Meet MizMollye. Shezadoozey!

Ever run across someone online that you just HAVE to share? I have, and her name is MizMollye! I've been reading her blog and emailing back and forth, and exchanging comments, and now it's just time I stopped hogging her and let everyone else meet her.

I'm going to start by telling you MizMollye's having a give-away, to celebrate her upcoming 100th post, right here.


I asked MizMollye some questions:

1. I know you're coming up on 100 entries at your blog. What got you started blogging, and what do you most enjoy about it?

In Jan. 2007 I had gone to Arkansas to visit my daughter Lori and she excitedly showed me my birthday present which was a domain for me to have my own website to write little stories and memories etc of my childhood and people in my life no longer here as a way of leaving it for my grandchildren. Also at that time she was on Etsy constantly buying ACEO's for her collection of original mini art and being the first time I'd ever seen them I was enthralled and in love.

I had never done anything of the computer other than spreadsheets at work and MS Word, so I had much to learn. I began looking at the world of today's art with a new set of eyes and before you knew it I was cranking out ATC's by the hundreds and had joined up with every dang Yahoo Group possible dealing with ATC's, Collage, Mixed Media, Assemblage, etc. and outgrew my kitchen table so had to then create a studio and my website was called Shezadoozey and it grew and grew and was something else!

But this past summer, I realized that while providing me with a great forum to be used as an art/writing gallery, it was not interactive and I had become a regular reader to so many blogs and made such good friends through swapping but they could not communicate with me. I could leave them comments but they could not do so on my website, so I decided to give it up and go to a blog and I am loving all the communication with other bloggers, but am finding that I am spending way less time on my art itself, so as with anything new, I have to find that balance.

2. You do so many kinds of art; do you have a favorite form or medium? What makes it your favorite, if you do?

I have been involved in dollmaking off and on for more than 40 years and it is just evolving into so many forms of creativity that I am re-entering my love for it, but the actual form of art which gives me more pleasure and awe in the creation of is Collage and especially something small as the ATC's or the Moo size cards. I love them because there is no limit to the layering I can do and have no idea when starting a project how it will actually turn out and probably the biggest reason is that there are no rules and they can be completed in record time and they're something you do not have to think about while doing. Your hands do all the work and when you are finished you think "WOW, I love this, did I DO this because my mind was completely somewhere else and how did this happen?"

3. What would you say is the difference between Art and Craft?

The age old question here much like the chicken and the egg. However my opinion only is that for me when I see a funky hat I'd like to make or one of the trendy little handbags, I grab some yarn and a hook, or some fabric and a snap, print out the directions and begin making it all the time thinking Oh these are cute, bet they would go great on Etsy and in my mind I can see me turning them out by the dozens, and when it is finished I think ok that's cute and it is put away and I never try to make more! To me I just made a "craft".

But when I see something that just squeezes the part of my heart and brain and won't let go, I just know I have got to go in and experiment with that technique. I never try to duplicate or copy someone's work, but I try to learn from them and I put my own spin on a technique and add my own twists and turns and make whatever I am drawn to make, sometimes taking weeks or days to finish and I never forget what I learned and I use the techniques as part of my very being and nature always. To me at those times I have created Art.

The question of whether it is art or craft depending on if you sell it has absolutely nothing to do with it. Your heart is not as affected on a longterm basis with craft as it is with art.

4. Can we see your work area/shop?

Yep. We bought the old house where my hubby grew up and it was only two bedrooms and since our nest had been empty for many years, decided to make one of the bedrooms for my studio and then built another room for DH to use for his gun hobbies.


5. What do you see as your strongest personality traits? (They don't have to be the "good" ones!)

I think my strongest personality trait is that since I've gotten to be one of those quirky senior citizens I see all the women in the world as my sisters that I've yet to meet so that when I dialog with them they easily slip from people unknown to people I feel very comfortable with as in an actual sister and when I was young, I always viewed people I didn't know as just that and I think it all comes down to a place in our lives where we cease to view immortality issues as abstract. And a weakness although you did not ask that one!, is the undesirable trait of changing my mind back and forth. I believe it is called vascillating? In other words I can be convinced to jump from one side of the fence to the other by smooth talking characters. I just hate that about me! Wish I could be more firm and stick with it!

And there you have it, the good, the bad and maybe the downright ugly! whoah nellie I'm on a roll. Hugs, Mollye

Couldn't resist putting her whole answer in, cuz that's the way she always talks, and I love it!

Here are a few of my favorites from her shop. Just click on any of them to go see MizMollye's Etsy store: