☪ Common sense ☪
Sketchbook: Work, winter and Creedence
Getting closer to freedom all the time... Working hard on commissions so more and more personal work can creep in.
Happy days.
Also enjoying sitting in front of the heater, drinking cider and notating Creedence inspiration; furiously chasing down too-many-ideas // not-enough-time.
Levy & scorpion
Levy & scorpion, 2013.
Playing with ideas is proving super fun, discovering da levy has been cool too... there's still so much more to learn and see and hear and do, all the time.
Keep going.
Δ Colder gold Δ
We've just rolled over into the winter months here... which means it's time to seek light, blooms and illumination wherever you can Δ to wear more leather, boots and faux fur Δ to build fires at any opportunity and sit around, drinking whiskey and zoning out Δ to drive north in search of warmer climates Δ to create furiously Δ to head into the wilds and soak up sun Δ to discover new poets and artists and musicians Δ to get serious about tea and honey, and hot chocolate and soy Δ to go out and buy more coats, more boots, more hats and more rings...
June's Totem
They choose the path where no one goes
They hold no quarter
They ask no quarter.
⋙ Sunday best ⋘
Lenni lookbook part one
Photography: Brett Rutkowski
Model: Mimi
So, this is exciting.
And also one of the things that has been keeping me busy over the past few months.
I put together a couple of illustrations for Australian designer Lenni, who has totally on-point creative vision and is just an all-round sweetheart to collaborate with.
I always find it so amazing to see where designers take my illustrations, and Lenni has done a killer job with them.
Anyway, you can shop/pre-order it all here and check out the full shoot here (and also stay tuned for part two, in days to come).
☪
Artist interview // Sandra Dieckmann
All images by Sandra Dieckmann. Sandra's Etsy.
Usually, when I've shared artists on Pony Gold, I've just talked about them in a very subjective way... But when the chance came up to let one of my favourite illustrators speak for herself via interview, I was excited to the point of nervous, and also a little intimidated.
I discovered Sandra Dieckmann's work at a totally formative time in my development as an artist, and I was hugely influenced by her use of patterning, and her hand drawn, almost naive, style.
So I was absolutely stoked and honoured that I had the following conversation with the inimitable Sandra, because I feel like she passed on a lot of artist -- and just plain human -- wisdom.
Read on for the interview...
What's your main theme for your talk at Semi-Permanent?
The message for me is just that you can go your own way, create a life for yourself, and use bad things that happen in life for something positive. And just do what you love, really, and that you can learn anything you want to learn.
There's a really nice quote saying that whenever people have needed something, they have just made it. So you just find ways of surviving (as an artist), like selling through Etsy.
Your background as an illustrator is a bit like that, isn't it? You sort of carved your own path...
With my personal path, I was born in Germany and had quite a beautiful childhood really. I explored Scandanavia, and I think that's where a lot of my inspiration comes from, and is still grounded in these really early impressions. When I was 13, my mother fell ill and she died when I was 16, so I spent three years caring for her -- she had a brain tumour -- so everything kind of stopped. My father wasn't a very nice person at the time either, so I ran away when I was 17, did my A levels and came to London when I was 19. I'd always been painting and making things -- like my entire life -- but when I was in London I had a time-out because i was a nanny for a year, and I had to run away from there (laughs). At the age of 20, I decided to go back (to school), and I did a pre-foundation and foundation in textiles and graphic design. Then I studied fashion at university, which was completely wrong because I wasn't that kind of girl. You know, I was chubby, I was a goth, I didn't fit in… I was like the outsider and they were all very, very posh and they had money behind them and they were quite bitchy. So I decided to transfer and studied graphic information and communication design, and that was a bit dry as well, although interesting.
But that was not what I wanted to do -- I did a few modules in illustration and created a children's book for my major project. I had so much fun doing it, and researching all the animals for it, that I just started illustrating all the time again, I just naturally felt good doing it. It was like therapy for myself, to make myself feel good.
I put it out on the web, on Flickr and stuff, and people really liked it and I was kind of surprised. So I kept on making more and more just for the fun of it, really, and it got to the stage when there were so many people blogging and talking about it and emailing that I had to look for a way to sell it. I found Etsy and started selling my work, and I guess the rest is history -- the blogs became websites and the websites became clients and everybody else has made my illustration career, I guess (laughs).
So it all happened pretty organically?
Yeah, very organically. And people say that to me: "Oh, you've got so many followers on Facebook, how do you do that?" and I just say, "Well... it just happened". I do have to say I worked really, really, hard; I've been working hard for years. It's not like you put a piece out and then sit on it, like on an egg, and wait for it to hatch. You have to keep on producing, night and day, and I'm lucky because I can't help it anyway (laughs), I'm constantly just making notes and drawing things. But I guess, be nice and work hard, that's definitely one. And get involved. I think what was really helpful for my career was not just partaking in exhibitions and illustration projects, but actually being proactive and setting up your own. I was running three projects at the time and just got to email so many illustrators that were at the same level as me, and I got to meet them and know them by name. I would meet them at exhibitions and get an idea of the community, and for me it was really great. And now its weird -- sometimes I meet people after three or four years, and I've known them for so long on Twitter and it all comes together.
You work very hard -- you said you're working night and day... is it a bit of a compulsion?
Yes, I think its a bit dangerous because it's like running away from life, it's like finding my way back home. I think, as a child, you're really impressionable and you build up these kind of dreamlike illusions, these kind of perfect places in your head. And I don't think you ever find those (again), so I think I just create them. I often have this compulsion to draw something I've dreamt. And I guess it's like catharsis, dealing with emotions and dealing with life. I have really vivid dreams -- I dreamt the other night that I scratched my arm and a portal opened up, and I looked into my arm and the universe was in my arm, there were stars and I could dive into it. Things happen -- and I don't want to be too spiritual -- but I guess they're sort of visions I have. With my work, it's not like I decide I want to draw a bear that looks nice. It's more like: I will possibly drink a bottle of whiskey and cry my heart out, because I'm losing my boyfriend again and I'll take our entire relationship apart and I will be up for two days and be like hallucinating -- I don't know how this happens -- I have these pictures in my head, and they're really clear, formed completely, ready, and I'll go from there. It's like I'm fighting with myself to bring to paper what I have in my head. So I just see things, I remember these things and i want to remake them so I can feel that thing again, or maybe communicate that feeling that I had.
What kind of reactions do people have to your work?
I guess when you've been illustrating for a few years it's really weird -- you find out that people connect to the images and they read them, either the same as you or really, really differently. Which is still valid really because it means a lot to them. I'll get emails from 10-year-old kids that are inspired, or somebody who has just lost his mother, who writes to me about buying my print and hanging it in the hallway during the last few weeks of her life and how they used to look at it, and it gave them strength. I get really, very personal responses to my work. Maybe because I was really personal when I created them. And it's also a lot to take on. Sometimes I feel like I'm a therapist and I'm there for other people to lean on and its quite a lot to take.
And I can't always react to everybody which is the saddest thing -- I had a lady email me a few times and I'm not sure what she was trying to say, but she was saying after all the abuse and all the years of miscarrying, she was telling me her entire life story and all about her violent relationship with her partner, and it all came out of this picture that she saw of mine. I read those emails and I take a breather, and then I'm probably myself really exhausted at the time, because I always am because I'm so intense (laughs), and I just sometimes don't get back at all because its too hard. If it's a child I will, definitely.
Do you find that upsetting?
Yeah I find it really hard. I would need like a thousand hours in a day and lots of hands and heads, because sometimes I have 180 emails and my commission to do I have ideas of my own and that's when it gets really sad. Because the natural way of working as an artist is to be touched by something, to jot it down, and to get to the picture as soon as you can -- just to keep the moment alive. But now, most of the time I'll put an idea in my (sketch)book and by the time I get back to it, I feel completely different and it has no meaning to me anymore, and so I can't paint or draw it.
I feel like a its a seesaw -- the busier and more popular you get, the less you have time to do your own thing. I don't want to say the quality of work suffers, but you need to retreat a little bit and the seesaw tips over and you have a little bit more time for yourself and you start generating lots of good work again. Then that work gets bought again and it invites more commissions and the seesaw tips again, so you're constantly going back and forward through this wave of being busy and then breathing again and creating your own stuff. I might have time for that pretty soon because I've just been asked by Random House in the UK… They wrote to me asking if I had ideas for writing and illustrating my own book, and that they would like to support that. So I think I'm going to go and start a maybe a story in that branch. I guess my work was never specialised in the first place; I never said I'm a children's book illustrator or I do editorial or whatever. I've realised that maybe rather than an illustrator, I'm an artist, although I have an illustrative style. Because lots of the work is self-initiated and came out of my own passion, and I sell it rahter than make it for somebody else,.
So I think thats what makes me most happy, doing it that way around.
Would that be a high point of your career?
Working with random house, yeah. I can never say high point because they're so different. I was working with street artists last year -- being outside, going up walls, painting furniture -- which was amazing and a great time. But I do like, I love stories, and it's definitely something that I hoped would happen, working with books, covers and contents.
The other highpoint of my career is all the lovely people -- just connecting and having so much feedback to offer. I don't want to go on about social networking but we're really exposed to a lot of work and a lot of competition, and it's also so educational and amazing to have this instant feedback. You know, you post something up on the blog or Facebook, and you know by peoples' response if you've hit the jackpot or not. It's not about creating for them, you're still doing it for yourself, but they can do something with it… It feels very nice that it means something to other perple. But then, I don't even know if that's always the truth, though. Some blogs and some websites will just post pictures of funny cats or bears and just rely on the cuteness factor and yeah, this sells, this always works, I'll get like 600 ticks on this, and I don't ever want to go there. Because although I love communicating through animals, I do take them seriously. They're like vessels, they're not "Oh yeh, that looks nice".
How did you develop a style that's so unique?
First of all, craftsmanship can be really important. I don't want to say its essential, but a lot of naive work really stands out. And you shouldn't try to create something that you're not made for, don't work against your own design. You're either a crafter and a hard worker -- like I am -- and there's a lot of detail in your work and a lot of attention, or you're someone who communicates in a completely different way. Someone that puts a splodge on the page and does it really well, and edits it very well. Simple illustration is a lot about editing. Whereas someone who is very complex can impress with detail. It depends on your character, what you personally like doing. And when you find out what you like doing and what you find aesthetically pleasing, yourself, then just pursue that and work on it. Honestly, if you're the kind of person that goes to work, and you have to force yourself to draw something at night, then it might not be for you. Because it's not about making the decision that you want to be an illustrator, you are that already (or you're not). And it just takes time to come out, the style. You need to make mistakes, that's really important. You learn from mistakes and they stick with you. You can't just read a 'How to be an illustrator' book. Everything can be helpful, but your own experiences are most valid. And just put a lot of hours and try lots of different things, and every time you find a point that you feel comfortable with, keep it and put it in your book, and keep on going with the same thing.
The other day I was looking at The Bumble Bear and the Grizzly Bee, which is the children's book I made in university, and it' made with collage as well as illustration. I remember experimenting with collage and paper right at the beginning and just because I needed a better tool, to save time, I started teaching myself Photoshop. People talk about technology as tools, and Photoshop is amazing because it can save a lot of time, and you can keep the authenticity and mistakes while you're using it -- you know, it's not as clean as vector art, thats something I'm not so keen on. When I worked with Photoshop for the first time I was really surprised what I could do with it, and then I built upon that, finding out more things. Teaching yourself is a very good way, with whatever tools you're using, if they're digital or non-digital. Just facilitate your own work, find ways -- you have an idea and you need to get there somehow, so you find a way of turning it into reality. Be really stubborn and work towards that.
It was actually your work that influenced me to have a look at Photoshop in a different way.
I don't really like my work to look anything like it was worked on in Photoshop. Often when i give my work to stockists, they'll be like: "How did you make this?" And the clue is that everything in my images is handmade, but it's just assembled. I don't use any brushes, I don't use anything that Photoshop offers. You can give me Photoshop CS1 and I'll be completely happy, because it's not about the technology. I don't need anything -- I need the cutting tool, I need to change the hue, and that's about it. There's nothing that I change: all the textures are made by hand -- all the mistakes, all the drawings -- and it's just nice to be able to assemble something. Technology can help you erase your weaknesses. If I'm not very good at composition, then Photoshop can offer that window to try with composition until i get there. I can see the impression of the animal (I'm drawing) on my inner eye, inside my head. I know the feeling, I know the colour probably, I know the setting, but putting it all together… it's a matter of 'This is the moment when it feels right, and let me just leave it'.
Who were you influenced by?
I would split this into direct and indirect inspiration -- I'm hugely influenced by music. I listen to a lot of obscure german progressive Krautrock and I enjoy finding new music and it making me feel something, because its always about feelings, and also films, sometimes but not so often. Other artists… I don't know really. I look at other artists and think 'Well done', or 'Oh my God, I love the colours', but I just don't think their work influences me to produce work. It's the small things, interpersonal stuff, definitely heritage and where I come from, early impressions, all the stuff that you can soak up as a child, and maybe it's also psychological makeup. Maybe if you've had hardship, or are wanting to get somewhere, or missing something, or just being perhaps a really hard-thinking person or an angsty person -- whatever, whatever person you are -- or if you're quite neurotic in some kind of way, you might find it really helpful to create. That kind of fuels it as well.
Thanks for your time Sandra!
Sandra's website.
There's a really nice quote saying that whenever people have needed something, they have just made it. So you just find ways of surviving (as an artist), like selling through Etsy.
Your background as an illustrator is a bit like that, isn't it? You sort of carved your own path...
With my personal path, I was born in Germany and had quite a beautiful childhood really. I explored Scandanavia, and I think that's where a lot of my inspiration comes from, and is still grounded in these really early impressions. When I was 13, my mother fell ill and she died when I was 16, so I spent three years caring for her -- she had a brain tumour -- so everything kind of stopped. My father wasn't a very nice person at the time either, so I ran away when I was 17, did my A levels and came to London when I was 19. I'd always been painting and making things -- like my entire life -- but when I was in London I had a time-out because i was a nanny for a year, and I had to run away from there (laughs). At the age of 20, I decided to go back (to school), and I did a pre-foundation and foundation in textiles and graphic design. Then I studied fashion at university, which was completely wrong because I wasn't that kind of girl. You know, I was chubby, I was a goth, I didn't fit in… I was like the outsider and they were all very, very posh and they had money behind them and they were quite bitchy. So I decided to transfer and studied graphic information and communication design, and that was a bit dry as well, although interesting.
But that was not what I wanted to do -- I did a few modules in illustration and created a children's book for my major project. I had so much fun doing it, and researching all the animals for it, that I just started illustrating all the time again, I just naturally felt good doing it. It was like therapy for myself, to make myself feel good.
I put it out on the web, on Flickr and stuff, and people really liked it and I was kind of surprised. So I kept on making more and more just for the fun of it, really, and it got to the stage when there were so many people blogging and talking about it and emailing that I had to look for a way to sell it. I found Etsy and started selling my work, and I guess the rest is history -- the blogs became websites and the websites became clients and everybody else has made my illustration career, I guess (laughs).
So it all happened pretty organically?
Yeah, very organically. And people say that to me: "Oh, you've got so many followers on Facebook, how do you do that?" and I just say, "Well... it just happened". I do have to say I worked really, really, hard; I've been working hard for years. It's not like you put a piece out and then sit on it, like on an egg, and wait for it to hatch. You have to keep on producing, night and day, and I'm lucky because I can't help it anyway (laughs), I'm constantly just making notes and drawing things. But I guess, be nice and work hard, that's definitely one. And get involved. I think what was really helpful for my career was not just partaking in exhibitions and illustration projects, but actually being proactive and setting up your own. I was running three projects at the time and just got to email so many illustrators that were at the same level as me, and I got to meet them and know them by name. I would meet them at exhibitions and get an idea of the community, and for me it was really great. And now its weird -- sometimes I meet people after three or four years, and I've known them for so long on Twitter and it all comes together.
You work very hard -- you said you're working night and day... is it a bit of a compulsion?
Yes, I think its a bit dangerous because it's like running away from life, it's like finding my way back home. I think, as a child, you're really impressionable and you build up these kind of dreamlike illusions, these kind of perfect places in your head. And I don't think you ever find those (again), so I think I just create them. I often have this compulsion to draw something I've dreamt. And I guess it's like catharsis, dealing with emotions and dealing with life. I have really vivid dreams -- I dreamt the other night that I scratched my arm and a portal opened up, and I looked into my arm and the universe was in my arm, there were stars and I could dive into it. Things happen -- and I don't want to be too spiritual -- but I guess they're sort of visions I have. With my work, it's not like I decide I want to draw a bear that looks nice. It's more like: I will possibly drink a bottle of whiskey and cry my heart out, because I'm losing my boyfriend again and I'll take our entire relationship apart and I will be up for two days and be like hallucinating -- I don't know how this happens -- I have these pictures in my head, and they're really clear, formed completely, ready, and I'll go from there. It's like I'm fighting with myself to bring to paper what I have in my head. So I just see things, I remember these things and i want to remake them so I can feel that thing again, or maybe communicate that feeling that I had.
What kind of reactions do people have to your work?
I guess when you've been illustrating for a few years it's really weird -- you find out that people connect to the images and they read them, either the same as you or really, really differently. Which is still valid really because it means a lot to them. I'll get emails from 10-year-old kids that are inspired, or somebody who has just lost his mother, who writes to me about buying my print and hanging it in the hallway during the last few weeks of her life and how they used to look at it, and it gave them strength. I get really, very personal responses to my work. Maybe because I was really personal when I created them. And it's also a lot to take on. Sometimes I feel like I'm a therapist and I'm there for other people to lean on and its quite a lot to take.
And I can't always react to everybody which is the saddest thing -- I had a lady email me a few times and I'm not sure what she was trying to say, but she was saying after all the abuse and all the years of miscarrying, she was telling me her entire life story and all about her violent relationship with her partner, and it all came out of this picture that she saw of mine. I read those emails and I take a breather, and then I'm probably myself really exhausted at the time, because I always am because I'm so intense (laughs), and I just sometimes don't get back at all because its too hard. If it's a child I will, definitely.
Do you find that upsetting?
Yeah I find it really hard. I would need like a thousand hours in a day and lots of hands and heads, because sometimes I have 180 emails and my commission to do I have ideas of my own and that's when it gets really sad. Because the natural way of working as an artist is to be touched by something, to jot it down, and to get to the picture as soon as you can -- just to keep the moment alive. But now, most of the time I'll put an idea in my (sketch)book and by the time I get back to it, I feel completely different and it has no meaning to me anymore, and so I can't paint or draw it.
I feel like a its a seesaw -- the busier and more popular you get, the less you have time to do your own thing. I don't want to say the quality of work suffers, but you need to retreat a little bit and the seesaw tips over and you have a little bit more time for yourself and you start generating lots of good work again. Then that work gets bought again and it invites more commissions and the seesaw tips again, so you're constantly going back and forward through this wave of being busy and then breathing again and creating your own stuff. I might have time for that pretty soon because I've just been asked by Random House in the UK… They wrote to me asking if I had ideas for writing and illustrating my own book, and that they would like to support that. So I think I'm going to go and start a maybe a story in that branch. I guess my work was never specialised in the first place; I never said I'm a children's book illustrator or I do editorial or whatever. I've realised that maybe rather than an illustrator, I'm an artist, although I have an illustrative style. Because lots of the work is self-initiated and came out of my own passion, and I sell it rahter than make it for somebody else,.
So I think thats what makes me most happy, doing it that way around.
Would that be a high point of your career?
Working with random house, yeah. I can never say high point because they're so different. I was working with street artists last year -- being outside, going up walls, painting furniture -- which was amazing and a great time. But I do like, I love stories, and it's definitely something that I hoped would happen, working with books, covers and contents.
The other highpoint of my career is all the lovely people -- just connecting and having so much feedback to offer. I don't want to go on about social networking but we're really exposed to a lot of work and a lot of competition, and it's also so educational and amazing to have this instant feedback. You know, you post something up on the blog or Facebook, and you know by peoples' response if you've hit the jackpot or not. It's not about creating for them, you're still doing it for yourself, but they can do something with it… It feels very nice that it means something to other perple. But then, I don't even know if that's always the truth, though. Some blogs and some websites will just post pictures of funny cats or bears and just rely on the cuteness factor and yeah, this sells, this always works, I'll get like 600 ticks on this, and I don't ever want to go there. Because although I love communicating through animals, I do take them seriously. They're like vessels, they're not "Oh yeh, that looks nice".
How did you develop a style that's so unique?
First of all, craftsmanship can be really important. I don't want to say its essential, but a lot of naive work really stands out. And you shouldn't try to create something that you're not made for, don't work against your own design. You're either a crafter and a hard worker -- like I am -- and there's a lot of detail in your work and a lot of attention, or you're someone who communicates in a completely different way. Someone that puts a splodge on the page and does it really well, and edits it very well. Simple illustration is a lot about editing. Whereas someone who is very complex can impress with detail. It depends on your character, what you personally like doing. And when you find out what you like doing and what you find aesthetically pleasing, yourself, then just pursue that and work on it. Honestly, if you're the kind of person that goes to work, and you have to force yourself to draw something at night, then it might not be for you. Because it's not about making the decision that you want to be an illustrator, you are that already (or you're not). And it just takes time to come out, the style. You need to make mistakes, that's really important. You learn from mistakes and they stick with you. You can't just read a 'How to be an illustrator' book. Everything can be helpful, but your own experiences are most valid. And just put a lot of hours and try lots of different things, and every time you find a point that you feel comfortable with, keep it and put it in your book, and keep on going with the same thing.
The other day I was looking at The Bumble Bear and the Grizzly Bee, which is the children's book I made in university, and it' made with collage as well as illustration. I remember experimenting with collage and paper right at the beginning and just because I needed a better tool, to save time, I started teaching myself Photoshop. People talk about technology as tools, and Photoshop is amazing because it can save a lot of time, and you can keep the authenticity and mistakes while you're using it -- you know, it's not as clean as vector art, thats something I'm not so keen on. When I worked with Photoshop for the first time I was really surprised what I could do with it, and then I built upon that, finding out more things. Teaching yourself is a very good way, with whatever tools you're using, if they're digital or non-digital. Just facilitate your own work, find ways -- you have an idea and you need to get there somehow, so you find a way of turning it into reality. Be really stubborn and work towards that.
It was actually your work that influenced me to have a look at Photoshop in a different way.
I don't really like my work to look anything like it was worked on in Photoshop. Often when i give my work to stockists, they'll be like: "How did you make this?" And the clue is that everything in my images is handmade, but it's just assembled. I don't use any brushes, I don't use anything that Photoshop offers. You can give me Photoshop CS1 and I'll be completely happy, because it's not about the technology. I don't need anything -- I need the cutting tool, I need to change the hue, and that's about it. There's nothing that I change: all the textures are made by hand -- all the mistakes, all the drawings -- and it's just nice to be able to assemble something. Technology can help you erase your weaknesses. If I'm not very good at composition, then Photoshop can offer that window to try with composition until i get there. I can see the impression of the animal (I'm drawing) on my inner eye, inside my head. I know the feeling, I know the colour probably, I know the setting, but putting it all together… it's a matter of 'This is the moment when it feels right, and let me just leave it'.
Who were you influenced by?
I would split this into direct and indirect inspiration -- I'm hugely influenced by music. I listen to a lot of obscure german progressive Krautrock and I enjoy finding new music and it making me feel something, because its always about feelings, and also films, sometimes but not so often. Other artists… I don't know really. I look at other artists and think 'Well done', or 'Oh my God, I love the colours', but I just don't think their work influences me to produce work. It's the small things, interpersonal stuff, definitely heritage and where I come from, early impressions, all the stuff that you can soak up as a child, and maybe it's also psychological makeup. Maybe if you've had hardship, or are wanting to get somewhere, or missing something, or just being perhaps a really hard-thinking person or an angsty person -- whatever, whatever person you are -- or if you're quite neurotic in some kind of way, you might find it really helpful to create. That kind of fuels it as well.
Thanks for your time Sandra!
Sandra's website.
Weird thought magic
Somedays it's just so good to be self indulgent and do whatever the fuck you want, regardless of commitments.
I swear I'll be more organised next week...
Sketchbook: Joan Didion, Gunners, Bowie
So my weekend consisted of two solid days of working on projects and just kind of trying to clear the decks. I've been saying for months that I'm going to take a break from commission work to focus on personal projects, but I just can't seem to shake all these commitments!
Anyway, it's always a good challenge, and I'm going to really appreciate that blank canvas when I finally get to it...
Also, I took a little break from drawing yesterday evening and we all headed down to the pub to watch our housemate Ben perform a little Sunday-arvo gig... I could tell you all about his beautiful music, and melodies that are powerful enough to lull the Humble-beast out of her destructive frenzies, but you could also probably just go and listen for yourself -- there's a couple of his tracks online here.
Friday vibes
The vibes are good.
I had an incredible conversation with a very talented lady last night -- which I will share here in the coming days -- it's nearly the weekend, and I have once again prioritised my batshit-crazy to-do list... I've got an eye on finishing some things so I can start some other things.
I plan on riding this weirdly-charged motivational high until I crash into the realisation that, once again, me and Humble have fallen asleep on couch watching CSI: Miami and wasted a whole day of potential project-finishing.
☼ ☾ No bad days ☽ ☼
Photographer: Derek Wood
Model: Lera Pentelute
Styling: Whitney Cox
Makeup/Hair: Deb Chung & Lauren Paez
Editing: Bryan Carr
Thanks to: Child of Wild + Stone Cold Fox + Vanessa Mooney + Raen Optics + Flynn Skye
So I've been looking forward to sharing this lookbook from Mate Vintage for a whole bunch of reasons, probably starting with (a) the photos are sweet and summery and (b) the location is out-of-this-world and then (c) I contributed a couple of little bits-and-pieces to the t-shirt prints.
Oh yeah, and there's always (d) cacti and light leaks.
Also, the girls behind this label are so sweet, and do some great work through their Collabs with a Cause... as if you needed another reason to head over here and check out what they've got on offer... The shirts should be in soon, so keep an eye out!
Travelin' band
Vintage Creedence Clearwater Revival shirt and daisy-print maxi skirt; Topshop boots (similar here); Etsy boot chains; markets/eBay rings.
I fell asleep in the car last night, in a furry jacket and
with my boots tucked up on the seat, clutching a tissue box full of sea urchin
shells. Humble was stretched out and snoring on the back seat and Scotty was
seeing us through the last few hundred kilometres home.
We were all tired and we didn’t want to arrive home, because
home just meant work tomorrow and normal life and paying the tolls that we’d
driven through to get out of the city in the first place.
And mostly because that afternoon, just a few hours before,
we’d been sitting around a fire-pit in the backyard, cooking fish the boys had
pulled out of the sea earlier in the day, drinking tins, watching the dogs roll
in the grass and soaking up a bit of south-coast sunshine.
It's always hard leaving Eden.
There’s an eternal war raging between my quiet, content,
smalltown-self and my restless, seeking, city-self. Sometimes, I want to move back
to the coast, raise goats, adopt dogs, listen to Creedence and swim in the
creek; and other times I’m thankful that I’m never going to run out of new
things to see in the city.
More than anything, I guess, I’m grateful that we get to do
a bit of both.
Δ If all else fails Δ
Images from the lovely Calabash Design blog, this incredible Pinterest and WhothefuckisMickJagger
Stitch an elaborate silk tapestry of colours and signs and universes Δ Hunt for the perfect stack of turquoise and totem rings Δ Collect late-blooming flowers to press in old, heavy books Δ Go for evening runs under streetlights, breathing huge lungfuls of cool, night air Δ Draw on anything and everything Δ Reimagine and reinvent old ideas, and chase new ones Δ Photograph the dying light and the rising sun Δ Drive out to your favourite secret spot with your lover Δ Race your dog along the riverbank, through the yellow leaves Δ Don a heavy knit, brew some chai, peek out the window and watch the rain fall Δ And if all else fails, listen to the Stones.
Candy mandible
Scarf and beanie c/o Somedays Lovin; vintage denim jacket/DIY studs; vintage sunglasses; market rings.
⋙ Sunrise madness ⋘
Somedays I wake up before dawn and forget what it was that I wanted to wake up early and get done.
So instead, I start clipping out pictures of cacti.
I scan some drawings I'd forgotten I created.
... And all of a sudden, I'm directing intense concentration at Photoshop -- hunched, staring, clicking, muttering -- I'm working against the clock to complete this important project before I have to leave for work, ever-conscious of the time rolling over in the top right hand corner of the screen. I'm trying to rush but also not make mistakes, and there's no plan, no foresight, no proper process...
Orange circle? Sure, let's try it.
Feathers? Of course!
* * *
Then, before I know what's happening, I'm on the train to work, listening to some weird be-suited guy across the aisle snuffle and breathe grossly, staring out the window at the graffiti, thinking: "What just happened? Why did the fun stop?".
☪ A fine high lonesome madness ☪
Sugarhigh+Lovestoned summer 2013 lookbook
Photography: Aaron Feaver
Model: Shannon Roxanne
Stylist: Chloe Chippendale
Hair + makeup: Danielle Walch
Body paint: Erika Flores
Photography: Aaron Feaver
Model: Shannon Roxanne
Stylist: Chloe Chippendale
Hair + makeup: Danielle Walch
Body paint: Erika Flores
Jewellery: Torchlight
via Sugarhigh Lovestoned
Close your eyes and fall into the untamed, unexplored oceans of your mind. Tune in, get high, get blown, trip-out, tap into the vibration, taste the rainbow, find god and let the music set you free. This one is for the day-trippers, Woodstock runaways, free-thinkers, kaleidoscope-eyed wanderers and anyone who's rolled around in body-paint to 'Castles made of sand'.
Close your eyes and fall into the untamed, unexplored oceans of your mind. Tune in, get high, get blown, trip-out, tap into the vibration, taste the rainbow, find god and let the music set you free. This one is for the day-trippers, Woodstock runaways, free-thinkers, kaleidoscope-eyed wanderers and anyone who's rolled around in body-paint to 'Castles made of sand'.
I love following the evolution of Sugarhigh + Lovestoned -- ideas seem to spill over from one collection/shoot to the next, just a huge exponentially blossoming creative beauty-thing.
And flowers and (body)paint -- that's all I need to be convinced.
As for those military jackets... I think 'Look to the Stars' is my make and model.
And flowers and (body)paint -- that's all I need to be convinced.
As for those military jackets... I think 'Look to the Stars' is my make and model.
Sketchbook: unfinished business
It's been a weird week -- a bit of whirlwind work trip to Tasmania, and then all of a sudden I'm back at work again tomorrow.
So I haven't started any work on actual projects this week, just a cranked out a couple of quick plane/hotel/bar sketches and revisited/rehashed a whole bunch of unfinished sketches from last year...
There's just never enough time to get them all down.
Shine a light
Ari
Bye little Ari, we really love you.
Hand signs
OK, so I sort of rushed the editing on this and the colours are a bit off, but I actually sat down and scanned some work!
I'm about to head down to Tasmania for work... it should be cold, busy and beautiful.
Have an excellent weekend x