If a story is in you...

...it has got to come out!

William Faulkner

This is one of the many pieces inhabiting my studio dining room that has already been through many reincarnations. I am still unsure what it's first life was exactly, but what I do know is that I rescued it from a premature death by burning when I 'tidied out' a friend's Mother-in-Law's barn... (Remember the blue shutter? This is a smaller member of the same household).

With all the voices it's been hearing eg, my loud singing, and text after text of calligraphy that has been systematically scrapped one after the other for no reason other than me considering  it  'pas beau,' as well as taking into account it's narrow escape from death by bonfire; I've started nicknaming this one Joan of Arc.   Just a few days ago, JoAn looked like this...

Before that she was very brown and dirty. Mustering up whatever pride was left she begged me not to get the camera out. Nah - just kidding, I got her before I started blogging so didn't even think of photographing her. Rather, I scrubbed her up and covered her with lots of blue and white layers of paint. Since then I've been spending time scrubbing them all back off again in order to find her story which, given the number of paint layers she has, is no mean feat. 

I tried R.W. Emerson - but he didn't look right on Joan. Too verbose. Hope we all agree on this because I have already undressed her and started again. Sometimes a girl really does have to go through the icky-trying-things-on-stage before she comes up with the right outfit, n'est-ce pas? You know, the-ugly-duckling-before-you-grow-into-the-swan type transformation...

After a particularly inspiring calligraphy class this morning I raced home and said, 'Joan, you and I are going to play around with drawing gum this afternoon.' She promptly replied, 'What's drawing gum? Anything's better than what I'm in now.  Oh rid me of this verbose attire.'

We definitely had fun playing dress-ups again, but methinks her story still isn't finished. She's destined to be undressed again tomorrow. No mind, we have time to find just the right outfit. Thanks to your very wise and kind comments on my last post, I'm a little less worried about how long it's taking me to get her  and the other 15 or so bigger pieces lying around there. However, I do believe that we are both enjoying the process... 

Speaking of enjoying the process ... This post is specially dedicated to someone who has become a treasured friend over the last few months, Laura at 52 Flea, who is this week's guest curator for the blog Crescendoh, and who has very kindly linked to my website today, presenting me as someone who could inspire others. At this point you could knock me down with a feather...  I feel extremely privileged.

Crescendoh is a blog focused on promoting artists and encouraging them to tell their story. Laura, a million Mercis from the bottom of my heart both for including me in your guest blogging week and especially for sharing more about yourself.  Your blog gives us tantalising glimpses of your exquisite taste and beautiful collections - through Crescendo it was precious to get to know you more as a person and to see another example of how art can transform.  May your own art continue to help you overcome those daily worries that life throws at us... and take you down a path of joyful discovery.

Affectueusement, 

Ange

PS - There may have to be another giveaway soon as I now have 200 lovely people following my blog and I love a good celebration. Welcome to all the new people who are along for the ride. Your support is so appreciated that I'm thinking hard as to what the next giveaway theme could be. Watch this space ...

;-)