Earnest Little Drawings

Hello All,

Here is some background to these earnest little drawings I do. 

When I was a puppeteer quite some time ago I broke my right arm falling of a bus when we were rehearsing a stunt for Our Domestic Resurrection Circus in Glover, Vermont.  A friend suggested I use my other arm to continue writing in my journal.  So like that idea and made a lot of cartoons about my new temporary life that summer. I felt a freedom both in my thoughts and my expectations of the outcomes.

I returned to left (or “other”) handed drawing 6 years ago.  Here is a show notice I wrote for an art show I was in at Flynndog in 2009.

My Demons, My Fairies,

Two years ago I took the suggestion at the end of Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons Book to draw my Demons.  The idea to give a picture to bad behaviors in me felt like a great way to get to know them and then send them on their way. This daily practice took a form.  The outside instruments were a sharpie marker and a sketch pad.  The inner ones were the awkward scribbling of my left hand and the seemingly more truthful images of my right brain.  Each piece included the Demon’s name, its image and an antidote. I also drew Fairies.  They either celebrated something that happened or served as a reminder for a way of being I’d like to adopt.

Here is a Demon from that show.  His antidote is “We fed him some pancakes and he went away humming.”

Much lies cluttered in our hearts.  It can greet you in the morning like an overflowing dish drainer.  Step by step you can find a home for each piece of your unique life and enjoy the new fresh space.

Smile as you go and visit with the….

...whenever you can.

Thank you.

All the best,

Emily

Welcome to the Bluebird Blog

Hello!

When my father died in July many years ago my family wandered around the house.  It was so hot.  I felt the heat holding us all- Mother, Brothers, Sister-in-law, niece and nephew and our funny little dog Henry.  One day we sat down and drew pictures.  My picture was a big pink guy waving from a pretty green landscape.  My mother hung the picture up on the closet door in the hall of our house.  Everyone who came in the front door was greeted by it. For years.

After that all my art projects ended up being about my father.  Long tunnels into the secrets of his life.  I was trying to get out of the clouds they had left for me.

My work has taken a big turn.  Now I start from me and work upwards.  Last year to introduce my Fairy Project to the Burlington Art Hop crowds I painted a huge fairy.  When I stepped back from it  I laughed.  It was my dad with wings.  Cheering us all ever upwards.

Thank you for this moment.

Take care and please smile often.

Emily