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