Shivers of Delight

I really don't know much about the artist Mar Goman, but her Pharmacy of the Soul series is beautiful. See more from the artist on her  Pinterest page . Read an interview with Goman from 2014  here . Most of her exhibits seems to have been on the West Coast. I'll be watching for a show closer to home. This was from an exhibit in 2010 at the 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, Oregon. ARTIST STATEMENT Mar Goman is a mixed-media artist who has always worked with a wide range of materials and media and her artwork does not fit into any one category. She often uses materials from nature, cast offs from a consumer society, and a variety of recycled and repurposed materials. These materials range from pieces of rusty metal, old books and book pages, sticks and stones, bones, buttons, bottles, boxes, vintage fabrics and objects, and many other items. Her work includes drawing, painting, embroidery and sewing, book arts, sculpture and assemblage, textiles, and collage. She d...

"I wondered why so many gardens around the world focused on the healing power of plants in the setting of a public garden rather than their ability to kill... I felt that most children I knew would be more interested in hearing  how a plant killed,  how long it would take you  to die  if you ate it and  how gruesome and painful the death might be." The Duchess of Northumberland I know that the Duchess of Northumberland and I would be the best of friends. Besides collecting taxidermy and keeping her treasured silver dung beetle in front of her at the dining table, she opened the Alnwick Poison Garden in 2005. The garden houses a collection of over 100 hundred poisonous plants- some of which she had to get permission to grow and keeps under ornate cages so that they can not be touched or smelled. It sounds wonderful. I hope to get there some day. I'm considering setting up a corner of my own garden with poisonous plants. I think it should look something ...

My passion for poison extends to what I'm reading. "The Oracle Glass" , by Judith Merkel Riley, is a book of poison and intrigue in the court of Louis XIV. A young girl becomes swept up in a society of fortune-tellers and purveyors of poison that is loosely based on actual police records of the period.  I was fascinated. I think I may have started collecting old bottles of poison after reading this book.

The lovely Devil Match Holder is by Jonathan Adler I'm crazy about poisons lately. I've been picking up old bottles of poison here and there to line the shelves of our guest bathroom. I also have a collection of alcohol nips in an apothecary jar to help them go down easier. I'm a considerate hostess.