"Wonderland" inspired collage

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Art Institute of Chicago

Lewis Carroll strikes again: Apparently "Alice in Wonderland" inspired some Victorian aristocrats to move beyond scrapbooking into collage. Off with the heads of their friends and family... onto watercolor paintings. Outstanding.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Art Institute of Chicago

The Met is hosting an exhibition organized by the Art Institute of Chicago called "Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage." If I weren't up to my chin in Artfest and book signing prep, I'd totally go to this exhibition. Okay, if I were in New York and weren't up to my chin in prep work...

If you're within driving distance of the Met, go for me and let me know what it's like!

The new books are here! The new books are here!

Can I just tell you how much fun it is to see someone dive into your book...

... and hear them marvel over it as if it was a present just for them?

I don't know who was more excited to pore over Mixed-Media Dollhouses:

me, Dawn Brown (on the left) or Dawn Westmoreland (on the right)  at Everett Artist's Supply & Framing.

Dawn W. had loved the idea of Mixed-Media Dollhouses from the start, and she was eager to host the book signing on March 19th. But when the books for the signing actually came in, we were all just floored at the beauty of the book itself.

Shiny lettering on the cover and the spine... soft blue endsheets and flyleafs with a subtle sparkle.. and the dollhouse rooms. The rooms!

It's still a little hard to believe the book is real.

I mean, each time I finished a room, I couldn't wait to show Tally, Julie and my fellow artist-contributors. Their rooms spurred me on to the next room to design.

And when Tally broke the news that the publishing paperwork had been signed and we really were going to be in a book, I was ecstatic.

But I keep thinking: "Wow, it looks like a real book and everything." The weight of the book in your hands, the smell of the freshly printed paper as the cover opens... man. That's like ten different kinds of outstanding.

So come see (and smell and pick up) the book for yourself.

Tally and I will be at the Everett Artist's Supply, Friday, March 19th from 5-7pm. You now have seventeen days to find a babysitter, inform your boss that you have a Thing you have to go that night, and plot the quickest way for you and your friends to get here.

Sunny days

I have been having quite the day days recently!

It's back to the usual gray today, but we had nearly a full week of real sunshine here in Extremely Blue State! Six days of sun! We usually get half that for the full month of February.

I have to run off to a meeting, but here are a few highlights of what we've been up to around the castle:

I've set up two book signings for Mixed-Media Dollhouses! Two! The first one will be at Everett Artist's Supply & Framing. Tally and I will be signing books and being all expert about our cigar-box house assemblages. I'm so excited that I've been able to set these signings up, I'm practically jumping out of my skin! And I'm also working on adding something to the Artfest goodie bag -- just have to get it into Teesha's hands.

 

The Boy's fifth birthday -- good Lord, five years already! He's big enough for his first skateboard. The Husband had so much fun teaching him to use it, he wanted to get his own.

(A friend of The Husband's reality-checked him and reminded him that skateboards and being over 40 years old only work out well for the producers of "America's Funniest Home Videos.")

Smiles all around me, I tell ya!