Still February! But not for long………..

While it's still February.............

I’m posting this paper cut valentine while it’s still the proper month for it……I didn’t make this valentine myself and don’t know where I found the image………Years ago in the late eighties, my friend Penny and I were very interested in Scherenschnitte. I still am. Over my bed hangs a framed paper cut of a Pennsylvania Dutch House and couple with vines surrounding it. It was a gift for Paul in the early 90s, I think. I know I made it before ’94 when Sophia, a relative from Germany, spent six months with us. She copied it for a gift for her parents. I don’t do such crafts that often, but I really enjoy it when I do and feel as though everyone should have some sort of art in his or her life. For some it might be the art of appreciation, one we all need, the art of seeing what is around us and experiencing the joy that comes with it. Over my desk downstairs I have many pictures, but in the center is a painting of a church in a scene of winter snow. My grandmother painted it on a piece of newsprint in the 1940s. It has a naive quality and I love it dearly. She and my mother painted furniture, sometimes, with Pennsylvania Dutch designs. I have some of these things at the cottage at Chautauqua and when the front of our old dishwasher was beginning to look rusty, I painted it black and adorned it with the same hearts and flowers my mother had painted on a coal scuttle in 1945. These things are very simple and inexpensive to accomplish, but they make me feel rich and satisfied. One good thing which I expect will come out of our current economic crisis is that people will make their own homemade happiness. They will practice crafts, talk to one another more, play games together for fun…………..I think it will happen, not all at once, perhaps, but slowly it will.

The chest here is from the schifferl.net website and I believe it was painted by someone in their family. Actually, I think it is an example of kitchen cabinets they make………..