Holiday Updates

Dear Friends,

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. We just finished our southeastern tour of winter shows last week. Over the next couple of months we will be busy preparing for our spring shows.

Santa Claus and Country Folk Art Kids
Medium: Acrylic. Artist: Sheila Edwards (c) 2009

In the meantime, Michelle's work will be displayed at the Small Treasures Holiday Show from November 8 - December 20 at the Highfield Hall Clark Gallery, located in Falthmouth, MA. Other participating artists include Ken Carson, Jane Lincoln, Christie Velesig, Rosalie Nadeau, Mary Alice Eizenberg, Lorrain Trenholme, San Lyman, Candice Ronesi, Robert Manz, Marisa Repeta, and Timothy Struna. The show showcases prints, photographs, oil paintings, folk art, and more from area artisans. If you are in the area be sure to check it out.

The Color of Winter
Mixed Media
Artist: Michelle L. Edwards (c) 2009

Thank you,

Michelle L. Edwards

Green Street Company Blogger

Happy Holiday Cards - New Items

Dear Friends,


Keep in touch with friends and family by sending them one of our beautiful cards or wonderful folk art gifts this holiday season! Our new selection of folk art themed cards and gifts features our traditional and contemporary designs at an affordable price.

The Green Street Company’s signature line of greeting cards feature examples of our original Americana and contemporary folk art paintings.These unique cards are sold in a set of 10, which includes five Americana folk art cards and five contemporary folk art cards. The cards measures 7 x 5 in. and comes complete with white envelopes. The greeting cards are blank inside.If you are looking for an extra special card to send to friends and family during the holiday seasons, then you do not want to pass on the opportunity of owning a set of these distinctive cards today!

These cards also make a perfect gift for American folk art and black folk art collectors. They are available at http://www.greenstreetcompanyfolkart.com/folk-art-cards-and-gifts.html.

Best,

Michelle Edwards
Green Street Company Artist/Blogger

Annoucements: Green Street Company Handmade Cards

Artist: Sheila Edwards, The First Day of School

Dear Friends,

We've been busy introducing new products to our customers at our folk art shows. Our newest product consists of a collection of hand-made cards. Our unique cards are created by the artist and features designs from the Green Street Company’s original acrylic paintings.

The cards are made with a combination of acid free card stock and acid free and lignin-free paper. They are blank on the inside and come complete with matching envelopes. Here are a few examples below:

Currently, these hand-made cards can be purchased directly from us at our art and crafts shows. We hope to have a line of seaonal cards and gifts avaiable for purchase on our main website. If you you haven't visted our on-line gallery yet, be sure to check our new line of affordable prints, one-of-a-kind paintings, and decorative arts at: http://www.greenstreetcompanyfolkart.com/

Thank you,



Michelle Edwards
Green Street Company Artists/Blogger

Annoucement: Green Street Company Prints

Dear Friends,

We have just posted a new affordable line of prints on our website. The Green Street Company current print line contains our original Americana and contemporary folk art designs. These prints can bring style and charm to any home, no matter what your decorating taste. All of prints that are featured in the gallery are 10 x 8 in. They are centered on an 8 1/2 x 11 in 75lb semi-gloss sheet of paper. These original folk art prints are ready for professional framing or you can frame it yourself in a 14 x 11 in. standard frame with a ready-made or custom matte.

Enjoy,


Michelle Edwards
Green Street Company Artist & Blogger

American Gothic Print by Sheila Edwards

(c) 2009 All Rights Reserved.

$15
Available at: http://www.greenstreetcompanyfolkart.com/

Annoucement: Green Street Company's Artist Portfolio

Dear Friends:

Here's a special update! We just placed our official artist portfolio onine at: http://sites.google.com/site/greenstreetfolkartportfolio/

Children's School Desk

Artist: Michael L. Edwards

Medium: Acrylic

Enjoy,

Michelle Edwards

Green Street Company Artist and Blogger

Getting To Know You, Getting to Know All About You – Part III.B

Dear Friends,

This latest blog entry is a continuation of our previous discussion which provided useful information for folks interested in different type of folk art. In continuing with this them I’d like to dedicate this blog to discuss folk art dolls.

As I mentioned on my 06/13/2009 blog post my mother Sheila began designing and making doll patterns at an early age. Her mother, Jewell used to draw paper dolls for her when she was a child. These drawing would have a great influence on Sheila’s artwork as an adult. Her introduction to paper doll making, via her mother’s influence, would eventually become the impetus for the Green Street Company’s line of Ethnic and African American folk art dolls that you see today! The image below is a great illustration of how our folk art girl designs translate into a number of artistic medium, ranging from doll, to decorative arts, to paintings.

Doll making is an important genre of artistic creation that is often over looked. “Deemed by most as toys or playthings, dolls have for thousands of years represented so much more to humans than mere objects of amusement. Religious objects dedicated to gods in ancient temples, collectibles, worry dolls that carry the weight of our worries before we go to sleep, sometimes made of wood, clay, stone, to eventually fabric, porcelain, plastic and more; dolls have in their evolution become a medium of artistic expression for many (Read more at: http://news.deviantart.com/browse/deviantart_inc/deviantart_blog/ )

For those of you that are interested in learning more about folk art dolls or viewing them on display, the links provided throughout this blog will help you get started. As always the photo images that are contained in this blog also has direct links to other pertinent websites

Enjoy!


Michelle Edwards
Green Street Company Artist and Blogger

Relevant Information & Related Topics (Cont.)

Paper Doll Making

Obviously Sheila’s mother was not the inventor of the paper doll! If fact, paper doll making has been around since the Victorian era. To learn more about paper dolls or to view examples of paper dolls we suggest the following resources:

* Victoriana Magazine, http://www.victoriana.com/, is a free online publication, is a vibrant and inspiring e-zine that cuts through the complexities of modern life to illustrate what was beautiful in the past. Victoriana captures the pleasures and traditions of an earlier period and transforms them to be relevant to today’s living. They have a wonderful article on paper dolls. Click on the image below to go directory to that link.

* The Original Paper Doll Artists Guild, http://www.opdag.com/History.html is an organization of people who exchange ideas to encourage the art and hobby of paper dolls in the world today.
* The Arabella Grayson Collection, http://www.arabellagrayson.com/, is a Black paper doll collection that was displayed at the Smithsonian Institute’s Anacostia Community Museum. The Smithsonian News Desk issued a press release about the Grayson’s exhibition entitled, “200 Years of Black Paper Dolls: The Collection of Arabella Grayson.”
- Below is an example of one of Grayson’s dolls. It is a "Black Baby Articulated Paper Doll" (Littauer and Bauer, publisher, circa 1885, Germany). If you click on the image you will be taken directly to the press release.

Art Dolls & Collectibles
An excellent resource for people interested in antiques and collectibles is the online magazine Collector’s Weekly, http://www.collectorsweekly.com/. The magazine has a section that is features wonderful examples of antique dolls, folk art dolls, and doll articles! If you are doll collector the site also includes links to purchase dolls on the web. Below is a short article that I found on their website, which discussed a range of dolls. I’ve included images of some of the dolls that are discussed in the article.

People have made dolls for thousands of years for use as religious objects, toys, and holiday displays. Many traditional dolls, like the Japanese Kokeshi, are still highly desirable today. Many early American dolls were made of rags, or cloth, and are a reminder of the simple life in the 18th and 19th centuries.

You are looking at a set of Japanese wooden kokeshi nesting dolls that range in size from 3 3/4" tall by 3" wide (largest) to 1 1/8" tall by 6/8" wide (smallest). Four of the dolls open up at the middle to allow each one to be placed within each other.

Antique Emma Adams 1800's Folk Art Cloth Columbian Doll .

In the 19th century, French and German dolls were the most popular and innovative dolls in the western world. In the early 1850s, the Bebe doll appeared in France, starting the custom of making dolls in the form of infants and young children (as opposed to adults). The Germans caught on, and soon both countries were producing porcelain-headed dolls.

This is a silk face boudoir doll that was made in around the 1930's and is a French type doll with molded arms and legs with gold painted high heel shoes. This doll measures 24" tall.

30" German Bisque Head Catterfelder Puppen-Fabrik Doll.

Late in the 1800s, the French started making dolls with unglazed heads, and the unglazed colored clay more accurately represented a human skin tone. These dolls became known as bisque dolls, and they remain a staple of doll-making.

Mid 1800's Bisque doll with c.1800's American dress.

Shortly thereafter, German doll makers started experimenting with celluloid, a lighter-weight and less breakable material. Celluloid dolls were popular for a number of years, despite the fact that the material was flammable. Dolls in Europe, Japan, and America made of celluloid, such as the famous Kewpie doll, were eventually replaced by dolls made of plastic, or composition dolls, made of a mix of materials including glue and sawdust.

Kewpie Composition 12 inches Original Clothes.

The early 20th century saw the launch of a number of famous doll-making companies, such as Ideal, which became known among other things for its best-selling Shirley Temple dolls. Another was Vogue, which produced the Ginny doll, and of course Mattel, which launched its blockbuster Barbie line in the late 1950s.

Ideal Collectible Shirley Temple Doll 15 1/2"tall "HEIDI."

1955 Merry Moppet Vogue COWGIRL - Ginny.

1958 Brunette Pony Tail Barbie Doll w/ Box #52.

Though most antique dolls started out as toys, some dolls have been sought by collectors from the beginning. A good example is the Simpich Doll Company, which produced small numbers of limited edition Christmas and Americana-themed dolls for over 50 years.”

Old Original Simpich Goose Lady Doll Rare 50s Vintage.

African American Folk Art Dolls

* Ruby Lane, http://www.rubylane.com/, is an excellent resources to view and purchase black folk art dolls.
* Painted heart designs, http://paintedheartdesigns.blogspot.com/, is a blog that features primitive and one of a kind dolls and paintings. You can also view and purchase cloth and sculptured creations there.
* Folk Art Galleries, http://www.folkartgalleries.com/, periodically features black folk art dolls.

* The Green Street Company’s, http://www.greenstreetcompanyfolkart.com/african-american-folk-art-dolls.html also has a line of ethnic and African American folk art dolls

Below are some examples of black folk art dolls!

Hope is a black folk art doll produced by Woodland Junction Primitives.

This doll has porcelain head, arms and legs w/ over-glaze black enameling; painted eyes; blue and white gingham dress w/ MOP buttons, upright spinning wheel has working treadle; seat and back of chair are upholstered in paisley fabric.

19th century folk art black doll made in Marchinthro Georgia. This black doll retains all its original cloths and leather shoes. The doll is in excellent condition for its age. The doll measures 9 inches long. It has a nut for a face that has detail that takes on the look of a face, eyes, nose, mouth.

Black folk art doll made out of paper and clay by Little Glimpses Art Studio.

Below are several examples of the Green Street Company’s African American and Ethnic folk art dolls. What distinguishes the Green Street Company folk art dolls from all the others is their hand-made one-of-a-kind quality. Each doll is signed and undergoes a series of steps, e.g. cutting and pattern-making, sculpting and molding, sewing, painting, and antiquing. As you can imagine, each of our dolls takes a considerable amount of time to complete. Therefore, we are only able to make a limited number each year.

Examples of The Green Street Company’s African American and Ethnic Folk Art Dolls.
© Sheila Ann Originals

Thanks for reading Green Street Company Folk Art Talk! The next blog (Part III.C) is a continuation of this blog. It is intended to discuss and provide more useful resources for our readers.

Until then, keep craftin!

Getting To Know You, Getting to Know All About You – Part III.A

III.A Relevant Information

& Related Topics

Dear Friends,

One of the first questions people as us when they met us at our arts and crafts shows is, “What kind of painting is this?” While most people recognize our work as folk art they are not sure whether or not to classify it as toll painting, painting in the Grandma Moses tradition, American/Americana folk art, contemporary folk art, or outsider art. We’ve always indentified our work as Americana folk art. But, of course, “art is in the eye of the beholder!” Many people that see our art, especially our early work from the 1980’s, called it toll painting.

An example of a Green Street Company’s early folk art piece c1988. © Sheila Ann Originals

Over the years our art has changed. Even though our current artwork continues to maintain the same simplistic quality of the 1980s there are certain aspects of our work (e.g. our folk people’s facial features, color pallet choice, and design elements) that have become more sophisticated. Today, people more readily indentify our work as American folk art or southern folk art.

An example of a Green Street Company’s Folk Art folk art piece, c 2009. © Sheila Ann Originals

Of course, when talking with our customers or other artisans whether or not they can categorize our artwork is not something we would ever split hairs over! But it is important to note that talking about your style of artwork and knowing more about your craft is a great way to interact with people that are interested in your work. For those of you that are interested in learning more about Americana folk art traditions or viewing folk art that is on display the following links will help you get started. As always the images that are contained in this blog also have direct links to other pertinent websites.

Enjoy!

Michelle Edwards


Green Street Company Artist and Blogger

Americana Folk Art Traditions
Online resources

1. At ArtLex, http://www.artlex.com/, you'll find definitions for more than 3,600 terms used in discussing art / visual culture, along with thousands of supporting images, pronunciation notes, great quotations and cross-references. I provided a few useful definitions on their website.

* Folk art - Art made by people who have had little or no formal schooling in art. Folk artists usually made works of art with traditional techniques and content, in styles handed down through many generations, and often of a particular region. Paintings, sculptures, ceramics, metal work, costume, tools, and other everyday objects all may be folk art.
* Outsider art or outsider art and Outsiders or outsiders - Strictly interpreted, outsider art refers to works by those outside of mainstream society. In the United States, outsider art broadly includes folk art and ethnic art as well as by prisoners, the mentally ill and others neither trained in art nor making their works to sell them. In Europe, outsider art is more narrowly interpreted as art by the mentally disturbed. The term naive was once applied to this work, but is no longer considered current. Because fewer and fewer people are sufficiently isolated to be truly outsiders, most are either mentally ill or working far from urban art scenes.
* Tole Painting - Decorative painting on tin objects, traditional in several cultures, including American. Toleware is tinware. Although similar painting is also done on wooden, glass, and plastic objects, it is more appropriate to describe such work simply as decorative painting. Tole is typically a folk craft, with images derived from pattern books. Most tole is done with oil paints, but some is also done with acrylic paints. There are brushes designed specifically for tole, but round and flat red sable brushes of many types are generally recommended.

2. The New York Times has a list of articles about folk art exhibitions at the Museum of American folk Art at: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/museum_of_american_folk_art/index.html.

3. To discover the rich and colorful Pennsylvania Dutch Folk art traditions that are still vibrant in Lancaster County visit: http://www.welcome-to-lancaster-county.com/pennsylvania-dutch-folk-art.html

Books and References

1. Encyclopedia of American folk art. GC Wertkin and L. Kogan -2004- American Folk Art Museum.

* This book is the first comprehensive, scholarly study of a most fascinating aspect of American history and culture. Generously illustrated with both black and white and full-color photos, this A-Z encyclopedia covers every aspect of American folk art, encompassing not only painting, but also sculpture, basketry, ceramics, quilts, furniture, toys, beadwork, and more, including both famous and lesser-known genres. Containing more than 600 articles, this unique reference considers individual artists, schools, artistic, ethnic, and religious traditions, and heroes who have inspired folk art. An incomparable resource for general readers, students, and specialists, it will become essential for anyone researching American art, culture, and social history. In addition to profiles of painters, sculptors, carvers, and lithographers, with details on their principal works and where they can be viewed.

2. Pennsylvania Dutch American Folk Art. HJ Kauffman, CG Holme - 1946 - American Studio Books.

* Early Pa. Dutch settlers developed a flavor of their own historical folk art. This book brings together a representative collection of illustrative material (over 270 photos) as a super record of the Pennsylvania Dutch folk art.


3. Artists in aprons: folk art by American women. CK Dewhurst, B MacDowell - 1979 - EP Dutton.

* Focuses on the history, social setting, and unique nature of folk art by American women, providing examples of the various media used and including brief biographies of notable artists.

4. Afro-American folk art and crafts. WR Ferris - 1983 - University Professors of Mississippi.

* Overview of the Afro-American experience expressed through the arts.


5. Stitched from the Soul: Slave Quilts from the Antebellum South. GM Fry, Museum of American Folk Art - 2002 - University of North Carolina Press.

* This richly illustrated book offers a glimpse into the lives and creativity of African American quilters during the era of slavery. Originally published in 1989, Stitched from the Soul was the first book to examine the history of quilting in the enslaved community and to place slave-made quilts into historical and cultural context. It remains a beautiful and moving tribute to an African American tradition.


Museums and Galleries

1. American Folk Art Museum, www.folkartmuseum.org/. Exhibits in New York City feature 18th- and 19th-century paintings, quilts, sculptures, and the work of contemporary self-taught artists.

American Folk Art Museum, New York City, NY

2. Ginger Young Folk Art Gallery, http://www.gingeryoung.com/. - Excellent examples of American folk art. Gives background information on the artists.

3. Southern folk art and crafts, http://www.amerifolk.com/. Features a collection of significant 18th, 19th, and 20th century Americana and contemporary Southern folk art-- paintings, pottery, furniture and more.

4. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/afkp/hd_afkp.htm. The collection of American folk art at the Metropolitan Museum is characterized by pure serendipity. It is highly prized and was acquired almost entirely by gift.


Thanks for reading Green Street Company Folk Art Talk! The next blog (Part III.B) is a continuation of this blog. It is intended to discuss and provide more useful resources for our readers. Until then, keep craftin!

Getting To Know You, Getting to Know All About You – Part II

Dear Friends,

Welcome to The Green Street Company’s official blog, Green Street Company Folk Art Talk. This blog is Part II of our four part inaugural “Getting To Know You, Getting to Know All About You" series. Part II includes biographical information about the Green Street Company.

Green Street Company Biography
We are a family-owned business that offers an assortment of traditional Americana products. Husband and wife artists Michael and Sheila Edwards with their daughter Michelle founded the Green Street Company in 2004.

Many define folk art as being produced by untrained artists that have garnered their skill from those of prior generations. Thus the techniques are handed down over time, often with little change, representing the true aesthetic values of a people offering a look into the depths of their culture.

Painting: Untitled by Sheila Edwards; Medium Acrylic; © Sheila Ann Originals 2009.

While growing up in Kansas, Sheila’s mother designed and crafted paper dolls for her children. By carefully watching her mother, Sheila learned how to make paper dolls on her own. Recognizing a market for paper dolls at her local elementary school, she began selling them to her classmates. By the age of seven she had a full-fled paper doll business with designs that would later influence her artwork as an adult.

Design taken from Sheila Ann Originals/Country and Crafts Catalog © 1985 Sheila Ann Originals.

In 1967, Sheila married Michael Edwards. After initially pursuing respective work in social service and educational administration, the couple decided to become self-taught folk artists. In 1983 they founded Sheila Ann Originals/Country and Crafts in Kansas City, Kansas. They specialized in pattern making, quilts, and soft sculptured items.

Sheila Ann Originals/Country and Crafts’ quilt © 1985 Sheila Ann Originals.

In 2004, the couple, now residing in Massachusetts, renamed their business The Green Street Company and also began painting their designs on wood, tin, and canvasses.

Above and below are examples of Green Street Company’s Folk Art products, © Sheila Ann Originals.

The couple involved their four children in the folk art business. Their youngest daughter, Michelle, learned to paint by watching her parents. She began selling her own folk art, professionally, at eleven years old. In 2000; Michelle however, after taking several years off because she discovered boys and went off to college, decided to branch out on her own. She developed her own line of Country-Contemporary folk art. Michelle’s objective was to infuse an affordable and contemporary line of Americana folk art to the existing Green Street Company repertoire.

Hand-painted colonial style metal vase by Michelle Edwards © 2009; Medium: Acrylic.

Painting: Untitled by Michelle Edwards; © 2009;

Mixed Media, Acrylic, cording, antique button and watch part embellishments.

The Edward’s family believes in the power of their distinctive art to stimulate the intellect, to delight the human spirit, and to contribute to the growing diversity of Americana folk art cultural traditions, popularized by the artistic works of Grandma Moses.

Painting: Beautiful World by Grandma Moses 1860-1961.

Painting: The Mill by Michael Edwards; © 2009 Shelia Ann Originals; Medium: Acrylic.

If you love Americana art as much as we do in our family shop, you will be thrilled by our unique collection of traditional and contemporary folk art paintings, ethnic dolls, and more! We'd like to thank you again for reading Green Street Company Folk Art Talk. The upcoming blog (Part III) will contain a list of resources that are related to some of the topics (i.e. paper doll making, ethnic folk art, contemporary folk art, Grandma Moses, etc.) that were mentioned in this blog. We encourage you to write comments about our blog.

Sincerely,

Michelle Edwards

Folk Artists/Green Street Company Blogger

Getting To Know You, Getting To Know All About You - Part I

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Green Street Company’s official blog, Green Street Company Folk Art Talk. Seeing as this is the first post for our blog series, I thought it would be appropriate to begin this series by letting our readers learn more about us.


This inaugural blog series entitled “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you” is a short four part series that is designed to accomplish the following objectives:

• Part I - To explain the purpose of the Green Street Company Folk Art Talk.
• Part II - To provide biographical information about the Green Street Company.
• Part III - To include useful and or relevant information that pertains to some aspect of our “folk art talk” discussion.
• Part IV - To establish a timeline for forthcoming Green Street Folk Art Talk blog posts and to introduce the next series of blog topics.
  
  

  

Art work: Title, Simply Grand (c) 2009 Michelle L. Edwards. Mixed Media: Acrylic, cording and metal embellishment.

Part I - Our Purpose

Over the past twenty years the Green Street Company has been developing a unique line of Americana folk art products, establishing a business, travelling the arts and crafts circuit, and transitioning to online sales. During that time we’ve met an assortment of people, a bundle of interesting characters, and an assembly of special friends. Some of these people are folk artists. Whereas others shared common interests, similar life experience, or had an appreciation the uniqueness and diversity of American folk art. When all's said and done, we met people that shared our fondness of folk art and our interests in lives of folk artists. It is for this reason that we decided it was time to develop a blog.

This blog is intended to be a unique resource for:

• People with an appreciation for folk art and other hand-made products.
• Individuals that are interested in learning more about Americana folk art or are folk art collectors.
• Personalities curious about the lives of folk artists and folks that want to share their love of folk art with us.
• Folk artists and/or individuals interested in starting their own folk art business or our curious about the process.

We hope that you will continue to follow along with our blog. In the meantime we will read subscriber comments and provide feedback when applicable.

Sincerely,


Michelle L. Edwards
Folk Artist/Green Street Company Blogger