pile of wool-love

a stack of sewn Knitimals™ waiting to be stuffed and sewn shut. i like the look of this pile.

artscape is upon us! and so are the minimals!

no, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you... those ARE tiny knitimals... MINI Knitimals even. Or minimals, as i'll call them (special thanks to bob for that clever title). these little buggers will be making their debut at Artscape this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you've never been to Artscape, you are very sad. BUT, you can redeem yourself this year. The festivities begin at noon each day and include short films, music, puppets, fried food on sticks... good stuff. the greenstarstudio booth will be in exactly the same spot as last year, for those return visitors. for those who didn't see us last year, we will be on mt. royal avenue, right across the street from the main building, in front of the brown center. hope to see you there!!!! xoxo danamarie

wanna see me make a box up close?

here's my messy desk. and here is a happy little box on my messy desk. i've already painted the base coat and have spent the last hour or so drawing on the top of it with colored pencil. it'll be up on the website and available for sale (along with a half a dozen new boxes and frames) by the end of next week!

plates and bowls

look ma, new work! i told some of you already, but so everyone knows... yes, i am painting plates and bowls now too. i was just thinking how boring my own plates are at home and then i thought "well heck, i can fix that". if you'd like to "fix that" too... they're up online and can be custom ordered as well.

flitamals, flitamals, flat knitimals

here's another pile of sewn knitimals awaiting their stuffing. i've been resting my wrists and catching up on my sewing this week. all of these fine new friends will be waiting for you online and at artscape!

knitimal group shot

here's a brand new batch of happy little knitimals waiting to go home with you! they're all up on the website, ready to be adopted, and anyone who isn't snatched up will be waiting for you at artscape later this month. xoxo danamarie

news of the visionary kind

the KNITIMALS™ have done it, ladies and gents--- they have infiltrated the wacky, wonderful walls of the American Visionary Art Museum here in baltimore. for years people have been telling me (and rightly so) that Sideshow, the gift shop at AVAM, would be a great space for the Knitimals... i'd like to say i'm fearless, but those of you who know me know that i can be a little stubborn when it comes to trying something i think i might fail at. thus, i put off approaching the good people over at Sideshow until 2 weeks ago. its a funny story... basically the day began with me (and estelle, my "day-time daughter") going out on what we thought was a sure thing retail visit (it wasn't). we were prepared to talk shop. we had a car full of knitimals. we were hungry (me for getting my work out in the public eye... estelle, probably for macaroni and cheese). we'd promised the knitimals today would be the day for some of them. i couldn't just bring them back home! i was on a mission. so, maybe it was the "you can't tell me what to do" vibe i was feeding off of, but i decided that there was no time like the present and i really wanted to see the knitimals at sideshow--- i'd been avoiding failure for two years and that was just plain silly. more silly was worrying about failing. if they weren't interested in carrying my work, no harm, no foul; it would just be another little road block in the already less than perfect day. so, we parked the car, fed the meter, got ourselves stamped as "ok" for the shop but not the galleries--- i on my hand, estelle on her leg--- and we walked off toward the future, nervous, but steady. only a minute later, we were confident. we were SO well recieved by the Sideshow staff, and after a lovely little visit, estelle and i walked out 5 knitimals lighter. it was great. so reassuring, and another great reminder for me (and i find i need these) that i really DO know what i am doing... ah, sweet success! i'm so proud of them. the Visionary, if you haven't been, by the way, is a MAJOR must visit here in baltimore. an entire museum dedicated to untrained artists making some of the must gut-torn, heart felt, amazing art you've ever seen. so good. so so good. anyway, this is mr. ledu and if you want him, head over there and pick him up! (if you want to see who else is there, check out the listings in the "knitimals 2007" section of my website. for more on AVAM---check this out:
american visionary art museum

chalk it up!

....sooooo, have you ever drawn on asphalt? with chalk? in the rain? i did! as you know, i participated in the columbia festival of the arts this past weekend and for a few hours on sunday i left my booth in jess's capable hands and stepped outside to draw with chalk. i was totally winging it. i brought brushes and a spray bottle (a lark) and figured out i could use them to smush the chalk into a paint of sorts. the image is based off of one of my illustrations ("new thunder") and i am pretty pleased with the way it turned out. ESPECIALLY since half way through the process, it started raining and i had to fashion, in a macguyver-y way, a tarp made out of towels and garbage bags and plastic shelving. in the end, my butt was wet and asphalt dimpled, BUT, i won first place and took home a very pretty penny. well, a check... look at my confused/bemused schrinchy face in this picture. its just chalk, dana... its just chalk.

things that make me go "happy"

patterns patterns everywhere...

aj and i just got back from a wonderful little trip to sweet little helen, georgia. my parents are (finally!!!) freeing themselves from the soul-sucking miami and moving to northern georgia. helen is an alpine (read: looks like germany as featured in "it's a small world" at the magic kingdom, but with more candy stores) town in northern georgia, and was the site of many of our family vacations "back in the day". on our last full day down there, we went a-hikin' at anna ruby falls (i use "hiking" very loosely because it makes it sound more woodsy) and having just been discussing quilting (really), we walked through these beautiful shadow patterns, which we both decided should be the basis for the next quilt mom makes us. the moral of the story is: inspiration is everywhere; and you should make efforts to hike more.