jenny fillius

the internet can be a wonderful place for artists to meet.  recently, i received a message from a fellow collector and assembler of stuff, named jenny fillius.  jenny does some awesome work using found sheet metal which she snips and rivets and layers to create her wonderful pieces.  

being a collector of all things saintly, i am especially intrigued with her madonna creations.

hail mary

VOG (virgin of guadalupe)

i first saw jenny's work on pinterest, which led me to her website, http://jennyfillius.com.  she also has an etsy page, its link is on her website.

i have met so many interesting people through my computer.  it's amazing how the artist community (or any other) can seek kindred spirits by messaging through etsy, facebook, and the like.  it is definitely a great time to be an artist, although sometimes i admit i spend a bit too much time on the computer and not enough time in the studio!

thank you, jenny for the message.  maybe one day i will be in seattle, or you will be in denver, and then we can go on a monumental hunt for treasures!

thanks, st. anthony & st. francis!

good news!  our boy came home yesterday!

yay!  looks like he is finally out of the woods!

i have been praying to st. anthony, but somehow my dorky mind got him all confused with st. francis.   i know, i know, i should know these things. after all, my aunt claire had a shrine to st. francis on her property.  a big concrete statue of him in the middle of a flower bed, surrounded with animals.  duh.  did i mention that my mother's name is frances??? well, i guess the brown robes got me confused.  or the fact that i was out of my mind with worry.  so thanks to both saints, for sorting out the confusion, and getting the right prayers to the right places.

in honor of vinny's homecoming, i decided to do a blog post about my favorite friends, the saints.  i have written about my fascination of the saints before. growing up in a catholic family made the saints easy to come by.  i had a great aunt who was an artist, and she made sculptures of them.  they floated around the houses of my relatives in baltimore, and i remember a brown-robed one in my own house.

my grandmother also had some saints, plastic in nature, perched on her high dresser.  i would go in her room, and peer at them, thinking that they were somehow powerful.  i don't think i ever asked her about them.  i just wondered.

it's all kind of strange, this saint attraction.  i am not incredibly religious.  i can't remember the last time i sat through a mass.  but there is still some sort of magic that the exude for me.  i am still curious about them 45 years later.

the saint theme repeats itself time after time in my work.  i sometimes wish i could understand what they are trying to say to me, but usually don't analyze too much.  i just let them out when they need to be released.  the virgin mary, in many forms, shows up frequently.  i was looking through my sketchbooks the other day, and found more than a few in each one.

last week junk-hunting,  i found the best saint collectible, ever.  it's a picture of saint lucy, whose name comes from the latin "lux", meaning "light".  she is the patron saint of the blind.  she is usually shown with a plate holding eyeballs.  there are several stories about lucy.  in the 15th century, texts start telling that she was tortured by eye-gouging, and that god restored her eyes.

here she is, plate full of eyeballs and all!  oh those saints, who couldn't love them?

the most collected

it's been a while since i have posted.  i have been kind of taking a much needed break from making art. i think my brain needs a rest so it can catch up on gaining some creativity cells.  i think they were all gone after my whirlwind summer.

i have started some new boxes this week. they are in the preliminary stages, but at least i have started to work again.  no pictures yet.  they are just beginning.

 the antique mall called me the other day (big surprise) to start collecting some box fodder.  turns out all i bought was things made from wood. as i was standing in line ready to pay for my new wooden stuff, i realized that it has become the most collected thing i have.  except for maybe metal objects.  it may be a tie.

anyway, here is some of my wooden object collection.  many of the items are also in other categories, like miniature houses, santos, boxes, and things with drawers.  i have no idea why i love things made from generations of trees, but it all fits in with my love of anything touched, used, and loved by a human.  

enjoy!

tiny wooden box.  someone fixed it with a wire.  love that!!

doll house chair

wall cabinet with added wire mesh shelf.  other wooden stuff on top!

frame.  thanks tina!!

the virgin mary, sans nose

san raphael.  i like to give my santos some bling!

another virgin mary with wooden rosaries

doll cabinet

hand made house for a train layout?  bricks and stones drawn with graphite

artist statement

handle with care, 2010

crappity, crap, crap.  i have to write an artist statement.  this is a hard one for me.  i am not into the "deep" stuff as far as statements (or art) go.  i make art, i play, i sometimes get a good result.  i like objects, people, shapes, patina.  i like all that stuff to look nice together.  i like color.  it's fun to put colors together that look beautiful.  for me, it's not about something higher.  it's just putting all of the elements together until i get just the right combination.  and then i'm done, and ready to do it all over again. 

here are things i like to use in my art over and over:

circles--they seem safe and comfortable.

stripes--they just look orderly to me, and i'm a virgo.  love order!!

lines--well, i don't know how you'd create something without at least an implied line...do you?

ordinary objects and people-- they are interesting to me.  i like the mundane for it's simple beauty.

red--it's happy.

green--it's safe and comfortable, like circles.

blue--i used to hate it, then i forced myself to use it because i hated it.  and now i love it.

brown--it's like green only safer and more comfortable.

texture and patina--i love things that are used and have the touch of a person or of mother nature.  if it's not there, i try and create it in a believable way.

handwriting--it's almost a lost art.  nobody writes letters any more.  and pencil?  it's just so beautiful!  smudgy, sharp or dull depending on the writer, and that shimmer of graphite.  wow.

numbers and letters--hmmm.  i like to use them as elements, and they usually don't say anything.  just elements of design.  3 is a personal favorite.  i think because it has circles.  i also like X.  so strong for such a tiny thing.

the virgin mary--she's an icon.  i'm not the religious type, but i have a huge collection of Mary in many forms.  she reminds me of my grandmother, who was such a kind woman.  she just makes me feel comfortable.  like circles.  and green.

here is what influences me:

pop culture--sometimes i just drive around and look at stuff.  i call it my artistic education.  it gets my brain ticking.  i look at people, buildings, products in the stores, old stuff, trash, fashion, advertising.

old stuff--back to the patina thing.

magazines--(all types including boring ones like consumer reports). i'm kind of addicted.  it's like driving around, only sitting still.  and you can bring them in the bathtub.

graphic design--letters, numbers, color combinations, flattening of the picture plane.

artists--oh god.  i look at everything i can.  how can i even make a list?  i could start today, and not finish for days.  it's impossible.  

i wish i were the kind of person who could take all of this information and make up a gorgeous paragraph or two that turns into an artist statement.  i guess i am going to have to do that really soon.