Saturday, April 7, 2012

Angels Amoung Us....

Most people will admit to believing in angels. There are real life angles and we see these in the faces of those we love. There are also the Spiritual angels that we sometimes recognize after we have been touched by one...that uncanny feeling that something wonderful just happened...we just can't put our finger on it. I have been interested in angels since I was a small child, I was anything but an angel, but I believed they existed. I have created a series of what I call TOMB STONE angels....the Primitive version, of course. The first one is named Anne, which means "Gracious and Merciful." She is Welsh....She is a strawberry blond and has beautiful green eyes. I used a vintage quilt for her wings. The design is a portion of the wedding ring design from a vintage quilt piece. I used The Gentile Art wool thread....which I happen to love for all my Primitive stitching...so soft and the colors are yummy. Her wing span is 14 inches and she sits 6 inches tall. She is my own original design. Anne is for sale for $30.00. If you'd like Anne to fly to your nest....email me...sfogle@rochester.rr.com

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Choices

Every day we get to choose. We are a combination of our choices from the beginning. I have always been an artist. I have had a calling in my soul for as long as I can remember to create. Even as a little girl growing up in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, I lived with the magical world surrounding me. "Being an artist is not practical." "You need to really be focused." "Stop daydreaming." "You are not good enough." I still hear it all each and every time I step forward to create, but the scoffing voices are getting quieter. I pay very little attention any more. I look at what I do...make dolls, critters, pin keeps, and I love them. I know those who purchase my work love them too. Many do not. I was once told, "I'd be hard pressed to like anything that you do." I was shocked to be told that...then I smiled. It is about the creative muse, not the critic. My biggest complement was from a gentleman who continually came to buy my dolls. One day I asked what he did with them...were they gifts? He laughed and said they decorated his office. He was an engineer. He said he was collecting a group of creatures to help him keep perspective of his own work. He said that all of his purchases had formed a dysfunctional family with way too much inbreeding! When he looked at them...he smiled and remembered what was really important...SIMPLICITY. He said my work made him smile, especially a rabbit I had named Festus...he was sure he had turned into a Blue Grass fan because of Festus's face!  No greater complement than that!
    So I say choose to create and let nothing stop your journey. I am 65 years young and I am finally starting to "Get It" Choose all that is good for your Soul. Choose to be unstopable. Choose to dream. Choose to use God's gifts. I choose to be a Folk Artist......Blessed Be !

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Benji Comes of Age

I haven't written since we had Benji move in with us. I really have been speechless. He is like living with an ANIMAL!  I know that is hard to believe, he is just so darn cute. I have been captured by this ball of fur and I no longer have a life of freedom. He consumes everything, I mean literally. Benji eats every thing that has the misfortune of falling on the floor. It might be a morsel of food, today's mail, a photo, a paycheck, Benji is not choosey. It enters his mouth and come out in slivers of what used to be. He is my constant companion as I sew, paint and create...he creates as well. I designed a beautiful angel with delicate wings...he ate the wing pattern. I wrote a story for one of my Simply Primitive offerings... Eaten....I feed him chewies, he eats my linen thread. I talk to him endlessly about manners and he eats my used tea bag. My Primitive offerings have a whole new look to them...aged by little teeth... and puppy mouth.  I seldom yell anymore...but I do laugh a lot. I did cry when he ate my hearing aid, I must admit, but he never heard me, he was off to a new adventure...chasing a kitty. I am glad to have this fur ball in my life, mess and all. I just have the feeling like I am living with an ANIMAL...and that surely can't be..can it?