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 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.