birdy num num

Up the skirt of a bird strolling over the top of our kitchen skylight.

inspired by an antique button

Look what my friend Elle made for me for my birthday!



She designed the pattern herself, inspired by an antique button, and did all the embroidery and beading by hand. The scan really doesn't do it justice, it's really beautiful. People don't often make me things, but I'm always touched and blown away when they do!

i lick it alot

My mum is moving house in a few weeks, so she has been cleaning out all of her stuff, packing and sorting. Last week she gave me a box of things that she had saved from when I was little: a few baby outfits, school photo’s, report cards, certificates, etc. She also gave me a scrapbook of cards. She made one for both my sister and I, a scrapbook of all of the birthday cards each of us received as children.

Mine starts with all of the cards they received when I was born. I remember this book, I used to look through it each year as she was sticking a new year’s worth in. I remember the smell of the glue she used, and I remember counting the cards each year.

It was my birthday yesterday, so it was funny looking through it again all these years (and years and years) later. Mum had made a neat heading page for each year, listing the date, my age, and where we lived at the time.

I think it was Mum’s intention to keep the cards up until we reached 5, but evidently after that I took over, and pages for the cards when I turned 6 and 7 go a little, um, let’s call it “free-form”. Apparently I was rather proud of turning 7!
It stops after that, so it was either so good being 7 that I no longer needed to record the years from then on, OR I was busy trying to learn how to spell.

I had a nice day yesterday, much quieter than the wild hootenanny last year. Notice I’m not mentioning my age this year, ah-hem…

In any case, lets hope I enjoy this year as much as I licked being 7. hee

grey

Taken on the stoney beach in Brighton, England, in 2000.

I'm feeling mopey and out of words today, so this photo will have to suffice. Grey days with no sunshine may be great for photo taking, but aren't so good for my moods.

fresh choice

My interest in the boundary lines blurring between art and illustration continue to deepen. Last weekend I went to see the Archibald Prize: an annual nation wide portrait painting competition. It’s a very popular exhibition and if you make it into the show you’ve pretty much made it from then on. This year it seemed that almost every painting was a different subject painted by the same group of artists that have been selected in previous years. Thick, loose, dripping brushstrokes seem to be what’s in at the moment, and although I envy this type of painting skill, and love looking at it, I wonder why it’s the same each year.

Therefore I was beyond impressed, and surprised to see an intricate painting by Kathryn Del Barton! I love her work (it’s very hard to find on the internet). But my delight wasn’t only about seeing one of her works large and in the flesh, it was that I’ve always considered her work to lean more on the side of illustration than art.

I realise I’m not defining what I interpret the differences to be very clearly. I think it maybe has something to do with what I was, and was not, allowed to hand in while I was at art school - if I wanted to pass, that is. (Funnily enough she and I went to the same college only a few years apart. I wonder if she did similar work back then?)

Anyway, back to Kathryn. Her work is so wonderful, and I stood by her painting for a while, listening to people comment that it was their favourite. It really stood out from the rest, and was a fresh choice for that exhibition. One I’m excited about.

illlos for others

Vanessa commissioned this illo as a wedding present for her friends. It's an impression of the day they became engaged! A bike ride through green fields. I don't think they brought all their pets along on the day, but they look cute anyway. (I had reference photo's of the couple, their pets and the engagement ring to work from).

Unfortunately, I got so caught up in everything that I didn't manage to get it to her in time for their wedding day, but hopefully it will be a nice surprise for them when they get back from their honeymoon.

Next up is a fantastical piece for one sweet little lady.

she's home!

Tilli is home!

I can't believe it. I went to visit her yesterday and they gave her to me to bring home. I was so shocked and completely unprepared. I went along thinking she was going to be there for at least another week or two, but her eye had improved so much that the vet said I could bring her home. He said they were going to keep her for another week, but there's nothing that they are doing there that we couldn't do for her at home. So here she is.

Her eye isn't completely better yet, but it's vastly improved. They still don't know what the problem was, they suspect a scratch that developed into a deep tissue infection. I have to take her back for a checkup at the end of the week. All her eyelids are opened, and her eye looks okay, it's bit cloudy and a bit crooked, but it's there and that's excellent (especially because there were concerns that she may have lost it altogether). She still has some healing to do, but it's all going well. I've noticed that she still closes that eye quite alot, but I guess that's part of the healing, and also because it's been closed over for the past 10 days anyway.

She is so happy to be home, you could tell she was dying to get out, have a stretch and a good run around. WE are so happy that she's home, she's grown so much in the month since we first saw her.
As you can see she has already chosen her favourite cushion, one that she can camoflage herself against. I didn't realise until I took this photo, how well she goes with our stuff. How fashionable (hehehe).

She hasn't been home for 24hrs yet, (that's how long she was here the first time), but this time I feel hopeful. :D

fur news

Thank-you all for your concern for Tilli. We visited her a few times this week, and each time she seemed a bit better. She's eating very well, her spirits seem good, and her eye is slowly improving thanks to some very hard-core antibiotics. It is still mostly closed over but the swelling is so much better than before, mind you it's still a fair way from being better.

I rang today to get an update and they said there's been a 50% improvement, but they will be keeping her until it has reached 100%. So we just need to be patient and wait. (I must say hearing the 50% improvement bit made me very happy).
They still haven't been able to get in to see her eye and work out what the actual problem is, so there's still that step to go.
I'm hoping that by the time she is diagnosed, whatever it is will have run its course and there'll be no further problem. I'm not sure that's how it will work out though, and we need to remain realistic... But... Hopefully when her eye opens back up, there's still a healthy little eyeball inside, waiting to peep out.

In the meantime, we're just exercising our zen like patience.

In other furry news: The last few weeks there's been loud galloping over the top of our roof at night. At first we thought it must have been a big old, ungraceful tom cat, chasing the sleeping birds. But the gallop is so loud that the cat would need to be wearing clogs to make that much noise. Last night when it happened Mr You and I launched a covert operation. He snuck outside, I counted to 10, then I flicked on the outside lights and ran out. It's a possum! A big old possum! We were so surprised. What's a possum doing this far into the city, and where on earth does it live? I've seen loads of possums, just never in the city.

Anyway, he didn't seem at all bothered by us, he just had a look and went back to feasting on the olives in our neighbour's big olive tree. I'm not sure what to do. Should I call someone to let them know he's here? I don't really mind him being there. So far he hasn't moved into our roof, so it's okay I guess. BUT the moment he does, he's out of here. I still harbour harsh feelings towards the possum that lived in our roof when I was 10. The obnoxious beast peed so much it ran down the wall, all over my Duran Duran and a-Ha posters. They were streaky, stained, smelly and that old possum was never forgiven... Nope. Never!

tilda takes a ride

Mr You is 6 foot 2, has dark hair and eyes, and is an Aries. He enjoys inappropriate humour, playing guitar and skateboarding.

For some years now he has been collecting original skate decks from the 80's and early 90's for the art on the back. Almost all of them are Powell Peralta (which used to mean nothing to me, but I'm slowly learning). It's just the decks, no wheels, mostly all of them are still in plastic. Our front room has a rotating exhibition of just a select few hanging on the wall.

They are not to be ridden.

The decks that he rides are a different story. Over the past couple of years he has been customising each one, having his own design printed on them, cutting his own logos in the grip tape on top, and assembling the rest himself.

He surprised me a couple of weeks ago when his new deck came back from being printed. He had used one of my paintings this time, the one I did for IF "mask", called Tilda Sneaks. The green colour shifted quite alot in the printing process (otherwise the top of the deck and the wheels all would have matched), but it still looks so cool. I feel so famous...kind of.



I can't wait till he's down at the skate park next time, and some young whipper-snapper asks "hey, gnarly board dooood. What is it?" And he replies "It's a flossy-p!" hehehe.
____

Yeah, check out my mad skills with the young-folk lingo. How on the ball am I?
Actually I just had to ask Mr You how to spell gnarly, and his exact words were...
"You know that's not a good word to use, no-one uses gnarly. It makes you sound very much like a parent in 1987."

There's a history of this on-going education. Once when we were in Melbourne we happened across a pro skater skating at a public ramp (that huge half-pipe in Prahan, for those in the know). Of course it was all very cool. There was no big scene, just a smallish group of skaters watching in awe, and they do this thing where they bang the ends of their boards on the ground as a way of applause. All of them , that is, except me.

I was the girl covering her eyes and squealing. Well they go really high you know. But when I yelled out "F%@K" short, sharp and loud, in a scared shitless tone, it kind of attracted this skaters attention in mid-air, he landed the trick, and then kind-of made eye contact with me, kind-of shooting me a glare. We left swiftly then, and I remember feeling embarrased and as we hurried down the street Mr You was telling me stuff... "You've got to just try and blend in, just be cool, don't be like a mum".

I want to be cool. I don't want to act like a daggy mum. But the pure fact that I so badly want to wrap a belt around, or sew an elasticized waitsband into those young boys jeans, to keep their butts on the inside of their clothing, is enough for me to know I will never really blend in.

tilli good eyes

This is a still from a little video we took of Tilli a week before we bought her home, on one of the days we went to visit her at the shelter. I dare you to look into that cute little face and not get mushy. This is when she had two good eyes.

I went to visit her in hospital today, just to remind her that she still has a lovely new home to come to when she gets better. I sat patting her for an hour, and telling her about all the good things in life she has to look forward to. One of the vets told me I could go and buy her some Red Rooster from up the road. I'm not sure that's one of the good things I was referring to. But next time I visit I'll take some home cooked chicken. That's bound to cheer her up.

you couldn't make this stuff up

I seem to have established a manic post pattern lately, which swings from the exciting heights of illustrations, down to the tumultuous depths of our search for a kitty cat.

All aboard! Next stop Kitty Sorrow.

So last stop we had fallen in love again, had put a deposit on Tilli, and were waiting out the mandatory time for her previous owners to track her down (if that was ever their intention). It was a loooong week, let me tell you, but it all ended very happily when we finally bought her home on Friday. Hoooray!

However, when we picked her up she had a very mild case of flu, and a very sore eye. They gave us some medicines and told us that the bad eye was just part of the flu. We had her here at home for less than 24hrs before we realised that this eye was in no way a side effect of a flu, it got really bad, and we took her back. She stayed in kitty hospital overnight, and we’re now waiting on the phone call from the vet to tell us what’s happened. We hardly slept last night worrying about how she is.

It’s so awful. I didn’t believe we actually had her until we got her in our house. She fit in right away and after 2 hours was so happy and excited she was dashing from one end of the house to the other, stopping for a cuddle inbetween each lap.

She had already had human visitors and also already established her favourite spots to sit. So it broke our heart to wake up the next morning to find her in such pain, and to have to take her back yesterday. I’m so worried that she thinks we don’t want her anymore. Tilli, WE DO! We’re dying here.

Mr You’s favourite cat (when he was growing up) got an eye scratch which ended up getting so bad that the eye had to be removed. So he is understandably fearing the worst. I don’t know what to think. This whole process has just been the most depressing experience.

Damn it. I can’t wait. I’m going to go and call the vet now. Wish us luck (again).

UPDATE: They said it's not good. She's staying in hospital for now, and they assure me they're being super careful and doing all they can to save her cute little eye. Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts.

within reach

Within Reach

So this is it. The final illustration in my bunch at eQuinox Gallery for the {un}Limited exhibition.

I really like this one too, I think it reminds me of illustrations I used to do with no background. White and sparse, figures floating in white, or in this case - flying in white.

For one last recap (if you can bare it) you can see the entire collection here. (View as slideshow for fancy effect).

Also, they are now FOR SALE ONLINE here! Whooo-hoooo! How exciting.

The show opens this week, so it's all happening, and my cliched fears of waking up "and it was all a dream" did not come about. Nor did I ever get the email I was expecting that said "sorry we made a mistake, we actually meant the other flossy-p".

So that's that. If any of you do go, please, pretty please take some photo's for me, so I can see what it looks like.
It's going to be such a great exhibition. I'd love to see Penelope and Ashley G's works in the flesh. And Lisa Congdon's new work is so interesting. Plus there's another aussie chick in the show too! Lisa Kirkpatrick does really cool screen prints.

Anyway, it's time for a change. Now I'll have to go back to trying to think up some other stuff to post here.

remember

Bedtime Story

This is another of my illustrations going to the eQuinox Gallery for the {un}Limited exhibition. The show opens this week, so if you're in the area (NH) be sure to stop by.
(This work is now available to buy online).

I've also entered this one for Illustration Friday this week; topic "remember".
Some people I've shown it to have interpretted this illo as nostalgic memories, and others have thought it was more about a fantasy. I'll let you be the judge.

(p.s. My Grandma's name was Rose, so I've put roses at this little lady's feet. It's not supposed to be my Grandma, it's just a little symbolism that I'm thinking of her... remembering, if you will).