Recovery

Posted on January 23, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Here’s an update on my recovery from last week’s fall. My left wrist broke in a complex way, so as to require surgery to repair my poor bones. Luckily, I was referred to an excellent orthopedic surgeon in Boston who specializes in hands. On Wednesday, the doctor operated and it looks like everything went very well. She used a metal plate and some screws to hold the bone fragments in place. So, now airport security will never be the same!

I have my version of the “pain scale faces” that are displayed in hospitals.

This is how I feel without pain killers:

detail from "Pocketful of Posies", to be published in Sept., 2010

This is what I look like with some pain killers:

detail from "Pocketful of Posies", to be published in Sept., 2010

Here’s what it looks like with too many pain killers:

fairy sleeping

I can’t say how long the healing process will be, but I feel like the worst part is over and my body will mend at its own pace. Now that I’m taking fewer pain killers, I’m more alert and noticing things around the house. I watered the house plants before they died and emptied the dish washer, using one hand. Taking a shower with an arm cast is becoming routine and my husband is able to do a bra clasp without saying, “Why are these so tricky?”

We had to throw out last night’s dinner. My husband spent hours making a squash and chicken casserole, which looked so good. He even made homemade croutons to mix in! We found out that our garden grown acorn and butternut squash was so bitter it was inedible. It didn’t look rotten, but must have something very wrong with it.

We don’t have TV service, which normally is not an issue, but at first I wanted to watch something, for the distraction. We’ve been borrowing movies from the library and watching them on an old TV set with a Dvd player that broke the other night. The disk was stuck and wouldn’t come out, so my husband took the whole thing apart and got the disk out, so we could return it. We haven’t the nerve to try another Dvd for fear it will get stuck. For now, I’m listening to books on tape because reading is still difficult since my concussion. Right now I’m enjoying Alexander McCall Smith’s Morality for Beautiful Girls, which is in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. I love listening to the narrator’s lilting Botswana accent.

So, that’s it for now. Thank you for your kind and encouraging words. Keep tuned: I’ll be posting new stories that I wrote before the accident.

Close-ups (foxes)

Posted on January 21, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Maybe it’s because of their warm color and their pointy ears, noses and tails, but I find foxes appealing. This group of foxes starts with a detail from “Laplander”, a tempera painting on brown paper, which I did in art school. Then there’s the tail portion of a wooden toy I made in 1986 and a “faux” tile I painted in my kitchen in the early 90’s. See all of the faux tiles in another post here. Next is a felt purse, which I used to sell as a kit about 10 years ago and then a detail from my 2001 children’s book, In the Heart.

detail from "Laplander", 1976

detail from wooden toy fox, 1986

detail of faux tile, 1993

Fox felt purse kit, 2000

detail from the book, "In the Heart", 2001

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Close-ups (the Moon)

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Salley Mavor

This series of moons are all details from some of my children’s book illustrations. The close-ups are from The Way Home, You and Me: Poems of Friendship, In the Heart, Wee Willie Winkie and Pocketful of Posies and Hey, Diddle, Diddle!.

from “The Way Home” 1991

from “You and Me: Poems of Friendship” 1997

from “In the Heart” 2001

from “Wee Willie Winkie” 2005

from “Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes” 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Peter and the Wolf CD

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Salley Mavor

A good story told in combination with orchestral music is a special treat. I had the pleasure of working with my friends at Maestro Classics on one of their recent CD projects. They hope that families will be educated as well as entertained with their series of award-winning story and music CDs for children. The producers of the recordings, Bonnie and Stephen Simon, have a house in Woods Hole and we have known each other for quite a few years. I remember Bonnie talking about her idea of making recordings of the Stories in Music™ performances that her husband Stephen had conducted in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center. Well, they did it, and their company, Maestro Classics, now has eight CDs available, with more planned for the future. I was very excited to be asked to illustrate the CD box for Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.

The Russian story was a perfect match for my folk art style and it was a joy to bring Peter and the animals to life. In addition to designing the cover illustration with Peter and the cat in the tree, with the bird taunting the wolf, I made a scene to be used inside the case. Here’s a sketch I made of Peter with his grandfather in their fenced in yard, which later was developed into a sewn scene. My layouts are usually simply drawn, with figures and other important features positioned in the space.

Sketch of Peter and his grandfather

Later, when I’m sewing, the color and details will start to emerge. The fence posts are made from some bone beads which have been sitting patiently for years, waiting to be useful.

inside illustration from "Peter and the Wolf" CD

I also made individual characters from the story, including the hunters to be used as illustrations in a little activity booklet of games and information that comes with the CD. Lately, I’ve been using painted bead heads for some animals like cats and birds. It’s almost like a child’s costume, with a painted face and hood with ears. But, the wolf needed to have a long pointed head. It was important that he be scary and imposing, not too cute, so I gave him teeth, intense eyes, and a shaggy mane. You can see and listen to Maestro Classic’s CDs here.

Self-Portrait on CTpub’s blog

Posted on January 4, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Announcement! Today, C&T Publishing’s blog is posting an article I wrote about my self-portrait. You can see it here. There are other photos of Self-Portrait: my personal history of fashion on my first blog post here.

detail from my Self-Portrait, 2007

Close-ups (mother and child)

Posted on January 3, 2010 by Salley Mavor

This grouping of mother and child pictures starts with a piece I made while pregnant with my first child, in a naive style that’s also reflective of my inexperience with motherhood. Then there’s a detail from “Family Portrait”, which I made for a Christmas card in 1986, showing my son Ian in my arms. Next is a close-up from “Mother’s Dance”, a more active piece, with many gesturing arms and then a detail from a CD cover entitled “A Little Music on the Prairie”. The series ends with a nursing mother from “The Red Chair”.

detail from "Mother and Child", 1983

detail from "Family Portrait", 1986

detail from CD cover, "A Little Music on the Prairie", 1994

detail from "The Red Chair", 1994

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Queen with Duster

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Salley Mavor

In the late 1980’s, my 97 year old grandmother died and we cleaned out her house in Bristol, RI. Along with drawers full of old keys and costume jewelry, I saved a stash of garter clips and kept them in wait for a future project. Their day came in 1995, when I started working on Queen with Duster.

“Queen with Duster”, fabric-relief, 10″ x 11″, 1995

I’m always on the lookout for small interesting objects that can be sewn down and I liked the pattern created with the garters lined up. The figure started out as a bride, but evolved into a queen when she was crowned with a bejeweled pin.

a collection of my grandmother’s garters

Her dress is made from an old wool petticoat of my grandmother’s that was washed so many times, it had become very thin felt. The silver hairpins were also my grandmother’s and she made the tatting on the bottom of the skirt. See “Pink House”, another piece made with my grandmother’s things, here.

my grandmother, Louise (Salley) Hartwell in the 1920’s

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Milkweed Pods

Posted on December 27, 2009 by Salley Mavor

The pods are light and almost have the texture of handmade paper. They open up in the fall, bursting with the most delicate, downy seeds and their boat-like shape and small size make a fitting bed for a little person.

This sleeping girl nestled in her milkweed bed is in my board book, Wee Willie Winkie.

For more ideas on wee doll bedding, visit my post about walnut shells here.

Close-ups (Winter Trees)

Posted on December 22, 2009 by Salley Mavor

This group of trees starts with a paint and crayon picture I made as a child of 7. Next is a detail of a painting I did in art school and then part of an early fabric relief winter scene. The last two are taken from my book, Pocketful of Posies.

snowman and trees, 1963

from “Laplander Mural” 1977

detail from “Skating” 1987

from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Fall Friends

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Salley Mavor

Fall Friends was made in 1995, in between book projects.

Fall Friends, fabric relief by Salley Mavor 1995

During this period, I used cotton velveteen quite often for the back grounds. In this case, I dyed the fabric for the sky and hillside. The clouds were made by painting on a rice based resist liquid that I can’t remember the name of, but I think it is Japanese. You get a softer look than batiking with wax, which can have a cleaner edge.

Detail from "Fall Friends"

The bush trunk is wool covered wire and the smaller wire branches are wrapped with embroidery floss. The border is made of upholstery fabric, with all of the embroidered edging done by hand. I used to do a satin stitch with the sewing machine, but found it to be too flat and mechanical looking.

Detail from" Fall Friends"

This is a drawing I did as a student at RISD in 1977. It’s pencil on layered pieces of tissue paper, which has yellowed over time from rubber cement. I think of it as an early example of my interest in experimenting with different working surfaces. Soon after this, I started combining materials and doing more and more 3 dimentional work.