Trifles

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"Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle" 

So said Michelangelo to the Pope as he was working on that pesky little Sistine  Chapel. Now, I  Guess when it comes to art, Michelangelo would know a

 thing or two about perfection.

 I know nothing about perfection.. but I am rather fond of trifles.

 Trifles make up my work.

 I believe no detail is too small, too unimportant  or inconsequential , but that the greatest amount of care  be taken to create it with intimate delicacy upon my paper.

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Are we talking about perfection here? Most certainly not, for in my storybook art, I actually like things to be a bit Skewed, off balance,

 crooked and slightly quirky.  But, we ARE talking about Trifles, those little things that mean a lot.

SUCH AS......

 the worn and seasoned steps leading out of the kitchen and into the garden,

Or a battered old blue cupboard that has been in the bear family for generations,

  patterns on a favorite green bowl,

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chipped, cracked and aged crocks,

and the calico pattern on a tiny mouses frock,

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  the trifle of delicate lace upon a mother bears mop cap,

 

 in a place

where walls are of cracked plaster and patterned rugs cover a worn wooden floor.

 Mere trifles, but they create a picture, a mood, a home, a story.

I have always believed that you can tell as much or more, with pictures, as with words.

  I spend an average of  80 hours painting a full page illustration.  It's not that I am slow, just meticulous.... and  enamored with trifles.

I appreciate many different styles of art in story books.. from the simple lines of  Ernest Shepard's,Winnie the Pooh. to the magnificent realism of N.C. Wyeth. But I have to  admit that my favorite illustrators seem to have had the same penchant for the tiny, trivial, tittles and bits that I do: Jill Barclem, who created small books  of little mice in their abodes, filled to the brim with every imaginable thing and Jan Brett, who's attention to detail in her illustration is superb.  But my very favorite is the Dutch artist Anton Pieck, to whom, in my eyes, there is no comparison when it comes to trifles.

I truly admire artists who are able to express much with few lines, but I that is just not my way...

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  For  I am now, and will forever be....

.... a slave to TRIFLES.

  So tell me, what are YOUR trifles?

Whether  it's the care you take in your garden, your needlework, photography, cooking, home decor or writing... many of you are also in love with TRIFLES...

 Of that I am sure.