So, we've expanded... but have we?
When We Fancy was first conceived, we envisioned ourselves a lifestyle brand of just because... after all, everyday is an occasion awaiting realization. We wanted to be a bit of a boutique with home furnishings, gifts, seasonal decor, games and puzzles, maybe a little fashion, some featured artists periodically... a space to inspire with a Boho flair. We wanted to be an alternative to all the boring, mass-produced things you find in big-box stores.
It gets so frustrating going to stores anymore, with all the inventory seeming sourced from the same catalogs. It gets even more frustrating looking online, scrolling through pages of filler to find something unique, of decent quality and reasonably priced. We wanted to be that favorite little, reliable store you could swing through every once in a while and find that treat you didn't know you needed or gift you knew would just make someone smile.
Our mission and vision never changed from the original idea but our approach towards the implementation did, as we took a more realistic inventory of how we could accomplish our goal. Long and short, I stepped back to figure things out and went hard into the paint, my paints to be more precise, to focus on my solo art show. We Fancy became a catalog for my work in that show. All the while, I kept researching. Then, my art inspired me in a most curious way.
I began thinking about this binary and ever-automated world. I began thinking about AI and the parade of creatives worried they'll lose their voices, their livelihood to it. I began questioning my very paintbrushes and this keyboard I'm writing from, both of which I interchangeably find my fingers attached to through all hours of day and night, I wondered about my future. I listened to the news and screamed inside my head, "Where's the humanity?" I thought aloud softy, repeatedly mumbling, "What the HELL am I doing?" All these things and more in this outside world, they pound. They pound in the distant drumming of bombs in a desert so many time zones away from where I sit that the country is perpetually on the edge of my tomorrow. They pound in the disputes of Congress with shrill voices and measured intent. They pound in the crackling of flames during the ever-expanding fire season brought by climate change. They pound in the circadian rhythm of the universe, stars collapsing with dust and gases swirling about in the darkness of space to form new ones. I listen to these poundings from the silent perch of my little house on the hill, thinking still, "What the HELL am I doing?"
Then, I remember the warm sun on my face, a cool breeze in August, hot chocolate in November while watching the parade on tv, the smell of the peach fuzz on a baby's head, waking up with a good stretch that leaves my muscles gelatinous, the nastiest of fights with an ex followed by the sweetest apology and it never happening again, the clicking of the clock in my childhood home that now sits with me across the room, the way my dad would laugh so hard in his recliner at the stupid joke that his feet would bounce, the way my mom could melt the walls of the shiest of kids and have them thanking her for vegetables they'd never try at home, the way my sister was so proud that night when she pointed her little finger up in the sky to show us she knew where "Johnnie's Belt" was on Orion, the way my grandmother once mailed me a birthday cake wrapped in Saran Wrap so as not to mess up the frosting then followed it the next year with tubes of icing tucked on the side because MESS, the way I wrote this paragraph with the most permissible poetic license oozing on the screen without one hard stop but a flurry of whispered pauses measured by splattered commas. For all these things that I remember, I need but one word to paraphrase: LOVE. For all these things that the present won't let us forget, yet again, there's LOVE because knowing it is what makes us see the other and see that it is wrong.
So, where do I come out on the other end of this? Where does We fancy fit in with all of that? The thing is, I still believe there is a place for the traditional arts, even in the crazy space we pronounce LIFE. I live my life in full color, expressing it in painting (and words, sure). My paintings are personal manifestations. It blows me away and touches me deeply every time my work speaks to someone. When one of my pieces touches someone to such an extent that they are moved to invite it into their lives... I mean... I'm just beyond words. For that reason, I don't do prints of my paintings. I want to honor connections my collectors have with my work. And, since not everyone can own the same painting, the circle closes as we come back to We Fancy.
Never dreamed of it but I'm now presenting the very things we originally imagined for We Fancy but with my paintings incorporated. Through creating these pieces with my art as the design element, the paintings live and breathe in another form. This concept gives everyone the opportunity to have a relationship with my work, invite it into their space in different modalities. From puzzles to shower curtains to purses to yoga mats to bandanas to woven blankets and much more, each item is handpicked to bring folks new experiences with my art and hopefully inspire them in the process.
Plus, it’s fun and WE all Fancy.