation of the Arts to record another CD of my original songs, "The Goldenrod" (and was an editor's choice on CD Baby when it first came out).

Check out some of the other great artists that Scott has worked with that are perhaps (?) in the same ballpark/genre as my own CDs:

This is a beautiful song he recorded with Leslie Ritter (on YouTube): If Mary Knew

He records at NRS Recording Studio in Catskill, NY.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

stoneware heart dish, hand thrown

HEART DISH
stoneware (fired to cone 10), one of a kind
hand thrown on the potter's wheel
available for sale HERE

other views:




My expertise is actually pottery. You wouldn't know it by looking at all of my other blogs about my drawings, paintings and music. For many years and with a lot of training I was a full time potter with a beautiful studio overlooking the Hudson River and a closet musician with asthma. 

After a number of successful years as a studio hermit making pots by the hundreds and selling them through museum juried shows (the creative olympic-style pots and sculptures), galleries (the artful bowls and vases), commissions (mostly for weddings and art for private homes) and craft fairs (mugs, mugs and more mugs), I came out of the closet with my music, cured from asthma by a naturopath, and began performing at open mikes and small coffeehouses. My music profession grew as I began making recordings and performing at better concert venues. Eventually I split my time between being a musician and a potter until gradually performing music took over my life.

I was a full time musician for over a decade. 

But then... as performance venues and state grant money for concerts began to dry up and people were choosing to be entertained at home instead of at their local concert halls, I started to work my way back into pottery again, spending about 2 - 4 days a week at it. I had assumed I could just go back and everything would be the same. 

Unfortunately, things had changed in the gallery world too. Evidence of this began after showing in a beautifully renovated pottery and painting gallery in an old mill with huge windows on the Hudson River in a charming little town west of me. Many tourists visited the gallery via bus tours, but after its initial start, no one was buying. As the gallery began to falter from lack of sales and we were going out of business, the tourists protested and wanted it to remain open. The pleas reached the landlord and she made a deal with our gallery that she would take a 30 percent commission without charging the gallery rent. Well, whether by commission or rent, tourists must buy in order to remain open; they were looking at it more as a museum where they could admire the creativity and inventiveness of the artists, thus its ultimate demise.

The other galleeries I was in were going the same way. For me it meant a switch into greeting cards (and prints) as well as an exploration into on-line selling. I'm still exploring on-line selling, having come to it late and being distracted and content with wholesaling cards to gift shops. 

This little heart dish is my first attempt at selling pottery on-line. It's an experiment that I'll try first in my Artfire on-line shop (and then in an Etsy shop if it is justified). I'll start with small dishes first and graduate to larger pieces as they sell while still mostly concentrating on 2-D work with a Renaissance, Celtic or Victorian twist.

A few words about this piece: it is thrown thin. This is the ambition of a potter: it is more challanging to throw thin than it is to make a thick clunky piece (and better for the customer too: who wants to lug around a heavy piece?). It is made out of stoneware and high fired (this is what makes it rock hard and less likely to chip). It has a clear glaze (clear glazes actually have the same chemical make-up as window glass: it is food safe). It also has a rim. 

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Unicorn V print

Unicorn V
© 2012
5" x 7"
(available as an art print in my Artfire on-line shop HERE
or in my Etsy on-line shop HERE)

New from my art studio!

The story about the piece: the greeting card design has been available since 2009. In order to make a print, I widened the design to include more meadow and also put in stars. 

Here is how the greeting card looks:

Unicorn V greeting card
© 2009
(on cream colored linen cardstock)

And these were both made from my original ceramic sculpture from 2006:

 Unicorn V
© 2006
hand thrown unicorn sculpture

MY ETSY ON-LINE SHOP (seasonal and limited selection)