Creating In New Ways

The walls are up, and the space is ready to fill.

Hello, and welcome dear Reader.

I’ve been meaning to start writing about my work for years now, and while I plan to eventually share more about how I began my artistic journey, I want to first talk about the major changes to how I will be presenting my art to the public.

Those who have been following my art online may have noticed that I am no longer selling my work through my website. For the past few years, I have been doing some serious soul searching about what and how I want to create, and I’ve come to realize that I have been feeling stagnated. I’ve been in a pattern of making the same kinds of art for well over a decade. To fix this, I spent some time thinking about what really excites me about being able to make whimsical things. It has become clear to me that what I really want to do is to create magical and immersive spaces for people to visit and enjoy.

I had to do some deep inner listening, and it revealed to me that my routine of only making lights and wings for individual sale was creating a sense of isolation and making me feel like a one person factory. I’ve been longing for creative collaboration, and also to be able to share my work with more people. I have been paying envious attention to all of the elaborate, interactive art museums cropping up around the U.S. and I’ve been daydreaming about what I might like to build. As a result of this introspection, I’ve come up with a way to move more in the direction of creating an immersive environment while incorporating the skills and experience that I already possess.

I present to you my new mini shop space, Mystic Forest Mercantile. I have been working on a booth build at the Memory Den Vintage Mall in Portland, Oregon, with the intention of creating the feel of walking into an enchanted woodland straight out of a children’s storybook. It is still a work in progress, but within it you will find brightly painted murals surrounding a collection of vintage items for sale. I am also offering some of my lights and other original work in the space.

The space is roughly 9 by 10 feet, and built from panels of plywood that I primed and painted. My husband (and partner in mischief) framed the panels and assembled them into walls. He also recently showed me how to use a jigsaw so that I could cut out trees that I sketched onto scrap wood, and encouraged me to create a layered effect that reminds us both of a pop-up book. I learned from all of this, that I really like cutting out shapes with a jigsaw, so I definitely plan to make more cutouts for future projects.

The space is not yet complete, but ready for visitors.

We were working with a goal of being open May 1st, so additional parts of the both had to be put on hold. In the near future, the booth will have an entryway made of tree cutouts, and the rustic wood wall will get some added detail to give it the look of a cabin exterior. We’re also planning to add a couple of overhead beams with some artificial foliage to darken the space a little. I plan to share the progress here as it fully comes together, but in the meantime, if you find yourself in Portland, Oregon, you can pay Mystic Forest Mercantile a visit (upstairs) in the Memory Den at: 499 SE Second Ave.