Art 47

Meaning to write this for about a week now. So, right to it. Fabergé are holding a wonderful Big Egg Hunt in London this Eastery season. It's just halfway through now - from February the 21st until April the 3rd. Over 200 fancy eggs, made by various artists, have been hidden around London, where they wait to tumble out on unsuspecting pedestrians, breaking open and showering bystanders with yolk and albumen. No.

Over 200 fancy eggs are hidden, and people are invited to find them, and say when they've found them, and I think there's prizes, or something. Here is the link for information that's more helpful*: THE BIG EGG HUNT!

Really wish** I could take part in this, looks like a lot of fun.

* And more truthful.

** If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. For some reason that makes me think of horses with wings.

A horse with wings. So happy!
Inspired by John Tenniel's rocking horse fly in Through the Looking Glass.

Anyway, here are some of my favourite eggs. So far, at least - I haven't finished looking at them all yet.

Eggshabbychic by MIA

Slice by Paul Kelley

Pretty Polly by Karen Hollis

The Embryo of Human Greed by Wooden Horse

There are loads more that I really like. Maybe I'll post more next time, I dunno.

***

Meanwhile, the cryptomnesia piece... Still working on it, yes indeedy. And still working on it exclusively, which is very unusual for me. Maybe I'm moving into a more focused period of my, dare i say it, career? Dum dum dummmm! I really hope so :) So far, all portents, omens, augeries, signs, ouija boards, and magic 8 balls, say YES. I haven't checked my horoscope, though, and that is where I Draw The Line.

Anyway, I'm still sorting the snippets into colours, and it looks like this:

Early on I realised i didn't actually need to sort the snippets, but I kept doing so anyway - i got sort of caught up in the process of it. This is largely because i was outlining each section of colour, to make them easier to differentiate from each other.* As new snippets were added to each colour section, i'd leave the outline instead of erasing it, and just draw another outline. If outlines conflicted, then I'd erase the older one.
* I needed to do this because the process of deciding which snippet should be sorted into which colour was (and is) a strange and eldritch and slightly silly process that didn't (doesn't) always lead to accurate results. But I like it anyway.

So here's a closer pic of the outlines:

In sorting and rearranging the snippets, a grid pattern is being formed by the outline, and I really like it. Here's a bit of it:

I like the way the colours are overlapping and staggering and whatnot. Will be interested to see how the whole thing turns out once I've finished my sorting process :)

I still intend to arrange all those snippets into a coherent image... Have some very loose ideas about it - really should get sketching.

***

One more thing! Here are some oh-so-cute wee things found via mocoloco, an art/design/etc blog thing. Cork animals. Sho shweet! The Corkers.

They're made by Monkey Business, who look like they do fun things.

Ps - I have a bloggish thing (so far me wowing at other people's stuff) on tumblr that's intended to be sort of all the stuff I have/like/do/whatever that isn't specifically art-related. As much as anything can be non-art-related, anyway. I'm still working on prettifying it and whatnot, but here 'tis: Extrantice other log.

Art 46

So now I've joined tumblr, pinterest, and twitter. Is that all of them? Is there anything I'm forgetting? Not entirely sure why - mostly just a terrible urge to not Miss Out. Oh well. Feel free to add me on whatever - extrantice, as usual (hooray for made up words!).

I've been working fairly steadily on the cryptomnesia piece (nearly, neearrly, etc) since my last art post, so there isn't really much to report as far as my own stuff goes. I did possibly finish making a pair of goggles in Second Life, but I'm not very happy with them, so i neglected to take any snapshots.

So, that leaves me to find something else to write about. Thankfully there is, of course, a huge amount of art all over the damn place. The South West Survey* was on again this month. Neither my sister nor i entered, or attended the opening thing (circumstances rather overtook us on the night in question, unfortunately - we both would've liked to go), but we're making tentative plans to see the exhibition later this week. Quite looking forward to it. I wish you were allowed to take photos in the gallery, then I could show everyone my favourite pieces. Might be brave and ask about it specially - i don't have a huge gamut of followers, though, so the gallery might not look at it as publicity, or something. i dunno.
*South West Times Survey? South West Art Survey? South West Times Art Survey? South West Times Regional Art Survey?

Elsewhere in town (or possibly connected to the gallery, I'm not sure), there is an art event called... I must look that up. It was in one of last week's papers, I think...
Ah, here it is. Walk Your Art Out. It's about young people (from 16 to 25) making art and putting it in the windows of various local businesses in the central business district. Here is the facebook page: Walk Your Art Out.
Looks like fun, to enter (alas, I'm already 29), and to see. I have a fancy new diary (cat themed. Oh yes.), will definitely be writing in the dates for this.

Meanwhile, here is a webcomic i'm reading: A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible. The link shows the page i'm currently up to (i go slow with webcomics - there are so very many of them, all being read at once). Liking the art. Kind of messy, but still definitely clear enough to show what's happening. Colourific, too. The story seems to be about various, one-page adventures of two friends, the writer and artist of the comic. Surreal adventures, on the whole. Yayo.

Art 45

It's 1:35AM, the temperature* is 30° Celsius, and I'm listening to Michael Hurley. And wearing sunglasses. No. Given how long writing these usually takes me, I thought I'd put the time right at the start. The conjunction of that particular time with that particular temperature is a little startling.
*according to the little computer gadget thingy.

2012! A New Year. Hooray! A bit late for a solar celebration, I know, but the lunar new year was only a couple days ago at least. So now it's the year of the dragon. I like chinese dragons, much friendlier than their european contemporaries. The past few years the Australian Post Office have been releasing stamps to celebrate the lunar new year. I have some for the year of the rat and the year of the rabbit, and now this year's issue.

Taken from the Australia Post website.

I didn't get a chance to make an xmas post - ran out of broadband credit. Woe, woe. This... blogging application, or whatever it's termed, doesn't work very well over a dial-up connection. I should probably investigate the capabilities of my fancy new smart* phone. Meh.
*S-M-R-T! I mean S-M-A-R-T!

Xmas went well. New years' celebrations went well. I stayed home, which I like doing. I tried to get roaringly drunk, something unusual for me, but it didn't work, because a) I didn't drink enough, and b) I drank sensibly, with water between each drink, and plenty of food. Bonus - no hangover.

Well then, on to important stuff! At the moment I'm working on the cryptomnesia piece - I have nearly nearly neeeeearly finished sorting all the snippets according to colour, and will soon have to come up with some sort of picture to arrange them into. What represents cryptomnesia? Here is a dictionary definition, from the Merriam-Webster site:

cryp·tom·ne·sia

  noun \ˌkrip-ˌtäm-ˈnē-zhə\

Definition of CRYPTOMNESIA

: the appearance in consciousness of memory images which are not recognized as such but which appear as original creations

—cryp·tom·ne·sic  adjective

Something involving thought-bubbles seems appropriate. However, I've decided to go all artsy and whatnot with it, and put together a sort of mélange of things I've come into contact with lately. So far that means references to Twin Peaks, and mirrors (from rereading Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett).

Yes, Twin Peaks... I've been really getting into it lately. Up to episode 14. I already know whodunnit (thanks to various family members), but it hasn't at all detracted from my enjoyment of - and horror at - the show. There's this sense of menace underlying even the most ordinary events within it. Now, is this because I basically know what happened, or is it something about the production itself?

Who killed her?
Pic taken from here.

In other news, I recently made a sketch of my latest role-play character.

For the Mutants and Masterminds table-top rpg. She's known as Ion, and she's a super intelligent cloud of invisible gas. This is her costume. I used a diving suit as a starting point for this. Now I'm tidying it up on the computer - fixing the left foot, for eg. Like all the work I do on the computer, it may well take some time...

That is all for now. I'll try to post something relatively soon about the intriguing stuff I've seen online lately. Which reminds me, I really ought to check my deviantart page... So many online things to do, and I just wanna read webcomics.

Art 44

Discovered some new (new to me) music - Fever Ray. Brilliantine, shadowy, somehow air and earth at the same time. Contradictory, I guess. And cool. The few accompanying video clips I've seen so far are amazing, too. This one is Stranger Than Kindness:



I love the feeling that it's a piece of story, that there's a beginning and an end - an explanation - somewhere we can't see.


Meanwhile... I finally got around to doing a little more work on a texture I've been making for Second Life. The octopus one, remember? As referenced in this post. Quite pleased with how it's turning out.

Look, i figured out where to put the trident!

I'm also trying* to finish something in time for Xmas. I've planned two different things - a slightly creepy picture, and a sort of slick, modish one. Both digital photo-collages. Have made progress on the slightly creepy one so far. Creepy... actually, I find it amusing. It's called Christmas Is Coming To Get you, and features a kind of Xmas golem.
*-sort of. It's possible I'm a little lazy and/or distracted.

The snow-covered pines are sourced from morguefile, a lovely free photo reference place.
I haven't started the slick, modish one yet, which is a little unfortunate, given that i was planning to use it as xmas cards this year.

That's it for now. I'll try to post again before Xmas!

Art 43

I've joined google+ ! Not sure what to do with it now.

Meanwhile, here're some snapshots of various things I'm doing tonight.

The video can be watched here.

I don't know much about geometry (I made it to basic algebra), but it's fascinating.

This is part of a cross-stitch design i'm slowly slowly (very slowly) working on, using a lovely program that i was so sure i'd posted about before, but now i can't find the post, so i guess not. The site for it is here. I really like this program, it's nice and easy to work with, a lot like Paint, really. I've done very little cross-stitch in the past, but I'm figuring the colour charts and the stitch markings available in the program are fairly useful to people who know what they're doing with a needle and thread.
As for the design itself... not telling!

A pretty little site i've started going through the archives of: Iconology. I'm up to February 2009...

The cryptomnesia piece! Sorting all the bits into colours. The grey needs a bit more work, looks like.


That's it for now, I need to restart the computer. More next episode.

Art 42

Presenting! Pics of some of the cool graffitti ("freestyle street-art", as I keep thinking of it) we saw last time in Perth. :)

***

This took me weeks to finish editing. Sheesh. Anyway, my favourite of this lot is the last one. Llama!

There were a lot of decals and stickers and things around the place. They seem to've become a lot more popular over the past two or three years, as far as graffitti goes. I think ultimately I prefer the more trad spray can stuff, but some of the decals are pretty fabulous.

Next post will possibly have something about the art I've been attempting lately.

Art 41

Continuing from the last post, in regards to the street art my sister and I viewed in Perth last month. Or was it the month before, already?

Anyway, to take it from the top:

These are all commissioned pieces - I'll post the 'freestyle' street art next time.

Art 40

Home again home again, jiggity jig.

Well, another lengthy pause. The reason this time is largely Depression (with a capital D, of course). The psychiatrist has now increased my meds, however, and I have been showing improvement. Hooray!
I've been largely non-productive the past few months, due to this. Hopefully* this will change/ is changing/ has changed.
* Really really hopefully, fingers crossed and everything.

There is some art news, though. Recently my sister and I ventured to Perth for an Art Trip. The plan was to wander around, taking photos and sketching things, browse galleries, etc, with rather less focus on shopping(!) than usual. This did not work out as forseen, as I will now relate.
A week before we set out, I was informed (through the glossy hyperspace of Social Media) of an event by the name of The Great Steampunk Affaire. This was held at Scitech, and featured a range of costumed revellers examining various displays, munching on cupcakes, and imbibing tea and alcohol, all after closing hours. This over-took our plans somewhat, and we hurried to make some costumes and things, eager to attend.
Thus distracted, we flew* around on Saturday, shopping for extra bits and pieces (mostly goggles - the requisite steampunk accessory). Had a jolly good time that night, though our own humble efforts were outshone by those with more skill and time, and, er, less dress size.
On Sunday we managed to do some actual art, too. But mostly we didn't do anything. We were tired.
*walked quite slowly, actually.

On Monday, before we returned home that evening, we wandered the central area of Perth (more shopping) and came across several interesting street art pieces commissioned by the city council, or something. I took lots of photos. It was interesting, comparing the commissioned pieces with the 'free-style' art - the general graffitti found around the place.

Anyway, here are some photos:

Me on steampunk night.

A possible favourite of the commissioned work. This lane is off Hay St Mall, pointing south.

****


And there's been almost a month's break since I started this! Things - and Things with a capital T, at that - kept happening. So I figure I better post this now while I have the chance. o.o More later, hopefully.

Art 39

Well, month(s) since I last posted anything here... I undoubtedly have excuses, but I can't seem to remember them at the moment. So, on with the important stuff.

Lately* I've begun collecting stamps. Or rather, I've finally figured out how to remove them from the envelopes without destroying them (soak them in water). Thank you, internet! But why collect stamps, I hear you cry?* They're small, portable, highly public pieces of art, of course. I like the incredible variety of images in them. Everything from the staid profiles of royalty to paintings of cats to mysterious art deco logos. All delightfully miniaturised. When I get brave I may put some pictures of my collection up...
*- More or less.

An example of a stamp, vaguely rendered by me, and featuring Micky.

In other news, I recently signed up for free weekly samples from Dover publishing. They publish a range of stuff including colouring-in books, and books featuring royalty-free clip-art, and things. Inspiration abounds, possibly. Here's their website: http://store.doverpublications.com/index.html

Lately I've come across a lot of old greeting cards. Not too old - they reach as far back as the seventies. I'm thinking of photographing and uploading a range of 'em... There's something interesting and strange (to me, anyway) about the pictures used to communicate well-wishes.

Meanwhile, still working on the quad type-1 koch snowflakes, and the cryptomnesia piece. I've also borrowed a few books from the library in regards to some designs I want to embroider/cross-stitch/whatever on the handbags I'll eventually be making from the shiel pack. Aside from that, I've been woefully non-productive on the art side of things. My energy levels have just plummeted this past couple months. I blame the doctor for telling me to cut back on caffeine. It's vital!

I've also been woefully (woe! woe!) negligent in keeping up to date with the webcomics I'm trying to follow. Several weeks (if not years) behind now on all of them.

Last Friday my sister and I went to the exhibition of the South West Survey (or South West Times Survey? South West Times Art Survey? Ah, whatever) art competition, held at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery. There was some brilliant work that we both loved and were freaked out by. It was incredibly inspirational this time (there's so many things I need to start work on!), and in some ways the reason for this post, so I thought I'd better mention it.

Art 38

On Saturday* we went to a local Chinese New Year celebration. It was quite small, just a few stalls with food, lacquerware and pottery, calligraphy. Had a very good atmosphere, though. I wanted to stay a bit longer than we did - there was to be a mahjong demonstration that I wanted to watch. My companions were getting hungry, though, so we left for some Chinese take-out...
*-Saturday the 12th - it's taken me awhile to complete this post!

I really enjoyed looking at the pots on display. There were some beautiful mother-of-pearl inlaid ones, with a dragon on one side and a peacock on the other. There was also a lacquered pot with an eggshell inlay. For some reason that really impressed me, I guess because I'd never heard of (or even considered) the use of broken eggshells in art. Soo I did a little bit of looking around online, and found a nice explanatory article and some beautiful examples of eggshell lacquerware.

Meanwhile, I've added another quadrilateral type-1 koch snowflake to the set I'm working on. It's more inspired by the fractal than an actual example. I'm not entirely sure the design is even fractal in and of itself, but I think it might be.

Also, I made a few sketches a couple weekends ago:

I quite like how this turned out, mostly because it's my first okay inking.
Aside from that, I'm not entirely happy with the hair, or the feet.
She's wearing a faceplate, because she's in spaaaace.

Some alien/robot things. Just playing around.

Also! I've finally started a test piece in the Wings3D program. It's a cat. I'm familiar with cats.

Annd I think that's about it for now. Oh wait! I also have a cunning plan regarding an old shiel pack* and some not-yet-made-handbags. The canvas is all grimy with machine oil and miscellaneous grime at the moment, so the next stage is to cut it in quarters and take it to the laundry.
*-I can't find "shiel pack" anywhere online. It's kind of a large garden waste bag, made of canvas. I think cattle feed might also comes in shiel packs, but I'm not sure. I'm not even sure that's the proper name, but it's what's written on the label.

And and and, as a sort of for-fun side project, I've been drawing on a kitten-decorated bag someone gave me a couple Xmases ago. What am I drawing? Fine attire!

Gentlemen kitties.

Art 37

Here is the bag, made out of an old umbrella, that I worked so hard on. I sewed 'til my fingers bled! No, I'm exaggerating. It is hand-sewn, however - I get a little carried away with sewing machines - so it took quite awhile. Then it tore, so I had to repair it. That also took quite awhile.

A larger version of this can be seen here.

Stuffed to capacity with newspaper.

On a white sheet, you can see how grey the bag is. This is because the lining is black, and it shows
 through the white a little. You might also be able to make out some faint, vertical, yellowish marks.
They don't wash out - I think they're age marks, or something. The umbrella was at least 20 years old.

I tend to think of it as my cursed bag of holding. It fits an extraordinary number of things, but once within the bag they're difficult to find. During repairs, I added a couple zip pockets, so now it's slightly less cursed.

Meanwhile, last year I took some photos in the backyard, and I've now got around to uploading the one I like best. The critters are cardboard things, packing from some sort of device, or something. I shaped them a little and drew on eyes. I like the sort of hot, over-bright feel of this picture.

A larger version can be seen here.