Purple People Eater

Over the holidays some people gorge themselves and get fat. I drink a lot and forget to write my blog. Sorry about that.

I’ve kept up the sewing and made many wonderful family members and friends fabric tokens of my affections. But back to paper. New Year’s Day also happens to be my mother’s birthday. In hindsight I realize nothing I gave her on her big 65 would outdo the Christmas quilt I spent months on.


Okay fine. Here’s a photo of the quilt, a.k.a "I Heart Purple", but I promise no more mention of fabric after this.




A few months ago I found a shoddily framed Currier & Ives print titled “American Fruit Piece”. My eye has been trained to detect these things after I unwittingly bought three rolls of vintage Currier & Ives travel calendars from the 1950s. They’re good for cutting up but not much else aside from being study guides. So I found this poor print, stuffed into a small frame, and knew it would have issues.

It was only ten bucks so I thought, “Hell, mom loves fruit and vegetables. She’ll love this!” This past week I finally went to task to archivally mend the multitude of tears and watercolor in the missing paper. Here’s my before:

and after:

Subtle changes really, but it will look nicer when framed.


A little background info on this lovely image. I thought it might be a repro but my boss and I looked it up in one of her wonderful books. The print itself was issued circa 1870. It’s a hand colored lithograph. I wish you could see how the areas covered with gum arabic gleam when you tilt the paper. And the paper, despite being thick, is some of the most brittle stuff I have ever come across.


There is a larger version of the American Fruit Piece from the 1850s that is absolutely gorgeous and features much more fruit. If you find an original, I'll trade you one of my paintings for it!

I was very proud of my work but mom seemed more impressed with the purple cloisonné earrings my sister had found. Not that I’m jealous – I just should have used some purple watercolor to mend the print.

What you have to understand is just how much my mom loves purple. There are days when my sister and I refer to her as The Eggplant simply because she has on a purple shirt, pants and socks (which are easy to see with her Birkenstocks).

Alright, time to eat some fruit. Oh, and sing along if you want...

"I said Mr Purple People Eater, what's your line?
He said eating purple people, and it sure is fine
But that's not the reason that I came to land
I wanna get a job in a rock 'n roll band"