small business saturday, 2014!

What business could be smaller than an independent artist? If you're looking for a great gift for the art lovers in your life, may I suggest a few of my favorites?

Here's a delightful little knob twisting robot by Tennessee artist Mr. Hooper. This is an original painting available on Mr. Hooper's etsy page, one of more than 50 available one-of-a-kind pieces.

A glorious trio of driftwood angels by Michigan artist Amy Lansburg. Each angel is under 20" tall, $85 each plus shipping. Private message Amy through her Facebook page.

Free shipping through the end of 2014 with the code 'FREESHIP14' on our friend Michele Friedman's etsy page. Michele's 'skinny rectangle multicolor' earrings are my go-tos.

Holy cow look at this beauty from Chicago artist Dolan Geiman. I received a similar piece from Genna for my 40th birthday this year (the first in the series, thank you very much) and it immediately rocketed to favorite status in my collection. Dolan has pieces available for all budgets at dolangeiman.com.

'Bitzen' fobot by NC artist Amy Flynn. This little guy + tons of other great fobots (found object robots) available on Amy's bigcartel page.

Bite sized photos from CA artist Audrey Heller. I gifted these to my god children last Christmas and they were a huge hit.

And, of course, if you really love someone you should give them a Grushovenko. We'll be posting a new, small, specially priced piece on our Facebook page every morning December 1st-12th. These pieces will be available ONLY THROUGH FACEBOOK. First private message for each piece wins. The one shown above is 'The Cabin', a 9" x 12" oil on masonite, framed in black, shipping included for $250 (regularly $350). Other available pieces online at grushovenko.com.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE! If you have any other recommendations for great art buying opportunities, please post them in the comments section.

saudade

We recently received an email from a client who was interested in our painting "The Way Back". The  entire message was lovely and thought provoking but one particular line stood out to me.  It said "The saudade of your work is palpable and intoxicating."  This stood out mostly because not only did I have no idea what it meant but I had never even seen that word before.  Google defines it as:

'a Portuguese and Galician word that has no direct translation in English. It describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. 

Saudade was once described as "the love that remains" after someone is gone.  Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now triggers the senses and makes one live again.'

Wow.  While this is a shade darker than we generally intend, it is a mood that we've always reached for.  The definition goes on to describe a feeling that is 'happy and sad at once', missing that which is gone but joyous that it was experienced at all.

Bless you, emailer, for adding to my vocabulary and giving me a deeper sense of what our work means.