Etsy Find of the Day: Cathy Nichols

The image above, called Spun, caught my eye several months ago. I stuck it in my Etsy cart, as I often do when something grabs my attention, and went along my merry way. But the image stayed with me. I don't know what it is about it, exactly, but I keep coming back to consider it.

Perhaps it's the sense that it can be read more than one way -- as sheer, childlike delight at the dizzying, exhilarating sensation that you're floating on air after a gravity-defying carnival ride. Or maybe it's the slightly unnerving suggestion that something has gone awry here. Or perhaps there's a third interpretation: That this girl has somehow been liberated from gravity and other bothersome worldly constrictions after her thrilling ride on the spinning contraption. (I guess you could call it a Rorschach test of sorts: Do you see unbridled summer-fair glee, disaster, or a break for freedom depicted in the simple image?)

Maybe this is the same girl, being borne into the sky by a cluster of balloons in Aloft. Or maybe not. Or perhaps, as usual, I'm just overanalyzing things. But still, I dig it. I'm pretty keen on the rest of the slightly surreal, candy-colored prints in New York painter Cathy Nichols' Etsy shop, too. Take a look:

Hello Summer 1, 2, and 3

Summer's End 1, 2, and 3

Day Off

Sanctuary

4 Songs

Cathedral

Each 7-by-7-inch print (on 8.5-by-11-inch paper) is $28. See all of Nichols' Etsy offerings right here -- and check out more of her work here.