Gallery Door Swings

Thanks to all of you for making the Jennifer Lanne and Jill Wiener “Bounty” exhibit a huge success at The Country Life Gallery here in Warwick, New York. Your support of our new adventure and patronage of the show is much appreciated! The response to the Jennifer's paintings and Jill's EarthGirl pottery was simply stellar…

and the show was close to a sell-out.

To continue the excitement of the space...

An interim exhibit has been installed full of juicy color and bold, graphic style. You are invited to stop by today through October 26th to enjoy the new offerings... Diane Allison Stroud’s Gameboards and the original paintings of Deirdre Friebely's “Blackbird Designs”

Deirdre’s whimsical original paintings vary in size from a diminutive 6”x6” to 20”x36”, prices range from $40-$285.
They are accompanied by a showcase of Diane Allison-Stroud's gameboards which vary in size from10x19 to 19x28 and $160-$240. Diane was recently inducted into the "Country Living Artisans' Guild" and is well-recognized for her woodworking skills and artistry.

Our next exhibit will open on Friday November 2nd.
“Beneath the Willows” will feature the original mixed media paintings of Laurie Meseroll and the assembled 3-D art collages of Cheryl Kuhn’s “small stories studio”.
The reception will be held on November 3rd from 2-7 …details to follow.

Hope to see you there!

xxoo Jen O'Connor

Earth Angels

Stepping Out...Halloween & Vine

...you've been waiting so patiently for images and news from

Halloween & Vine...and yet, I ask you to stay-tuned...

My gal pal Jane Dagmi, Editor-in-Chief at Country Living will have me as her "guest blogger" next week. I am thrilled.

So, here's a peek at the room layout and a few images...many more to follow at the Country Living site next week! Thanks to the editors of my favorite magazine for the fab opportunity to share

this festive event with their readership.

So here I am above trying to get the shot, show you to ropes and garner some attention for the fabulous vintage and

artistic treasures inside that hall!

Thanks, too go to Scott Smith, Christy Silacci and Ginny Bertoune, the event's fearless promoters.... for making it all happen... and to Loren my photographer and his lovely assistant, Bonnie...

for taking on the challenges of friendship with me!

I looking forward to sharing a full post with you via

... Jane's Blog ...

and will do a simultaneous post here so you can click on the link and enjoy gobs of photographs of the art and artists.

...you might want to tune into Jane's musings in the meantime...

she has a great eye and a wonderful appetite for learning...

chat soon

xxoo Jen O'Connor

Earth Angels

Casting the Spell...Set-Up

...a spook-tacular set-up at Halloween & Vine...

In the calm before the storm of shoppers (almost 1,000 eager enthusiasts who were to arrive in droves on Saturday), I prowled about with my camera. With the help of forever friends, Loren and Bonnie, we worked to capture the moments and memories of late Friday afternoon.
The artists cast their spells, bustling in their booths, tweaking displays and making merry with their compatriots in this Halloween adventure.

Magda, Nicky and Laurie, my travel buddies and great gal pals.

Lori Ann Corelis tweaks her display...

Ulla's pumpkin angel models her creations

...I was thrilled to bring some home!

"How much is this, I think I NEED it!"

Anticipation was riddled with nervous laughter as artists unpacked their meticulously crafted treasures. They mused, "...would the crowds love their work....was their best enough to please the collectors...

would they be recognized for their craft and talent..."

A maze of tables were topped with every shape and texture of Halloween-themed fun. Spirits were as high, along with the anticipation for the show that was now set-up and ready to go for 9am Saturday morning....

In my next post I will tour the show, share images of the attendees, the festive art and artists' knockout displays....

Until then...

xxoo Jen

Earth Angels

Petalumahhhhhhh

I am hot for this funky town where cool stores abound and even veteran antiquers and jaded shoppers can hunt up bargains

and undiscovered glories.

I was in Petaluma with artist pals Laurie Meseroll, Bonnie Taylor Talbot, Nicky Bowen and Magda Trzaski for the annual Halloween & Vine show

(more on this event later this week)

...but we made time to adventure in Sonoma County....

My new love and treasured find…

the semi-annual “Petaluma Antique Faire”.

It has rocked Fourth and Kentucky Streets for 20 years. Hosted by the Downtown Association on the last weekend of April and September, it is a happening! Indeed, the market was so laden with temptations I was ready to rent a truck and drive home.

No, really…I boarded the plane back to New York toting a bubble gum machine (how could I leave it…with it’s fab pink paint) a 1920s folk art birdhouse, and a crate of monogrammed silver-plate utensils that cost a mere 50 cents a piece, but weighed more than my laptop.
Thanks to Bonnie and Loren for shipping the rest of my stuff!

My calendar has been marked for the Spring Antique Faire which coincides with “Butter & Egg Days”. Petaluma is a dairy town and

it promises to strut its stuff...artist friend Christy Silacci, lifetime local, tells me they take their chickens and cows quite seriously.

I would love to see it…I am finding it hard to resist the urge to experience the “Cute Chicks” …most darling baby contest... the “Good Egg” award and the most tempting, the cow chip throwing contest!

….and perhaps I just might get some more of that luscious soup at “Water Street Bistro” or the gnocchi at “Volpi’s”…mmmmm.

xxoo Jen

Earth Angels

HALLOWEEN & VINE

...Halloween & Vine...

all manner of fabulously themed and hauntingly spectacular creations from an uber talented group of artists ... some the makers of some of my favorite creations and many, many others whose work I look forward to discovering and capturing on film to share in this BLOG.

...
get the SHOW DETAILS details on this link

...

A big thanks in advance to the folks behind the event...

Scott, Christy, Susan and Ginny...

...you have lured me to California yet again!!!

I'm away until Monday, October 1st...when I shall return laden with stories, images and new ideas... and perhaps, some treaures to add to my ever-growing collection of Halloween folk art and fall follies.

until then xxoo Jen O'Connor

Earth Angels

A Magda Moment

There are moments when we face a remembered or imagined scene and drink in its details. Whittling it down to black and white, it becomes simple shapes, an austere form on a backdrop. Sometimes then, we can better grasp the layers of sentiment that surround an exchange of ideas, a daydream or a painful experience.

Bravely, Magda Trzaski has shown me this in her "Black Iris" creations.

Magda’s works are moments frozen. Compelling in their starkness, they beg a closer look, then another. Her cats, rabbits, birds, and skeleton-like snow folk are displayed under glass like curiously forestalled activity. Balloons float mid-air and balls hover mid-juggle as her creatures balance in a limbo of thought and activity.

I find her pieces simply alluring in their form, and utterly thought provoking in story. While Magda is influenced by the 17th century Dutch vanitas painters who deftly reminded us of our mortality through their heavily symbolic still-lifes, she is also intrigued by the Victorians’ obsession with paraphernalia and collections. These influences and themes are echoed in our pop culture by the likes of Tim Burton and Edward Gorey, with their allusions to the afterlife and the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures through black comedy and imagery.

Fate's twisted thread brought Magda to my attention. An e-mail with one attached image was enough to send me on the hunt. Never mind that it took many pleading conversations and almost 2 years to convince her to create her work for me to sell here in the States. And so thanks to Robert Tonner, Lynn Johsnton (did you even know you made this happen by shopping for a gift in Toronto) and of course my special pal and assistant Michelle Hodge...whose fabulous taste and great judgement never end.

Be sure to crack open the current issue of Mary Engelbreit's "HOME Companion" for a wonderful piece on Magda as this month's Artist Workshop. And join me in celebrating those frozen moments; that invigorate, question and invite emotions closer to the surface. We might just be brave enough to acknowledge them in our appreciation for Magda's style and art form.

xxoo Jen O'Connor

Earth Angels

ps I meet Magda for the first time in 2 days...I will be picking her up at the San Francisco airport with Nicky Bowen and Laurie Meseroll. We'll be making the drive to Petaluma to drink in all there is at "Halloween & Vine"... I will keep you posted on our adventures! memento mori baby...

A Dose of Dagmi

...here she is...

the diva of decor, the connoisseur of kitsch,

the maven of mood and setting...

My friend Jane has a capacity to synthesize texture and color that would be downright unfair if it remained unshared. She catapults her vision of style across the pages of "Country Living" as their Editor-at-Large. At her post, she exuberantly scours the urban and pastoral to "see" the why and how, the who, and the wonder, of what people like, what they live to enjoy, hunger to collect, and transmit in their homes and design sensibilities... She puts forth her findings with total aplomb in stories so "Jane",

they have her hand prints on the pages.

I have seen Jane work....she wanders and ponders...

"Does the Bakelite-bangled babe also horde colorful 40s Fiesta Ware in her cabinets?"..."Does the faded prom dress hanging in a closet confess the owner's love for vintage textiles and old songs...?", and" ...are the shells on the sill those gathered on a lonely beach last season?".

Jane distills her musings into thoughtful stories and pictorial essays on captivating subjects and locales. In her work, an appreciation for what is simply "there", is omnipresent.

I see her loathe to fluff the pillow, brush the seat print from the bed covers, or adjust the slightly askew frame on the wall. She sees a beauty in the vernacular, the handmade, the folly and the worn. She celebrates what is around her, and in so doing, inspires her readers to the same. Like the smile I must surrender to Rory's baby fingerprints on my kitchen windows, Jane sings a gracious song of time and place and the well lived, and lived-in, life that makes me sway.

I must yield the floor to Jane, and warmly invite you to visit her blog...

...here is a link...

JANE's BLOG

...it's filled with musings, mutterings and the things that inspire her days.

And, yet again, I am reminded in my gratitude that friendship is like a paper chain. One link, one friend, brings me forward to the next. So many thanks to Stacey Bear, without your friendship Stacey, I would never have met Jane. So it continues, the chain, the circle of friends...

the women that inspire me.

xxoo Jen

Earth Angels