The Mad Alchemist and Grassroots Artists: SPRING INTO ART - GIVEAWAY!!!!

The Mad Alchemist and Grassroots Artists: SPRING INTO ART - GIVEAWAY!!!!

MAY Marvels

I am featured in a Treasury West by CrystalBeadDesigns!
check out her shop at
http://www.crystalbeadeddesigns.etsy.com/

it is a VERY precious TREASURY by a very talented artist!!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=99410

"Whispering Sparrows" by Me at www.banjobaysoaps.etsy.com

OK! are YOU ready to....
!?MEET THE ARTIST?!

Myself wearing THE "Moulin Rouge" Top Hat by TwoBackFlats

A few months back, i fell in love with a shop called TwoBalckFlats. I loved everything about it, the colours, the textures, the vibe, the HATS!!! And little did i KNOW, the amazing lady behind the art would turn out to be one of the most wonderfully fascinating and loveable people i have ever met! Her art has been one of the most inspring additions to my life! I actually have incorpoorated it into MY art...when we work, we work in TwoBackFlats top hats. We mix and match, trade off, and have noticed that everything is far more fun and faniciful since we started the movement in-house!!! If you work at BanjoBay, you wear the top hat of your choice. And you love every second of it. I have so many thank you's and so much love to extend to this artist...well, word sdont do it justice. Alas, words will have to do for now. So sit back, put on a hat, grab a cup of java, and enjoy the awesomeness that IS...
THE "J"...the driving force behind the fabulousity...an interview that she has graced grassrootsartists with...drum roll PLEASE....

Miss Jasika Scruggs

at

www.twobackflats.etsy.com

Age: 25 + 1

Location: The Land of Pleasant Living

Jasika, I am fascinated by artists who don’t forget the head in the expression "head to toe"...you obviously are living proof of this! Do you agree that sometimes these days we forget about that in fashion?
I agree completely, E! This is why we understand each other. I can remember the first time I saw a photo of my mom getting off a plane in a black and white suit, hat and platforms. I immediately wished I lived “back when”. Chic and styled head to toe was the norm for leaving the house whether you were socializing or traveling. I was raiding fabric stores for bows before bows were acceptable, making oversized flowers for behind my ear before Neicy Nash (Love you Neicy). Put a hat on and see how every person who passes smiles at you. Let’s bring it back!!!

I HAVE to know...when did you start making your top hats?!?!?!?
Believe it or not, I have just started making my top hats within the last year. They have developed so quickly from their craftsmanship to their design. My adoration of them grows everyday. (I say goodnight to them in their hat boxes every night. (But, don’t tell anyone:)

Where did you get the inspiration to pick up this AMAZING craft?
My awesome aunt was having a hat party for her 50th birthday. That’s another lady that understands the importance of details details details! I immediately knew I wanted a fun and funky hat for my short poofy dress. I was at the fabric store 3 minutes later. 20 minutes later, I had a room full of fabric and flowers and trims and sketches.

What kinds of elements in life do you derive your inspirations from in your art?
It has always been my mission to live with beautiful surroundings. I live in a beautiful city with marble and granite architecture whose details are intoxicating. I have unbelievably gorgeous friends who inspire me daily in their boldness, their colorful hair, their tattoos, their fashion sense and their traditional views on life. I notice everything from how a flower bends and how easily colors in nature flow and belong together.

Do you have any favorite materials, colours, objects and textures to work with?

I am a fabric and ribbon lover. I have hat boxes and wine cases and drawers filled with textures and colors that alone could inspire amazing things. I love the unexpected when it comes to fashion. A black hat with a hot pink bottom or a bridal hat with a striped underside. I think sexiness and confidence comes from something not necessarily everyone can see or know about. Something just for you. THAT is my favorite.

What kind of music do you listen to? Does it ever flow into your art?

My husband is a musician so music is my pulse. I listen to anything from alternative country to old country, local artists, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, you can find them all in my car at any given point. I don’t ever work without my music. It makes me feel and love and remember. Since I can’t carry a tune and should never attempt to play the guitar again, I try to convey the feelings I get through music through MY art.

***Do you have any pets***

I have two dogs who are the loves of my life. Papi and June are my favorite part of everyday.

Me wearing the :Hot Pink Spring Petite Top Hat:

by TwoBlackFlars

What other kinds of art and ideas do you dabble in?
As a graphic design major, I was always instantly drawn to paper. Greeting cards and thank you notes and wedding invitations. I am a hair stylist because, well, fantastic hair makes your fantastic hat look even better. However, my love of small detail and crafting (and eating) brought me to my most fabulous venture yet. Marrying fashion and food, my business partner and soul sister, Alicia, and I came up with Petite Four Couture. A high end confectionery specializing in petit fours. I urge everyone, everywhere to grab a hat, join our Facebook page and wait for our website in June. I sense tea parties. Many many tea parties.

Check OUT this site coming in JUNE

 www.petitefourcouture.com

!WOW! currently up and running check out this link below !WOW!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Baltimore-MD/Petite-Four-Couture/52893094899

*NOM NOM * YUM YUM * WOW WOW * NOM NOM*

~SO DELICIOUSLY BEAUTIFUL~

10 years: where do you see yourself? real, imaginary, or both!


10 years from now, I am barefoot surrounded by husband, his guitar, my dogs (plus 10) and flowers. I am gathering eggs to make cake and strawberries for jam. I am definitely, definitely wearing a hat.

Lastly, may i please stalk you and your head-wear for life? i honestly do not think i can function without them. and, if so, THANK YOU!!!

You are without a blink a major source of my inspiration. Your enthusiasm is infectious.

No Jasika, you are an inspiration to myself and the rest of the global community...artistic or otherwise. I know that you will go far, so far with EVERYTHING! Whatever you and your business partner create...wearable, edible and BEYOND!! Thank YOU for making the world brighter, funkier, prettier, fancier, edgier and more elegant than i could possibly fathome anyone or anything could. THANK YOU.

May I have this DANCE????
I would be honoured.

Spread the GOOD WORD

ALL ABOUT SPREADIN THE GOOD WORD!!



THANK YOU JIA!!!!
Jia has reviewd my shop and given it two BUBBLES UP!!! She has Spread the GOOD WORD!!!
click the link below to see my review!!! MUCH LOVE!
http://bit.ly/cCp7Qr


i love spreading the good word. like whipped cream cheese. and the dirty word too. all kinds of words....
as ya know, that is WHAT grassrootsartists is ALL about - YOU and THEM and ALL OF US!

MY GOOD WORD OF THE DAY

5/23/10

Miss Kathryn Long of VA (the commonwealth of) is serving up JAVA by day to the sweet peeps of Waynesboro and is an Artist by any other means. With her adorable dog Harvey by her side, this lovely lady is one un-stoppable ROCKIN chick! Talented and hilarious, drop by her shop and take a loosky...whimsical, pretty, and fun.

http://www.brightsunnyday.etsy.com/

YUP, a few fellow good ol' home place Sweet Virginia artists i know from round-abouts, are, (i believe) taking the world by storm, one photo at a time, one colour at a time, one laugh at a time, one fashion statement at a time, full of GLITZ and GLAM, the bright side and the dark side, well, just CHECK it OUT!!!!

my good word of the day

4/28/10

OK, so i was lucky enough to be connected with a dashing, talented, endearing young man through a wonderful VA gal...she sells here on etsy, Lauren Young od Harisonbirg VA. Her shop is EpicCoke, and trust me, will get into THAT later. The following is an online interview that took place the afternoon of April 28, 2010...

I would like to introducce to the world, even if you already know him, Mr. Warhol Waltz himself - Jeremy H. Morris also hailing from Harrisonburg, VA.
For the purposes of this interview, i felt it approriate and comforting to myself to call him JerBear. You will have to ask him how he feels about that. I however am often thoughtless, so i just assumed it would be ok. JerBear.

I would LIKE to start out by posting some of his photography to you, because that is what drew me in to Jeremy. And i think, that they may, just do, the same, for YOU

OK! Now i have buttered you up with a few killer shots by JerBear, let's talk shop. Get down to the NITTY GRITTY, shall we?

So, i hear all this BUZZZZ about WarholWaltz...is this your business? Something you just do for fun? Or something that you plan to take to the big time?

Warhol's Waltz started with shoes. I love shoes, I think they give you an instant glimpse into who a person is, so I started revamping ones that I liked and that became Warhol's Waltz, with a bunch of other random crap. It was just a fun thing to do, and right now it is undergoing some changes, so stay tuned if you dare.

(I am TOTALLY STAYING TUNED, I DARE!)

Your photography is .... amazing. one could certainly argue that, but i can very well predict they would grossly LOSE that argument. how do you feel about that statement?

I feel that A) you are awesome. And B) I agree. I know that may seem arrogant, some may expect other artists to talk about their work and just say "thank you" after thank you, but I have learned there comes a point where your art and your passion HAS to be for YOU and no one else, so if you like, I'm thrilled, if not, then I'm even more thrilled, because that means that piece is for me, I love it, I am it, I made it, I don't expect you to as well.

no Jermey - that would be A) YOU'RE AWESOME....moving along -

How long have you been taking pictures?

We're coming on three years now. It started out as just a fun thing, I always used to adore my mom's camera when I was younger, and one day me and my friends were terribly bored, and for some reason I remembered her camera. I bought some film and we started from there. My first album is of me and my friends in a graveyard, but we loved it, we couldn't get enough. Now, those pictures seem so amateur, but then it was thrilling and I loved every minute of it.

Spill it, what kind of camera do you use, and so do you love it like a child or do you love it like a lover?

I use a Canon Powershot. I love it like a lover who occasionally cheats, but is always truly and deeply in love. I also use a Lomography Fisheye camera every once in a while, but I have a never ending love affair with my Canon EOS Elan II, its a huge, professional looking film camera. It's funny because people don't expect anyone who is taking photography seriously to be shooting with a point and click, but that is my current situation and it works for now. I REALLY, really prefer film, I think there is a magic in anticipation and waiting, and I think looking through a viewfinder intensely increases your artistic eye.

I have a power shot kodak thingie camera. i love to take pictures. is my camera lame? i feel like i need more ammo.

No! Not at all! People think that if they don't have a badass camera then their images will just be crap or they will feel stupid. You have to get over feeling stupid (and when there is a gorgeous model, styling her fashionista ways, in public and you are sitting there with your point and click you certainly do) and just do what you want. Tell the story in your mind, or capture the beauty of your eye, either way the image is yours and you should love it.

"you should love it" - Jeremey Morris

Jeremy, would you rather be in front of the lens or behind the lens? or both? why?

This is funny actually, I used to know someone who constantly tried to mentor and guide me, but our style was completely different, so he would critique me and critique me and I would just take it all in. He would always suggest that to make anyone comfortable in front of the camera, I needed to learn how to be in front of the camera, and I disagreed wholeheartedly, because I had already made so many people comfortable and gorgeous. So I prefer behind the camera, I don't like photographs of myself if they are not me being intentionally goofy.

Do you think that one's perception of something is altered when captured on film? does that make any sense to you?  i would love for you pick that apart.

Oh most definitely. I think that if you took something like a gorgeous Valentino dress on the most amazing model in the world and she looked banging, but had 12 photographers, you are going to get 12 photos that will look different. But that is IF, and this is a big if, that is IF the person behind the camera has a voice in their work, if they have a vision, if they have a mission, then it will be distinctly theirs and will be altered to be that persons image and no one else could even hope to come close. But if not, then you get 12 crap images because no one has anything to say.



Do you have *muses* Jeremy?

Muses are something that are so incredibly important to me. I HAVE to have an Edie to my Andy or else my work feels really uninspired. But I have constant muses that influence most of what I do music, film, art, specifically people like Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, Janis Joplin, SO SO SO many others. I'm pretty sure I was born in the wrong era by the way.

* i am assuming that these two beautiful ladies are some of your muses?*

What are your favorite colours?

In real life, I don't have any. I think that colors alone are boring, you have to take the colors of things collectively to appreciate anything. On film, I LOVE vivid colors, high contrast, dramatic, popping colors that grab your face and smack it around a little.

POP ON, pop ON! And i REALLY could not think

 of a better picture to pair with the above question

or this

OR THAT

What are your favorite textures?

I'm not really sure, personally I don't care, I will wear anything I feel I'm styling in, but on film I love texture sometimes, it depends on the photo it depends on the setting, but you can never top an elegant silk dress.

What kind of music do you listen to, or does your music listen to....you?

Most days these are the people I end of listening to for some amount of time: Lady Gaga, The Libertines, The Postal Service, Janis Joplin, Tegan and Sara, Modest Mouse, Billie Holiday, The Andrews Sisters, The Ink Spots, The White Stripes, and a whoooooole lot of musicals. I am a musical freak because I thought I was going to do musical theater at one point, and I may still try it out somewhere, but I don't expect it to go anywhere.

Do you hear voices?

Yes, it just depends on whether I speak the language or not if I understand them.

Inspiration: where or whom or both does yours come from? what do you derive your fancy stuff from?

My inspiration is honestly so random that it could come from anything, it just depends on the image and shoot, but most of the time I derive the inspiration for the image from the clothes that the model is wearing, which I usually pick out as well, so its a lot of inspiration going around. Honestly the fancy stuff like most other stuff is derived from randomness. I hardly ever plan out ANYTHING. Everything is usually on site and random.

LONDON

Do you like to photgraph all spectrums of life? normal to strange to out-right insane?

No. I hate babies and pets. I will and have photographed my pets because I love them, but I don't expect you to so I will not share these images with anyone because no one appreciates them, same with babies. As far as everything else, it's fair game.

(i had to do it)

Is YOUR photography very technical? do you need the right light, the right person, the "just right" everything to do a shoot, or is all about just the opposite?



Not at all. I think that if you learn anything technically minded from the get go then you are just bound to have a boatload of boring pictures. I do nothing technically, I hardly ever use a tripod, I play with light till I get it right, I just go until it looks good to me then stop. Everything is impulsive, natural work, nothing is planned out so I can follow the rule of thirds or have the correct white balance. Some may say that is an excuse for me not knowing the technical side, and I would say to them "Nay, good sir, you are quite wrong." I know the technicals, they are necessary sometimes, but not most of the time for me.



Yes, Jer Bear, You have the ability to make me and it seems, most everyone, crave more of your pictography...take a second look, stare a little more, want the next shot, need to see more...are you adding addictive illegal substances combinded with highly unorthodox verbal and or auditory sublimal messages in your art, or, is it JUST THAT GOOD?

My lawyer has advised me to say this: "No comment."

i'm just not buying into that Jer. I'd like to speak with this so called "lawyer"

Do you have a posse?
If you consider my crazy, cool, and irreplaceable friends one then yes.

Can i be part of that posse one day?
Of course, I think you would fit quite nicely.

What do i have to do to be part of the posse? will i get injured? is it safe?

Well, we demand you do a Frank-n-Furter routine in Target or Walmart, one which consists of a one minute long impersonation, and if that hurts anyone it will be because they will never be happy again until they hunt you down and ask you to do it again. It tis the power of dear Frank-N-Furter. No joke we did this.

(INTERJECTION: Jermey, i challenge to a Frank-N-Furter dance off. Yeah, I'm THAT with it. Been time-warping for 20 years. Literally. I'm old, ok? Name the time and place, and i will be there in leather and lace, dear Jeremy)

"Some may say that is an excuse for me not knowing the technical side, and I would say to them "Nay, good sir, you are quite wrong." I know the technicals, they are necessary sometimes, but not most of the time for me." -

Jeremy H. Morris

Any pets?
Two dogs who are complete opposites but make the funniest couple of crack headed dogs.

(INTERJECTION: why are you giving your dogs crack? seems a little un-ethical to me...???)

10 years: where do you see yourself, what are you doing, and do you like it? real or imaginary, totally up to you.

Ten years I hope to be well out of Photography school in London and working somewhere, hopefully making good money as a fashion photographer, but that is all just hopes. Right now though I plan to continue with my art, finish my book, go to college at some point, and love life everyday I am living it.

Did this interview annoy you?
No. It was super fun.

Any last words?

Thank you for interviewing me! And my entire portfolio/website can be found here: www.wix.com/jhmorrisphotography/jhmorrisphotography

THANK YOU JEREMY!!! You are a lovely little dear, a man packed with vision and inspiration...you will go far in life, i know this, i feel this, and i was humbled and honoured that you did this interview with me, and let me use your photography to accomany it...i look foward to the dance-off, and my apologies for your losing the competition to me ahead of time. Break out the meds. It's gonna be a bone crusher. Jermey H. Morris, i applaude you,your zest for life, appreciation for beauty in so many different forms, your immeasurable talent, your humor, your fancy free~ness, and this is all truly, from my heart and soul...THANK YOU.
THE END. (for now)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

SPREADING THE GOOD WORD

LividLips ~ SHABANG!

www.lividlips.etsy.com

and follow the UBER COOL blog at

www.lividlipsshop.blogspot.com

?!?!?!are YOUR lips LIVID?!??!

Latest Musings

So what is up in your world???
anything NEW or FUNKY or RAD?
i have, oh a whim, decided to take up mixed media art ona a MUCH smaller scale...CARDS and TAGS!
it was all right there in front of my face, DOWNSIZE for a while!!! eh? yeah!
and ofcourse, using my FAVORITE materials, clearly the MOST delighful and my favorite material to ever exist...TULLE!!!

constructing my art  in a hat...always, ofcourse!

WELL, hmmmmmmmmm, which hat to wear today?!?!?

OK! this one...

and, i do this, on a whim, today, Through The Looking Glass....
i love texture, and i love treasures. i love tales and things un-told...
i love to feel, and to dance, and to twirl around for no reason at all, but to twirl around because it seems like the reasonable thing to do.
i like cats and rabbits, that can reside in fancy little houses, that are "dressed in shoes and hats and trousers"
yes, i have a world, of, my own...
i've been lucky, to be inspired by the fizzle of a firework, the flash of a firefly, and the flames from which the pheonix of my spirits have risen.
i'm lucky.
and just when i think i am not, i see a wild violet, in my front yard.
just the most deep purple, pretty white and purple wild violet...oh, just the littlest tiny thing, growing with it's counterparts in this mess of a crazy yard upon which a early warm spring has enabled the sproutting of immeasurable amounts of grass, dandelions, buttercups, clover, tulips, jonquils and blue~bells.
so this single violet, shouts up to me, loud even for me to stop and look down, yet quiet enough not to wake the sleeping dragons...with their shiny scales and golden tails...roars that shake the big blue whales....from mountains caves to sea...
bless this violet, for she sang to me, smiling all the while, in a golden afternoon choir amongst her wild friends, swaying side to side, to and fro, back and forth, around and around, she sang the sweetest song, just for me, and by osmosis of a breeze she flooded my mind with thoughts, with decree...
of visions and dreams, of stars and moons, of vows and truths, of all the things that i have been given, be grateful, she sang, not jealous nor bitter, nor angry nor sad, be grateful...for what you have been blessed with in your life is so much more than many will ever feel, taste, see, breathe...she sang this to me and i began to listen...i began.
and since that day, my heart beats so much love, no push nor shove, and though confusion is natural, and normal as can be, in my mind, miss violet i shall always hear and see, singing songs of xanadu, of khubla khan, of rubies and of chess, a stout king and his pawn, singing songs of all fancy lovelies, just out there, out on my lawn.

and then, kinda came the start of these....

I ADORE CREATING!!!!!!!!

mmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

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