Sometimes I like to go wandering through blog land just to see where I might end up. I usually begin by making a visit to a blog that I follow or one that follows me and then pick a blog or two that they follow and visit them, then pick a blog that they follow…and so on until I hit one that’s not my cup of tea and then I start over from some point in the chain. It’s a fun adventure in which I sometimes get lost and have no idea how I managed to get to a blog that ends up becoming one of my favorites. I think that might be how I originally found Monnie Bean Folk Art and Sparrowgrass—I’m not really sure. Both are blogs of Debra Smith and are two of my favorites.
Debra is a folk artist, photographer, lover of God and lover of His creations. She is also a fellow member of the Christian Artists Street team on Etsy. Her Monnie Bean Folk Art blog is where she writes about her art work, studio and inspiration and promotes her Etsy shop, MonnieBeanFolkArt and other places that sell her primitive folk art dolls and paintings. You can also find her work for sale at her website– Monnie Bean Folk Art Shop.
Debra creates her brilliant folk art dolls using simple, everyday items. An old porch spindle with chippy paint becomes the body of Leeza, a delightful art doll with a paperclay head seemingly bowed in meditative prayer.
Emment the Owl has corn husk arms and a cloth body supported by another chippy paint porch spindle. Emment’s face reflects Debra’s intimate knowledge of her subject and her masterful use of a few simple brushstrokes to form an amazingly realistic owl eye.
From Monnie Bean Folk Art, I traveled to Sparrowgrass, a blog full of Debra’s beautiful photographs of the animals and birds and scenery that are part of her daily life. Today I found her latest post to be photographic instructions on How to be a Goose, Part 1. I always seem to learn something from her blog and I feel a sense of peace as I browse through her beautiful and often serene photographs such as these:
Bits of wisdom such as these thought provoking quotations:
It is a wonder what God can do with a broken heart, if He gets all the pieces.~Samuel Chadwick
God creates out of nothing.
Therefore until a man is nothing,
God can make nothing out of him.
~Martin Luther
Therefore until a man is nothing,
God can make nothing out of him.
~Martin Luther
The added attraction for me is the hauntingly beautiful music of her playlist. Her first playlist choice, Athair Ar Neamh (Heavenly Father) by Enya is mesmerizing and I have been meaning to look up the lyrics of this song with the English translation and finally did so today. After reading the lyrics, I had to add this song to my playlist. If you like, you can select it to play as you read the lyrics:
Athair ar Neamh (Heavenly Father) by Enya
Athair ar Neamh, Dia linn Heavenly Father, God is with us
Athair ar Neamh, Dia liom Heavenly Father, God is with me
m’anam, mo chroí, mo ghlóir, my soul, my heart, my glory,
moladh duit, a Dhia. a praise to you, God.
Fada an lá, go sámh, A long and peaceful day
Fada an oích’, gan ghruaim, A long night without gloom
aoibhneas, áthas, grá beauty, joy, love,
moladh duit, a Dhia. a praise to you, God.
Móraim thú ó lá go lá. I glorify you day by day.
Móraim thú ó oích’ go hóich’. I glorify you night after night.
Athair ar Neamh, Dia linn Heavenly Father, God is with us
Athair ar Neamh, Dia liom Heavenly Father, God is with me
an ghealach, an ghrian, an ghaoth, the moon, the sun, the wind,
moladh duit, a Dhia. a praise to you, God.
What else can I say except that if you don’t follow the links in this blog you will miss out on getting to know an amazingly wonderful woman who presents herself in a simple way…but there is much more to this woman than at first meets the eye and it is all quite interesting to say the least.
So, as you can see, I didn’t get too far with my blog wandering today. I got caught up in the lovely music and the blogs and the artwork and decided to write about it before wandering any farther. Perhaps tomorrow I will have a bit of time to go off wandering again.
You never know what you might find. Try it and let me know what you find!
NOTE: The photographs used in this post were used with permission of the artist. They are the copyrighted works of Debra Smith. The artist and I respectfully request that you do not copy them or use them in any way without her permission. Thank you.
VElish Art Studio 
Wow … Love Debra's work. Great feature! Beautiful song too. Will be looking at the links here now 🙂
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Ok, I went blog wandering and found you.. I love SparrowGrass.. really Debra.. I've been following her
for a while now.. First her blogs.
Smiles.
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I agree, I've been a follower of Debra's for a long time, she is a gentle soul! I love Enya!
Now I'm going to more fully explore your blog!
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