Published!

It was rather exciting to see my work in print last Wednesday.
Thanks to Sal, Brett, Dale, Chris and Jim for coming to the launch.

Spirit Houses at the Zoo

Last week we took friends from Sydney to the Melbourne Zoo. Near the Thai inspired elephant exhibit were these beautiful spirit houses. I'd love one for our home.

Kids do the darndest things meme

I was tagged for a meme by Adi, er... um... some months ago and around that time blogger turned off my send-blog-comments-to-my-email so I've only done it now, having checked my blog and found (wow!) comments. I didn't think anyone looked because I am so slack at posting.

Anyway I've done this in the Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf aesthetic. Since one of the rules of the meme is to use no pencil preparatory sketches I thought doing it just with the 6 watercolour colours would somehow be appropriate. I went to a Steiner school and all we could use was cool and warm primary colours and certainly no pencil. It was strictly straight from the imagination to the paper.

This is very different to my usual style, but it was valuable to do. I think I might try outlines in blue...if I ever do colour work.

Thanks Adi for tagging me!

I'm going down swinging

One of my comics has been published! And I got paid for it. Going Down Swinging will be launched on Wednesday 3rd of December 7:30pm, at the Northcote Social Club 301 High Street Northcote. Only $7 entry or $12 and get the book as well. Exciting!

Felix at work

I took Felix into work last Thursday as the builders were finishing off our bathroom renovations and neither Jim nor I could be there to make sure he didn't get out. He was as good as gold! I wanted him to earn some cash licking stamps but he flaked out after a very short time.

10 Years Ago Meme

Yikes it's been four months since I last posted something on this blog. That's bad. It seems like I've had a relapse and taken once again to shooting up procrastination in dark alleys. But with this post I hope I am on the mend. Here is the 10 years ago meme, also posted on Comic Artist Rehab. This was done without the use of pencils and thus erasers. It was tough and it took many lunch half hours to complete. Click on the image to get a bigger image that you can actually read!

Friday Archives - Small Embroidery

I made this little silk embroidery in about 1990/91 back in the days when my main artistic medium was embroidery. It's very small not much bigger than business card size, stretched over a piece of plywood and roughly framed in a cardboard paint-tube box that I lined with papier mache pulp. This embroidery was inspired by a trip to a museum outside Glasgow (I forget the name) that had a large collection of medieval embroideries - stump work and black work which I loved at that time. I still love it but strangely I haven't really thought about it for a long while.

I decided today that I would contribute something to Friday Archives - a great idea from Claire Robertson . This was the first artwork I saw (lying in a pile of art-related detritus) and thought it very appropriate for the post. I will post more embroideries later.

Lucky Winners

Sara wins a lovely dream.




Kirsten wins endless patience.



Megan wins a conversation with an understanding stranger.




Sandra wins hope for the future.




Jazzmin wins a break from fantasy.




Li Ming wins helpful, constructive criticism on a subject of her choice.

Chinese bloke

This is practise for my memoir/graphic novel - there's many many graphic novel memoirs around but it just has to be done.

Comics Rehab has finished

I've finished my time on Comics Rehab. I've really had a great time and thanks to all those who sent in encouraging comments. Below are all Ambition Transfusion drawings I did for Rehab.

Comic Artists Rehab

I've joined Comic Artists Rehab hopefully it will cure me of my procrastination. This is quite evident from the pitiful amount of posts on this blog. Anyway check it out.

Darwin in the Wet Season

Jim and I went to Darwin for our summer holidays. I was a little worried that it would be unbearably hot but it was actually ok. As long as you didn't move much and made sure you had a swim every day.

We stayed at a number of places while we were there - first the Barramundi Lodge just outside the Darwin CBD. It was an ok place. It seemed to be quite busy despite it being the low season. There were many aboriginal families staying there at the time. I wonder what they thought of the handpainted tiles in the shared bathrooms that featured kitsch paintings of aboriginals sitting by campfires and weaving baskets. We stayed there two nights before trying a different place in the heart of town.
The Value Inn was probably the worst place we stayed. While convenient it was extremely damp in the tiny cramped room. Moisture dripped down the walk and made the carpet sticky underfoot, and the airconditioner spat water over our pillows. All in all quite soggy.

After that we got the loan of a van and travelled down to Katherine for New Year's Eve. We pretty much stayed in our cabin to see in the New Year, as we were quite tired from the long drive, nothing in Katherine seemed to be open and there were heaps of aboriginal people on the street boozing, shouting and banging signage with sticks. It felt quite hostile and menacing and I really didn't want to feel that way. Everyone we spoke to who wasn't racist said that the people you saw on the streets carrying on were a small minority.

We went to Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge) the next day and went for a lovely walk, getting soaked then drying off and frolicking in a waterfall. We went back again the next day and took a boat trip up the first gorge. We saw some great rock art probably the best of the whole trip.

We went to Litchfield National Park and swam in lots of lovely waterfalls.

Our Kakadu tour on the third of January was a little disappointing due to a number of factors. Firstly there was a cyclone in Darwin. This made it rain heaps in Kakadu so many of the sites were cut off by flood waters. The guide we had, although a really interesting man, didn't give out much information about the place. The accomodation for the overnight stay was quite lacking; my bed was soaked from a leak in the roof and I had to top and tail with Jim in a single bed. Very uncomfortable on a hot humid night. I felt sorry for the others who had come especially to see Kakadu, we can at least go back without spending a fortune.
On our return to Darwin we stayed at the YHA which was the best. We hung out with Claudia from Austria and Mika from Japan, driving around in the old van.

In Darwin we saw lots of crocodiles in the wild and in captivity. Such mean looking things. Crocodylus Park in Darwin was better than we anticipated. It was interesting to see so many crocs up close.

We got back on the 13th of January very early in the morning. I'm sad the holidays are over and its back to work.

Learning to Love You Even More

On my way to a job interview this morning I stopped by the Brunswick Street Bookstore and came upon the newly published "Learning to Love You More" book. I wondered if my submission had made the book and yay it did. It's a great book and I've really enjoyed reading the other submissions. They are often so poetic.