a new design...come with me to the fair...

one of the best times it seems for me to start thinking of new designs is often while i'm painting another design....i start lulling around in my mind the colors that i'm using, or colors that i haven't pulled out for some time....sometimes i will pull out bottles and bottles of shades and move them around on my paint table to discover all new combinations that thrill me and jot them in my notepad for later use...


last week i had a day where i blocked on my calendar 'create'....well sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't....sometimes i'm in a totally different mind frame, accounting, cleaning or busy paperwork....so if that's the case i switch it to another day for i know from experience you either have the creative spirit that day or you don't....and those 'don't' days always mean something will not come to fruition....and i won't like the finished piece.


i decided on making a gee's bend piece (the final piece in the collection)....in blues and creams and began researching the original quilt maker on the internet...it is a heartfelt piece because of her life, the story of her life, her spirit.  it was moving....and i felt i wanted to hang on to it a bit longer in my head, swirling colors with patterns and her spirit...i wasn't ready to create it and then come to its end....i wanted to savor each piece awhile longer....


so....i decided to research antique game boards....and when i found this piece i was tickled...an entire different feeling of creating - a 'i must have one because it's fun' feeling, and i know exactly where i will hang it when i'm done...




most of my reproduction pieces are from the 1800's but every now and then i will find one from the 1900's that i must attempt to figure out, to blend those colors just so and see if i'm anywhere near what is before my eyes and in my mind...

my newest piece is titled "wheel of fortune" for my heart is that of a child of the fair and the circus....if i could rewrite my life i would've been in the traveling circus; raised by performing parents and therefore learning how to walk the trapeze at a young age or swing from up high....i love the tents, the colors, the sparkly gowns along with the scents of food and animals - i love the little girl thoughts of an exciting traveling life...as an adult i know otherwise as we all do now; but sometimes i can escape back to the innocence of a child and her dreams before i knew the realities...now i was telling my sister about my new design and how i love the fair and the circus (which she doesn't) and she said she loved the game show 'wheel of fortune' and it reminded her of that; so i guess that's another way to look at it!


the piece was dated 1937 and signed by G. Yeager....that is all that i know about the piece other than the lines through the center were to "look like wires", the appraiser thought....and it was sold for $4,500.


this is a limited edition of 15 pieces and then it will be retired permanently.


19"x19"
$220.00
gold, off white, red and black

if you would like to browse other game board designs just click on the link to my site:

www.dallison.squarespace.com