Story Time for Baby-Mine: Artist Rima Staines

Dear Mini-dear,

I'm so eager to tell you stories!

Not only the stories of the loving family you're arriving into, but also those involving otherworldly creatures and peculiar characters which will expand your imagination like a cat's cradle and prepare you for the utter absurdity of life.

I was a very fortunate tot to have a mother who recognized the value of such reading material.  While I had more than my share of mild Little Golden Books, my favorite tomes were the stranger, serious-looking ones -- volumes of Aesop's Fables, Grimm's Fairytales, Childcraft's poetry and nursery-rhyme book, even my daddy's illustrated Bible featuring a very stern-looking Moses and John the Baptist rightfully depicted as a skin-clad wilderness wanderer.  Those that dwelt between those pages were never anesthetized or Disneyfied to ease the hearts of their young readers; in most instances, these wild figures were cunning, clever, artful, darkly colorful and, well, wild. 

About two years ago, I stumbled upon a creator and true-life embodiment of such delightful eccentricities, artist/musician/blogger/nomad Rima Staines. 

When I initially discovered her other-worldliness at The Hermitage, this Dartmoor, UK native was living pretty much everywhere.  How can a gal be everywhere at once?  Suspended between heaven and earth in an extraordinary house on wheels, of course!

Jump, Rima, jump.......ACK!!!! Not onto your lovely pictures!

What a romantic, brave manner of living!

These days, she resides in a captivating English cottage with gorgeous seasonal views which she often shares with her readers:

Macha soaks in the bohemian bonhomie.





The first piece of Rima's art that sunk its claws into me was this piece which reminded me so fondly of the pleasurably bizzare illustrations from the books beloved in my youth:



My intention was to set a print of it in a roughed up-looking frame next the front door of a straw bale house that your Daddy and I had an interest in purchasing once upon a time.  Sad to say, the deal on that one fell through.  That's okay, though.  The house we're in now has plenty of shadows and cobwebby corners to spark your imagination.

These days, I love to excavate the toybox of Rima's art and read of the tales that have found their way onto her drawing desk.  Let me show you some of the found images I thought would thrill and fascinate your wee eyes:

...and there are a dazzling amount more I am desperate to show you!  But I suppose that will have to wait for another time.... perhaps in a few weeks when the mercury has plunged and the leaves have fled the trees.  Then it will be time to write of spooks and haints and wide-eyed strangelings, my darling.

Love,

Mummers

A exhuberant THANK YOU to Rima Staines for the use of her images on this entry.  I adore everything that you are and do, ma'am! 

Again, please pay Rima a visit at The Hermitage!  Your imagination will thank you!