Monday, October 06, 2008

My more than talented friends

So I've been wanting to write this post for awhile as I looked around me and realized what amazingly talented friends I have. Friends who still have a day job but continue to work on what they are truly gifted at. It may be writing, painting, recording albums, or even fusing glass together but whatever that talent is...I wanted to point you in their direction!

1. The first is a girlfriend of a friend who I now officially call a friend, Mary Ann. Mary Ann's day job is librarian but she is officially an amazing painter. Her studio space in her Westgate home is one that I envy...at the moment we continue to talk about saving up money to buy ourselves a polyptych (I think that's the right word) three panels to hang behind our couch...we love 'em! Check Mary Ann's stuff out here: Fine Art America and here: Intimate Landscapes

2. Another friend of mine, Paul, is a writer and runs his own Literary Journal, Paradigm from Rain Farm Press. Paul's writing on its own is extraordinary but on top of that the artists, writers and musicians that he puts in their journal, Paradigm, are truly untapped talent. Paul and his co-publisher Matt give unknown artists the chance to put their work out there for the public. Paul is truly doing a service to the artistic community by publishing e-books, an online journal, anthologies, and art anthologies making most of it available for free on their website.

3. My friend, Deb is another local artist that doesn't get the credit she deserves. I have known Deb for years and her talent is ever changing, catching up to the times and showing off her mad crafting skills. Deb's fused glass works can be seen on both her Etsy site and her personal blog, Artistic Flair. Deb was the friend who I went to when I wanted to give Amelia a gift before we had baby G. I asked Deb to make 2 adult birds, the theme of G's room, in our birthstones looking down on a baby bird in a nest, made of G's birthstone...it turned out better than I could have imagined! Check our her stuff!

4. Susan is a stay at home mom and freelance writer who just finished contributing to her first book Weird, Scary, and Unusual. Now I don't know Susan well enough to know what other cool projects she has worked on but I'm sure there are some out there. For now I know that you all should check out the book.

5. The final person that I'll talk about is my friend Channa, she is a singer/songwriter who lives in Amsterdam. I met Channa while working at a Girl Scout camp in Richfield and we've been friends ever since. Channa is an amazing singer and her songs speak volumes about who she is as a woman and all around great person. Channa has a couple of CD's under her belt, maybe more that I don't yet know about...but she is definitely someone to check out. Check out her myspace page to hear her songs and learn more about her, my current favorite is Try. Paul, I know you read this and I think you should feature her in Paradigm ;)

Ok, so that's just a few of my very talented friends, others that I'd love to talk about but don't have their info. anywhere on the web that I know of are: My friend Jen: the best and most rounded crafter that I know, my cousin Leslie who is a fabulous writer, Marcie another crafter who should be doing what she loves full time instead of slaving away, and lastly my friend Amy who I have only known as a chef...one amazingly talented cook who should at least have her own cookbook published if not own her own damn restaurant! Please check my them all out, I promise it'll be worth it.

Oh and here's some cuteness to round it all off :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will check out your friends and the little one is great too.Jo

Deb DiSalvo said...

Dawn-
How SWEET you are. But I must say that you are talented too, even though you never admit it!
Cheers,
Deb