Etsy Featured Shop: Plastic Pumpkin

Meet Ren of Plastic Pumpkin on etsy.
shop name: plastic pumpkin designs

It really grabbed me when I read Ren's general artistic philosophy and how it melds with her life.

She said, "Chinese brush painting is an important part of my spiritual development and meditation (I'm a Taoist). It's fun, serious, wild, controlled, crazy, sane, and an irreplaceable part of my life."

Marcy: How did you get your shop name?

Ren replied, "Why “Plastic Pumpkin”? Isn’t that kind of a dumb name?
Someone once told us our name was dumb. It didn’t make any sense to them. They mentioned we might want to change the name to something that made sense to them.

We said: why not? Pumpkins are cool. They’re weird and impossibly orange. People like to carve ‘em up. People like to smash ‘em. Heck, some people even EAT pumpkin. From a designer’s perspective, they’re a wonderfully smooth creation with lots of character and a pleasant shape.

We like pumpkins. And for all you English majors out there, “Plastic Pumpkin” rates “excellent” on the Alliteration Meter."


Marcy: What are the major influences in your style?

"The Chinese masters, dating back over 5,000 years. I do traditional Chinese brush painting, with age-old techniques (and some modern twists). I highly respect the elders who created this style of painting.

I draw influence for my brush paintings (and my other art) from the masters, as I mentioned above, as well as Taoism, philosophy, current artistic trends, every day objects, nature, rocks, minerals, masks, costumes, the ocean, and mythology."

Marcy: What do you want the reader to notice about your work?

"I hope the reader can view each piece and bring part of themselves to it. They will see what they are meant to see."

I have chosen two items from Plastic Pumpkins' etsy shop, and included a bit of each shop description of the items. I love these two pieces. Both are more of her "traditional" style of Chinese brush painting, but please visit her shop for a lovely selection of old school and some more modern style pieces of art. Aceos, greeting cards, prints and orginals all can be found here.(http://www.plasticpumpkin.com)

The Cat Blank Greeting Card Original Painting Striped Cat in the Sun

"A playful cat pauses to contemplate the universe (or lunch). He's entirely hand-painted by me, using traditional Chinese hand-ground inks on rice paper."

Goldfish Original Chinese Brush Painting with Tea Wash Matted

"This painting is done on soft, flexible white rice paper with traditional Chinese inks. It captures a large-tailed fancy goldfish as he swims between swaying fronds.

I gave the back of the painting a traditional tea wash, using reddish Puh-Er tea. That's why the painting has a watery, antiqued look to it."