Strange are the things that dwell inside flowers. Here is something that lives inside a vanda orchid; I didn't quite capture the insanity, because it's more like a bat winged, four legged screaming frog monkey, but it's a start.
(Thanks to my favourite horticulturist for the photograph that inspired this)
Ink, acrylic, watercolour in handmade book by Susie Shipman
Baba Yaga's house with a new coat of paint, a couple of evil eyes, and some spiffy new antlers.
Work in progress.
Ink, pencil, acrylic on paper
Full picture here.
A friend of mine is a hardcore yard-saler. Every Saturday summer morning he's out there at 7:30 AM with his coffee and his marked up newspaper, cruising neighborhoods. He bypasses the babyjunk sales, the piles of women's clothes and shoes sales, the sales that are in the same location every week, the sales where everything is from the 80's...he has an eye, he's on a mission, and it's an experience shopping with the guy. He's got a house full of gorgeous "mid century" modern; furniture, art, knick-knacks...but his first love is records.
He noticed that at every yard sale with records he'd always see one particular album. Intrigued, he started buying them. He told me he thought it would be cool to have an art show where every artist was given a copy of Leo Sayer's "Endless Flight" album, to see what they'd come up with. I became the first guinea pig.
Mr. Sayer has been in my studio for a few months now, waiting in his joyful suspendered leap for a little love to be thrown his way. Today, I heard the call, and began. Oh Leo. You make me feel like painting.
From the vaults: First in a series of portraits, presenting the Boon Tiger.
There is a box of frankenbeanies somewhere in my basement waiting for their closeups. It was quite satisfying, during the Beanie Baby craze, to buy a fistful or two of the silly things, take them home, chop off their heads, and then switch the bodies. The horror on the shop ladies' faces was so satisfying: "you're going to do WHAT????? But...but...but...they won't be worth anything once you do that!"
They aren't worth anything now! People GIVE them to me to chop up. So much for that fad, and all the people who "invested" in floppy toys. Shoulda bought Microsoft.
A friend of mine has saved Beanies for years; she plans to "skin" them and cover a footstool. Another friend was talking about creating an Eeny Weenie Beanie Bikini out of the pelts. When the full ebay madness was on I thought of making a BB out of genuine US dollars, to see if they really were worth more than the original selling price, but I figured the US mint would come after me. Maybe I'll do it with representations of real US dollars. (Slightly more in Canada)
Beanies take on a whole new life once you free their heads from their designated bodies. It's very satisfying to play Beanie God, stitching away while watching something suitably ghastly on TV. Stay tuned, more Frankenbeanies to come!
I've got a bunch of those clear-ish plastic drawer sets in my closet, packed full of clothes. Time to start labeling, because it's a pain to have to dig through all of them when I want that One Thing I Need Right Now. I figured it would be more fun to draw what's in the drawers instead of just writing it, so these are my little closet helpers.
