vol. 25
I first was introduced to Jessica Rose, the beauty and brains behind vol25, last March via Indie Fixx’s Free Your Soul art project. Imagine my giddiness when I saw that she was the next contributor here at the BSP! Jessica, a self-taught artist, was a quarter of a century old when she opened the door to her Etsy shop. This journey was likened to a new volume in her life and vol25 was born.
It is easy to see the inspiration in her work. Her art combines whimsy and beauty with color and love. Looking for a Valentine’s gift? Surprise your beloved with a customized ‘do all things with love’ print. I don’t even celebrate Valentine’s Day and I’m tempted to break my own rules with this one. While perusing her shop, I envisioned room after room in my house decorated with her prints. My daughter’s room needs ‘love who you are’ and I will hang ‘i will be grateful for this day’ next to my front door, just to remind myself. Or maybe I’ll head over to her Zazzle shop and pick up a tshirt/coffee mug/keychain trifecta. Having this much sweet art at my fingertips is promising, indeed.
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Miss Krista is a mother, a lover and a big believer in the power of a cupcake. she loves double entendres but is not a fan of the high-five. she blogs about the corners of her heart at my life as i see it.
Yay Chucks are my fave!
I have a lot of art in my house that I have painted, drawn and been given.
But I have to say, the one that speaks the most to me would be my mirror.
My fiance and his daughter have done collaborative paintings that I adore. She did the drawing as a 3 year old and he painted them as she dictated. They’re wonderful, bright and funny, just like the 2 of them!
Flaming June, Sir Frederic Leighton
My husband and I had one of our first dates at the National Gallery of Art and Flaming June was displayed prominently upon entering. It was one of those moments that I can’t put into words. The beauty, the bold colors, the serenity…breathtaking. Unbeknownst to me, my husband bought a print, framed it and gave it to me for my birthday 3 years later. It was quite the surprise. It now hangs in our bedroom contrasting nicely with the slate blue walls. I feel so fancy when I see it and smile a lot!
i LOVE jessica’s art! too bad i don’t have any. if you can consider a tea towel in a frame art, its one of my faves because a wonderful friend gave it to me last year when she went back home to scotland for a visit.
I have Andrew Wyeth’s Dog on Bed Poster in my bedroom. I feel such a sense of piece looking at that image. I love the monochromatic colors.
This may sound silly but I decorated my daughters’ room with butterflies on one wall and it makes me smile every time. It’s in a sweet little flourish and just abounds with their energy. Every time I look at that wall I get all warm and fuzzy.
I have a small collection of a great local artist, Alynn Guerra. She is a printmaker and a lot of her works focus on the cycle of life, which i think is very beautiful. The first piece I ever bought of hers is of a bicycle in black ink that says “red bicycle” . When i walk by i feel a great sense of pride because she is unique and beautiful and from where i live. :)
My hand carved cuckoo clock. Each time it cuckoos we smile.
They all do. I wouldn’t keep something in my home just to keep it; everything has to have meaning and memory, or there is no room for it. I cannot understand people who collect things as though their life depended on it – things are meant to compliment our lives and make them easier, not to fill a void.
That said, if there was a terrible fire, the one thing I would run up the stairs to save is the tiny green painting my uncle brought home from Haiti in 1972. It has big, strange birds painted among abstract branches and all the colors are wrong and ugly, but I have had that painting since I was a tiny infant and it has moved across world oceans and vast continents with me.
My fridge is a piece of art!!
I have a small retro fridge with a white door but nobody could say that the door is white… there are postcards from my friends, a photo of my brothers and I when we were younger, the illustration of a big orange cat (it was the top of a box containing a cake), a few post it notes with inspiring words, an handpainted smiling sun on a little stone with a magnet on the back which reminds me to smile every day (I painted it myself), a letter from a dear friend of mine telling me that she was going to have a baby, a silk sunflower, a small ladybug made of wood, photos of my family, a painting I made when I was in the infant school… Small pieces of art all together to remind me that life is wonderful :)
currently i’m loving a piece my best friend illustrated for us to use on the cover of a booklet to be distributed at our upcoming indie art & craft show in texas. she drew me, my husband, and our chihuahua shopping at a cool event. it is fantastic! i love how she interpreted us. it’s framed & hanging in our living room now.
i have the “stay calm and carry on”, which i love, but next to it, i have another British propaganda poster, which is “your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory”. it’s in my bedroom, and reminds me that my life is in my hands, and it’s what i make it. i guess you could say it’s kinda like my mantra. i need to rely on myself and have a good attitude about everything that is thrown my way.
i meant i have the “keep calm and carry on”…… :)
there art in the current house I’m living in would be my
crafty projects. the in-laws are not much of a painting
people and so, I have to create my craft stuff in order
to have some art in life.
My husband was in Haiti several years ago, and there was a painter on the street doing huge paintings of Haitian life. He brought home a painting that’s about 3′ x 4′ of Haitians welcoming American troops as they dropped emergency packets from a cargo plane above, and other soldiers coming to their aid in camouflage military ships. The colors are beautiful. The people are beautiful. The situation is heartbreaking. And now, some 15 years later – this painting comes to life on the news each night.
This is going to sound odd. My mother painted a fish floating in the desert with glossed over eyes staring into a bowl of fruit. It doesn’t bring out any deep emotion in me, but I love it. And some days I will walk by it and have to stop and think of her and my childhood. It has always been defining to all of the things that make me happy, without reason.
The little flower in our kitchen. There’s something so simple about it that I love. [:
I have a painting of a woman standing under an umbrella that I painted a few years ago. It’s my favorite because I always thought painting people would be too difficult. And on my first try I produced something that surprised myself. So it’s a reminder that I shouldn’t decide something can’t be done before trying.
I have a painted art piece of a naked woman from the waist up in my home that I just adore. The piece is not of anyone in particular, but I feel it encompasses the beauty that is a woman’s body. The curves are not over exaggerated, and the piece is simple, yet colorful.
I just love it because any piece that can show the beauty that is a woman without degradation deserves a second look and deserves to be appreciated by the masses. Woman are to be respected and although the woman in my picture is without clothing never do I feel that she has been compromised in any way and that makes me happy. :)
I’m not sure if these count as art but I think they do so here goes: In my stairway I have these two framed handkerchiefs. Each hankie has a fairy tail on it but I’ve never been able to figure out what fairy tale. My grandfather brought these hankies back from Germany after WWII. They always spark a child-like wonderment and curiosity in me, and they are a constant reminder to always try to look at things from a different perspective and outside of the box because one day I will figure out what these fairy tales are because I looked at the hankie from a different angle. They are also extremely important to me because they are from my grandfather and he was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s!
i bought a lovely piece from DazeyChick on etsy that says “Love is everything it’s cracked up to be”… it’s a beautiful design, simple and with a classic message. this piece is hanging next to our kitchen (my husband and i are newlyweds!) and reminds me that the work is worth it–not just with love but with everything in life.
I made a mural with my little sister once. Even though I took part in making it, It’s definatly the piece of art work that speakes to me the most. She orchestrated everything about it, I love how silly it is, and I love how much fun it was making it with her.
After my son was baptized I thought to myself “what am I going to do with his baptisimal outfit, just hang it in the closet and let it collect dust?” I decided no dust here, and so I made a ceramic doll that looks just like my son and put the doll into his baptisimal outfit. Everytime I look at that piece of art, that I made, it reminds me of that day, the family and friends that helped us celebrate.
Thank you for the opprotunity!!
I made photo art of me and my family & I love that because it’s so personal and I made it
I have a painting of a little girl in blue cowboy boots that says, “your boots might be made for walking, but mine are made to kick your ass.” It says that like the little girl, I might look sweet, but I’m really tough as nails.
portraits of my children as babies…so innocent!
I have a painting of a local river that my mom did in college for my grandparents. When they couldn’t take it with them when they moved, it was passed down to me and hangs on my apartment wall above the couch. It’s the only piece I had the motivation to frame and keep nice in the whole place!
I had a watercolour painting done of our entire family and friends names for our wedding day. We had it made as an underwater scene with a branch of coral instead of a normal family tree and everyone is a different type of fish. It’s beautiful and reminds us of that gorgeous day.
I have a print of the back of the Sistine Chapel. After going through a truly horrific 4 year divorce, having no money, I decided to throw out fear. My two sons & I went to Italy. The trip was incredibly healing for the three of us. That picture serves as a reminder not to let fear of the future/unknown/etc. prevent the entrance of joy and love.
I have two paintings that my friend, Tammy, created for me. They are simple. Black-line paintings on cream paper of small characters–one a boy and one a girl. One has the caption”Born in Blue” and the other has the caption, “Before you.”
She gave them to me when I fell in love with my husband and they are exactly the sentiments of my life before him and now.
I will never part with them. They’re precious to me and I look at them at least once every day!
I have an original Kurt Halsey piece that still amazes me every time I look at it.
We have a charcoal sketch that my husband drew of our son when he was around 2 years old. It is a life-size portrait and captures our son’s intensity in minimal strokes. My husband created it in about 15 minutes and though we have other pieces he has created that have taken much more time and are much more complicated — I always go back to this sketch as my favorite. I think it is the simplicity of the piece that grabs me.
Dried pressed flowers pasted on tile, covered with urethane, and framed…all the different flora are reminders time, places, fragrances, and friends.
My favorite piece would have to be this watercolor painting my little sister did when she was seven. It’s a picture of a horse. Nothing on the horse is the ‘right’ color. The horse is an array of colors, with a beautiful rainbow mane. She didn’t even outline the horse in all one color- it’s several different colors and lines. I love it so very much. It has made many many moves with me. It’s full of the whimsy and imagination that children harness. Every time I look at it I think of her and our childhood. It always makes me a bit wistful.
I LOVE these shoes!!
This painting I did that is bright yellow. It’s a very happy painting and it also has been best friends flowers from her wedding hanging on it so it always inspires me and reminds me of happy things.
I have an old ceiling tile from my great-great-grandfather’s geneal store that’s been framed. Of all the art in my house, it speaks to me the most.
my paintings of my dog, zephyr. I painted them based off of one of my first photos of her… they are on my stairwell and when I ever I come home, they make me smile; not only because I painted them myself but that they are off my goofy puppy.
First I have to say how much I love this! I personally have zero talent in the art department, but I love it- I especially love “whimsy” things. My most favorite thing in my home is a trypic (sp) painting that my mom did. Each painting has a girl in it doing a different pose. We called it “The Dancing Girls”. She used mostly oils, but also fabric for their clothes to give more texture. Love it!
I LOVE art!! My home and office are filled with some very special pieces. But, I have to say, my very favorite is an original piece from a Native artist friend. The painting is of the prayer tree during the Sun Dance ceremony. Hundreds of ribbons on the tree represent each prayer that has been brought to the Sun Dancers for the ceremony. The tree is covered in hundreds of different colored ribbons. It is beautiful…peaceful…inspiring…and a prayer all wrapped in one. I feel blessed to own it.
i have a couple monoprints by a local Portland artist – she layers paper on her prints, then afterwards takes some of the paper off to create cool textures and shapes. i love the collage, layering idea and then seeing what lies underneath it. i think it’s just like us – a bunch of experiences make us what we are and then we see what we’re made of!
I had a massive life change at the age of 30, but I kept making amazingly bad “boyfriend choices” for the next few years. My best friends then were this couple, and they taught art. I would constantly end up over their house whining about this or that.
One day the husband, Mike sat me down. He said “Gail, we love you and can’t do anything to help you about these messes you get yourself into. Since you won’t do anything to change this behavior, we DO NOT WANT TO HEAR IT ANYMORE. You can always come over and we love you, but no more complaining about Mr. X” So moved by this I made a decision to try and change.
After a year of no more nonsense I got a call from them and when I went over their house they presented me with a painting in honor of me growing up about relationships. It’s been 22 years since them, and I am almost 15 years married to a wonderful man, have a beautiful 10 year old daughter, and that painting hangs in my house. Every time I see it I am reminded of the power of friends telling me the truth!
why my shoes of course…..the ever evolving state of an everyday item that is so loved is always my favorite art !
My piano, if that counts ;) the shape of a piano is so beautiful. i look over at the one in my house, and my inners scream “will some one play that thing already?!”
My husband and I have pictures everywhere! We have so many pictures and really love finding ways to bring memories in our home!!!
I have lots of things I love, but I a particular item that is very special to me. It’s a very old picture (drawing? print?) of an angel ascending to heaven with a poem under it and the name and birth and death dates of my great-grandfather, who died in 1913. (I have no idea what this kind of thing is called. Memento mori?) I found it in my grandparents’ basement years ago and claimed it as my own. Not only is it unique and a bit odd, it’s got a great antique look to it, and it’s part of my family history. I wouldn’t part with it for anything.
I have a picture on my wall that says “Be true to who you are” – which I try to stick to. Ive spent so many years trying to be whoever I thought people wanted me to be but have come to realise that I need to be me to be happy!
My son’s paintings! He’s 4 1/2. I’m particularly fond of his “Giant Sun with Airplane” and his ongoing series of train paintings. His “Matching Mittens” piece ponders the effects of cold on a playground. My favorite painting is his rendition of the game “Monkey Bash”.
A seascape that my mother-in-law painted for my husband and myself. It depicts the beach we were married on.
I love a Camilla Engman print I have in my bedroom. It was the first gift my husband gave me after our marriage!