The very gifted Vermont artist Abrah Griggs, one of my favorite artists anywhere, has agreed to create a new banner/logo for the blog, bedlamfarm.com, as part of an ongoing re-design. You can check out her work on her engaging blog, Inmynature.com, where she sells her popular notecards and witty and observant sketches.

Abrah is unusual, she is a muse to bugs and spiders. When she signed up to do the banner last week, she said she was in a bit of a funk, and as a shy and fiercely independent artist (aren’t they all?), she is rising up this week.

She’s getting fired up about the project, I can feel it.

If you’d like, you are free to participate in this endeavor, the people reading the blog should have some input into what it’s banner looks like. You can e-mail Abrah at [email protected] if you wish. She likes feedback as long as you don’t want to talk to her in person.

It took us a year to get her to come to the farm.

This is the first rough sketch she sent me this morning, and I love the direction she’s going in. I take the blog seriously, but I don’t want to take it too seriously. Obviously, Abrah will make the letters stronger and bolder, she’s just playing around.

What I really like is the curiosity and skepticism of the donkeys and the sheep, they seem to be bemused, wondering what I’m up to, which captures the feel of the farm, for sure. Maria loves these sketches also.

The blog is many things now, and I hope the banner will signal that it is different, and open to thought, not argument.

Of the three I actually love the one on the bottom right the most – a donkey and a sheep peeking out behind the banner. But it wouldn’t work technically, to have a box like that I don’t think.

Captures the feel of the place. I also like the one on top, the animals and sheep exploring the logo. I often get the sense that the donkeys and sheep think I’m just plain mad, and shake their heads when I turn away.

It seems to me they are always gossiping about what goes on in the farmhouse, and can never make any sense out of it. They don’t tend to take me seriously, like they do Red.

I don’t want the banner to look like a joke, but I do want the banner to be irreverent and smart, which is right in Abrah’s wheelhouse. She come by that naturally.

As you know, I am a supporter of interactivity, and I hope this evolves into a conversation and dialogue that involves all of us.

You can e-mail me with your thoughts – [email protected] – or post your comments on my Facebook Page. I can’t always reply, but I will when I can. You can also comment right below the blog post down below.

So here we go, jump right in.  I can’t imagine anything much more fun in my work life than doing a blog banner with Abrah. Working with someone as talented as she is, is humbling, and pure joy.