because i am married to the sea

i spend my summers in a tree, i roam the world while sipping tea
and lots of things are built by me
from house to ship and this decree
i'll spell it out so you can see
i cannot marry because i'm free and one more reason this may be
is i am married to the see

Every once in a while I check my web analytics, just to see how people are finding my artwork and my blog. Recently someone somehow landed at my shop after searching Google for the above poem... it is beyond awesome, so I searched for it myself and found only one result: this print offered at tastes orangey by Clare Elsaesser, who's artwork I have been a fan of for a very long time. Our sea-themed artworks are in a lot of Etsy treasuries together, and her featured seller interview was one of my favorites-- to quote Clare, "it’s okay to try and do what you want to do."

I admire artists like Clare who can create really moving, captivating artwork from very subtly beautiful subjects... pillows, sleep, dreams, sighs. Her subject matter is intimate and familiar, yet distant as the subject never seems to be fully aware of having been painted. To me, her paintings seem almost like candid photographs of people or places that were unknowingly stumbled upon and happened to be captured by a vintage camera or even recorded only in memory. I also love the very textured feel of her prints... rather than looking at all flat or printed, so many of them (especially Sweet Dreams and Undertow) maintain the thick, visceral brushstrokes which, along with their sewn borders, give her prints so much personality and depth.