With My Nimrodic Powers

The following poem is from Growing Pains, by Wanda Gág:

Oh gee,
How doth the busy bee
Improve the shining hours
By making honey sweet and good
From all the pretty flowers.
Oh my,
How doth this lazy I,
Improve (?) the shining hours
By drawing things
And painting things
With my nimrodic powers.


The book is really her diary, and the drawings she made for the diary are included. It's like reading a blog from one hundred years ago. Wanda Gág was fifteen years old when she wrote about her nimrodic powers. The year was 1909. Thank you, Professor Batty, for the book. It's unbelievably great.

Correction from Professor Batty! This is not Wanda Gág in the photo! 

The real Wanda Gag, as unearthed by Professor Batty, who knows about such things.

Breaking news from Professor Batty: Nice post, but that isn't Wanda in your picture! It is one of her classmates at art school. Attached is a self portrait (on a piece of groceery bag) that she did for "Armand" with his notes on the back. I found it in with his letters to Wanda along with his notes on the back. I took a pic of it and cleaned it up a bit in PS. To my knowledge it has never been published, but it is out of copyright, feel free to use it.

"Going Green" Special Edition Is Here!

I blogged a few days ago about how one of my favorite artists and one of my favorite writers were collaborating on a special edition of Going Green, the comically believable zombie novella of the future. And now, already, it is available for purchase! I think I bought the first one. First purchase! Is that like "first comment" on Youtube? Why do people do that, by the way? So bizarre.

Anyway, click here to make the commitment to buy. 

Art Show Highlight #1: Little Z is Better Than Me

I told Little Z that she could have one spot on my wall at the art show. The art show was three days.

The first day, she sold a mounted print of her collage, "Bunnies In Trouble (there's a wolf in the bushes)".


I explained to the people interested in it that the painting Little Z started with was painted by my grandmother, Ruth Porter. And then Little Z changed it in a computer program, adding bunnies swimming across a lake to get away from a wolf. (You have to look very closely to find the wolf, because he is a predator and he is hiding.) The man said he loved it.

"May I meet the artist?" he asked.

"Oh- no, I'm sorry! Her dad just took her home. It's her bedtime. She's six."

We ran into the parking lot to make sure they were really gone, but they were really gone. I wrapped it up for him. He payed me ten dollars for it. Then he went around and told everyone he met,

"I bought a piece from a six year old artist- and I love it!"

The next morning, Little Z didn't seem at all surprised to have sold a piece. It was like she expected it, almost.

So, then we had to find another piece to fill the spot for Saturday. Saturday, we put up this original drawing by Little Z:



I put it in a thrift store frame and marked it $10. Yet again, just after she left, a woman (another artist in the art show) purchased it. She said,

"I really like what she does with color."

One of the other art show kids was still there, and he tried to talk her out of buying it.

"The tummy's too big on that bird!" he said.

"Maybe she's pregnant," she said.

"Birds don't get pregnant! The lay eggs!" he was indignant. She bought it anyway!

I gave Little Z her ten dollars the next morning, and she said,

"I am a professional artist now."

I couldn't argue.

She found yet another piece to put up, a collage.

"This one was more difficult," she said. "I want you to charge $12 for this one."

Yet again, when she wasn't around, someone wanted to buy it... and then changed her mind. Thank goodness! Had she sold three pieces at the art show, she would have been insufferable. As it stands, she just feels lucky. Well, lucky, and like a "professional artist."

She bought a My Little Pony doll with her money.

Renee Helin

Renee Helin is another local artist I admire. Her work is realistic, but still maintains a certain style. I know the people in the pictures, and they really do look like that! And the goats. They look like that, too.

Click on that one for a closer look at the face. It's really something.

"Winter Wolves" is on a piece of wood:

She has such a soft, natural style.

Sometimes, she goes down the road from me and draws Janelle's goats. This one is my favorite:

Here is Renee's Facebook page. Her work is also available at Selah Vie gallery in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.

Mary Go Round

Mary Wright is a local artist here in Southern Wisconsin, who is also a friend. She invited me, initially, into the Tenderfoot Collective, which has been great fun.

Mary plays with dolls. Many of us girls who played with dolls as children were taught not to do anything permanent to them. Don't cut their hair. Don't paint them. Don't stick a lightbulb in them or take their heads off. Don't, don't don't. We were supposed to keep our dolls nice!

Mary does not keep her dolls nice. She makes them better. She tests social norms of feminine beauty, of religion, and sometimes her work is just fun. It's often silly and creepy at the same time. Something about it makes me think of fifties and sixties style fantasy images.

Here are some examples:




She has a Facebook page and an etsy shop.

Oh, and one more thing! Mary really likes Bob Ross: