Can your draw a circle?

...can you draw a circle...now draw another, now....overlap them...

I am always amazed at how the rings of my life meet and intersect through the art we love. Our creative spirits, and the reasons we reach for things, why we love to look at something, hold it, stare at it forever; these are the things that bring our circles together.

Diane Allison can draw circles, and straight lines galore. She has them connect and cross, and then double back into to the most fetching designs. Somewhere in the middle of all her shapes and style, I became smitten with the luster of her work, the graphic punch, and really Diane herself.....

Her boards, her art, and her sense of nostalgia fill me with joy. She reaches back in time through her work to merry games long-ago played and begs us to fill new hours with mirth and color. I adore Diane as a great gal pal...it's amazing we've never met...the emails she writes me are filled with humor and reflect a mutual appreciation as we work together. These notes from Diane are often the bits that get me through my day.

Funny, it all started when she emailed me asking if I was looking for a new artists to represent.....I found Diane's work utterly charming - graphically fresh of form, while wholly traditional in craft. I knew early on that Diane must be a "romantic". Diane is charmed by left behind hand prints and their untold stories, so she signs her own work with a paint drenched hand print on the back of each board. That tiny hand...I cannot help but place my own over it as I unwrap each board that arrives here at Earth Angels....

Diane makes her boards high in the Appalachian mountains where she lives with her family, and was first inspired by her love of quilt making and design. Nature supplies her color palette and many designs date from the 1800s. Her exceptional work had been featured in Country Living magazine, Southern Living, Home, and has appeared on Mary Emmerling's Country at Home, as well as in the Museum of American Folk Art and the respected artist medium, Sundance Catalog. And the big news....this July, Diane will be inducted into the Country Living "Artisan Guild"! This is BIG stuff! Congrats Diane....and thanks for letting us present your creations....

....and so the circles continue to meet...I saw this wonderful landscape painting on Diane's blog, and she led me to another artists I am now thrilled to know ... Jennifer Lanne (watch for a future blog post on Jennifer Lanne and a peek into her studio...) Diane is a fan of Jennifer work and now I am too...Thanks again Diane! ...I see one of Jennifer's paintings hanging on the end of the island in your studio... love it!

So Diane, draw those lines, those circles, those dots and spots that make my walls hum with color....and bring me closer to all that I love old and new.

xxoo Jen

Earth Angels Toys