1 January 1957 “Happy New Year! and The Coming Project”

Happy New Year all. I hope you all can say you have had a wonderful year. My Hubby made a nice comment last night at our little party we hosted in our home. He said, “Well, I can say honestly at the end of this year I am not saying Thank God it is Over!” We all laughed and reflected that we have had a rather nice year. With all the changes in the world and the increasing fear of those changes, it was a good year for the pair of us, at least.
As you may know I have been contemplating for the past month on my possible return to the present or to simply walk naturally into 1957. My solution is for the most part, go forward with the 1950’s. HELLO 1957!
Now, with that, I have decided that I want another focus to my year. With my usual continuation of news and research of 1957 and my ever striving for more homemaking skills, I have decided that art and craft will play the major focus for 1957. That is not to say I will limit my posts or my interests only to the art world, on the contrary, it has been the past two years of my varied interests and study that have finally made me want to get back to creating tactile art.
I, of course, consider all the Homemaking skills art. I KNOW a loaf of bread baked to perfection and the shine of a kitchen floor is art and it takes creation and skill, believe you me. Yet, I feel the need to want to digest all that has been happening and will continue to happen in the 1950’s into tangible art and craft I can see, feel, touch.
The coming year, as well, will surely be ripe with many changes.
Music is continuing to grow ‘wilder’ and more beat driven. Here Jerry Lee Louis reminds us that a piano IS a percussive instrument.

And as is usual for me, I will not only focus on the good. I might still wear my rose-colored spectacles, but sometimes there appear smudges on them. The radical changes in our world are increasing. Things like Elizabeth Eckford attempting with 9 other black Americans, to attend a Little Rock AR High School later this year. This will result in some amazingly scary results.
To the happy items such as Theodor Geisel, writing as Dr. Seuss, created The Cat in the Hat.
The art world is increasingly running the gambit from more classical painting, such as this portrait of Princess Margaret by Pietro Annigonni from this year.
To  this child like sketch indicative of either children’s or mental patient drawings done by Picasso this year 1957.  With that the world of Advertising and the amount of images we are becoming bombarded with create Art in more places than once were. Products, TV commercials, magazines, even a box of detergent can be a thing of beauty. And the increase production in Books and Children’s books creates a boom world for artists pre-computer graphics. So, to me, the expressive arts, 2-D and 3-D are even more relevant.
Add to this the growing craft of Needlework, knitting, sewing. Endless offers are available to the homemaker and crafter to make and create by ordering patterns or easy instructions in magazines. Even paint by number is an expression for the burgeoning middle class to ‘pick up the brush and have an artistic hobby’.
So, how will my project work you might ask? I plan to, each month, propose to myself an ‘art & craft’ task. One month might be to write and illustrate a children’s book to creating and constructing 1950’s inspired wooden/paper dolls. Sewing, embroidery, what have you. I shall, for the most part, allow one month’s task to help me decide what the next should entail. Also the study and research of what is happening in that month in 1957 will most likely greatly affect my view and therefore ‘artistic vision’ for the next month. I hope to fuel my desire to create and nurture into this project even more.
You will also have notice that the blog has changed. After a year of learning, frustration and annoyance with the site and the seeming insurmountable work in it, I have finally figured out the best way to make my blog BECOME my website. This will allow me to have links to all my past posts (which I am still going through but it is SO much faster than trying to redo them all for the site). There will still be the Forum and the Corner Store and hopefully in the future, depending on which direction my ‘art and craft’ takes me, an actual little store of possibly my things for pin money. The site and the blog will become one so that rather you go to apronrevolution.com or the blog they will lead you to the same place. This will allow me to better make use of what I have, easily file away what I shall write for future use and have the time to focus on my art while still running my home and garden.
I hope all of you will still want to join me on this journey this year. I still can’t believe it has been two years! And so many lovely friends I have made. I would like to get back to my Q & A Sunday’s and still try to blog M-F with Saturday off for any blog tweaks and to focus on my art.
Our once featured Apronite of the month will make a return to the site/blog but I am not sure in what way. As I would like still to feature one of you a month. Perhaps you could suggest what you would like to see in that vein and that will help me to make it happen.
Well, after all that, my first art challenge for this month (which might need to spill into February as well, as it is a shorter month) is to write and illustrate a children’s book. I have been imagining a story around my favorite Hen, “Buttons” for some time. I hope to use she and her comrades as ideas. My first few sketches are greatly influenced by the more simplified forms of the 1950’s illustrators.  Here is a sketch that I started a few days ago to decide what direction I would like to take for this first art project. Here you can see our little Heroine running about. It is merely a beginning now, but part of my project will be to share sketches and idea’s so you can better see, as well as help me, get to a final piece I am happy with. As always Please give me your opinions good or bad, I want to grow and improve.
Thank you all again for your continued interest in my little project and I hope the coming year of 1957 will keep you at least amused. Again, Happy New Year and as always:
Happy Homemaking.