This one is all about the constant lines of communication between the city and the ghost cities.
This one is about the humble trainer as the source of psychic energy and self-esteem.
This one is about cities floating around in the void.
Monday, 31 January 2011
City Moons
A few new sketches from my current carry-on sketchbook, i.e. the moleskine I am working on right now. Long-time viewers of my art will recognize some favourite themes here, including trainers, spheres, and city skylines.
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Warrior Maiden
My Dad recently sent me this totally spiffy vintage postcard through the post. I love it! It has been my bookmark since it arrived, and never fails to raise a smile. She looks so lovable and gormless. She might be my inner spirit goddess when I want to make a stand and raise hell but unfortunately feel a bit tired.
As usual my Pops wrote something hilarious and endearing on the back, too.
In case you can't read that, it says:
Catch that date! (1/1/11) Same in American as in British too! This photo of the latest U.S. military equipment for invading Denmark is dedicated to the 'Don't ask, don't tell' campaigners. First in a series of meaningful postcards. Love Dad xxx
Bless! My Dad is the best correspondent for a daughter overseas.
Monday, 17 January 2011
Some Book Reviews
So it's that time of year again, when look back through the books I read in 2010 and decide if I liked any of them. (Spoiler: I probably did, else I wouldn't have read them.) From the top:
Small Island - Andrea Levy
Actually tell a lie, I didn't like this one. I wish I did, because everyone raves about it (also it was a gift from relatives with excellent taste). Not only did Small Island win the Orange Prize, but it won the prize for best Orange winner of the decade; plus some other big literary awards. However, it was laboured, boring, stilted, and full of sledge-hammered home moral points. Plus outrageous coincidences that would be out of place in the cheesiest tv drama. *ACTUAL SPOILER ALERT* The heroine's long-lost love just happens to have had a war-time affair with the woman who she just happens to rent an apartment from in another damn country, and then she ends up bringing up their love child! Ridiculous! Everyone's character traits are massively unsubtle, and easily summarised on Wikipedia: "One of the main characters is Queenie Bligh. She is a symbolic of England: Queenie comes with reference to the royal family (she was also christened Victoria after Queen Victoria) and Bligh comes from Blighty, a slightly dated word for England." Get it?!?!? The title is also a massively clever and multi-layered pun. (NOT.)
Potential, and Awkward/Definition - Ariel Schrag
Ariel Schrag wrote these autobiographical comics about her high school years while she was still having them: she wrote each book about the previous year, and then her first college year catching up. Astonishingly honest and raw, showing a precocious grasp of storytelling, kinda funny, and pretty damn queer. My favourite part is when she is obsessed with No Doubt and Gwen Stefani (this is a few years back, pre-Hollaback Girl), and gets backstage, and Gwen gives her a hug! Note: I would recommend the first couple of books, but in the final one (Likewise) she has some sort of breakdown, and it gets pretty dark and angsty. (One angry masturbation scene is quite enough; four, too many.)
Annie On My Mind - Nancy Garden
My quest to read the lesbian literary canon brings me to this charming YA novel about two high school girls in lurve. It's a little cringeworthy at times, but heartbreakingly sincere and very sweet. Seems to be written in a voice very like that of a teenage girl, but one of those dreamy bookish teenage girls. (Not that I knew any of those...)
The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Loved Shadow of the Wind, so this was bound to be a winner. It's sort of a literary conspiracy theory murder mystery? That maybe has the devil in it? Gothic, macabre, fast-paced, totally weird. The ending is bizarro. Loved it.
French Milk - Lucy Knisley
This is Knisley's travel journal of a visit to Paris with her mother. Lovely, jealousy-causing brush pen drawings of places she visits, buildings she sees, people she meets, things she buys, food she eats. Definitely the food; she really likes food. I suppose she is in France. It looks tasty delicious.
Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter
A third re-read- or fourth? I love this novel. Thank you to Keira in art school for giving me a copy for my birthday and introducing me to such joyousness. Ok, so I will just tell you that the heroine is a tall, buxom, articulate, bleached blonde, filthy-talking cockney trapeze artist with wings. There is also a magical handbag, many cups of tea, a train journey across Russia, and suicidal clowns. Hmm, I am making this sound like some lame madcap steampunk novel. Tell you what, it is written by Angela Carter, so the writing is phenomenal. There, fixed it.
Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian
This was a recommendation from the gf, it was pretty good. She sold it to me based on the fact that it is about vampire hunting through the medium of checking up on codes and footnotes in ancient books across the libraries of Europe. I mean, it's a no-brainer, right? However the only reason I don't give it an entirely ringing endorsement is that I felt like it rather ran out of steam in the last third, and I had trouble mustering up the energy to finish it.
John Berger - Ways of Seeing
Awesome! Also, it's an art theory book with a bunch of pictures in. Which is rarer than you might hope. In fact, some of this book's essays are composed entirely of pictures. Blows my mind.
Empress of the World - Sara Ryan
I feel like Empress of the World, another YA novel about lesbian teens, is like Annie On My Mind 20 years later. Same studious teenage voice, but fewer dangerous consequences for the active young gays. Quite heartening really. Still a bit cringy in parts, but also heartwarming.
Manet - La Gare Saint-Lazare Ligne d’Auteuil, 1877
La Bete Humaine - Emile Zola
So around here you all know that I am a tiny bit obsessed with Zola. I am aware that I have an uphill struggle to share my obsession, and this novel is no help. Guys, La Bete Humaine is SO gloriously depressing. *SPOILER ALERT* Everyone dies. All the characters die. No one is safe. And before they die, everyone has a sucky time of it. A murdering psychopath is the hero. There are two horrific train crashes. One doomed love affair. Also, a fascinating close study of the French railway system! That's what you get with Zola: wonderfully absorbing examinations of societal systems and their effects on the people who live within them, plus depressing drama for the bloodthirsty.
Small Island - Andrea Levy
Actually tell a lie, I didn't like this one. I wish I did, because everyone raves about it (also it was a gift from relatives with excellent taste). Not only did Small Island win the Orange Prize, but it won the prize for best Orange winner of the decade; plus some other big literary awards. However, it was laboured, boring, stilted, and full of sledge-hammered home moral points. Plus outrageous coincidences that would be out of place in the cheesiest tv drama. *ACTUAL SPOILER ALERT* The heroine's long-lost love just happens to have had a war-time affair with the woman who she just happens to rent an apartment from in another damn country, and then she ends up bringing up their love child! Ridiculous! Everyone's character traits are massively unsubtle, and easily summarised on Wikipedia: "One of the main characters is Queenie Bligh. She is a symbolic of England: Queenie comes with reference to the royal family (she was also christened Victoria after Queen Victoria) and Bligh comes from Blighty, a slightly dated word for England." Get it?!?!? The title is also a massively clever and multi-layered pun. (NOT.)
Potential, and Awkward/Definition - Ariel Schrag
Ariel Schrag wrote these autobiographical comics about her high school years while she was still having them: she wrote each book about the previous year, and then her first college year catching up. Astonishingly honest and raw, showing a precocious grasp of storytelling, kinda funny, and pretty damn queer. My favourite part is when she is obsessed with No Doubt and Gwen Stefani (this is a few years back, pre-Hollaback Girl), and gets backstage, and Gwen gives her a hug! Note: I would recommend the first couple of books, but in the final one (Likewise) she has some sort of breakdown, and it gets pretty dark and angsty. (One angry masturbation scene is quite enough; four, too many.)
Annie On My Mind - Nancy Garden
My quest to read the lesbian literary canon brings me to this charming YA novel about two high school girls in lurve. It's a little cringeworthy at times, but heartbreakingly sincere and very sweet. Seems to be written in a voice very like that of a teenage girl, but one of those dreamy bookish teenage girls. (Not that I knew any of those...)
The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Loved Shadow of the Wind, so this was bound to be a winner. It's sort of a literary conspiracy theory murder mystery? That maybe has the devil in it? Gothic, macabre, fast-paced, totally weird. The ending is bizarro. Loved it.
French Milk - Lucy Knisley
This is Knisley's travel journal of a visit to Paris with her mother. Lovely, jealousy-causing brush pen drawings of places she visits, buildings she sees, people she meets, things she buys, food she eats. Definitely the food; she really likes food. I suppose she is in France. It looks tasty delicious.
Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter
A third re-read- or fourth? I love this novel. Thank you to Keira in art school for giving me a copy for my birthday and introducing me to such joyousness. Ok, so I will just tell you that the heroine is a tall, buxom, articulate, bleached blonde, filthy-talking cockney trapeze artist with wings. There is also a magical handbag, many cups of tea, a train journey across Russia, and suicidal clowns. Hmm, I am making this sound like some lame madcap steampunk novel. Tell you what, it is written by Angela Carter, so the writing is phenomenal. There, fixed it.
Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian
This was a recommendation from the gf, it was pretty good. She sold it to me based on the fact that it is about vampire hunting through the medium of checking up on codes and footnotes in ancient books across the libraries of Europe. I mean, it's a no-brainer, right? However the only reason I don't give it an entirely ringing endorsement is that I felt like it rather ran out of steam in the last third, and I had trouble mustering up the energy to finish it.
John Berger - Ways of Seeing
Awesome! Also, it's an art theory book with a bunch of pictures in. Which is rarer than you might hope. In fact, some of this book's essays are composed entirely of pictures. Blows my mind.
Empress of the World - Sara Ryan
I feel like Empress of the World, another YA novel about lesbian teens, is like Annie On My Mind 20 years later. Same studious teenage voice, but fewer dangerous consequences for the active young gays. Quite heartening really. Still a bit cringy in parts, but also heartwarming.
Manet - La Gare Saint-Lazare Ligne d’Auteuil, 1877La Bete Humaine - Emile Zola
So around here you all know that I am a tiny bit obsessed with Zola. I am aware that I have an uphill struggle to share my obsession, and this novel is no help. Guys, La Bete Humaine is SO gloriously depressing. *SPOILER ALERT* Everyone dies. All the characters die. No one is safe. And before they die, everyone has a sucky time of it. A murdering psychopath is the hero. There are two horrific train crashes. One doomed love affair. Also, a fascinating close study of the French railway system! That's what you get with Zola: wonderfully absorbing examinations of societal systems and their effects on the people who live within them, plus depressing drama for the bloodthirsty.
More to follow...
Friday, 14 January 2011
Adobe
Some sketchbook stuff I have been working on this week. As you can see, I have become minorly obsessed with adobe buildings: the shapes and shadows are fun to draw. I might do a series of these drawings outside the sketchbook, or work them into prints.
I read somewhere that the Ranchos de Taos is the most photographed church in the US.
Most of my sources for these drawings are in New Mexico, a couple elsewhere. (I am afraid I have not been awesome with keeping track of where these buildings are, and I have tweaked some details, perspectives, colour (obviously) etc. I think that is fine since I am just sketching, but I am suddenly having citation-guilt.)
These and more work on my flickr, here.
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