Debbie And Mike Schramer

Hi Iris!!!

We were so excited to get your message! It's wonderful to hear from you after all these years. We so enjoyed corresponding with you before and are just so happy to hear from you again. I hope we can keep in touch now; we're so surprised to hear from you!! 

We were also surprised to hear that the Victoria article came out already!! We didn't know it was available yet. We were working with Victoria several months ago, having our book designer send them photos, answering interview questions, etc, but I didn't think the article was coming out until April, so what a great surprise!! Thank you so much for letting us know. We'll get a copy right away.

I don't know if you know that we had a wonderful book published last July!! It's called "Fairy House". It's available on Amazon. The copies are sold out at our publishers; it's gone into it's third printing, so we're waiting for the new shipment the middle of this month. It's pretty exciting!! Our book has done fabuloulsy well, so it's a wonderful blessing!!

I am so happy to hear from you! We will keep in touch for sure.

Talk to you soon!

Debbie and Mike

TO SEE MORE ABOUT OUR MOVIE, JUST GO TO: www.enchantedtreehousemovie.com

TO SEE SEVERAL SHORT CLIPS OF OUR OTHER FILMS ON YOUTUBE, JUST GO TO: natureartists.


We would love to find someone who would like to use our treehouse in an exposition, a traveling exhibit, a fund-raising event, an art teaching project, an art show, a film or children's book or any related creative opportunities. Please contact us if you have any projects that you are interested in working with us. Thank you.


We love creating new pieces for people but really prefer to create a work and then have that available for collectors to purchase. However, we do accept special commissions for new Fairy Castles and Nature Treehouses, smaller works, at various prices. Please contact if interested.

Debbie has a beautiful and very unusual blog as well; she hopes you will visit it as it has many wonderful pictures, thoughts and links to other wonderful artists. Here is the link: www.beautiful-art.blogspot.com.

Mike and I have had many wonderful experiences through our art and have been acknowledged and appreciated by many wonderful people. People have always told us that they have never seen anything like our little Fairy Furniture and our amazine Fairy Castles and Treehouses. We have been acknowledged in many books, magazines and newspapers. Our nature art has even been on television. Our little nature pieces have been exhibited in museums, shops and in galleries and have been in many art shows and other events.

We exhibited our Nature Treehouse at the Seattle Miniature Show in 2005 and were so excited to have been awarded "Best of Show". We also exhibited the Treehouse at the International Miniature Show in Chicago, also in 2005 and received incredible accalaids there. We were also acknowledged in a lecture by author/editor Mary Emmerling one year when she spoke about our amazing artistry.

We have received acknowledgements and appreciation from so many other people. More details about this can be found in our art resume.

We have been featured in many books and magazines and at various events as well. Here is our art resume which mentions much of this information.


Artist Resume
Debbie and Mike Schramer

Books (our fairy furniture was featured in these publications)
1993 “Pleasures of the Garden” by Emyl Jenkins
1994 “Chairmania” by George Beylerian, published by Abrams Books (about Mr. Beylerian’s large miniature chair collection, which was in a touring exhibition, our chair included)
1994 “Forget Me Not” by Ho Phe Li, (a beautiful book about dolls)
1994 “Morning Glories”, published by “Victoria” magazine (one of our little fairy houses was included in this book)
1995 “Fairy Wings” by Lauren Mills (a beautiful children’s book with illustrations of our fairy furniture and houses)
1995 “The Natural Home” by Tricia Foley (a book about interior design which included a little chair that the author purchased from us)

Magazines
1991 “Victoria”, (February issue, 7 page feature story on our fairy furniture and houses)
1991 “Detroit Monthly”, (December issue) Feature story on Christmas gifts
1991 Morning television program, Detroit, Michigan (in conjunction with Detroit Monthly magazine; feature on Christmas gifts)
1996 “Travel and Leisure’ (our Treehouse was included in a feature story on the American Visionary Art Museum)
1996 “Country Folk Art” (our Treehouse was included in a feature story on the American Visionary Art Museum)
1997 “Teddy Bear and Friends”, (in an article about our fairy furniture and teddy bears)
2001 “Child Art International”, (article about our Treehouse)

Newspapers
1990-1991 Feature articles in Seattle area newspapers
1991 “Country Pleasures”, Centralia, Washington
1993 “The Seattle Times”
1994 “Los Angeles Times” (article about fairies and our fairy furniture)
1995 “The Charlotte Observer”
1996 “The Maine Antique’s Digest”
1996 “The Baltimore Sun” (our Treehouse included in feature story about the American Visionary Art Museum)
2000 “The Daily Herald”, Tacoma, Washington

Museums
1990 “Seattle Art Museum Store“, (during the Goodwill Games)
1990-1991 “Tacoma Art Museum Art Auction“, Tacoma, Washington
1994-1995 “Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art“, Bellevue, Washington (Winner of the Jumeau Award for Museums; our furniture is in their permanent collection)
1995 “The American Visionary Art Museum“, Baltimore, Maryland (Treehouse was in museum’s first exhibit; chosen as 4th favorite work of art out of exhibit’s 400 works. Was in top 5 favorites; individual pieces were given to corporate contributors)

Showrooms, Department Stores, Catalogues and Art Shows
1993 “Leon Goetz Showroom“, Dallas World Trade Center
1995 “ABC Carpet and Home” (Department Store, New York City)
1991-1995 “Finishing Touches” Catalogue, Boston, Massachusetts
1993 “Art of Craft” Show, Seattle (our furniture acknowledged in lecture by author/magazine editor Mary Emmerling)
1994-1995 “San Francisco and New York Gift Shows”

Galleries (our art was shown in many other galleries as well)
1992 “Ferrin Gallery“, Northhampton, Massachusetts
1992-1993 “Sticks and Stones Gallery”, Seattle (featured artist)
1992 “Gallery of Wearable Art”, New York City
1993 “Takashimaya Gallery“, Yokohama, Japan (exhibit given by U.S. Export Company)
1993-1994 “Panaca Gallery”, Bellevue, Washington (affiliated with the Bellevue Art Museum)
1993-1994 “Twist Gallery”, Portland, Oregon
1994 “Fireworks Gallery”, Bellevue, Washington
1994 “Utica Gallery”, Alexandria, Virginia (photo of our artwork on 5,000 show invitations)
1994-1995 “The Phoenix Gallery”, Big Sur, California
1996 “The Wirtz Gallery”, Miami (Miami Grand Prix Art Show, sponsored by The Musee’ de la Commanderie d’ Unet, France)
1999-2000 “Repartee’ Gallery, Provo & Salt Lake City, Utah (featured artist many times)

Shops (just a few of the shops where our art was available)
1991 “Kirk’s Folly Jewelers”, 5th Ave., New York City
1991-1995 “Aspen Beauty Collection”, Aspen, Colorado
1991-1994 “Auntie Barbara’s Antiques”, Beverly Hills, California
1994-1995 “Fillamento”, San Francisco, California
1995 “Felissimo”, New York City”

Corporations
1995 “Cite Design Corporation”, Soho, New York
1995 “Gilbert Tweed Associates“, New York
1995 “Inserts Film Productions“, New York

Commissions, Purchases and Awards
1991 “Richard Nixon Museum”, Yorba Linda, California (commissioned pieces)
1994 “New York Toy Fair”, (commissioned pieces for author/artist Lauren Mills)
1994 “Folklife Art Festival”, Seattle (Treehouse commissioned for miniature exhibit)
1991-2001 “Commissioned and purchased pieces for: Aidan Quinn (actor); Jennifer Nicholson (daughter of actor Jack Nicholson); Mimi Danly (artist for Jim Henson); Rebecca Hoffberger (Director of the American Visionary Art Museum); Kathryn Kleinman (Photographer); Nancy Lindemeyer (Editor of “Victoria” magazine)
2005 “Seattle Miniature Show“, Best of Show Award for our Fairytale Treehouse

More recent shows, events and other notable experiences
2005 “Seattle Miniature Show“, Best of Show Award for our Fairytale Treehouse
2005 “Tom Bishop’s Chicago Miniature Show”, our art was one of the top favorites
2007 The release of our movie “The Enchanted Treehouse”
2008 Attended the Anaheim Children’s Fair, presenting our movie
2009-2010 Had our own gallery “Marcel and Florette’s Curious Menagerie” in downtown SLC
2010-2012 Participated in the downtown SLC Farmer’s Market
2011 Exhibited our Treehouses and fairy furniture at a special show in Brooklyn, NY, curated by Bronwyn Keenan, Director of Special Events at the Guggenheim Museum (currently now works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art). This exhibit was in conjunction with Etsy and Bronwyn’s private art collection. She purchased several of Mike’s pieces.
2012-2013 Second exhibit of our nature art (and some of our paintings) at the American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, Md.; the Art of Storytelling. Over 125,000 people saw our work and it was one of the favorites in the exhibit

We are artists, writers, filmmakers and naturalists. We feel that life is such a beautiful gift for each of us. We try to emanate things of beauty and delicateness and gentleness in the art that we create. We appreciate those whose art reflects the things in life that are sweet and kind, like little children. We want to express to others our love of life, our love of nature and children, of happy moments and times when people are being kind to one another. Life can be like that, if we put or minds and hearts to making it so.

Debbie:

I was born in Los Angeles, California. As a child, our family later lived by the ocean for many years; I think that was an inspiration to me to work in art, as I was very inspired by the serenity and the beauty of the sea. I felt the vastness of it and the presence of God. I often spoke to the ocean and to the birds and felt that nature was my "home", a place that reminded me of the true paradise I somehow remembered. I began writing poetry when I was eleven years old and am still writing poetry, as well as children's stories. I feel as if an unseen companion always assists me in my writings, helping me to be in touch with the spiritual world and with the child within myself.

I have always loved nature and have collected beautiful things from nature for many years. I began creating art from natural materials in 1987, making small furnishings and dwellings, little people and sculptural objects using flowers, mosses, branches, pods, leaves and everything that I could find and loved in the natural world. Soon, I had made a wonderful menagerie of fanciful creations. I loved the fairytale "world" I had created but felt that it shouldn't just be for me. I wanted to share it with others, so I decided to start selling my work. People were so excited by my little Fairy Furniture that I became too busy to keep up with making all the pieces people wanted, which was very exciting for me. So my husband, Mike began helping me and we worked together for 8 years, creating our wonderful Nature Art. Eventually, in 1993, we created our most wonderful masterpiece....a 5' x 4' Fairy Treehouse, which is a magnificent, amazing work of art.....a house, truely from the fairytale world. Filled with wonderful little furnishings, books, dishes, brooms, paintings, and endless detail and surprises, all made from nature. Our treehouse is truely wonderful; it is in a world all it's own.....furnished rooms, stairways and secret gardens and endless paths to waunder and discover. We would love to create more treehouses and fairy castles for people and are excited to begin another forest house for anyone who is interested. We can make smaller dwellings as well.

It was a wonderful and enchanting adventure for Mike and I to create such a beautiful house. Later, in 1995, our Fairy Castle was exhibited at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland and was chosen as the 4th favorite work of art out of the 400 art pieces in their opening exhibit. We have since then exhibited our Fairy Treehouse at galleries and shops and have also made a wonderful children's film with this beautiful work of art called "The Enchanted Treehouse".

I love art and feel that being creative gives me peace and happiness but more importantly, sharing it with others is true enjoyment for me. I feel it is important to show the beauty and gentleness and kindness in the world and I try to express that in my work.

Mike:

I want to tell you the story of how we came to make the Fairy Treehouse:

When Debbie and I were first married, I worked through the night reworking some drawings Debbie had started in an art class she attended. The next day we went out in to the yard and into our garden and brought things into the house; we began making houses for the birds and the little squirrels, They mostly resembled art more than being anything functional.

We later planted large gardens when we lived in Washington state in the 1980's. We also began having a keen interest in using recycled materials that we gathered from our journeys around our town to make our lives more artistic. I attended a college drawing and design class while Debbie was being fueled to create by the beauty of our gardens and the joy she was having in mothering our two sons. Life was idyllic for us there. We built fences and small barns out of recycled materials for our growing menagerie of animals. Debbie had always had a strong attraction to wild grasses and flowers. I was similarly attracted to old wood and tools. The creative journey that was to begin for us was just around the corner.

Our gardens brought us great joy but the looming, long winters caused us great anxiety for our return to the gardens. So it was in 1987 at the age of thirty seven (we are only 6 months apart), the two us decided to bring our gardens indoors. It was not house plants and windowsill gardens that we were directed to plant, which we had done before, but it was the construction of a fanciful world we made from the gatherings we brought in from the outdoors.

We began making life size twig chairs but soon turned to smaller miniature versions as the weather turned cold. That winter, a world of miniature adventures unfolded before our eyes. We felt like Mr. and Mrs. Gulliver seeing our work tables fill up with tiny chairs. Soon there were beds and bookshelves, dressers, baby prams, wheel barrows, watering cans and lamps. We seemed to be working under the direction of some unseen, small people. Oddly enough, we could see these people in our minds eye but never witnessed them actually sitting in any of our furniture. I am not sure what our relationship was to these tiny muses if any, but we were enjoying the little world we were making. So much so, that we worked through the that winter as if jumping in and out of a story book. By spring we had filled almost all of the table tops and bookshelves in our living and dining rooms with our magical, amazing little furniture.

What was to be done with this ever growing menagerie? Our friends and neighbors suggested we take our collection to the local library to display. And so we did......we were so surprised by the favorable assessments of our work by all the people who attended our booth, but even more surprised when interior decorators called us and wanted to buy some of our creations. What followed were invitations to local art shows, Christmas Bazzars and Teddy Bear Luncheons. It was at one of these shows that we were approached by two other artists to represent our works with them at a national gift buyers market. With the encouragement from the many people who loved our work and a timely article about us in a major women's magazine called "Victoria", we were wisked away in a bliss of creativity. As long as our followers still loved our creations, the more deeply we loved making them.

We have shared the story of our incredible artistic journey in a movie that we made called "The Enchanted Treehouse". We hope to publish a companion book at some time that will enhance our wonderful fairytale movie. We are excited about these projects and look forward to getting back to our creative room to make the fantasies that we have in mind, come alive.

Mike And Debbie Schramer

We love the beauty of nature....the color, the design, the movement of the flowers, the whisperings heard in the forest, the deep yearnings felt by the sea. Our art is moved by nature. It is touched by every beauty, every magnificense, every love felt in nature.

We are also very inspired by films. There are some that we have watched over and over....Secret of Roan Innish is one. It is sweet and poignant and beautiful. Others that touch our hearts are:

Ponette
Enchanted April
Manon of the Spring
Jean de Florette
My Father's Glory
My Mother's Castle
The Secret Garden
The Little Princess
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Nanny McPhee
Neverending Story
Ladyhawke
Swept from the Sea
Howard's End

There are hundreds more. Movies, good ones, touch our hearts very much and stir our souls to live more romantically, more sweetly, more in tune with nature and our spirits.

Debbie:

I came from a very creative family. My Father was a composer, musician and music teacher; my Mother is a composer as well, a classical pianist, music teacher and was also an opera singer. My Grandfather was a studio musician in Hollywood, my brothers are musicians and film makers and my Aunt was an artist. Going quite a ways back, I am related to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the writer. When I discovered this interesting information about Emerson, while doing genealogy, I was excited, because knowing I am related to such a wonderful writer gave me some concrete knowledge of where my writing ability possibly came from. I have been writing since I was eleven years old; poetry mostly but later on I began writing children's stories. I still write and it is my freest, most natural form of expression. I feel that being part of such a creative family has really been wonderful for me. I have learned so much from people in my family and from their great talents and sensitivity.

I believe that it is so important to express beauty and gentleness in art. There is so much art that is meant to shock and degrade people. The divine spirit in us immediately flees from within us when there is something terribly negative around us. I really feel that art that is beautiful can uplift us, cheer us and give us solace and joy. I try to create beautiful art; art that can help people smile and feel good about themselves. Children are innately happy and that is what I want to bring back for people....their own deep, inner happiness and the gentle nature of the child within them.

I also believe that as our world is becoming more frightening and sad because of the wars and poverty and other disheartening things, it is important for us to show kindness and understanding to others. We never really know what a person has experienced in their lives; we are so ill-equipped to judge anyone when we do not know the true feelings of their heart. Showing kindness and gentleness in a world that has gone mad and confused can bring such peace to those who look to the future in fear. There does not have to be fear if we extend our hearts to others, to help and to befriend them. I hope and pray continually that people can learn to get along with one another. I remember hearing my Grandmother who was from Russia, saying her prayers at night, always praying that the world could be at peace. Isn't it just a simple thing sometimes, to let anger and hatred go and fill our hearts with peace and goodness?

My art, my writing, my photography, music and my thoughts are all filled with memories I have deep within my heart of Heaven. I remember what it was like before I came here to earth. Life was beautiful then, I am sure. I believe that we all have deep inner memories of this life.....such a beautiful, peaceful world. The innate desire to create things of beauty and solace that so many people have within them is proof to me that we all do remember this Heavenly world, where everyone is truely happy and at peace with one another.

I am grateful to be able to have this chance to share my art and feelings with you. Alone, I am nothing. With the world and it's people around me, I am a human being.

Mike:

Art for me has been a healing journey of self discovery into the deeper awareness of who I am in relation to the rest of the universe.

(More from Mike soon!)