Athena Dreams Design

More Mantelpieces

Some beautiful and inspiring mantelpieces from around Flickr... more lovely things.

Out of the Blue

Don't you love that phrase? It is one of those "sayings" that always has captured my imagination. Out of the Blue, like someone popped down from the sky to say hello, or emerged from the water fully formed.

Well, today this lovely turn of a phrase, is all about 5 amazing artists who have their work for sale on Etsy.

Rien n'a de sens sans toi (or Without You I am Nothing) from Lush Bella is a dreamy and evocative image. She says about her work: So one day...not very long ago, I began pulling a bunch of trinkets together and arranging them on our too tiny coffee table, and then left them there for days because I didn't want to put them away, but a little problem I have is running out of space and then piling and piling, to the point where I can't find anything, and then all I do is spend time looking for this or that, so I decided to photograph them, so that I wouldn't forget what they looked like together." Her work is immediate, emotive and full of memory and vision. I go back again and again to look at her collections, and find things in all of them that bring me back to my own memories. This piece moves through a range of blues, winding around from lighter to darker, leaning towards yellow and then back to a pure blue: magical.

Joan at Simple Modern creates art pendants, among other things, that I could gaze at forever. The piece above, Blue Garden II feels like a modern take on the Pennsylvania Dutch style of painting. Her motifs are beautifully rendered in that bright clean cerulean, and accented with the deep navy, creating a beautiful contrast, all in blue and white.

Linda at Yellow Monday creates beautifully modern, quirky images. I love her Ballerina I, so Gorey-esque, and still with her own style, and her own energy. I love the balance this piece holds, with the clear light blue top, above the more green-y blue skirt and background. Also, her print Caravan I might need to be purchased and added to my own art collection. Please visit her shop to see more than just the "blue" pieces.

Shelley at Albertine Press runs a custom design and letterpress shop, and has note cards to inspire the emerging-letter-writer in all of us. Above are her World Notes in Blue. I was so taken with these because of the pattern and colour tones, such a feast for the eyes, all the different blue tones and hues are so mesmerising and each of the patterns has a different cultural feel, and all the cards reiterate that meditational blue, too lovely.

And we end the Etsy journey into Blue with the powerful photography of Alicia Bock. She says of her own work: "My photography is the search of light and shadows, pretty things in pink, the feeling of the ocean, and a blue moon. I strive to create photographs that evoke memories of our favorite days." This piece Incomplete reminds me of being a kid near the end of the summer: all the days of freedom and wide open time winding to an end, and laying on the grass watching the birds and wishing I could fly away with them. That clear, deep blue sky, fading into a light billow of clouds, so precious.

As ever, thanks to all the artists who allowed me to use their work to look at Blue in so many different ways.

Colour Symbolism .:. Green

green n 1 : a colour whose hue is somewhat less yellow than that of growing fresh grass or of the emerald or is that of the part of the spectrum lying between blue and yellow 2 : something of a green colour 3 green vegetayion as a pl leafy parts of plants for use as decoration b pl leafy herbs (as spinach, dandelions, Swiss chard) that are boiled or steamed as a vegetable 4 : a grassy plain or plot: as a : a common or park in the center of a town or village b : Putting Green -Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

apple .:. aquamarine .:. beryl .:. chartreuse .:. fir .:. forest .:. grass .:. jade .:. kelly .:. lime .:. malachite .:. moss .:. olive .:. pea .:. peacock .:. pine .:. sage .:. sap .:. sea .:. spinach .:. verdigris .:. vert .:. viridian .:. willow

Green retains a strange and complex character derived from its twin polarity - the green of the bud and of decay, life and death. Green is the image of the depths and of Fate. -The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

Take a walk in the park, even on a dull wintery day, and you will count more variations of green than you would have thought possible. Every tree, leaf, bit of foliage and blade of grass can render still another shade of green. Some are vibrant yellow green, some are true deep green, some are subtle grey green and wait — there's the bluish spruce, not to mention the deep blue green of the neighboring lake, or the mossy greens gathereed on the sides of the rocks. –Colour: Messages and Meanings by Leatrice Eiseman

A primary of light but not of pigments, green is also a psychological primary in that it is seen as a basic hue, along with red, yellow and blue. Green is associated with growth, youth and fertility, as in the Green Man of pre-Christian myth. -Living Colours by Margaret Walch

Set midway between the inaccessible absolutes of the blue of Heaven and the red of Hell, green, with its middling quality, mediates between heat and cold and high and low. It is a comforting, refreshing, human colour. After Winter strips bare and freezes the Earth which supports human beings, convincing them of their lonliness and vulnerability, Spring comes to clothe the Earth once more in green, bringing hope and making it again the nurse of the human race. Green is warm. The coming of Spring is heralded by the thawing of the ice and falling of rain. -The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols by Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant

2 Great Journals from SCAD

Design by Susan Beresford

2 beautiful journals from the designers at SCAD. These are actually created by Working Class Studios, an offshoot of Savannah College of Art and Design.

Design by Cadyn Mosch

They are doing some amazing things, and not just with stationery either... there are home decor items, and dinnerware. What a great place to go to school!. I purchased these journals through Barnes and Noble on-line, where they are actually out of stock, but they are expecting more, and check this one out.