I am intrigued by Ian Carpenter’s paintings; landscapes that morph into creaturely forms, arresting blocks and swatches of acid bright colour, these works will take you on an emotional journey into spaces where stories are woven. Let’s join Ian and learn some more about his work.

Tell me us little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

“Well I have a natural inclination towards the creative process and I find paintings to be a good outlet, a great medium for myself. I find working with gouache at the moment (I’ve worked with oils and acrylics too) with wood board a spontaneous way of creating and the way the colors mix and react with the wood itself. Sometimes I work without any plan and paint as I go along but lately having a predetermined idea of what I want to do has been my creative guide.”

From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

“Music, so many things, just today I’ve been listening to Tortoise again, great ambient and jazzy sonic textures and now I have some sad ol’ Wilco song drifting through my head, so yes, songs can help out in terms of a painting’s atmosphere when one is painting. Nature plays a part too obviously – I like landscapes, from the Fauves to the American Tonalists to De Stael to various artists of our time. People, well, hm, I’m not much of a figurative painter of late. I’ve studied Classical Drawing and have rendered the human form in many ways (paint, pencil, charcoal), but in the last few years I’ve focused on nature and abstract forms – why is that – I don’t know – maybe just living in New York City I get enough of human beings and human interaction daily, ha.”

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why? Tell us the story behind the piece.

“For example Bánh Hỏi Weather (above), I had that Vietnamese dish on my latest birthday and being a foodie (and an artist), just putting that dish into a landscape seemed fun to me – and maybe the thoughts of growing older influenced me to put stormy clouds in there, something greyish and forlorn overlooking tasty sustenance – and again everything is regenerative so nature provides/nourishes the food we eat then we or I live on to experience another day – or more specifically in this case – to paint another day. So looking at this painting again I’m getting that meditation from it and a colorful one at that.”

You can find Ian here:
Blog
Coming soon to:
Artquiver

Ian tells me that he is planning to open an Etsy shop at some point in the future. Do let us know when your shop is up and running Ian, thanks so much for joining us today and sharing a little corner of your life with us. What is it about Tortoise’s music that creates such vivid mental imagery? When I was going through an “I’m going to be a filmaker” phase I plotted out a cinematic journey to Standards. Sadly my film was never made!!!
I have a plush related interview coming up soon, in line with my all new super-relaxed attitude to blogging I can’t say when. But soon kittens!

I am sure that many of you will recognize those delightful teapots and cups above, as we are joined today by the wonderful Anna of Lilla Lotta. Anna has such a strong and instantly recognizable style, fresh, crisp and homely, inspiring thoughts of cinnamon buns, the smell of freshly baked bread, percolating coffee and cut grass in a spring meadow. Oh yum! In addition to running her amazingly successful Etsy shop Anna is also a mother to five beautiful children, I am in awe of her creativity and feel sure that Anna must get very little sleep indeed! Let us grab a cup of tea and settle down comfortably to meet Anna.

Tell us a little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

“I am Anna. Mum to five young children. Living under the big blue sky in the South of France. Originally Swedish/Dutch, I have lived in 6 different countries in the last 20 years and am still not feeling quite ‘at home’ where I am at. I suppose I am a bit of a wanderer, slightly lost in the wrong era.”

“I am a bit of a fiddler and have a creativity compulsive disorder. A day without creativity, just does not seem like a proper day. I won’t call myself an artist, to me that would imply that I “studied” it at a grand school, in a specific class. And truth is, I have never taken a class in art or any other creative process. I suppose that is why the title “fiddler” suits me better.”

“I have never found a medium that takes my fancy the most. I flitter about, from one thing to another, like a flutter-by. One day I simply must paint in water colour and the next I feel the need to do lettering. Lately however I have been completely inspired by fabrics. I am working on a selection of Lilla Lotta fabric designs, which hopefully will be finished by the end of the year. Needless to say I have very little free time and do without sleep often. Who needs sleep anyways? *smiles* ”

From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

“Inspiration is one of those things that can be found in every day living. It might be loud laughter and a smile that comes unexpectedly. Or those moments where little arms give such big hugs, incredibly warm and loving. It is like sparkle. Magic dust. The only reason you need to wake up in the morning and have a head filled with ideas. Things waiting to be created.”

” My source of inspiration is being the woman who runs around like a headless chicken most of the time and takes care of a large family with lots of little feet. Almost like living double the life and feeling doubly blessed.”

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why?

“I would have to choose my recent creation of cotton tapes. By chance I made one to add to a 3D woolfelt house I was making as a Christmas gift and I needed a specific ribbon to go on the top of the roof. That is when it happened. How about making lots of different ones? A creative project where I could combine my love for illustrating with my love for fabrics. ”

“And it has been wonderful ever since! By the Autumn I will be able to finish a whole new selection of highly illustrated cotton tapes. I find myself feeling so blessed to be able to do what I love doing. Fiddling around and raising my family.”

You can find Anna in these places:

Lilla Lotta Etsy Shop
Flickr
Blog

Thank you so much Anna for sharing a little of your life and creativity with us. I feel so inspired by your attitude to the world and the obvious joy you take in creating your handmade goodness.

As I was putting this interview together this morning I began to read Anna’s blog, duh, I hadn’t come across it before, and laughed out loud at this post: 40 Facts About My Summer. I could relate to so many of Anna’s ‘facts’, I am sure you can too!

40 Facts About My Summer

1. The weather in the South of France is hot. I mean it is really hot.
2. Being a mother to five kidlets is exhausting. Especially during the Summer.
3. I am drawing and painting every spare minute in front of a fan.
4. New banners for my blog and shop in the making. Everything will be brandnew and fresh in the coming Autumn.
5. Lots of highly decorative cotton tapes being made for the new season.
6. Only 7 days before my mother arrives.
7. Husbands work throughout the Summer.
8. I work throughout the Summer.
9. My head is exploding with ideas.
10. I have no real appetite during the Summer months.
11. Thai food does not agree with me and is returned within an hour.
12. I am already thinking about Christmas.
13. I am tired all the time.
14. There is absolutely nothing on the telly (and I am not even a big telly fan).
15. Bed linen is changed more often during the Summer.
16. My washing machine broke down about two weeks ago.
17. My children only want to eat ice pops.
18. Home made cake does not taste as good as it does in the winter.
19. I am still in love with my hot chocolate.
20. I am going through hand soap like there is no tomorrow.
21. My hoover is used about 4 times a day.
22. Paddling pools for little children are great!
23. Long trips in a car are not recommended.
24. I worry about the new school year and my children.
25. I still have not learnt any French.
26. I am totally behind with all my emails and visiting my favourite places online.
27. I spent very very very little time behind the computer. And if I do, I have to wrestle someone off first.
28. Sitting in the garden in the evening is like recharging your batteries.
29. France has some freaky insects.
30. I am not even mentioning the snakes and the lizards.
31. I don’t sleep during the Summer, I just pass out.
32. I am still totally lost.
33. I love being productive and being able to run my shop. It has saved my life.
34. I am grateful for meeting new friends. It means a lot.
35. Husbands are grumpier when it is hot outside.
36. My to do lists are taking on monstrous proportions.
37. I have to remind myself to drink less coffee, and more water all the time. It makes me really ill.
38. For some reason I have started biting my nails again.
39. I am doing my best.
40. I am a rubbish blogger.

He, he, he, excellent!

Thanks so much again Anna.

I discovered Sawako’s work via a twitter comment from Kit Lane telling the world that they had to click over and visit an amazing new Etsy shop. I found the most beautiful and original work at Alleluja, Sawako’s shop, I hadn’t come across anything similar anywhere else, an astounding combination of kawaii, colour and exquisite skill. Really it is so hard to convey just how perfectly made these tiny porcelain creatures are, you need to hold one in your hands, feel the smooth, glassy glaze next to the warm and fuzzy felt. I am a rhapsode for Sawako’s Kigurumi pincushions, oh and you can wear some of them as pendents as well!

Tell us a little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

“My name is Sawako Hayakawa. I live with my partner and two cats in the suburbs of Tokyo, Japan. I work as a transcriber at my home office. In fact, I don’t know how you say my job in English correctly. It is to convert the oral conversation into the reading ones. I keep typing almost everyday. I began to go to the ceramic workshop of the neighbouring town ten years ago. That was my first experience of ceramic work.

“Also, I started to do the needle felt in my own style a few years later. In after years, I combined them with my work as the pincushion. I think it is the natural flow, because I like the wool as much as the clay. Now, I make the ceramics in my spare time. I formed porcelain soil in my home and do the glazing and the firing in the ceramic workshop.”

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From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

“I like movies and music. Also, I like science fiction novels and manga. My work is sure to have all those influences. Usually, I draw rough sketches before making ceramic works. Every time I find any cute thing, I make a simple sketch of them in my notebook.”

“I always listen to music while making my work, and I’m an iPod user outdoors. I like music such as alternative rock, indie rock and folk music. This music uplifts my feelings and it surely leads me to better work. And I like cats. I find the “kawaii” in their casual gesture day by day. I am inspired by their cuteness.”

“Above all, I like movies very much. My screen name “alleluja” was taken from the hero in a spaghetti western movie titled “Heads I Kill You, Tails You’re Dead! They Call Me Hallalujah”. I’m a movie lover. I am dedicating my work to the movie as a hommage in a somewhat strange way.”

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why? Please tell us the story behind the piece.

“I want to talk about my Kigurumi pincushion. I have begun to make this works recently. At first I intended to make Kigurumi doll of the porcelain. “Kigurumi” means a stuffed-animal suit in Japanese. I have been interested in the animal suit long before and I tried to make it with the ceramic art work. I molded an animal suit doll with clay and laid it prone. That pose of the tiny animal suit doll reminded me of a scene in a well known movie.”

“It is Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. At the outdoor party scene, a flock of birds descended on the children and attacked them. One girl who was running away fell prone, a bird stopped on her head. She was struggling to escape from the bird. She fell down on the ground and fluttered her foot. It was a very impressive scene. I felt sorry for her, and even more, I was instinctively fascinated. It was really cute! So, I decided to make Kigurumi dolls fall prone and make pincushion in their back. By such a process, the Kigurumi pincushion was completed.”

“I received a lot of responses to my Kigurumi pincushion at Etsy and Flickr. It’s wonderful! It makes me feel really happy! I want to thank KitLane who encouraged me when I was hesitating about having my Etsy shop. And thank you, Lisa! I could think deeply about my work and myself through this interview.”

Find Sawako here:
Flickr
Etsy

What a joy to learn some more about Sawako and her beautiful work. Thank you so much Sawako. I adore the story of the inspiration behind the Kigurumi pincushions, I must watch that scene again. Good bird phobia aversion therapy. Do you lovely kittens have any unusual sources of inspiration? I would love to know. I will let you into a little secret, my pieces for Plush You have been made with memories of Battle Of The Planets swirling around my head, do you remember that cartoon, I was *obsessed* with it is a child?!

I am so very happy to have Belinda with us at LL&O, on a grey & rainy day her work lifts my heart. I want to bathe in those beautiful, rapturous colours, float and spin in the air amongst abstract shapes that are full of joy, somehow! Grab your comfiest chair and say hello to Belinda, a treat indeed.

Tell us a little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

“I live in an inner city suburb of melbourne {Australia} with my husband and our two little boys. I like to be close to great cafes and galleries and walk to most places I need to get to {I don’t have my lisence!}.”

“My work is mainly mixed media ~ a mix of drawing and painting, drawing and collage, painting and collage, block printing and drawing! I work with whichever medium appeals to me at the time. they all have their different attractions to me {physically and aesthetically} and it usually depends on my mood as to what I go with! Sometimes I have a clear image in my head as to what the piece might be, but most often just a vague inkling or feeling. I love to make quick sketches as I work ~ often the best ideas come from working. Sometimes the sketches form part of a new series or the next piece. I like to work on a few pieces at once or have a few in progress.”

From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

“I draw inspiration from reliable sources like magazines, galleries & the internet and incidental sources like: colour combinations that I see in daily life that pop out {an almost fluro orange cup floating in a white bath tub, a vermillion flower against a dark grey wall with soft chalky green leaves}; landscapes ~ a memory of the Swiss Alps from a boat on a lake, cane fields, the ocean ~ especially on an overcast day; a blurry background; watching my kids draw & paint ~ they have no self-imposed limitations or judgement stopping the flow of ideas. They use colour and shape indiscriminately.”

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why?Please tell us the story behind the piece.

“I chose ‘Late Night Mist’ because it’s pretty new and I’m happy with it! The ‘mist’ paintings are my favourite pieces to work on ~ I find it really relaxing to paint the shapes of the mist and to see how the different levels of transparent white turn out over the other layers of colour.”

“It has a very brief story: this is an imagined landscape in the deep of night when the light is misty and the individuals who live in the hills have something important to say!”

“Thanks so much lisa for having me on your gorgeous blog.”

You can find Belinda in these places:
Gretchenmist Etsy Shop
Blog
Flickr

Don’t you feel a little happier looking at Belinda’s lovely work, those colours really sing don’t they? Thank you so much Belinda for joining us, it has been such a pleasure learning some more about you.

Hooray, I’m so glad the interviews are back, they really are such a joy to work on. Who will be up next week kittens, a little clue, we will be looking to the east.

I was so nervous about asking Kit for an interview, she was one of the first artists I hearted on Etsy (via my secret account!) and I suppose I was a little in awe. Silly right (not the awe part obviously)? I am so glad I plucked up the courage to ask and was delighted when I received an extremely thoughtful and intelligently written email in response to my request. Kit’s beautiful work has a still eloquence, her creatures are so expressive and soulful they transcend cute. It is no wonder that the adoptive parents of the Jacabobs and Bunnies, Ursabobs, Burbles, Nudipeds and Pods become so besotted. Hold onto your hats, let’s enter the fantastic world of Kit Lane.

Tell us a little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

“I live in a wee house smack in the middle of the cultural wasteland of Western Minnesota. Much of my life has been spent out of the country in Germany, Mexico, Haiti and most recently New Zealand. I share my abode here on the windy tundra with my only child, the great love of my life who is my 16 year old daughter soon heading to University and a soft-hearted tiny Pomeranian fur beast who earns her nightly ice cream by reluctantly donating her hair to top the heads of the Nudipeds.”

“I’m quite loath to speak about myself, shy even, although outwardly my life has been quite bold and gregarious for the most part. Today I live the life of a recluse, choosing to do what truly makes me happy, making art, crafting and writing.”

“I began felting about two years ago after seeing a demonstration by Jenn Docherty on-line of her cupcake teddy bears and chicks. It was cute, syrupy sweet, benign and physical, all things of which I had no experience. Although I paint and draw, the majority of my art exists in the realm of 3D digital navigable virtual realities which I create for both corporations and entertainment. Those realities tend to be rather dark and somewhat dangerous. The sweet faced Jacabobs and their ilk help balance out the monsters which reside in those digital realms )”

“My creative process is maybe a bit strange. I start every morning with a cup of stiff coffee at 6:00AM then read my mail as most is more palatable when I’m half awake. Then it’s off to wander the interweb to some my favorite painters, Dan May, Chris Ryniak and Mark Ryden til 6:30 when the rest of the denizens begin to stir. My wheels are cranking by the time I hit the shower, walk the dog and take kidlette to school. Then with any luck I can head to my work room which is filled to the brim with my favorite things; little pieces of art, hand made widgets and doohinkies, bits of bone, small carvings, thick pads of paper, sharp pencils and pens, great heaps of wool, boxes of buttons, and tools for all occasions. I shut the door to the world at large and begin tinkering.”

From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

“I have, over the last many decades worked in male dominated professions as a therapist, forest fire fighter, welder, training real estate salesmen in the art of thumb screws, trade lobbyist, public speaker and 3D multiuser world developer. But what has captured my attention and my admiration are the women I have watched and some I’ve met these last couple of years.”

” I love their art and their crafts but more importantly I am inspired by their courage and perseverance, their own quirky and often humorous creative sensibilities. Tobiah Mundt, Melissa Stanley, Allison Sommers, Jessica Fortner, Loopy Boopy, Kate Savage, Karna Erickson, Astulabee, Liz McGrath and you Lisa, all inspire me to strive to be a better maker today than I was yesterday. There are too many more to mention but most (not all) can be found in my “favorites”. I get lost in their work sometimes in awe, wonder and admiration.”

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why? Please tell us the story behind the piece.

“People have identified me with the Jacabobs and their ilk which live at the far end of my garden, a mostly sweet group of dear wee creatures who populate now the far reaches of the planet, some living solo but most congregating in groups of 3 or more on desktops and shelves of their adoptive and often times addiction prone parents. I adore my patrons and give them what they want/need in the best way I can as up until two years ago I had never created a smidgen of anything “cute”. With a smile of warm satisfaction, I send the wee Bobs affectionately off to their new homes.”

“There are times though when my personal oddities come to the forefront demanding to be acknowledged and made physical. I share those moments when I think they might be palatable to more people than myself. My most recent piece, “Alien Albino Space Peas with 20/20 Hindsight” is a result of that process in wool.”

” On the surface it’s quite sweet but lurking behind the pink cheerful Peas is a deep gazing eye. It might suggest that not everything is always as it first appears, that sometimes there’s more to a thing if one takes the time to really look, or we could make certain conclusions about a being that always prefers to look away from the world staring into dark corners while presenting a pink wide smile to the audience. Or…it’s just some peas and a strange eyeball. You choose. )”

“I’m quite struck by the number of Jacabob parents who have suggested I cobble together a book for children. The truth is that there’s a story in the works albeit convoluted and disjointed from all the editing, rending and tearing and the occasional rescue from the yard after tossing it out the window. We’ll see.”

You can find Kit here:
Etsy Shop
Flickr

Ah, that’s my boy, Lindt, you see above, I haven’t met him in person yet but I know I am about to become a besotted Jacabunny Mummy! Ok, so I am still in awe of Kit, her work, creativity and seemingly boundless imagination. Now, I also know a little more about the woman behind all that creativity and I am so honoured that Kit agreed to share a part of her world with us here at LL&O. Thank you so much Kit for your words and for being such a sweetheart.

Yipee! Wasn’t that amazing? Hmm, where will we fly off to next week I wonder, let’s meet again soon curious kittens?

Oh, that little Hare guy above just kills me! One look and you already know who my super fantastic guest is today, her work is so distinctive, charming and original. Kate is the genius behind Girl Savage and I have been stalking her shop since I first joined Etsy. Grab a cup of something delicious, sit back and marvel at Kate’s wonderful creations.

Tell us a little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

“I live in Chicago with my husband, two spoiled cats and one even more spoiled muppet-like dog. I’ve been creating things as long as I can remember. My mom says when I was little you could hand me scissors and paper and I would be happy for hours cutting out shapes. I guess I finally figured out to take my shapes, cut them out of wool felt and stitch them into animals.”

“I love working with wool felt, it has such warmth to it and can be made into just about anything. My creative process is sort of as scattered as I am. I sit and think, what do I feel like making today and then make it. I think I have a strange knack for picturing how to make something 2D into a 3D shape. I will take a side view sketch of an animal and make into a 3D pattern.”

From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

“Most of my inspiration comes from cartoons that I watched as a kid and Richard Scary books, I was fascinated with them. I also draw inspiration from nature and folklore.”

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why? Tell us the story behind the piece.

“I guess I would have to choose feltidermy. They came out of a request from a video director who wanted to know if I could make a deer head that was mounted to a plaque and could be used like a puppet to lip sync. Oh, and he needed it delivered cross country in about a week. I had to laugh, but it got me thinking about mounting a plush head to a plaque like taxidermy. There were not many people doing faux taxidermy at the time and none like this so I gave it a try. I wanted to set mine apart from anyone else, so while stitching the first one together, I came up with the word feltidermy. I ran to the computer to look it up and the word was not being used anywhere, so I started using it for my work. Oh and don’t feel badly for the little animal that lost it’s head…these guys never had a body to start with, they wouldn’t know the difference.”

Thank you so much Kate for giving us this fantastic insight into your work. I am so glad that the little disembodied creatures are happy and unscathed by their experiences! If you would like to visit Girl Savage you can find Kate in these places:

Girl Savage Etsy Shop
Flickr
Blog

Yay! Another inspiring interview, who is next I wonder? Well, as the ‘Monday’ interview appeared on a Wednesday this week I have to confess that the next interview *should* have been part of my spring/birthday week. For various reasons I decided to hold off for a little while but I am nearly ready for the grand reveal! You are going to love it I promise you. Back soon kitty cats. X

I have been thinking of a way into this interview, determined to try and give voice to my feelings about Margie and her work. Obviously there is Margie’s inspirational blog, Resurrection Fern, the extraordinary and devastatingly beautiful work, the plain fact that Margie is one of the most remarkable, intelligent, compassionate and beautiful people you could ever hope to meet, funny too, the instigator of many a Cheshire Cat grin! For me, Margie is also a spellbinding storyteller, the natural objects that she works with and documents are imbued with such a powerful ‘living’ force that they have a back story, a present and a future narrative, a sort of continuum I suppose. Margie helps these objects project their magic to us, to tell their story and remind us that we have a duty of care and stewardship towards them, we cannot ‘own’ them but we can listen to their stories and take notice of the ways in which we are all a part of a much larger narrative.

Margie puts so much out into the world, she is the keeper of the spider web that holds so many people together. We are all a part of an extended narrative, a dialogue, that I find so wonderfully enriching, enervating and supportive. You may remember Project Rain (hello Rane & kiddos!) and Geninne’s wonderful card that depicted the lovely women involved as drops; Margie was the biggest drop. Margie is the biggest droplet but also the skin that holds the larger droplet together in so many ways. Inside a water drop, the water molecules are strongly attracted to each other. This attraction is called cohesion. Cohesion tugs at the molecules on the surface, pulling them in from the sides and downward. This surface tension, caused by intermolecular attractive forces, serves as a skin to hold the drop intact. I may have my infant physics a little muddled and I’m sure Margie can correct me! Really I should just let Margie’s own words and pictures continue the story now.

Tell us a little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

“I am a family doctor in a small town with a population of about 4 thousand people almost all of whom are my patients. I care for people from birth to the very elderly. My oldest patient is over one hundred years of age. I do house calls and palliative care. I am a rare breed of doctor in Canada. Before I went into medicine I did a degree in Biochemistry and a doctorate in Synthetic Organic Chemistry of natural products. I think my love of botany started there.”

” I am a mostly self-taught craftsperson. I taught myself to knit, crochet, sew, embroider and I am in the process of learning to silkscreen and print.”

” I have been making things ever since I can remember but only in the past year have been sharing with people on Flickr and I started my blog just over a year ago with the encouragement and help of my friend Elsita Mora. I lack computer skills but have learned so much since starting my blog. When I run into trouble I always ask my youngest daughter for help.”

“I work Monday to Friday but manage a little creative time in the evenings after supper and also in the wee hours of the morning when nothing is stirring except my three kitties. I usually do this outside on the porch in the warmer months and near the woodstove in the kitchen in the winter. My favorite room in the house is the kitchen so many of my indoor pictures are taken there. All my children are very creative and I have tried to teach them everything I know about making things so when I am creating one of them is usually there as well, making along with me or working on their own projects. That way we get to spend time together and talk about different things. It is like an extension of dinner conversation.”

“Lately it seems that the technique of crochet has really been my focus. I love the freedom it gives the artist or craftsperson. I never follow a pattern. I always make it up as I go along and sometimes remember to write down what I did so that I can share it with others. I love how you can stop and start where ever you want. I love the sculptural aspect of it as you can tell from my work.”

“The one thing I don’t really like about it is that I have to look at what I am working on. The other little pet peeve is that because I am working with fine fiber and a tiny hook I need to wear reading glasses when I work. It is probably pretty obvious that I love working with natural fibers and things like stones and wood. Almost all my crochet hooks come from the thrift stores as well as most of my fiber. Some of it is very old, quite apparent when you see the price of the spool if it is still attached. The colors are softer and sometimes a little yellowed with age. I love that. ”

From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

“I love the natural world, find my inspiration from it and love to spend as much time as possible enjoying it. I am so thankful that I live in a place in the world where I am able to do this. One of my favorite quotes is Frank Lloyd Wright: Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

“I am a collector of things natural and vintage. Only recently have I thought about where this all started and it actually was something I learned from my father. My father, a mathematician and electrical engineer, instilled in me a very curious mind and the love of collecting natural objects such as stones, as well as vintage treasures.”

“My husband Ray loves the natural world more than anyone I know and our canoe trips and hikes are a huge source of inspiration. He has a great gift in looking at a landscape or natural area and being able to see the history behind or beneath it. It is one of the things I love most about him.”

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why? Tell us the story behind the piece.

” I think I will choose the patchwork stone that found its way to a page in the magazine Country Living, not because it is my most famous stone but because it is a symbol for what I hoped to accomplish through my art. I wanted to make patchwork stone coverings using fabric, crochet and hand stitching. I decided to use almost exclusively Liberty Tana lawn fabric cut into small circles. I love Liberty!!! I was going to use vintage fabrics but I wanted the cover to be very snug and I didn’t think it would stand up to the tension.”

“My thought behind the design was to leave some areas blank, thus the title Missing Pieces, because I know that I will continue to make new friends and connections through my blog, handwork and photography and I always want to leave some space in my life and work for them. Since I made this stone, you Lisa and Lou Lou & Oscar, have filled up one of the spaces in such an amazing way as have so many other wonderful friends that I have met through this creative community.”

What does spring mean to you creatively?.

“In the words of my favorite poet E.E. Cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

“That is what spring means to me. It opens the eyes of my insight and the ears of my inspiration to the natural world and the source of almost all my inspiration. The forest in the spring is my favorite place in the entire world to sit and dream.”

You can visit Margie in these places:

Flickr
Resurrection Fern Blog
Resurrection Fern Shop

Thank you so very much Margie for giving me the most wonderful birthday present in this interview and for being there as the most extraordinary friend. You enrich our lives and I’m sure everyone would love to join me in giving you a huge, squeezy bear hug. Can you feel our gentle paws?

Stone the crows, get out the best china; Julia Pott is gracing Lou Lou & Oscar with her words and pictures today! It is so hard to know where to begin with Julia’s work, ace illustrator, stellar animator, purveyor of candy-sweet unicorns and the most beautiful inter-species love affairs. Julia’s funny and heartbreakingly tender tales of love, loss and unrequited passion posses a universality that we can all relate too. Everyone can understand the emotions conveyed by Julia’s anthropomorphic animals, who doesn’t pity a heartbroken Panda? Julia’s work is also aesthetically dazzling, her animation so ‘warm’, she is bringing hand drawn animation back! It is no surprise that Julia’s animated films clock up hits into the millions on YouTube, she is such a star.

Tell us a little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

I am an illustrator and an animator based in London, England. I am a bit obsessed with drawing and need to stop myself every so often so I don’t become a bit of a hermit (although I fear it’s too late!). I graduated in 2007 and since then I have been taking up various freelance projects and trying to establish myself as an animator. I like to work with hand drawn animation and all of my work, whether animation or illustration tries to steer away from the computer as much as possible.

I like to incorporate collage into my work and most of it comes from things I find in charity shops and old photographs of my parents. In terms of my creative process I tend to draw inspiration from my own experiences and stuff thats going on in my everyday life…and being the somewhat soppy person I am this usually revolves around boys and relationships. The animals I draw and animate I tend to see more as people in animal costumes, exhibiting human behaviour from a more comical perspective.

From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

My studio is cluttered full of my little ponies, china dogs, unicorns and poodle money banks and I draw a lot of my inspiration from this weird collection. I also read a lot of books and love to draw ideas from short stories..my favourites are J.D. Sallinger and Miranda July…speaking of which Me and You and Everyone We Know was the movie that started off my obsession with love and relationships so I owe Miranda July a lot because she is a genius. I also look at other animators, my favourite being Igor Kovolyov. Music is probably one of my main inspirations. I listen to a lot of bands while I am working, mainly casiotone for the painfully alone and kimya dawson because their lyrics fit best with the subject matter I like to focus on.

My friends are also a great source of ideas..they’re all working illustrators and animators and we have the same sense of humor so meeting up with them usually means running around finding loads of joke things to draw and laughing at funny looking animals and watching cartoons. When I used to live with them in a big house in London we never got anything done but we did consume a lot of cake.

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why? Please tell us the story behind the piece.

The ‘This is My Boyfriend’ zine is my most recent book and it includes personal drawings created over the last 6 months. Most of my illustrations are autobiographical and this book contains a lot of the illustrations from a book I made for my boyfriend for Christmas about our relationship so they are very personal to me.

The rest of the drawings are those I have just made in my spare time, maybe to work through a problem I’ve been having (such as the ‘It’s No Big Deal’ Piece, included in the book) or just because I really wanted to draw a unicorn that day.

I also try and make paintings for my friends for their birthdays and a lot of them are contained in the pages of this book . The book is designed to flow through, starting with ‘I think we should split up’ and ending with ‘Let’s get back together’.

The illustrations in between look to explore the ups and downs of relationships, and life in general! I suppose this book to me is like my diary in pictures.

Yippee! Julia is such a busy bee and it was lovely of her to take the time to answer my questions. Thank you so much Julia, now I just need to find a bigger house in which to hang all of your wonderful illustrations. Yes, I confess I am a Julia Pott obsessive! There are some more links to Julia’s work below, I told you she was super busy. My son Ishi adores the animation for White Corolla, especially the Horse/Unicorn, it always elicits squeals of delight. Notice all the wonderful details, Panda-Limb-Tag, I love it! Did I forget to mention that Julia has an Etsy shop!

Julia has just completed some animated bumpers for Etsy documentaries, you can check them out below.

If you would like to spend some more time with Julia, you can click below.

Phew! I’m out of steam. Pop back next week my pink unicorns, I have treats in store and perhaps a little giveaway! X

Welcome to my very first interview here at Lou Lou & Oscar. I really am so excited and honoured that I have managed to persuade some wonderful artists to answer three short questions about themselves and their work. I am hoping to run these interviews on a regular basis (Mr Mac permitting!) and hope that you will find my fantastic interviewees as inspiring as I do. That is more than enough from me, let’s get on with the interview!

Who is that skipping with style across the rooftops of Provenance? It is my first interviewee Sara Cimarosti aka Violetta Testacalda. I did assume that Sara was actually named ‘Violetta’ based on her Flickr/internet identity, happily Sara didn’t mind at all. I am so grateful to Sara for agreeing to be the first to answer my questions and I have had a fine time exploring Violetta Testacalda on Flickr where I first came across Sara’s work. I knew that I had to find out some more about Sara, her work exudes such an intelligent and playful spirit, it is also very, very beautiful. From soft sculpture to illustration and mixed media collage, Sara is so amazingly talented and skilled. You will soon be as hooked as I am on Violetta Testacalda.

Tell me a little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

“I’m a graphic designer, based in Bologna, in Italy. My nickname “Violetta Testacalda” arose from a play on words. In English it means “hot-head”, it’s a joke referring to a period in which I crocheted several woollen hats for a shop. About my work’s approach, I get fun by creating something, usually. An artwork is something that remains, it doesn’t matter how little or important a piece is, it will be anyway a unique piece. The attestation of a moment. A visual work has to be able to remind me of a particular moment. Even if, not necessary of a happy moment. Usually I prefer mixed media, working by mixing illustration with photograpy or fabrics with paint. I love especially collages and often I work digitally on photos and pencil drawings.”

From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

My inspiration?… uh, actually I think a lot of different things and people inspire me. First of all childhood, animals and plants. People. Home Heart, from France, for fabrics and decor taste and for the beautiful brush calligraphy. The Victorian age, for its elegance about graphics, style and architecture, for the inventions and in particular for the irony. Everything that is simple inspires me. The purity of primitive art, especially Inuit drawing. I love the sense of the minimal and the composition of Japanese print, Ukiyo-e tradition for example.”

“There are some designers,illustrators and writers I admire, artists who somehow inspire me. Bruno Munari, Raymond Savignac, Raymond Queneau for their bright minds and for keeping alive the child in them. Michel Gondry, Hayao Miyazaky, Italo Calvino for the same reasons and for making me smile through their true genius. Frida Kahlo, for being a great artist and a courageous woman. I get inspired by Polish affiche and Czech visionary art that I find so free graphically. Stop motion shortmovies, such as the work of Jan Svankmajer. I will stop now but I could go on longer. There are so many sources of inspiration!”

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why?

“To me the hardest thing to do now is to choose an artwork I made!
I think the one that best describes me is the potato stamped Bird with the red flower (above). I guess because the print technique is funny and super basic and I love the subject. An artwork I really care about is Bosch Icy Christmas (above). I’m glad you chose to feature even Promenade (at the top of the post), my father took the picture, that was a really nice day.”

Thank you so very much Sara for sharing your work with us, I am such a fan! I can’t wait to see what Violetta Testacalda has in store for us this year. I asked Sara if it is possible to purchase her work anywhere, she told me that it is something she is exploring, fingers crossed for the future! In the meantime you can keep track of Sara’s work via her Flickr site.

Oh, that was so much fun! How wonderful to *meet* the people behind the work you admire. I wonder who is up next? Check back next week my curious kittens.

Love, love, love everything above. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to go moonwalking with those overwhelmingly booted Woodlanders!