Schlopp. Schlopp. Beautiful Schlopp.

Beautiful schlopp with a cherry on top.
Dr. Seuss could always sum life up in a way nobody else could.




His writings and illustrations, quoted and shown above, are from his book "Oh the Thinks You Can Think!". I must have read that book a thousand times and I never got tired of reading it or looking at the pictures.

I find his illustrations remind me of well known artists, especially the surrealists, like

Salvador Dali (born the same year as Dr. Seuss) and Giorgio de Chirico.For example Giorgio de Chirico's Melancholy and mystery of a street.

So why is it that Theodor Seuss Geisel's, work doesn't appear in any of my fine art or English lit books? There are other cartoonists ( sorry about all the links) in my Jansen History of Art book.


The first time I attended college, I majored in Fine Art. I took classes in painting, drawing, lithography, art history and English literature. Not once did any professor mention Dr. Seuss.

In fact, I was taught by these community college art/literature professors to be an "art snob". We learned all about the famous da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Picasso, blah blah blah. Don't get me wrong, I love these artists; I would kill to be able to be able to visit the Louvre at least once in this lifetime. But I remember the look my art history prof gave a student for asking why Norman Rockwell wasn't included in our book. Well, after that, I wouldn't dream of asking about Dr. Seuss. I rebelled in High School, not college.

Now I recognize what the profs were doing, but now I choose to like who I like, and not because everyone else likes them. Obviously if you've read my Saturday Sounds posts, you know. I feel the same way about music.

I'm lucky that my husband encourages me to decorate our house whatever way I want.

He never rolled his eyes once while I painted this Dr. Seuss fence on our living room wall. Note,the Grackle was my addition to the fence, not Seuss's.

My daughter also proudly displays his artwork on her person.







Oh and did I mention Dr. Seuss and I went to the same High School? Different years though.

Curtains Annoy Me

I have a problem with curtains. It seems I can never find exactly what I am looking for and when I do, I no longer like it.

I repainted our living room about a year ago and have gone through four different curtains, so far.
The first curtains, shown in the first photo, I loved in the store. I liked them for less than a week at home so I gave them to E. This is how they look hanging in her room.

The second pair... I guess I had a thing for ribbons...

Everyone, including me, thought the third pair was lovely. The only problem was that if we unrolled them to block out the sun, I was the only one who could roll them back correctly. I also began to wonder if they would look better in a baby nursery because...RIBBONS!

These are the curtains that hang now. Nobody, except me, likes them. Hus thinks they're too dark. E says they don't block the sun well enough. T couldn't care less.


I'm off to straighten out the silhouette pictures on the wall.

Hot Off the Press

Family Newspaper written by my 10 year old daughter E.

When I read the second page aloud to T, my 4 year old son, he started to cry...."You're not going to send that to Suzy are you?". I think he has a tiny crush going on. He wants everyone to know he really does wear pants.

Living Room Pt 2

My Grackle

As you may have read in my first Living Room post, I am in the process of redecorating my living room. I am almost done but still have to paint the trim. I painted this Grackle on the wall in the corner above my sectional couch. My husband has 4 bird feeders he fills daily. It is hard not to become a bird lover since we get soo many bird visitors. The Grackles have always been my favorite. When seen up close they are very colorful and shimmery. And I love that they also look just a little spooky with their large yellowish white eyes and dark pupils.

Living Room Part 1

Portrait Silhouettes

I have been redecorating my living room for about 4 months now. I had in mind to do country style, as it would fit nicely within my log cabin country home. Somehow, I got no where near country. I had an open mind when I started and I just let the ideas flow one into another. I started with a new sea foam green couch, then painted the walls antique Violet, tan and the trim (when I actually get around to painting it) will be off-white.

I will show pictures of the room as a whole when it is done. For now I am just going to share some of the artwork I made for the walls. I tend to do a lot of painting when I decorate. It's cheap and can be used on almost anything. I have a painted rug on the floor, painted doors on my TV stand, a painted antique chest etc. I also tend to use a lot of color. Having lived in a log cabin with log interior, before we added on to the house, I got sick of the dark and brown interior.

I saw these old style silhouettes on a design show recently and thought, huh, those would look good on this part of the wall. One day, while T was watercolor painting, I made these. They were made from photos, cut out then painted. Arthur's profile needs retouching as you can see. I plan on matting them. The background paper is sea foam green and the silhouettes are dark purple, which is hard to tell here.

T Profile

E Profile

Arthur Profile

Cokee Profile

I had one of these done professionally when I was a kid. Here is an interesting history of the Silhouette Portrait.