Letter From The Editor

This August has been a challenge for everyone as the summer heat has made it impossible to spend any amount of time outdoors in the sun, or anywhere without air conditioning for that matter.

With the sweltering heat upon us we are all looking ahead to the winter season and finding relief in the knowlege that Christmas is just around the corner and will be here before we know it.

Here at The Plate Lady™ ® we are already preparing for the Christmas season by adding new merchandise to our offerings. We are finding rare and wonderful plates to add to our inventory and getting back in some of the plates that have been sold out for some time now.

Our suppliers are already adding new product lines for 2007 and we are scrambling to keep up with adding them to our website. At the same time we have regretably had to discontinue some of the other 'favored' collectibles we had been carrying.

Unfortunately we must stop offering any merchandise our suppliers decide to discontinue, once our supplies run out. The very nature of a collectible is that there are limited amounts that will eventually become hard to find. We apologize to those of you who were planning to buy later, only to find out those items are no longer available.

This month's Artist of The Month is Ozz Franca. You can read his Artist's Profile below and you can view a number of fine examples of his work on our 'Other Artists' page.

We will not be including any additional articles this month due to not having time to search for them. We are extremely busy right now adding new products to the website. We hope you enjoy browsing the new additions.

You won't want to miss all of the wonderful new cat and kitten plates we have just added to our "Cat Art Collectibles" page. We have also updated our "Donald Zolan" page and will be adding even more plates very soon.

The next to be updated will by our "Clowns & Circus Art" page, so check back soon to see the new additions to our Red Sketon Plates and you won't want to miss his Artist's Profile in next month's newsletter.

Franca was interested in art from an early age and at the age of 14 he won first prize at the annual Spring Salon Art Competition. After graduating from the Fine Arts School in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1952 Franca received a scholarship to study at the University of Utah, which he gratefully accepted.

A year later Franca moved to California, where he worked as a cartoon illustrator for Walt Disney Movies. His projects included Lady and the Tramp and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Franca painted many florals, landscapes, and seascapes; but the most favored are his paintings of sensual and exotic women, whom he painted with dignity and spirituality. His artistic style has a mysterious dream-like quality while at the same time being very realistic.

Franca also painted ethereal native-american indian portraits filled with romantic imagery. You can view two of Ozz Franca's portraits "Images" and "Mother's Love" at http://theplatelady.com/more-artists.html#11.

The Plate Lady™ ® will also be adding several other works by Franca in the near future including "Surprise Package" from his Little Orphans series; and his 1973 Mother's Day plate "Consolation".

Ozz Franca died in 1991 at the age of 63. His family maintains a website to honor him and to display a number of his native american works of art at http://www.ozzfranca.com