About Outlaw
Bunny—Bard and Talismanic Artist
Her
parents’ immersion in folk culture influenced everything
from her spirituality to her food choices to her art. And made
her think those three things are part and parcel. But then, she has
a hard time differentiating any two things from each other, because
when she
see them on an atomic level with her otherworldy eyes, they all look
the same
to her. :-)
 Outlaw Bunny (AKA Francesca De
Grandis) started playing folk
music in Boston
clubs at age fourteen. She is basically a self-taught artist. She is
grateful
for the few classes she managed to take, which were mostly as a teen:
this
includes a silversmithing course; a few calligraphy tips from mom that
helped
get her started lettering; and a summer class or two at Boston’s
School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
She’s toured the U.S.
performing and leading
hands-on folk culture workshops. When Multiple Sclerosis made holding a
guitar
too difficult, she took up mandolin. Her focus also shifted to painting
and
freeform bead-weaving.
She recycles what’s
on hand to create wearable art and home
decor. Hoping to mirror a bit of nature’s whimsy and wondrousness, she
often
designs her art by imagining what a Faerie would wear and where they
would
live. This is not hard for her, since she is a
Faerie.
The shift to
beading and painting does more than give her
something she can physically manage despite disabilities. Creating
talismanic
art is a way to serve community despite being housebound from illness.
She
says, “Service keeps me whole. I may be stuck in my home, but my spirit
travels
through my art. It makes me feel connected to
people.”
 She recently discovered she can
draw and paint. Apparently,
everyone else already knew it. Her response to that is "Huh?” In any
case,
she’d only just come to realize her abstract drawing was okay. But to
suddenly
be able to draw literal things like a face is freaky to her.
She is still at the
point where she is impressed by anything
she draws. "Oh, that kinda looks like a face, hey, I can draw something
that kinda looks like a face!"
Her visual art has
appeared at www.jacquardproducts.com, and
she is a www.dharmatrading.com’s featured silk artist.
After leaving the
music business for a contemplative life as
a shaman, she discovered that music was part of her spirituality.
She authored various books based on her years of teaching Celtic
shamanism
and interfaith experiential-mysticism.
She has also taught
creative process to newbies and pros in
a variety of artistic fields, for over two decades. She gives the
support
needed to help anyone realize they are an artist, because she
understands this
penchant is innate in all of us, and emerges given the right support.
 A friend told her, “You
prove it IS possible to make a silk
purse out of a sow’s ear!" Outlaw Bunny is a Faerie rabbit who
believes,
“Art is like life: Its value is not in its mundane ingredients but in
what we
create with them. So my choice of materials ranges from the grand to
the
not-so-grand, because I use what’s on hand. I want to find the beauty
in what
already is, coax it out, reveal it, adorn the ordinary so we can see it
is not
ordinary at all.”
"As a professional illustrator and artist,
I personally
enjoy Francesca's artwork and find it to be original and inspired by
the
natural world. Her whimsical, bright style is a breath of fresh air for
the
world of fantasy and fairy art. The wild yet harmonious color palette
and
subject matter speak to an enchanted world of fantastical creatures,
just
outside our windows, on the edge of our own existence, where spiritual
understanding through the artistic muse is accessible. Francesca’s art
captures
this essence and brings it to the mundane world for our enjoyment." - -
Roberto Campus, professional illustrator, seen in Marvel, DC, Dark
Horse, Lucas
Arts, Penguin Books, Hulk, Dungeon Magazine, GamePro.
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e-announcements of her album releases, classes, brilliant insights,
books,
life’s synchronicities, and all the other stuff that drives her, sign up for
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Copyright
Francesca De Grandis. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
-- this web page and the site's other pages -- may be reproduced in any
manner without written permission. Copyright reverts to author.
This page
was updated 5/2//2012
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