Amusing

I belong to a really cool on-line art community - 'American Holiday Arists'. There are more that 60 artists who specialize in all kinds of holiday creations - sculptures, paintings, figures ... a amazingly diverse collection. The founder, Suzanne Urban http://suzanneurbandesigns.typepad.com/ & her co-leaders, Sheryl Parsons http://mothersdreamartworks.blogspot.com/ and Susan Vanderhoeke http://seasonalwhimsies.blogspot.com/ work hard at creating a sense of community and marketing under the aHa name.

I got such a chuckle today when I checked out the site. There was one of my Ebay pieces with the byline ...'Famous aHa artist, Ev Scott'. I can't write that with a straight face. I'm about as famous as .... well, someone that you wouldn't know if I wrote their name. The concept is so funny that it totally cracks me up. Famous. That would make many people I know laugh hysterically. Especially me. This is the site where you can see some of the amazing creations by this diverse & talented group: http://tinyurl.com/yfza88x

I sure do love having my stuff on Ebay though. It keeps me on my toes, trying to get some pieces together to list each week. I've worked away for months on body parts & other parts, so at least I have a little bit of a start.

So far, I've had 8 pieces head off - to California, Washington, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Colorado ... and ohy my, Ontario:)

Three pieces on again this week - two 'primitive' ones from stone clay and one sculpted from polymer. I wonder where they'll get to move to.

http://tinyurl.com/evscottebay4

Yep ... an Ark it is.

Whoever guessed an Ark wins;)

Not real tough to guess - when you see a pile of animals around me, you've gotta know that it is bound to turn into a Noah's Ark.

For years it was basically impossible for me to see any animal without looking for his brother/sister/wife/significant other and turning it into an Ark. I had animals made out of china & glass & wood & resin & plastic & fur ... and what I didn't collect, I made - carved from wood & even sculpted with a needle. Well over a thousand Arks full of animals. One time Jae was helping me pair up the animals to send off to their new home. She said 'I kinda feel like God must, choosing creatures that will be together for the rest of their lives.'

A sweet friend that I met on the e-waves gave me the idea to make this little set. I had to come up with a new Santa to fit the size of the Ark. There's a bit of a familial resemblance in Santa & Noah ... Santa is just the more colourful brother.

So that's on Ebay this week, along with these two other pieces. Underneath the layers of clay of the painted horse, lives a palamino - it just didn't suit his folky style with his little peanut head - he cried to be a Dapple Gray. He had a sad plastic tail and a phoney mane, so I had to do a bit of an amputation and let him have a real fiber set, suitable to the proud steed that he is.

And then there's the deer. I've called it 'Doeful' because she/he's got that look - but it's obviously a male because it's horny. Which doesn't sound very proper, but 'antlery' doesn't either.

You can find them on Ebay until Sunday, November 15th via this link:

http://tinyurl.com/evscottebay3

Coming Soon...

Working away on Sunday's Ebay listing.

Hmmmmmmm..... I wonder what it could be.

Remembering

When I was a child, just before Remembrance Day, a kindly, elderly gentleman named "Mr. Butson" would come to our one room school (yes, I am THAT old) with the boxes of poppies for us to sell. Twenty five cents for the big ones that stuck on people's car windows (I wonder why they don't have them anymore) and ten cents for the lapel ones - the same exact ones that they still have today. I can still see him in his uniform & jaunty little navy beret and sweet, smiling face. The fact that he limped and walked with a cane from an injury, especially made us want to help the Veterans sell poppies. I liked Mr. Butson and l liked selling poppies.

I only know two poems off by heart - 'LOST OCTOBER', that I posted a few weeks ago, and John McCrae's 'IN FLANDERS FIELDS'. I say it to myself at this time every year, grateful that our teacher, way back in that one room school, made us memorize it. I wonder if kids today memorize anything at all. If they do, this one would serve them well.

In Flander's Fields, the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing fly,

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead, short days ago,

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, but now we lie

In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe,

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flander's Fields.

Creating

The other day I said that I would be getting a 'sculpted' (as in - polymer) Santa on Ebay each week from now til Christmas. Right. Who was I kidding? I must have been swept away with Ebay Fever. Which is pretty easy as once I get back on to playing Ebay, I'm hooked.

What I especially love about it is the wonderful people that I get to connect with. Many are dear sweet folks who have followed my work over the past 6 years that I've been offering my Christmas creations there.

When I see a familiar name in bidding, I am totally humbled. There's no greater compliment to me than someone who already has a piece of my work in their home, to want to have another one. The fact that anyone takes the time to even look at my creations is in itself humbling.

Some of the folks that I have met through Ebay have become good friends. It's them that I miss when I've not been keeping up with it. I'm the same way with artists whose things that I watch over the years - when they're not listing, I miss them & wonder what they're doing and worry that they're alright. It's hard to describe, but it's kind of a comfort to know that they're 'up there'. I like to watch artist's work who I can see & feel exactly WHO they are - the ones whose personality and soul speaks through their work and their words. I like to envision them where they are, working away like I am.

It gives me huge pleasure with my own things, to know that there are people who are watching what I do. It just warms my heart when I see my e-friends names appear. I love it when I get to send something off to join my other creations that are living in their homes. And I love it too when a new person wins a piece because that's potential for a new friend. It's not really appropriate or appreciated by everyone, but I'd like to put a little card in the package that says: "Now that you have a piece of my heart & hands in your home, we HAVE to be friends:)" Some might think that a little strange, but the people who know me best know that the creation of 'items' is purely secondary to me - the creation of 'relationships' has always been Number One.

This is the link to this week's listings: http://tinyurl.com/evscottebay

Last week's creations went to two dear & long-time e-friends - one in Yacolt, Washington and one in Redwood City, California - and a 'new friend' (who doesn't know it yet - lol) in Warren, New Jersey:)

Goodbye, my Easter Donkey

Pete moved in with his new family yesterday. Besides having a new home, he's going to have a new name. 'Pete' is a boyfriend & that could set up a whole bunch of issues, so they are renaming him - perhaps the Iroquois word for 'Little Protector' - which I can't remember, but was really pretty.

It's so bittersweet for me when my babies move away. I am happy for them - that they will be loved & cherished and will bring such joy to a family - especially when it's their first introduction to how sweet and wonderful long-earred friends are.

But I always have a few quiet tears. Not for the baby, but for the mamas. To listen to them call and cry just tears my heart out every single time. Even though Pete was very independent & didn't hang out with Samantha much anymore, she paced the field looking for him and called for hours. I could hear her mournful bray in the middle of the night. She has a three year old daughter, who moved right in by her side as soon as Pete left. She's been feeling totally left out since he came along & welcomed the opportunity to snuggle up with her mom again.

I can't imagine how hard that is for those dear sweet mamas, to have their babies taken. Some animals are quite happy to have their babes move on and out - I've seen that with the cats & the puppies. But donkeys are different. They are soulful animals. Twenty eight years of raising donkeys & it still tugs on my heart.

Christmas Line '009

I so love getting to play 'Christmas' creations again. I always think that I'm going to keep it up after the season, because I really do enjoy it & it would seem that perhaps folks do add to their collection throughout the year - but it never happens. I get busy doing all the other things that are calling me & the next thing I know, Christmas is knocking on our door again. Once I get started again, I get right into it - spending hours up in my studio & forgetting about everything else.


I especially love making the children and animal vygnettes and the old German style Santas. Even though the little children are created from a mold I made from some antique German dolls, every single one of them looks different and has a little personality of their own. It gives me great pleasure to imagine some family bringing them out each year.

This year I'm also going to try to get on some more sculpted Santas. What I'm aiming for each week is one tiny little set & one medium one in the primitive style and one other Santa sculpted in polymer.


The listings will end each Sunday night. If I have some ready on the previous Sunday, they'll be on for a 7 day listing, if they're not done, I'll put them on Tuesday nights for a 5 day listing.

This week there are three creations - a goat, a bull and a deer. And Santa of course.

The link to Ebay:http://tinyurl.com/ebayevscott

November

My friend Kathy had that line of a poem. She didn't know if there's more, but actually more might dilute it - it says it all.

Just like flipping a switch, when the calendar turned over to November 1st, there is not a single leaf to be found. I swear there were a few here & there when I went to bed, but I awoke to a naked world.

I am not a fan of November. But today I looked at it with different eyes. At three o'clock when I took these photos, the sky was such a deep, yet soft, indigo blue. The clouds were so subtly shaded that they looked like a painting. And then were some that were lit - little jewels & gems that advertised that somewhere behind those clouds, the sun was shining.

My issue with November is the fact that it is generally 'non-descript' ... colourless - no redemptive qualities whatsoever. But being tossed a hauntingly beautiful day like today, there is perhaps room for movement.

Fall Back

Thank goodness my GBs came trick or treating last night. Other than them, we only had 5 children but enough for 30, so there I'd be having to eat up all the darn candy and have KitKat for breakfast, just because it's there.

This is one my favourite days of the year - when we 'FALL BACK' and gain an hour. That one hour delights me multiple times over the day. I sleep in & then am pleased that I really didn't. I spend hours just diddling the morning in & it's STILL morning. I leave the clocks at the old time, so when I look and see that 4 o'clock is actually 3 o'clock, that means I still have lots of time for a nap before I think about supper. It gets dark and it seems like it should be bedtime, but really it's only 6:30. Each and every time, I'm pleasantly surprised.

I have been known to leave the clocks like that for a few extra days, so I can feel like I get more out of the day. It drives Brian crazy though & eventually me too, when he keeps saying, with less patience each time 'What time is it REALLY?' But even when I do change the clocks, he doesn't trust them because of all the years that I've played the 'Bonus Hour' game. It doesn't take much to confuse him. And it doesn't take much to amuse me.

Coal Black was Pink not Blue

Back on June 12th, I announced the birth of my Coal Black Jack, who I named Cole. He's been a very demure little fellow compared to Wild Man Pete - quite shy & reserved and very petite. Where Pete runs around like a mad man, jumps on things like a goat and generally makes his presence known, wee Cole quietly minds his own business.

He was so timid that he refused to cross the brook that runs through the pasture. Everyone else stayed on that side all day - actually for days at a time, but he never would across.

Often, when I'd see him by himself, I'd feel badly that he was lonely & missing his Mom & his donkey friends, so I'd slip over to visit him. Any time I did that, the whole herd would look up & say to each other 'Hey - that woman might have treats, we'd better get over there.' And they'd all rush over & push wee Cole out of the way. But the mission would have been accomplished anyway - he'd have company.

A couple weeks ago when I tried to have a sneak visit with him, no one noticed and it was just the two of us. That's when I noticed that when he relieved himself, the water was coming from a different spot than it should have been. On closer inspection, yes indeedy, Cole was not a Jack at all. Cole was Colette. And it was perfectly fitting that he is demure & dainty - he's a lady.

Some folks connected in regard to a posting I had about having a little Jack for sale. It turned out that they really did prefer a little long-earred girl & I just happened to have one. A couple weeks earlier, that would not have been the case. We knew that it was the right match when it turned out that she had been born on their Anniversary, transferring the tradition of 'Special Days' to her new family. Today, our sweet little Jack-that-turned-into-a-Jenny left for her new home where I know she will be treasured & loved and will live happily ever after, befitting of the little Princess she is.