Fornasetti exerted a major influence on my life as a decoupager. You may recognize this face which he re-invented hundreds of times in his wonderful silk-screened ceramic works. I first saw Fornasetti's plates at my Uncle Stuart's loft when I was a child. My Uncle Stuart was my role model: an eccentric bohemian artist living in a cool loft with a hammock bed strung between two trees that grew in the inner section of the building, where he slept with his two French poodles amidst a flock of live doves. He lived in the Old Town section of Chicago and his lifetime spanned the years between beatnik and hippy. I miss him still and I think of him often - especially when I see the work of Fornasetti. Learn more about Fornasetti at this delightful website: http://www.fornasetti.com/
