I can finally break the silence

I had this very cool commission that I have been working on for the past couple months and I couldn't breath a word of it due to the fact that the person it was for reads my facebook page...whether she reads my blog, tweets or fan page I cannot say. ;o)

Anyway, Christmas is over, the sculpture was given and now I can show it to you. It still feels funny because it was a big secret but I am pleased to say that we got away with it. She was completely surprised!


This is a 'personalized sculpture'. By 'personalized' I mean that it has characteristics of the person: hair style, eye color, kayak, etc but not a replica of the person herself. This is how her kayak is (color and all) and color of her life jacket, etc.

Is there someone in your life that you would like forever in a sculpture? Send me an e-mail and we can talk about it. :o)

Blythburgh Church and the Devil Dog

As promised here is the story about Black Shuck...the Devil Dog of Suffolk. I was intrigued by this story as soon as my brother-in-law told me about it. It wasn't the idea that the story was scary but it was funny to me because it scared him - big time!

In Suffolk, England there is a beautiful medieval church called Blythburgh (pronounced blythburra). It is interestingly breathtaking with wonderful carved wood and amazing stonework and an incredible wooden painted ceiling full of angels. I just fell in love with the church and spent so much time walking around and soaking in the whole atmosphere.

This is a sculpture above the entrance to the church.

The ceilings are breathtaking with wooden carved angels. Here is one of my photos that you can find here in my etsy shop. The entire ceiling in the church is like this.


Rather than try to explain about the demon dog called "Black Shuck" pronounced 'shook' I am leaving it to the following quote..."One of the most notable reports of Black Shuck is of his appearance at the churches of Bungay and Blythburgh in Suffolk. On 4 August 1577, at Blythburgh, Black Shuck is said to have burst in through the church doors. He ran up the nave, past a large congregation, killing a man and boy and causing the church tower to collapse through the roof. As the dog left, he left scorch marks on the north door which can be seen at the church to this day."

Here is my photo of the scorch marks. They are said that they still smell. I didn't take a wiff... You can click on my photo to enlarge it and see the marks. They are the vertical ones above and below the top right hinge.

This is of a stained glass window located in the church. The inscription reads, "I trust in God".
You can also find this here in my etsy shop.

So I wonder...where is the grave of the man and son killed by Black Shuck?
I don't know but I will leave you with this one...

Some of my photos

Here are some of my photos that I took in England. Here is Buckingham Palace Road...a bit of a challenge to take since it is 1 story above street level but it just shows what persistence will get you.

This photo cracks me up because they are non-existent in the US and it just felt like I was in the 1950's or something. It is a cigarette snuffer that is still located on buses around England.

This is a photo of a Colchester knight, right outside Colchester Castle. Colchester is the oldest city in England. And did you know that to be classified as a city in England the location has to have a cathedral in it?

Here is my entrance to Parliament in London...


I love medieval stained glass. This is from a church in Suffolk called Blythburgh. There is an interesting story about a demon dog called Black Shuck but I will get into that another time.


You can currently find these prints in amyshort.etsy.com. I have a really cool project I am working on but I can't say anything about that at the moment because it is a surprise. :o) Off to work now. TTFN.

Oi Vey it has been a loooooong time but....

I'm back baby!! No excuses...minus children, house, husband, school, etc. that is my life...my poor blog was put on the back burner. No more! I will now post weekly, if not more, that is...if I have something to say. ;o)

I want to share with you one of my latest projects. I have completed this website for an amazing architect. His name is Robert M. Berger and he is totally worth a shout out because he is so incredibly talented. Hi web address is www.robertmberger.com. He has a blog and will soon be starting to have webisodes. Please take a look because maybe he could design your dream home. :o)

I also want to mention that most of the photos on Robert's website are taken by another amazing talent...Melani Lust. Melani's work truly takes my breath away. I particularly adore her portraiture. Check out here website www.melanilustphotography.com


And finally, since I have been spending so much time on facebook (alas back of hand on forehead...it's true) I have set up a fan page. You can find it by searching Artwork by Amy Short. Or you can click on the link below. I will be posting similar things that you see here but you will be able to see updates easily if you are on facebook. Come and feel free to comment because I love feedback. Hope to 'see' you there or here.

Amy Berger Short is a fan of

Artwork by Amy Short

Create your Fan Badge

TTFN my friends.

Handmade News

Lori Ward from Handmade News chose my illustration to put in an article that she has written. This is a fabulous site and I am so happy that she found me. Check it out! Lori is the owner of a quirky jewelry asylum called Risky Beads and the founder of Handmade Highway.

Click on the photo to get there directly or click here.

Thank you Lori. :o)

Birthdays, Boys and Broken Sculpts

Hi All! Sorry for my lack o' posts. Life always gets in the way so I have decided that instead of only waiting for some inspirational art, I would show you a glimpse into the life that is mine. So what has happened since I last posted you ask? OK you didn't but if you are still reading, this is what's up.

My baby turned 3! Happy Birthday my darling boy!! It was a celebration that consisted of Thomas the Train -- Thomas the Train bicycle, Thomas the Train cake and more Thomas!

Here's the cake...

Surprise...my first bicycle! No more trike for me! We spent an hour building this the night before and then my husband 'hid' it in the basement. Not anticipating that Ben would actually go down into the basement (why not he goes everywhere else?) I heard, "YAY MY BICYCLE!!!" from the basement at 9 am....surprise!! Oh well, at least he loved it! This was his acting surprised face when we brought it upstairs. :o)

It's good to be the king...kiss my ring.

Heavy sigh...here it comes. Then came, dare I say, my 40th birthday! I mean my 11th annual 29th!! HA! We had the best day. We went out for lunch and then off to the Andy Warhol Museum for some Silver Clouds:

That is such a dreamy room. They ran around like crazy boys but then we all laid on the floor and watched them float by. Simple concept, very brilliant. Thanks Mr. Warhol.

This is Remy holding onto a cloud.

Then we went off to see the Darth Vader painted mask exhibit a couple of floors below. Very cool. Loads of Darth Vader Masks that artists painted and changed to create their own version of the dark lord.

Image: Joe Ledbetter, Untitled, 2007, © 2009 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM.
All rights reserved. (credit where credit is due!)

The kids dug it but it is so hard to explain to a now 3 yr old, 4 1/2, and almost 7 yr old not to cross the black line and don't touch anything. You really wanted to. They did good though. Good boys! No photos were allowed to be taken. :o(

On the way home we saw this on the corner:

A cool transformer-like sculpture that is made of the bridges of Pittsburgh. Too cool. I have to look into who made this.

Anyhoo, the birthday celebration continued with dinner out and cake. My boys picked out my birthday cake. Now every woman deserves a light up princess birthday cake don'tcha think?

Here was mine:

Now I think that they should start making queen cakes!

Max wrote a book for me:

In between birthdays, my son Max accidentally knocked my nameless guy off the table and broke his neck after my son Ben decided to paint him black! Remember this guy?

Well, he currently has a broken neck, flat cheek and black chest. No worries though, I can rebuild him, I have the technology. (Sheesh that is showing my age!) I will mend his neck, repaint him and add a cheek implant. Max felt horrible but it was truly an accident, I actually saw it happen and how can I not be mad at Ben for painting him black? I can't, he was trying to be creative, takes after his mom!

And lastly, my oldest turned 7!! Heavy sigh...where does the time go?!?! Now how about this for a cake?!?

So cool that I have to give you the action shot:

And of course Max's first reaction when he saw it:

There you have it. The life that is mine. Hope you weren't too bored. Believe me I could go on with the home improvement projects we have going on but I won't! lol

New WIP

Here are some new heads that I am working on. A little different from my norm and at the moment I have no idea what they will end up being but that can be exciting...and nerve wracking depending on my mood. ;o) I've been playing with different styles of ears...some have proper ears, some pointy and some like my illustrations.

Sorry for the bad photos, my camera stinks...time to start saving for a new one!

Art Collectors and Treasury

I would like to introduce you to two beautiful girls who have excellent taste in art! Alison and Madeline are not only artists themselves but they have become collectors. I am proud to say that they are the daughters of my dear friend Christy who I am back in contact with after 20 years! Yay! They also know how to frame things well too. Couldn't have picked out more perfect frames myself girls...thanks for digging my art. I look forward to see your creations in the future. :o)


I am also pleased that I was chosen for an Etsy treasury by TheWorldIsMyStudio.etsy.com. Thank you so much and that is a perfect treasury - all things Paris, my favorite!!


Lastly, I am working on a few new sculpts and will be posting them in progress soon. My youngest decided recently to get into my black paint and paint some of my sculpts that were in progress. I have to rework them to be able to cover the black...heavy sigh...they are only young once and I guess he was showing me his creative side. LOL But seriously...did he HAVE to use black?!!?

OH one more thing!!...My blog was a year old January 16th and I completely missed it! Time is flying by! Happy Birthday blog o'mine and thank you all for taking the time to read it! :o)

Wow...has time flown by!

It has been waaaay too long since I last posted and for that I apologize. I haven't been as productive as I would like due to lots of visitors (YAY) and children's illnesses (BOO) but we are back to "normal" now.

Happy New Year! I have not made ANY resolutions this year because I think that sets me up for failure so forget it!

I have reclaimed my work space that was taken over by lego for a while. A Christmas thing! Here is photo from our Christmas... Yes we did the matching pajamas thing. I think that it is so cute while they are little. Also a photo with the Christmas crackers and dinner. Fun and yummy food. The kids had a great Christmas which always makes me happy. My husband and I had a great Christmas because his younger brother Aaron decided to surprise us with a visit. You may not think this is a big deal but boy I do since he came from London! Good times.

Over the holiday I lost my voice for about 5 days it would come and go. I never had that that long before. Funny story, since you know I often include little conversations in my blog, though usually with my kids. This conversation took place with a local checkout girl at the supermarket. It went something like this:

Girl: Do you have your shopper's card?
Me: Yes (broken and half whisper)
Girl: What?
Me: Sorry I have laryngitis. (cracked and whispered)
Girl: Oh that's ok...I'll talk louder!
Me: I haven't lost my hearing, I've lost my voice!

Ahhhh, our school system makes me proud! LOL

One more thing, Aaron took me to an open mic night in Pittsburgh and even though I felt kinda yuck and couldn't talk I had soooo much fun. I videoed him with his little new camera and you can watch it here. Yes I am biased but he is so freakin' talented so check him out.

OH and even one MORE thing...I want to thank two fabulous artists who blessed me with two more blog awards. One is the lovely Colleen from Loopy Boopy. It means a lot to me that you dig my art. I feel the same way! And the equally as lovely Sonia from The Dark Raven's Nest. Thank you soooo much, it really does mean a lot to me. :o)

More soon.