'self portrait with fever' original painting by rené joshi sims

The grumpy companion of 'Self Portrait With Teeth', 'Self Portrait With Fever' was also painted while I was at Yale University's Summer School of Art in Norfolk, Connecticut. The program there was made up of third year painting students from all over North America, and you have never seen such a bunch of eager-beaver art students. So when I ended up getting sick half way through the program, there was no way I was going to get left in their dust, even if that meant painting and hallucinating at the same time. (That thing with the cluster of fruit attached like a helium balloon to your ear -- does that ever happen to you? No? Oh. Never mind.)

~ René Joshi Sims

René's zig-zaggy art journey: a three year crash course in love, painting, and D.I.Y. at Rosebud, Alberta; Yale University's Summer School of Art in Norfolk; four hothouse years at Alberta College of Art and Design; a year-long mentorship with Canadian painter Eleanor Bond, and another year working on Chautauqua Stars for a Northern City, a public commission for the E. A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts. The journey came to a juddering halt when René's son was diagnosed with autism. She recently returned to the studio after a six year absence, and is working on a show about healing, loss, and love that glows just hot enough to see by. She lives with her family in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and blogs in happy obscurity at fruityfantastica.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Self-portrait with fever 2'x 2' acrylic, oil stick and oil on plywood (unframed) by René Joshi Sims (origin: Saskatchewan, Canada)

Starting bid: $80.00

'self portrait with teeth' original painting by rené joshi sims

Let's be frank: it takes a strong person to love this painting. And possibly a very odd person, too. If you happen to be that strong, odd person, you'll be delighted to know that this painting is a full two feet by two feet, making Self Portrait With Teeth a larger than life extravaganza of my dental topography. I painted this while at Yale University's storied Summer School of Art, which is located on a lush and gorgeous estate in Norfolk, Connecticut. I guess I felt a need to balance things out. ~ René Joshi Sims

Self Portrait With Teeth might not look like much but it's been around, having been printed up in Beyond Magazine's Beauty issue and making its appearance in a number of shows. Says René: " I'm kinda gonna miss the old girl."

René's zig-zaggy art journey: a three year crash course in love, painting, and D.I.Y. at Rosebud, Alberta; Yale University's Summer School of Art in Norfolk; four hothouse years at Alberta College of Art and Design; a year-long mentorship with Canadian painter Eleanor Bond, and another year working on Chautauqua Stars for a Northern City, a public commission for the E. A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts. The journey came to a juddering halt when René's son was diagnosed with autism. She recently returned to the studio after a six year absence, and is working on a show about healing, loss, and love that glows just hot enough to see by. She lives with her family in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and blogs in happy obscurity at fruityfantastica.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Self-portrait with teeth 2'x 2' acrylic, oil stick and oil on plywood (unframed) by René Joshi Sims (origin: Saskatchewan, Canada)

Starting bid: $80.00

batch of custom organic soaps by Dominion Soap Company

This custom batch of handmade soap will be made-to-order with certified organic vegetable oils and scented with your choice of natural essential oils. Keep things simple with one favourite essential oil or make a swoon-worthy blend. Choose from: orange, lime, lavender, clary sage, patchouli, geranium, or vanilla essential oils. Add a swirl of color in your choice of clays, spices, or botanical ingredients. Shown here is the blend Cafe au Lait.

This batch of soap will be large enough for you to be generous with friends and family and still have lots left over just for you. It will work out to approximately 24 full size bars, complete with your own custom label. Are you getting married soon? Handmade organic soap makes a glorious wedding favour. I can cut your batch of soap into just over 100 guest-sized bars and stamp your initials on each bar.

Dominion Handmade Soap is a tiny little company owned by René Joshi Sims. She is devoted to making great soap that is easy on your skin and easy on the planet too. Her products are made with carefully chosen ingredients that are certified organic, fair trade, or locally sourced whenever possible. Sometimes they're even a couple of those things at the same time, which makes her very happy.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Batch of custom organic soaps (24 full-size bars) by Dominion Soap Company (origin: Saskatchewan, Canada)

Starting bid: $50.00

valentine by rené joshi sims

If your true love's heart beats fast at the sight of red ric rac, candy hearts and shiny plaid, this may be the valentine for you. On the front is a 4x6" print of the photograph René took for her wedding invitations, and the red handmade paper on the inside of the card is also a gorgeous wedding invite leftover. (The paper also contains a little bit of Canadian art history in the form of Laura Vickerson's famous rose petals).

True to the spirit of those cryptic little messages on candy hearts, this card has a way of saying a lot of things with few words. Shiny toy letters spell the words YOU FIRST. Depending on how deep your relationship is, you may want to draw in a comma: YOU, FIRST. No envelope can properly contain a card as boisterous as this, so there isn't one. 

René's zig-zaggy art journey: a three year crash course in love, painting, and D.I.Y. at Rosebud, Alberta; Yale University's Summer School of Art in Norfolk; four hothouse years at Alberta College of Art and Design; a year-long mentorship with Canadian painter Eleanor Bond, and another year working on Chautauqua Stars for a Northern City, a public commission for the E. A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts.

The journey came to a juddering halt when René's son was diagnosed with autism. She recently returned to the studio after a six year absence, and is working on a show about healing, loss, and love that glows just hot enough to see by. She lives with her family in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and blogs in happy obscurity at fruityfantastica.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Valentine by René Joshi Sims, 7x9" (origin: Saskatchewan, Canada)

Starting bid: $8.00

'Apparently I support inter-species relationships' original stickynote drawing by rené joshi sims

This Christmas, we finally faced the dilemma that has become a rite of passage for thinking parents everywhere: to Barbie or not to Barbie. Our girl is not a true Girly-girl, and so we've had a pretty easy job of it these last eight years:

at soul-sucking department store

"Hey mommy, what's down the next aisle?"

(telltale pink glow searing my peripheral vision)

"Wow, look at this! Over here! Pretend bacon!"

Our girl is both easily distracted and a good sport, and that has served us well for many years. But we are also not unreasonable parents, so when she recently started trying to make Barbies out of toilet paper rolls and dressing them in Kleenex, we decided that the time had come to end our unspoken boycott. What's the harm, really? She's eight and a half - surely past the most impressionable stage, and likely to outgrow the whole thing soon enough.

So we got the least skanky Barbies we could find, and a little house setup that I have to grudgingly admit is kind of cool (a foldup toilet!). And we held our breath.

I guess my objections to Ms. B follow the usual lines - unrealistic body issues, limited gender roles, the way plastic crap begets more plastic crap. But it's also more general than that. I think it's the way that toys like this somehow pasteurize natural kid weirdness:

It's Saturday morning, and Barbie has the whole day to do whatever she wants! Should she:

a) Join her friends at the mall for a shopping 
spree
b) Surf the 'net, then have some friends over for pizza and a movie
c) Star in a rock video
d) Start a goat farm with Eggy and Roundy, then save a zebra that fell in the collapsible toilet

We just keep on praying that our girl will keep on choosing option #4, or some reasonable facsimile, over and over for the rest of her life.

So the other day she came up to me with Semi-Skanky Barbie (not that we call her that out loud! no!) and a little stuffed bear she has had for most of her life. His attire resembles the A&W Root Bear but he has no known corporate affiliation. And she said this:

"Mom, I've decided that these two aren't married anymore.  Now they're in high school.  But they still love each other."

I love this unpasteurized girl.

~ René Joshi Sims of fruityfantastica

René's zig-zaggy art journey: a three year crash course in love, painting, and D.I.Y. at Rosebud, Alberta; Yale University's Summer School of Art in Norfolk; four hothouse years at Alberta College of Art and Design; a year-long mentorship with Canadian painter Eleanor Bond, and another year working on Chautauqua Stars for a Northern City, a public commission for the E. A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts. The journey came to a juddering halt when René's son was diagnosed with autism. She recently returned to the studio after a six year absence, and is working on a show about healing, loss, and love that glows just hot enough to see by. She lives with her family in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and blogs in happy obscurity at fruityfantastica.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Apparently I support inter-species relationships original stickynote drawing by René Joshi Sims (origin: Saskatchewan, Canada)

Starting bid: $10.00

'toothbrushes' original stickynote drawing by rené joshi sims

I started blogging last year because I was really lonely. I didn't always know what to say though, and I really didn't have anyone to say it to anyhow since no one was reading along. However, I knew how to draw, and sticky notes are always there for you. So I made some sticky note drawings for my blog. Even toothbrushes can be lovely and mysterious if you look at them long enough. ~ René Joshi Sims

René's zig-zaggy art journey: a three year crash course in love, painting, and D.I.Y. at Rosebud, Alberta; Yale University's Summer School of Art in Norfolk; four hothouse years at Alberta College of Art and Design; a year-long mentorship with Canadian painter Eleanor Bond, and another year working on Chautauqua Stars for a Northern City, a public commission for the E. A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts. The journey came to a juddering halt when René's son was diagnosed with autism. She recently returned to the studio after a six year absence, and is working on a show about healing, loss, and love that glows just hot enough to see by. She lives with her family in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and blogs in happy obscurity at fruityfantastica.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Toothbrushes original stickynote drawing by René Joshi Sims (origin: Saskatchewan, Canada)

Starting bid: $10.00

'mothership' original etching by rené joshi sims

 

I made this etching long before I had kids of my own, at Yale University's Summer School of Art in Norfolk, Connecticut. It's become a favourite image of mine, and over the years it has gained a depth of meaning from my own experiences as a mother -- especially the stormy waters of having a boy with severe autism. (I'm not sure where I've put my crown, though... maybe it's under that pile of laundry by the unused treadmill.)

 

This is a one of kind piece, and because our focus at Yale was to "go, go, go" and "make, make, make" you'll see that the borders of the paper are not as pristine as you'd usually expect on a fine quality art print. However, once this print is properly matted and framed those small flaws will be completely hidden. ~ René Joshi Sims

René's zig-zaggy art journey: a three year crash course in love, painting, and D.I.Y. at Rosebud, Alberta; Yale University's Summer School of Art in Norfolk; four hothouse years at Alberta College of Art and Design; a year-long mentorship with Canadian painter Eleanor Bond, and another year working on Chautauqua Stars for a Northern City, a public commission for the E. A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts. The journey came to a juddering halt when René's son was diagnosed with autism. She recently returned to the studio after a six year absence, and is working on a show about healing, loss, and love that glows just hot enough to see by. She lives with her family in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and blogs in happy obscurity at fruityfantastica.

All proceeds from items sold on the To Haiti with Love auction go directly to the St. Joseph's Family in Haiti. To make a bid, simply leave a comment with the amount of your bid and your email address. The auction will wrap up on February 8, 2010, and winners will be contacted right away to arrange payment and shipping. Good luck!

Mothership original, one-of-a-kind etching by René Joshi Sims, dimensions approximately 15 3/4" x 18 1/2" (origin: Saskatchewan, Canada)

Starting bid: $30.00