The Beauty of Blight

Growing up in Michigan inculcated an innate respect, admiration and admission of the inherent beauty of dilapidation. The Midwest, as a part of the Rust Belt, is an area fertile with forests, farms and wetlands, as well as abandoned factories, blighted homes and cracked, busted and overgrown parking lots no longer in use. 


I'm working again on making paintings about the relationship between this environment and it's inhabitants. What follows are some of the images I've found while researching.

"Spring Has Sprung, and So Am I!"

"Spring has sprung, and so am I!"  --John Prakapas


Disturbingly early springtime temperatures allowed early planting this year (daffodils in January? wtf)! Now I'm swimming in all kinds of garden treasures (about 1/3 of them proudly started from seed!). Adam has taken to calling our back porch "Jumanji", to which I reply with a self-satisfied grin.



There have been a few setbacks this year: hail, which crushed many of my tender seedlings and broke my dinosaur kale to bits like a tornado of angry, drunken toddlers, not to mention the has been a slow, non-fatal damage to some plants which were caused by aphids. Oh, aphids. I've never dealt with them before and I hope I never see them again. I'm out there everyday before watering with a spray bottle filled with liquid soap and water, cursing at those evil little beasts. BEASTS!!! *fist shaking in air* I can only imagine what my neighbors think of the crazed maniac on the Jumanji-like porch, stringing together a long line of insults at her plants.

Foxglove seedlings.

Hens and chicks that survived the winter.

Eggs with sage and wilted kale and spinach; first meal of the season from the garden!

Gorgeous Dinosaur Kale!!!

A rogue marigold seedling sprouted in on of my old pots, so now she gets her own! 

Rosemary topiary (thanks to Gethsemane) and peanuts!

Sedum waging a proud battle against aphids!

Tomatoes!!!

Lavender!!!

Kittens!!!

XOXO,

N

Swinging in the Rain

Getting back in the swing of things now. 

I just met this amazing woman named Hilary Schwartz who runs her own business called Estera Events. I have a design crush on this woman. You should definitely check out her website, blog, and Pinterest account. 

Just a taste of her design world: Morton's Salt Wedding (sounds odd, but is executed in a playful and sophisticated way).

Oh, Mary, Mary.

I'm perusing my favorites on etsy.com (brilliant idea to head there for art, lovely Jess), loving all of the gorgeous wares and I felt compelled to share the site miss quite contrary. It's a dreamy and odd place, filled with aging strange photographs and eerie antique medical illustrations, and rife with images of a midwestern landscape that, most likely, only exists in my memory. I will most definitely purchase items from her shop for the re-creation of my bedroom.

If one has any sense for the strange, wonderful and slightly creepy, one simply must visit miss quite contrary. Mustn't one?

And then there's this lil' guy, with whom I am in love:

In other news, the lace balls are halfway done and photos are coming soon. Them bitches are super time consuming to create (sweet baby J!)! Regardless, things are moving along. I now have an adult owl and an owlet in my room, one wall completed, and wallpaper on it's way. 

Dear Jess, 

Eye <3 U and miss you like stupit-craaaazy, yo. Wish our brains could have a reunion. 

Lovelovelove, 

N

Art Buying Blitz

So, of course, we are on the same wavelength despite the distance between us. How immensely comforting is that? I am also re-decorating my bedroom as, *gasp*, I have finally moved my sewing studio to a new location. That's not my house. Or more specifically, my bedroom.

Huge.

This is huge.

My purchases so far have included a 100 year old whitewashed wrought iron bed frame and a wardrobe trunk form the same era. I'm on the hunt for a dresser. Torn between juxtaposing a mid-century piece with the antiques or staying on theme. Thoughts?
I have the paint narrowed down to four shades of soft black. I'm making a cave.

The most fun I've had, however, is buying art on Etsy. I tried to keep to an ethereal, slightly dark (contradictory?)moody palate and subject matter.

Here's what I got:

Lovely Print of Northern Ireland by Marco Suarez.


A great deal on an artists proof from the series Human Nature and a large scale black and white poster by Debbie Carlos.

And a few small airy prints from British artist Olivia Jeffries.

How to make lace balls...no, not those kinds of balls. Decorative balls.

Long time no see-es!

I'm embarking on a project to make little droplet-like balls that I saw in one of my favorite Chicago stores, Asrai Garden.

My lovely friend, Katie, and I popped in there the other day and these magnificently delicate balls made from lace caught our attention. They hung from the ceiling as a part of the window dressing. Gorgeous.

I'm currently re-designing my bedroom and the style I'm going for is the deep dark woods, a dream forest. Darren Waterston's paintings (especially his earlier works) are a huge inspiration for my room and something about the orbs hanging in Asrai's storefront reminded me of some of the ethereal objects that live in his paintings.

So I've decided to make them. I'm planning on making them into a large installation over the bed in my bedroom. I'd like to string up chandelier crystals and some kind of lights up in there too. I'll let you know how it goes.

As of tonight, I'm cutting out the lace, then imma gonna sew 'em right up around balloons. I'm still dealing with the problem of how to make the lace stiff. PVA? Rabbit glue? Elmers glue? I even researched clear acrylic spray paint? Time will tell and I'll share my results!

All my hugs,

N

Eliot Lee Hazel

The lovely Hannah Louise just posted Eliot Lee Hazel's work on facebook and I couldn't shake the urge to post it on We Two. I'll post a few here, but do yourself a favor and check out the website.