John's friend Karen, a multi-talented northwest Indiana math teacher -- high school by day, university-level math by night, loves Edward Gorey's art so much, that she created Gorey-esque garden decorations.
A few years ago, Karen, never one for less-is-more, decided to make Gorey-inspired Halloween decorations. The results, at left, are life-size Gorey-inspired figures, gorgeous, inspiring, sought-after, appreciated, that she puts up in her gardens and her yards, for any celebratory occasions.
Karen drew life-size figures on 3/4 inch plywood, cut them out with a jigsaw herself, and then painted them with acrylic paints, covered with water-resistant enamel. Both sides are painted; they are held up, with ordinary garden stakes. Karen is skilled at dry wall, plumbing, and carpentry. Karen even designed and built a fireplace mantel and wainscoting for her dining room!
John describes Chicago born and raised Gorey, who died in 2000, as an artist who did bizarre drawings of Victorian and Edwardian people in luxurious if decaying settings like drawing rooms, where children might be swallowed up by elaborately stuffed settees or potted ferns, that sort of thing. His drawings are generally part sinister and part charming drawings, that depict worlds of afternoon tea and formal occasions among aristocratic and aloof people. Gorey's children's books were my son's favorite, even though, it is widely known, that Gorey disliked children.
John's in the photo at top left... The Gorey figures are kind of Tim Burton-ish, no?
