“Hey, hey, oh playmate,
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree

Slide down my rain barrel
Into my cellar door
And we’ll be jolly friends
Forever more, more, more...”

Dear Ones,

When I was a little girl it didn’t feel safe to come out to play. It was safer for me to hide. As a result I have never been a playful adult, playing any kind of games has, as a rule, made me very anxious, the world seemed out of control to me when others around me were in a playful mood. It wasn’t until I was 59 and started drawing my “100 Ladies” that I really started to let myself play a little. And my Ladies made me giggle…

I had no idea what I was doing. I was just playing. All the early Ladies were done with pastels. They were wild and wonky and lopsided and somehow when I was drawing them I was happy. But life kept happening. The house burned down, hurricanes ravaged the land, my mental health was not good, always a struggle but after the house fire it took me years to recover, and I stopped drawing. I stopped and started and stopped and started. I had a brief phase where I played with acrylic and mixed media. That was fun. In this one I used all kinds of things but I especially loved playing with lots of colors of nail polish from the Dollar store. Gee, that really was fun…

But life still kept throwing me some curveballs and I became more and more afraid and withdrawn. And then in 2018 there was the really devastating hurricane, and I lost all 3 of my pugs, and I ended up at the hospital with a serious blood clot and any sense I’d gained of maybe being okay were just gone. But then 2019 dawned. My wee Molly came into my life and Maisie a month later and my life would never be the same again. Maisie changed my life. In 2 years and over 40 paintings she has become not just something I do, but who I am, and the melding of my world and Maisie’s is impossible to separate anymore, and finally I’ve stopped trying.

I wrote about this in last week’s blog post, Weaving Together All The Bits & Parts & Pieces Of My Life + A Studio Tour… and I shared it in a rare Public Post on Patreon so that everyone could see what is happening there, Expanding Tier 2 To Hold ALL of the Art that Maisie & I Do… Amazing things are happening. All of Maisie’s art and working on her book, textile art, fiber art, little handmade Maisie books and more + patrons at this tier get to see what is going on in my sketchbook which is where all the Maisie work that will be done originates…

And THEN I really started playing in my sketchbook in a way that has me so excited I’m about to POP!!! You see it’s all about quilting. An early Maisie painting shows her quilting. The name of the painting is “Quilting Calms My Nerves”…

Now the thing is, I don’t know how to make big quilts, but Maisie does! (Living vicariously through Maisie is one of the most delightful things about creating her world!) I do small textile work and other fiber arts but I love quilts. SO THEN I THOUGHT “What if I draw and paint quilts that Maisie sells in her online shop and I sell the quilt paintings?” They are very detailed and unique. I’d like to produce more art that I can do quicker than the bigger paintings. I need the income. And I LOVE doing this. Mixed media, watercolor, gouache, maybe even acrylic, and all manner of other things. So I started playing in my sketchbook…

Now of course what I would be selling would be real paintings on art paper that I could sell here from my studio as I create them. And because artists are now selling right from Instagram I can do that. I will sell as I go, creating what I can and selling them. Patrons on Tier 2 will see them as they are being created, and they will be offered to all Patrons before being offered to the Public. You can join Patreon if you are interested in this. I even thought if they were successful I could do something really fun (Mind this is just a little scribble in my sketchbook)…

Of course I will still be doing regular Maisie art and down the line, now that I finally have a new printer, I will be selling little handmade Maisie books I can print on demand right here if they sell. I don’t need an etsy shop. I can’t produce enough fast enough to have a shop, but I can do what I can and have fun doing it. And it’s all about play. Maisie has taught me how to play.

I am also considering selling the original Maisie paintings. I have the scans so I can still sell them online as prints, they are now available at Society 6 as prints and all manner of merchandise from mugs to totes to t-shirts and a whole lot more but really I want to make things with my own hands as I can, no pressure, this is not going to be a BIG BUSINESS!!! this is going to be a small enterprise that will bring me joy and the extra income I sorely need. Too, I want to share the art I’m doing, all manner of art, with my patrons, Tier 2 is the indepth art tier where it will all be shared. And if people enjoy that and are inspired to create things as well they can join Tier 3 and come to our live Zoom gatherings on Monday nights and share what they are doing. I want to play, but more, I want to get everyone ELSE playing too!

If not, why not? If not now, when? Will you join me? Will you play too? Join me on Patreon and get your creative juices flowing and going! I’d love to have you join us. It is a lovely women only creative community and I am absolutely in love with my Patrons, who help make my work possible, and being able to engage with other women in this way.

For now, for me, it’s all play. As I see it I’m too old to limit myself in any way, and too young not to just allow my creativity to take me anywhere it wants to take me. I am open to all manner of creative play and I am overjoyed to be able to share my joy and encourage others to do the same.

I am really late, I was about to say, getting this blog post up, and I haven’t done my Sunday video yet, and I’m really tired, but I have been playing like a little girl all day and I just couldn’t stop. How much more I can do tonight I don’t know, but I am happy, I am so happy, and isn’t that what matters most of all?

Let’s play!

This week’s Sunday Afternoon With Maitri video is now up, on Monday!