wow. once again, i have been swept away by life's silly diversions and not blogged in a bit.
LOTS have been going on..like my pop up shop, three aprons. what a ridicuous success. i am still reeling from it all...
some pix:
the old frames are always a big hit. My pieces i feel just lend themselves to being in old beautiful frames!
my stationary and paper dolls sold like mad....woo hoo!
speaking of paper dolls, my youngest buyer (9) sent me a picture of what she did with my dolls, and i have to share:
how creative is that? she made a little house for the doll, hung the clothes on hangers she made, and placed the rest in a little bin...even made a mirror with tin foil above Agatha's head! Zoe, you so rule!!
my latest print is now in my shop. my gouache Owl.
i saved the best little story for last. i decided last minute to bring one of my oldest and most coveted original to the pop up for a chance to air it out and see it in a different light. i had no intention of really selling it.
Ilse and Gertie:
the story behind it is quite heavy and beautiful....i rarely share it with anyone cause i enjoy people getting their own connection or emotion from a piece. BUT, i will share it now because what happened is just too insane. SO....one day, i was listening to NPR in my studio and heard a story which immediately tugged at my heart and i hung to every word. It was a story of a young jewish girl in Auschwitz imprisoned along with her childhood friend Ilse. For years they were together, stripped of their previous lives and clinging to one another for love and support. one day Ilse remembered it was Gerda's birthday. She found a bruised raspberry in the gutter and then snuck her arm through the barbed wire fence to grab a leaf to wrap it in. She kept that raspberry in her apron pocket hidden all day, until bedtime...and then surprised Gerda with it. can you imagine???
not long after, the Nazi's fled Auschwitz, and the prisoners were liberated. however, it was the dead of winter... and where were they to go?? thousands died for they were starving, ill and freezing.
(women being liberated and beginning the march or "death march" as it became called)
sadly, Ilse was too ill and did not survive the march....she died while holding Gerda's hand...
this is a picture of Gerda right before she was imprisoned...
now wait. it gets brighter. The american soldier who found Gerda at Auschwitz, (she was 20 years old and weighed 68 lbs.) liberated her and later became her husband. (in tears yet? )
OK. SO......my painting is of Ilse and Gertie and the raspberry.
here it is at my pop up....and a man comes in to purchase a painting for his girlfriend for Chanukah. She's a big fan of my work, and sent him to "look for something special"
He finds my painting, and takes a picture of it to send to Dana (his girlfriend)...she falls in love with it and wants to know the story. I tell him the story and she begins to freak out on the other end of the line....
READY????? she knows Gerda. well. i mean, she has known Gerda all of her life. her mother was the head of the Gerda Klein foundation. And to top it off, she of course knows the whole raspberry story.
now, i will hopefully meet this amazing woman and share my painting with her....
ok. i am sooo done now. and exhausted from telling the story. i need coffee. want to learn more about the incredible life of Gerda Klein???? just click on her name. you won't be sorry.
