"Somewhat Unfortunate"

I have a new photograph in my Etsy Shop Rowan DeVoe Arts .  This one is titled "Somewhat Unfortunate" and it is a photograph that I took of my gorgeous, younger sister, Fox, and her Beau in the fields where we grew up.  For reasons unknown, his lot in life is challenged in an unusual way.  Folks could say that he is somewhat unfortunate.

He is forced to hold his head in his hands which seems an awfuly tricky thing to do.  But, we all have something to struggle with.  I sure want to take my head off and put it away sometimes.  Likewise, I am sure he would like to have my problems for a bit.

*

In ancient Greece, there was one day put aside for each person in a village to write down a problem or burden that they carried on a piece of wood or paper and hang it from a common tree.  For that one day, they were all considered free of problems and spent the day celebrating.  It was a dandy of day indeed.  At the end of the day, each person could choose to go to the tree and take on someone else's problem or take back their own. What do you think happened? Well, each person took back their own problem!  Thinking about that helps me get through my days sometimes.

*

I am continuing to add more photographs to my shop so look out for them.  I am editing many photographs that I have taken already(which is of course taking me longer than I thought!).  If you remember a favourite, let me know and I will make sure I add it!

*

Remembrance and support for our folks in all areas of the Military here in the U.S.A.

XO,

merle

A New Blog Post!

"Tess and her Dear Friendly" merle 2011

Finally! I have realized that I am just not the kind of person who can write about the art they create. I can't write about it before, my process, the story, or what it means when I am done. So, I am not going to ever be a great blogger. It is all a private and quiet thing for me. I am my own worse critic as well. Someone else will have to get excited and promote my art. I feel that if I could do that, I couldn't creat my visual art. When I am done with it, I am really done. Then it is off to all of you-you take from it and see in it what you want. Here is another one of my recent paintings, "Tess with her Dear One"-A lovely lady who loves emerald green, Pre-Raphealites, has long dark hair, and who is missing her little cat who died recently. I do love painting these portraits for people. I like that they can help in a small way.

I make most of my gifts. It would be easier to buy something, but I just dare myself to make something out of whatever is in my studio. Both of my nephews had Harry Potter Birthday Parties this year. I made them both gifts like the ones in this photo-a photograph I took at Glastonbury Abbey and edited to look "magical" like it was Hogwarts, a vintage glass bottle with white glass glitter in it, stopped with a cork sealed with white wax with a little note saying, "Phoenix Ashes", a large Peacock Feather dyed orange in a chiffon bag, and a little leather eye kind of patch thing that I made(on of the characters had something like it?). I didn't know what I was doing, I was just happy that they both liked their gifts.

Progress?  I do many sketches at one time and then paint 2 or 3 paintings at a time.  I wear moccasins all the time.  This all makes sense to me!

My home is one huge stack of art, books, altars, textiles, vintage clothing, very old pieces for props in my photos-too much antique furniture for my little place, but furniture I use in my photographs, tons of different kinds of lights, things that glitter, things that are shiney, things that are turquoise or robins egg blue, did I say books? I also have Dorothy's Ruby Red slippers under a glass closque(among other things-the bones of saints, relics from ancient Sumaria, I also have plans for building a Cemetary for Mermaids in here-still working that one out)-I can't get any of this organized and I need to have most of it out so I can see what I am doing and what I can do next.  This is just one little corner where not much is going on.  There are many more areas just like this one with framed art ready to be hung without a wall for it, stacks of books and boxes of this and that, more antique shelves or dressers with all of my treasures-this is the stuff that can't be cleaned up-I have tried!  The large piece is a 3 plate colour reduction monotype I made on my printing press of my Dear Donkey Rosebud(we grew up together and she died when we were both 27).  This piece is a shrine to her.

"Selkie"merle 2011

Finally, I have been working on 2 new series of self-portait photographs-one series is about  female creatures of myth and legend(for that series, I built a "beach" in my house-no big thing).  The other is exploring different themes about what makes a women look like a "Lady"-see!  I am talking to myself in my head again!

"Wearing Pearls" merle 2011

Passing on lots of Love and Light!

The Painting That Started it All and Came Full Circle

The Pre-Raphealite Painting by Millias that I saw and wanted to try and do my own photographic portrait of.

My finished photograph of my version.

Another painting and version of Ophelia which inspired me.

And, two of the photographs that I took in my own verision of it.

This inspired me to dress up as this Ophelia for Halloween one year with one of my art students who wanted to dress up like one of my art dolls. I think she did a really good job!

The doll she dressed up as was the first art doll I ever made. Her name? Ophelia!

Recently, I have started doing digital self-portrait photographs. I took this self-portrait photograph in my own bathtub which I shrouded with dark black fabric, filled to the rim with water and about 4 dozen roses. Why? It has a bit of an "Ophelia" vibe going on.

The more photographs I took, the more I studied the Pre-Raphealites.  The self portrait photograph below is part of my "Prosperine" series which was inspired by Dante Gabriel Rossit's painting above-the famous  "Proserpine"

His imagination and my photograph inspired me to make another one of my art dolls(at this time I had made hundreds of them and learned a lot).  This time, I was focusing on Prosperine's gown and gorgeous, wavy dark hair in the painting. She was to be a gift for dear friend, but ended up in show instead.

(She is in just the beginning phase of getting her costume and hair together in this photo, but now she is done now. More photographs to come!)

Then, after many years of being inspired and making pieces of my own, I was given the opportunity to curate an Art Show in which I asked all the artists to do their own take on the Pre-Raphealites. It was so exciting to see what each artist came up with in their own style!

Above is a large painting that a local artist Justin Cooper did called "Jane Burden Recyled".  I love how he mixed the old with his own unique style!

Almost 15 years later, my original photograph of my first film version of Ophelia was blown up very large as a digital photograph and put in this same show.  No one had ever really seen her, especially this large, and she had never been in one of my shows. What a thrill to come full circle!



Things That I am Thinking About Now

That my sweet Little Mo 1 is has grown up to be a gorgeous and smart LADY!  Here she is modeling on the catwalk which kind of freaks me out because I don't see a trace of little girl-I see amazing woman(in a wicked cool gown made out of car seat belts!).  Wow! where did the time go? She was a wee baby yesterday.  She is such a stunner and so clever and funny!  We always said "YES!" to black lipstick even when we disagreed about everything else so it just too ironic that she is wearing it for this show.

A newly painted portrait of me by DJ Berger of Red-Handed Blogspot

(yes, I shamelessly just stole this image-I can't help it!  He makes me look like how I feel and how I wished I looked!  It's a very deep thing-hard to explain...He does have the family pout down perfectly too.)

I recently got the go ahead from one the Galleries where I work to curate a new art show that I have had on my mind about "New Pre-Raphaelites".  More details soon!  So excited!

New Dolls that are FINALLY getting done! New paintings are finally getting done as well.  And, a big THANK YOU to all the wonderful folks who have been so patient with me through this new illness and are waiting extra long for the commissioned pieces they have requested from me.  This HUGE as I figure out how all of this is going to work out.  I think that I will figure out how to do my art and work and deal with "the sick".  I'm not there yet, but like with most new things, it takes some time.

New and Amazing Jewelry from Jen of Parrish Relics Jewelry(http://www.parrishrelics.com/).  She made Rapunzel(left) for my dear sister/friend Gretchie and Snow white(right) for me.  Both are illustrations by my favourite Children's Book illustrator Trina Schuart Hymen who passed away just a few years ago(she was so close to me when I lived in New England! I am so stupid for not just knocking on her door!).  All her books are magic for me.  Having a piece with her Snow White is more magic thanks to Jen.  Watch this space for more magic!

An AMAZING AND SURPRISE gift of flowers showed up from dear sisters that have really made my week, month, year.  Their abundance of Unconditional Love and support is beyond words.  I am so grateful.  I love this movie as well(who doesn't? this is where I got yet another nickname at University-"Wild Irish Rose"-hehe...and yes, I did have to fall down drunk a few too many times into a trash can or wherever and then yell, 'I'm alright!, I'm alright!'  I find that so funny now.)

Turning those Flowers into head wreath and taking a new series of self portrait photographs to say "thank you" to these dear sisters was a gift to them and to myself.  For a few hours I was lost in a magical land and long past era or painting.  Pay it forward!

Desperate Measures

The Front Window all fancy and such~


Big Hat Books all Sepia-Like


A little table with Saint Valentine's Days offerings of books and decorated boxes by me.


Our dear old house pillar. It came from an Art Gallery I worked at nearly 10 years ago. Many a wonderful thing has been displayed on it and I am very attached to it. I am glad to see it safe and sound at Big Hat. Right now it is displaying a wonderful book about taking the "Hell" out of "Healthy"-love that! and is decorated with sugared fruits and more cut out hearts. Please bury me with this pillar-thanks.


I love this "wee" window. I made the little sign beneath it. It says, "Unattended children will be given an expresso and a puppy. Thank You, The Management." No, it doesn't say that! It says, "Adults who don't attend to their children will leave this store with their children and 2 puppies. Thank You, The Management". That's better right?

Since I have been so out of it, I decided to go ahead and do the window displays for Big Hat Books and Arts here in Broad Ripple Village. I call this my "practice art". I got some pretty papers and ribbon and made foot after foot of hearts garlands which I hung all over the store to make it pretty for Saint Valentine's Day and to display with all our new books. To me, it looks just like my 2nd grade class room on Saint Valentine's Day-hehe.


The super crazy thing? This took me FOREVER! I am moving really slow these days. I had to take Desperate Measures to get all of this done which also included dressing for the part. That meant I forced myself to fix my hair(kind of), wear my nicest old levis and vintage cardigans, and I even pulled out lip gloss! I know! How crazy have I become? Desperate Times call for Desperate Measures indeed.


A little area of Saint Valentine Cards-more to come!

The Amazing Photography of Susan Knight of Visual Musing Photography

Introducing the lovely and talented photographer Susan Knight of Visual Musing Photography! I have had to take it easy with my own art. I am going to try to work on some sketches today and little things, but I wanted everyone to check out Susan's photography. She is also a fabulous friend and sweet, thoughtful person-what a gift!

Susan's Version of my "Ash and Thorns" Series~ I don't think I could do this with one of her series or anyone's series if I tried and tried! Susan is so uber talented!




My Version


Her Version-she even made a crown and painted on her own "tattoos"!



My Version


Her Version-Her "Merle Hair" is a wig-it looks flawless! She even made her version of the cuff I am wearing-a gift from my dear friend Firuzan in Turkey(along with my crown)


My Version


Her Version-Look how great she got the tattoo! She did such an amazing job on the background too as well as the overall feeling of the the whole series-I am still in awe!

Inspiration from my Paintings, Monotypes and Art Dolls-specifically, their painted faces-my take on tribal face painting.





Inspiration from my Self Portraits



And, All Susan! Wow! FABULOUS!


You can find Susan's amazing photographs and more about her at her website "Visual Musings" HERE.

Susan take photographs of just about everything and they are just breath taking. She is also an amazing self portrait artists and can morph herself into just about anyone, including me! She looked through my photo stream on Flickr and came up with these amazing photographs where she has posed as "me"! I was so surprised and really honoured. She did such an awesome job! She has combined several photographs together for some of the photographs and also added in the look of my paintings, monotypes, and art dolls. I was really overwhelmed so I wanted to share my version and then her's. And, she is wearing a long wig-who knew?

When our other photo friends saw Susan's photos they screamed, "they are so MERLE!".

This made me so happy because 1)it means that I haven't lost myself in the hardships of the last few years and 2)it also means that I may actually have some tangible thing for people to go on when they think of me-something original which makes me so happy too. I have never wanted to do the mainstream thing so this is so important to me. Many thanks again and again Susan!

Thank you Magician Susan! You have made my year and so soon in!