Halloween candy

TRICK-OR-TREAT  is the well-known mantra of ghouls and goblins that show up on your doorstep on Halloween night. The sometimes hostile supernatural forces and the ghosts and spirits of the dead are supposedly free to wander as they wish, as they walk on the thin line separating them on this scary night. Over the course of centuries, the present-day custom of trick-or-treating was born out of such superstition. Is it only that, or did our ancestors know something we've forgotten?

GIVING TREATS  to the tricksters, according to Halloween lore is said to appease the wandering spirits and keep them from doing dastardly deeds to your property (or flock, as it were). Wearing masks and other disguises are meant to confuse the spirits roaming amongst us.

AS A KID, I remember roaming around the neighborhood with a gaggle of friends, going unsupervised to neighbors homes (after a certain age) where we would find homemade fudge, popcorn balls and other treats carefully packaged in paper treat bags printed in black and orange. Of course the trickster tradition of papering (or rolling) someone's yard was great fun also (usually friends or teachers)! The freedom of these innocent times has been curtailed these days with more supervision since the trickster spirits seemed to have taken hold of the holiday. Maybe it's only because—more often than not—the treats aren't as carefully considered and made with love.

IT HAS BEEN  quite a trick to create the images of this post, but I had a lot of fun doing it, so I'm going to let them speak for themselves and not be as long-winded as usual. The large ornaments on the tree above were hand-cut and crafted in New England and sold in the online Stromboli's Wagon store on Ebay. Inspired by vintage imagery and beautifully finished in paint and glitter, it's obvious they were made with love and care. The Jack-O-Lantern metal bell ornaments are from Pier 1 Imports—in three sizes, they lend a great compositional depth in decorating this glittery tree cutout. It all sits atop a gothic-style wooden table.

SHE COULD very well be the Queen of Halloween — my always supportive and inspiring blog friend, folk artist Johanna Parker — created some wonderful Halloween hangers this year that I've added to my collection (from her commercially available collections, available here, here and here). I told her they might just become my holiday totems! In describing her thought process in making these spooky-fun creations, Johanna says "When designing these fun hangers, my intentions were to add a little more movement to my holiday product line. Typically, my Halloween characters are fashioned for the shelf, mantel or table top, so the thought occurred to me to add a little kinetics to the mix. Double-sided hangers came to mind and naturally all things that haunt us from the skies popped in my imagination. I absolutely love owls, bats truly fascinate me, and well, Mr. Moon is certainly a key player in setting the spooky mood!" Inspired by her collections of vintage holiday novelties, Johanna admits that her favorite subject matter is Halloween. And why not? Her birthday also falls on October 31st. Happy birthday Johanna!

AND SINCE cats are my favorite animal associated with Halloween (actually my favorite animal, period), I've created a simple cat tree this year. It seems that Halloween is rivaling Christmas in popularity everywhere. It's no mystery that according to History.com that one quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween. Let's hope that's enough to keep us safe from the evil trickster spirits for at least another year.

GOTHIC GLAM | (Top) This glittery tree stands in contrast to the blue backdrop painted with Martha Stewart Living paint in azurite from Home Depot. It is decorated with glittered vintage-inspired ornaments from Stromboli's Wagon and Jack-O-Lantern metal bell ornaments in three sizes from Pier 1 Imports. Altogether they form a vintage Halloween look. Since the bells ring, does that mean the spirits get their wings? 

GLITTERY RETRO | (Above, left) The handcrafted ornaments were hand-cut and crafted in New England and sold in the online Stromboli's Wagon store on Ebay. Inspired by vintage imagery and beautifully finished, it's obvious they were made with love and care. 

HALLOWEEN HANGERS | (Above, right) I couldn't resist these Halloween owl, moon and bat hangers designed by my blog friend Johanna Parker (left, in her Halloween finery). Oversized and double-sided painted papier-mâché ornaments of this size certainly set a spooky-fun scene for a tableau like this. I purchased these folk-art finds from blog friend Debbie Buchanan's online store at Bayberry Cove.

CATS IN HATS | (Bottom) These black cat ornaments in orange hats from Pier 1 Imports are a simple trick for this coated wire tree from IKEA. The multi-colored bumpy glass ornaments are from a past Martha Stewart Kmart collection. The cat/costumed folk-art figures were lent from a friend's private collection, all placed atop a sparkly beaded spider placemat from this year's Halloween collection from Target. 

©2010 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

photography, collecting and styling by Darryl Moland

home to birds

BIRDS ARE FREE  to fly about. They make their homes in trees. They navigate thin air. They eat, well, like a bird. They sing songs whenever they like. Direct ascendants from the dinosaur, they hold the wisdom of the ages. They are gifts of hope and happiness.

MY FASCINATION with birds continues to grow. Aside from the real ones, I see birds in art everywhere I look—Twitter's logo (follow me here), the symbol of the country where I live and even the name of one of my favorite local places to eat, Ria's Bluebird.

FITTINGLY, I met my friend David Schump at Ria's for a delicious brunch this weekend and he graciously brought along a piece from his folk art collection for me to photograph. I had long admired his bird tree—a natural limb decorated with a flock of nine unique birds. Hand-carved and painted (circa 2004) by American folk artist John Carlton (in Delaware), this celebration of birds is quite a beautiful work of art.

ARTISTS CELEBRATE birds in their artwork in every discipline it seems. Two other artist's works I'm picturing here are an illustrated book by Australian artist Jeffrey Fisher and hand-turned birdhouse ornaments by local Georgia woodworker Betty Fugate.

ACKNOWLEDGED as having influenced a generation of designers and illustrators world wide, with birds being his preferred muses, Jeffrey Fisher's book offers up 46 different bird species in illustrated portraits. Each bird is painted in his unique style—unexpected, colorful and beautiful—and paired with quirky musings by his wife, Christine Fisher on each species' history and lore. Jeffrey states in the preface of Birds: "This book is nothing but an enthusiasm for birds. There being a bevy of collective terms for our winged friends—a murmuration of starlings, a ubiquity of sparrows, an unkindness of ravens, an exultation of larks, a pandemonium of parrots—here be an enthusiasm for birds."

WOODWORKER, Betty Fugate of Whirlingwood Studio in Georgia made the birdhouse ornaments pictured alongside the book. A crafter with a myriad of materials from embroidery to pyrography since childhood, Betty hand-turned these ornaments out of exotic woods. They will be beautiful and fun additions to a decorated tree. I've long thought of designing a tree with nothing but birds, and since trees are homes to many types of birds, it only makes sense. What better way to celebrate nature than to celebrate a home in nature?

FOLK ART FLOCK | (Above, top) This tree of birds was crafted by American folk artist John Carlton in 2004. The bird vase is from Target several seasons ago. The cast iron basket (filled with moss) was purchased in the Garden Gift Shop at Atlanta Botanical Garden.

FOR THE BIRDS | (Above, bottom) The illustrated book simply titled Birds is by Australian artist/illustrator Jeffrey Fisher (Chronicle Books) contains some of the most unique celebrations of birds in art I've seen. The hand-turned wooden birdhouse ornaments were made by woodworker Betty Fugate who resides locally in Georgia.

©2010 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

photography and styling by Darryl Moland, 
folk art bird tree by John Carlton, 
birdhouse ornaments by Betty Fugate

BEYOND WORDS | A heartbreaking scenario played out all-too-often because of Big Oil's unbridled greed, corruption and self-regulation: An oil-soaked bird against the side of the HOS, an Iron Horse supply vessel, at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on May 9.

folk wonderworks

GOOD FOLK ART has a resonance that seems timeless and without a place—except in our imaginations. The pure and childlike simplicity (or complexity) of it combines a myriad of ideas in a friendly and accessible way. Santa Claus has always been the subject of folk art. His origins date back to a Dutch (Sinterklass) folk tale derived from the historical figure Saint Nicholas, who was also known as Nicholas, the Wonderworker because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession. Just as primitive art forms visually inform in the most sublime way, the verbal art of storytelling and oral history is passed from generation to generation. It is as if the gift-giving that Santa is known for starts with the spoken tradition of storytelling passed down to the next generation. It is interesting to note that modern Dutch life in the Netherlands heralds St. Nicholas Eve (December 5th) as a much more important holiday than Christmas.

WITH SO MANY varying stories about how and where Santa originates (depending on what country you're from and depending on which form of Santa is popular), it's no wonder one starts seeing Santa as early as Halloween (if not all year in some form). Living in Atlanta (home of the Coca-Cola Company), the ubiquitous American form of Santa in Coke ads helped shape his modern-day image. Although I don't condone kitchy Coca-Cola tree ornaments (why?), the well-designed World of Coca-Cola museum houses an incredibly interesting array of Coke ephemera, folk art and advertising (including a large array of Coke Santa illustrations and ads). To sell flavored, high-fructose corn syrup-sweetened water which is extremely bad for your health, the advertising has to be innovative. If nothing else, Coke is to be applauded for its cutting-edge advertising history. Born-and-raised in the American South, I was practically weaned on Coke-Cola (as true Southerners call it). There is nothing like an icy glass of Coke during the dog days of summer, although I try my best to steer clear most of the time.

IN THIS unusual, almost sinister-looking folk art figure that could be Santa, a snowman, Christmas or Halloween figure (above, right) is holding a pumpkin candy basket in one hand and a goose feather tree stem in the other, you see a wonderful amalgamation of the holidays right through Christmas, no matter what culture in which you learned about Santa. This little guy was so unusual, I had to bring him home. He illustrates such a wonderful and unapologetic folk art weirdness!

I BOUGHT a misfit candy container at a discount store that my friend David Schump retrofitted with a folk art Santa that he made (an incredible folk artist in his own right) from vintage trims and a rabbit fur beard and gave back to me (being re-gifted was never so good). He sculpted the face and hands from clay and painted them carefully. It was such a wonderful surprise to see what he had done (left). This little Santa has a similar effect on me. When looking at him, how can you help but smile and wish good tidings and cheer to everyone—whether Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas? The bubbles might burn your throat on the way down or even bubble up in your nose (like a Coke), but the sweetness will make it go down all right. Let the mash-up we call the holiday season begin! 

HALLOW'S SANTA |The Santa figure (Top) was distributed by Bethany Lowe Designs and originally made by an inspired folk artist Virginia Betourne of Trout Creek Folk Art. I bought it in Westside Atlanta at Star Provisions. 

FOLKSY GIFT |My friend David Schump (a fellow graphic designer) embellished this snowball candy container (Above) in a most sublime way. I'll cherish it for years-to-come. He even placed a surprise in the inside with red-and-white-checked pleated round with a die cut Santa head in the middle. 

©2009 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
collecting, photography and styling by Darryl Moland