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Erik P. Kraft Little, Brown 2007 This is the story of Tom Mayo, nickname Miracle Wimp. Sixteen years old, further down on the pecking order, working his way through the vicissitudes of social life in high school. Should have been in Computer Animation, wound up in wood shop. Where is this story going? Good question. Page by page there's a new vignettes, each no longer than a page or two,

Good Morning:

Another lovely day here at "The House of Wlassak". I'll be off for a busy day of running around. I must go to the post office and then to the grocery store.

Here's my newest aceo collage print in My Etsy Shop.

Guardian Of The Circus Diver




I've been thinking lately about the fact that so much of my art seems to be influenced, accidentally I might add, by circuses and carnivals. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mean circuses such as Ringling Bros. or any such nonsense as the stereotypical "clown". I actually loathe clowns! But more about the colors and the almost lost and vagrant feel. Maybe it's the fact that I work with vagabond and orphaned photos. My work always seems to have a sense of homelessness. The characters feel somewhat like misfits.

My dolls are mostly from "The Circus Series". They have included a trapeze artist, a "fat" lady, a Jester and a Jesterette, a circus tiger and, one of my favorites: "Pid and Pod, the raw outsider multi-sex Siamese Twins".

Pid and Pod the multi-sex siamese twins:


Let me show you what started me to thinking about my circus influence this morning:

Siamese twin Cosmos:



Yes....that's right. A flower. A siamese twin Cosmos growing in my front garden. Beautiful even in it's differences. A misfit of a sort.

Looking back over the course of my "life in art", I have always been influenced by the lowly and bizarre. Hoping to bring out a beauty in it's differences. I can take a picture of a perfect Cosmos any day, but to capture the image of the misfit is what I long to do.

That being said: Here is a fascinating and fabulous book about a circus family called Geek Love.


I won't even begin to go into detail. Let me just say that it is chock full of intriguing and sometimes sadly grotesque "performers". BUT...and this is a huge issue of importance for me, it is NOT depressing. There's a fine line between interestingly freakish and depressing. I don't like depressing circus stuff!!

So, today's post comes to you courtesy of a quiet double-headed Cosmos growing in my front garden.

Until Tomorrow:
Kim
Garden Painter Art
gnarly-dolls