a picture is a thousand words....

i really think the picture says it all about judy....she is someone you want to know. she is sooo funny. and what a wonderful mixture, judy's personality mixed in with the chunks of broken plates, found objects, rocks, memorabilia and endless ideas...and they are cemented perfectly together.

i wanted to introduce you to judy, i found her years ago, showing her work on t.v., and was amazed with her mosaics, and immediately it sent my mind spinning. being an artist, i tend to go for the not ordinary....something handmade, something differently wonderful.

needing house numbers, since our little towns system was changed, and we were required to have them...judy made an incredible house number sign for my home, and it is perfect. done in wonderful colors, amazing design, and then judy's personal style....corn on the cob handles, representing my grandpa's old farm, pop bottle tops, my sons favorite flavor, and the kooky figures, for a kooky family....dominoes numbered out around the border....spelling out the families birthdays....it has my heart.

judy makes frames, portraits, furniture....you name it, she will create it...and you can send her your mementos and she adds them to your piece, or she will add her own found objects, it's all up to you... you must check out her site, listed to the left...and be sure to check out the "school" category, where you can actually see murals, it's amazzzzing...

her work is all commission, so be thinking way ahead of time of things you would love, she's a busy girl!

coming soon....

judy sell....i just love her!!! i'll write more soon!

when you're out....

when you're out be sure to check out the april/may issue of old home interiors....two of my pieces were featured in their shopping guide, page 25....(the star of rosalie, which is always nice, because i had designed that piece for my mother), and the off white round chinese checker. The publicity.....ohhhh how that's a wonderful thing for any artist, for without the kindness' of these magazines, we would never be found...

many of us would not have this wonderful opportunity to create our work, raise kids at home, and feed our souls....we would instead be forced into that work force....and i for one have been told (more than once) that i probably couldn't make it out there.....due to my choice of dress being just one reason....my father always told me i dressed.....well, funny. hmmmm....my problem (as they see it) is that i believe that everything goes together if there is a shade of a similar color anywhere else in another item....so many many layers can really go together....i can't wait to show him my new knee-high red suede moccasins .....(and yes, they do go with everything!)

cardinals and blue jays were singing in my ears earlier...i just love those blue jays...they remind me of a gang of teenage boys....always causing havoc, they always make me laugh. for the past years they haven't been around my home, but less cats i believe may mean more blue jays? today we also added to our 'family'....1 fish...

so that gives us 1 strange cat, 2 labs (1 very odd), and one beagle, (faster than heck at a getaway) ...hmmm....sounds like a feeding chain to me.

great fun today in the studio....finished up some of your boards and carefully packed....off to california....and texas. the day ended up to be not full of rain so i was able to take in some spring sun and cool breezes sanding boards and sanding molding...i just love it when i can work outside, except when i have to go out in the winter....my rule this winter changed to not working outside if it was below 30....i guess that's fair enough...worked also painting some of the trim in the studio, will i ever get done....chartreuse does go with fuchsia....it really does! and calmed my painting colors to work on some farm game boards....boy they are flying out the door! do you know how hard it is to mix that blue?!! also received some nice mail from you that have received boards lately, which is always nice to hear back that i did fit in that perfect place!

well best be off for now...dogs are staring, it's just a matter of time before they start trying to climb up on me......

i love these....

lana manis, honeysuckle lane...you know how i love to talk about the other artists that i know and show off the wonderful things that they have handcrafted....

i met lana while surfing on the internet, i don't recall how in the world i found her, it's a big world out there in www land...i immediately feel in love with these wonderful puzzle purses...she was selling them for giving as valentines cards, and of course, i missed out, they were gone in minutes.

lana's pieces are folded with history and her learning from her parents as a child, and that attracts me immediately, it is the basis of all my pieces. inspirations and the original ideas come from her collection of research and books...these wonderful pieces were given back in the late 1700's and you feel that, they are very dear. her work is precise, india ink and watercolors and family and history are all interwoven into her pieces...

i myself have ordered one of the beautiful may day baskets that she created, based on designs from the late 1800's...and hopefully will not miss the new puzzle cards that she is creating right now to honor mothers...lanis doesn't just create with papers though, she touches all art surfaces from neddlework and framed paintings to exquisite dolls and beautiful cards...i don't think she must ever sleep, and her mind must be whirling with ideas...

lana manis, honeysuckle lane....her site is listed to the left....i will warn you though, she makes a handful of her pieces and they are gone......so if you love her work, as i do, you will want to be sure to sign up for her e-mail list!

look below for another beautiful piece.....i just can't wait to see what she creates next...

coming soon....

lana manis of honeysuckle lane....

such beautiful puzzle purses ....

the birds are singing....finally

thought i'd take a couple of days away from the studio, refresh the mind, see new artists work, and just wander...

i went from the appalachian mountains over to the smoky mountains.....you just won't get me to leave the mountains, i don't see a point to it, i have it all right here. but a mountain is not just a mountain...i was raised around the smoky mountains, so i really appreciate the darker color and the look of smoke weaving in and out in the night and early morning....they are rounder, and seem to hold their own mysteries...and it moves me to think of the cherokees making their home at the base of the rivers...

but then it rained, and then it snowed, and then it rained and snowed even more.....then out came the clearer skies heading towards home....as i was climbing the appalachians, which are much higher than the smokies, i began seeing cars coming down with piles of snow on their hoods.....ah oh.....and yes, arriving home, this is just how the trees looked....it was too beautiful to make you worry about the gardens damage, school out yet another day....digging out to go get some food tomorrow....and all the other perils of a late snow....so for all of you that are experiencing the snow, winds and floods that today brought, i hope you can find a small piece of joy, laugh, or appreciation for this earths many moods....

and as far as art goes....i enjoyed seeing so many mountain artists and of course began collecting even more...and will find the perfect home for them amongst all my other handmade collections...and just to let you know, i am working on new designs in between making pieces for you, so i will be showing a new board to you to pause over titled "ruth" next week...

what a fun surprise....

what a fun surprise to have a visitor in the studio today! not only did i meet a new customer but also made a new friend....margo came all the way from california...(no...not just to see me!)...and figured she would only be a couple of hours away so wanted to come and check out my studio!

she was looking for something special as a gift for a friend, and new her friend loved my work...her being from the city....and me from...well almost the middle of nowhere, right off the bat asked if i really am this far away from everything and i knew exactly what she meant.

it reminded me of when i first left the city to move to a small town...i was so aggravated with how sllllooooowwwww everybody and everything was here....i would say it took a good few months before i finally realized it wasn't the town, it was just me, i needed to adapt, after all this is why i moved here, to slow down and to enjoy the mountains.

you stop to visit and watch families grow bigger, talking about the weather of course....a lot of the people here are transplants, just like me...and you do stop for the views and can actually think to yourself, this is heaven. slow moving rivers, songs of birds, old arrowheads still needing to be dug up, and the rain of water given off from the lab after her swim...you can walk in town on any given summer day and hear somebody playing music, banjo, fiddle or guitar...i've actually heard bagpipes from who knows where?

i tried a cell phone...for awhile.....i saw my first blackberry when tisha from country living came here last month, i'd only seen them on tv....i got a microwave last year. i've had that life, and i loved every minute of the city, but for this time in my life, i prefer this view for a morning walk with belle my beagle...

the world is smaller than we think....

On March 29, 2007, the Shiveluch Volcano on the Russian Federation's Kamchatka Peninsula erupted, sending an ash cloud skyward roughly 9,750 meters (32,000 feet).

it is a small world....sometimes it is so hard for me to believe that the wood that i use to make each game board is from far away russia....the thought of all the people who may have touched or had some small part in this before it landed in my hands leaves me awestruck....what a journey it took to reach my studio....this is why i leave my own handprint as my signature on the back of each board....to remind me that i am just a small part of the final piece....and it is completed when you receive the piece and place your hand upon mine.....

i don't need anymore fun at work....

when i got to the computer this morning....on my internet page is a 'positive thought', i generally don't read these, i'm pretty darn positive all the time....but it caught my eye...it was about having fun at work....i just had to read on!

but i have to tell you that if i had anymore fun, good times or giggles at work, i would certainly just have to close down....i need the opposite in thinking....i had a comment the other day asking what a day is for me....i hate to admit it, it's rather embarrassing....but i'm spoiled rotten.

my hours vary....lately they have really been upside down....and i think that has a lot to do with spring fever, especially in the mountains. beautiful spring days where you want to lounge like a cat, but then i've already heard later this week it will snow....so one is very much inclined to go with the flow and lounge like a cat....so i've had to pick up any slack nights and weekends....

my studio is so alive with ideas and colors....it just brings a happy feeling when you are there...the biggest problem in a day, is should i listen to a book on tape, music or listen to something riveting on tv. i'm seriously thinking of trying to learn a foreign language while working....(seems like i should be doing something a little more serious)

i started this business with $25.00....yes, that's the truth...no business plan, no plan at all....just enough $ to buy a little wood, a little paint and some film to send pictures out to stores to see if they liked them....i found out later, that was i guess, considered to be my marketing plan. nothing big, nothing official, just a desire to make it happen...

my dad taught me to swim when i was young, i still remember being that little girl at the neighborhood pool, hold your nose, close your eyes and jump in...i've continued with that advice through my life... jumping in blindly... and it just works...

i have a couple of exciting things to share that are going on with other artists....american folk art.com just upped their site today, it is a sister to traditional folk art...check out the new artists and their works, it's fun to browse and of course, if you just have to, buy! also, jennifer murphy, of earth angels, will be a guest on the martha stewart show tomorrow! how cool is that? wow! i'd love to meet martha...the times and channels will be listed on the earth angels site....on her blog....so check there for the info....

both american folk art's new site and earth angels are listed to the left!

have a great april 1st..... diane

goodbye march.....

and it was a beautiful march....

folk art by....jessie lavon

funny thing....i met jessie here on my blog...she left comments and gave me her site info. to look at her work....that is one of the nice things about blogging...you meet many new people which is always fun....and you also see new artwork from artists that you never had the chance to talk to yet...

as you can see jessie's work is purely folk art...she's from alabama, and her inspiration is from her many years growing up on a farm...her art takes her in many directions....

i chose this piece to share with you because of the blog from before....how one person views a piece...and what about the name? the name jessie chose for this is crossroads....her interpretation isn't really that far from my crossroads piece...i do not include religion in my piece though, however, they both are about the humanness of having to make a choice with ones life...

jessie said this to be the southern story of the crossroads...."The conjure arts is the study of using herbs and roots to heal the sick,WAS PASSED DOWN FROM MY GREAT GRAND MOTHER ON DOWN TO ME.I was told that folks used to go down to the crossroads with a black cat bone and sell their sold to the devil for a gift like playing music or singing. look on my web page where all my art is and you will see a painting of the crossroads."....which i've included above...

if memory serves me correctly one of the first recorded delta blues musicians, robert johnson, i believe it to be sometime in the 30's....hit the road with his guitar....and as folklore has it....he sold his soul to the devil for the mastery of his guitar...

funny how history goes way back....and is also connected to yet an uncreated idea in the future....

i put a link to jessie's page to the left which goes to her blog....you can reach her artwork site from her blog....you will really enjoy looking at her work, in the purest form of folk art.

thanks jessie for all the fun mail!! have a great day everybody! diane

did you ever wonder....

have you ever wondered how i come up with the names for each design? there are several ways but they all lead back to my childhood or what i've learned along the way...


before me....is dedicated to the woman before me who have so painstakingly cleared the path for me to have the choice to do what i love...


i have attached a poem expressing that on the piece with an old photo of my great grandmother, jessie. when i saw the original picture of this board dated to the 1880's, i felt that the center symbolized the garden, and the different paths each one took, the upper gold corner represents the light that they are searching for, while the lower eggplant corner symbolized the growth that has not yet come to fruition....

i was discussing with another artist the other day over coffee and bananas (i know, rather strange), and jenni is preparing for her opening of a piece that will be shown in a matter of weeks...

she has traveled to europe and to her old roots in the north, tracking down unknown relatives, filming, editing and recording their lives to include in this historical piece that she has created, which also includes history of her family through fabric art....


so how do you let the person who is viewing your work understand the whole meaning of the piece? do you leave it abstract, tell a little, tell nothing. i myself like to know something that gives the piece meaning if it isn't obvious, that links me emotionally to the piece....i don't want to be left standing thinking, what is that?, hmmmm....if an artist tells me instead that they created this piece to show the excitement and diverse colors of their childhood, then i smile instead of just walking away....and i'm involved then....and i will remember....


how do you feel, would you like to know as much as possible, a little, or is it not important to you if you just love it? let me know... diane

jennifer lanne......congratulations!!!

a BIG congratulations to my friend jennifer lanne...
she is now an earth angel, (which i have always known), but she is now working with jen, the leader of the angels and showing her work with earth angels!

you know i have gone on and on about jennifers wonderful work....her landscapes fill me with peace at the end of a hectic day...while her wonderful florals feel my heart with joy and hope....i've surrounded myself with her work throughout my home...it makes me happy...and i believe that's what art is all about...how it makes you feel, and how it becomes part of you by evoking certain feelings.

so i invite each and every one of you to look at her wonderful pieces, whether it's floral, fauna, landscapes or the priceless cherries in the bowl...at earth angels (link to the left....be sure to click on the paintings at earth angels to see jennifers work) i've already talked to jen this morning, and she said jennifer's pieces are flying out the door!! show your support for jennifer on her first day of angels...and always for earth angels, where jen brings american artists and their work to you!

have a great day! I'm so happy!!! good going jennifer!!

crossroads.....

i trashed it....again

you know i really am a messy person...but even i sometimes have to stop and clean up so that my mind and ideas can float free....when i left the studio last night, i took a look back...and i just thought....it's trashed.

my home and other life...as i like to call it...is always in chaos...but i have found over the past year (only took 12) to realize that if my studio is spick and span then i walk in with a joyful heart instead of a heavy heart...and as a reminder i have the glittery words, joyful hanging from my paint table...which is nothing fancy, just an antique door with paint peeling off...sitting on top of two old cupboards that a friend gave me...but i'm quite attached to it.

so the day of the artist today is to get my studio back in order...if your mind is always spinning with ideas, then i've found it best to have order outside of the brain! and i was also thinking of painting some walls in the studio....half is a perriwinkle and half is a light yellow color....so i'm thinking of painting some orange, or brownish yellow....and trim in a green or purple...now of course, i have a ton of other things to be doing...and in some ways more important...but i know me....and i have to love my studio to be creative...

so i'm off to the paint store....of course knowing this is not being done in the proper order...which is me all the time...and i'm going to browse to see what they have...and it looks like rain today, not a good day to paint, but sometimes you just have to be a rule breaker!

think of adding some color to your home this spring! diane

it's uncle sam!

oh what fun this is...to show off my friend mary myers and her work! i have just ordered uncle sam....what a wonderfully carved nutcracker from mary's collection, and i just can't wait to get him, i just love the eagle he is holding, and yes, his mouth really does open, isn't that amazing? he will look just wonderful on my mantle in the studio with my penny pitch board behind him...and i knew i needed to order him now to have him in time for summer.

i just love summer, and i love the 4th of july...it's a time where schedules don't have to be followed anymore, barefooted children chasing the fireflies, it just makes me feel good thinking about it...check out mary's site and look at her wonderful nutcracker carvings....and be sure to read her 'bio', she's a big deal out their in the land of artists! (she's listed to the left!) and if you are thinking YOU must have uncle sam too, you better order now....to make sure you have by july!

breathe in some spring today and listen to those birds.....diane

texas star....

what fun meeting new people...

as you can see by now, this blog is about all of us! how dull it would be for me to constantly be talking about me....so i feel the more 'characters' that are interwoven into my blog, the closer we will all be....it's like everyone having new faraway friends!

i was at the grocery store the other day and as i was loading the back of my car this 'older' woman pulled in beside me and got out and said, 'i'll take that in for you', (because thats just the way we are in this small town)....and i said, 'well thanks so much'....'it makes it easier for me to walk', she said...then she went on....but first i must describe her...she was dressed nicely, naturally pretty, but did have on some light makeup...and i would guess to be around 70....

she said, 'you know i'm 92...and i've had the most blessed life...i thank God everyday for giving me one more day...i have had the most blessed life....you have a great life...and then she went on...

well my mouth had about dropped....how did she do it i wondered.....and then as i was driving home, i thought....oh no, i didn't ask her what her secret was....thinking it must be a shot of whiskey, a cigar or something else that i'm not doing, and should start right away!....and as i drove i thought, she did tell me...it was her attitude, her being thankful for everything, and showing her thanks everyday....

i probably won't see her again....even in this small town....i wish i would've gotten her name so that i could've called her and asked her all about her life....and maybe some of her glow would rub off on me.

well i better get to work, lots of shipping to do, but first i'm going to put on a little make-up just in case....

count your blessings....diane

country living...

i just got off the phone with anne marie who called to interview me for the upcoming july issue of the magazine where i am featured as the 29th guild member. what an honor that is and what a wonderful commitment of country living to feature american craftsmen who are keeping traditional craft alive. so a big thank you to country living ...i know it will be beautiful with all of your talents blended together.

the interview made me sooo nervous though....but after awhile it was like talking to a new friend...it doesn't take long for two women on a phone to start acting like girls again! but i hope to meet her one day, we both left each other with open invitations...

i'm off and going down to the studio, have lots of dirty work to do today! adding molding and fill and some sanding! take care, diane

i just had to share this with you, i just LOVE it! nancy thomas has a new series, home and heart! and i know many of you collect her pieces, so if you haven't heard, this is what is next....i just love all that red!! you will have to check out her site, click her name to the left, under artists that i love....

what i myself especially love, is nancy's monthly series...and i like that she gives me a choice as to what the subject of the month is..., whether its children, natural beauty or animals....if you haven't seen nancy's work, i know you'll love it, it makes a room cheerful....so congrats to nancy, i can't wait to get mine!

well believe it or not, they are calling for snow again in the mountains....oh well, a touch of spring weather is how it always seems to go, before it truely sets in....i noticed today that the robins are back, and as happy as i am to see them return, i know that we will have at least one more good snow to make me worry about how they are doing! so today instead of opening the door in the studio, i built a fire to keep off the chill....and it probably will be the last one i'll have for a long time...

take care of yourself and yours...and have a great weekend! diane