M. Sasek...do you remember his books from when you were young?

I love Sasek's work. Most books were published in the 1960's. I bought "This is London" today...feeling second-home sick.

For more information and where I found most of the images, see the excellent website: This is M. Sasek

Animal Contract #2 Tortoise

The meaning behind this post can be found in a previous post.

Tolerance, Intolerance and Equality

A body, such as political, acting intolerantly towards another political body for being intolerant baffles me. An example is the political view that the West is tolerant and the East intolerant. Which is simply not the case. The West is not wholly tolerant within society nor is the East wholly intolerant.

Another concern is using tolerance as a substitute for equality. An example being same sex marriage (although tolerance is preferred to persecution and so on). We will tolerate same sex marriage but do not condone it. In other words, we will allow same sex marriage to occur but it is not equal to heterosexual marriage. I use the example of same sex equality a lot because it brings up its counterpart: the idea of the 'traditional family' which is an illusion. Gay and lesbian people, and adulteress, love-less, oppressive, childless marriages have always existed in society, thus in personal relationships. Espousing the false idea of the traditional family concerns me when it is used politically, it raises questions of competency.

Using tolerance as a substitute for equality is also a concern: it is a pretense of equality, when it fact it impedes social progress.

Here is a much more eloquent explanation: Wendy Brown on Tolerance

Photo from the Telegraph.

The Dream Republic by Heri Dono

"Using installation, painting, puppetry and performance Indonesian artist Heri Dono engages with contemporary issues and Indonesian mythology to explore the position of the individual within society."

For more information see South Australian School of Art.

Clouds and Critters

Chickadee and chicks

Still practicing Illustrator...lots more to learn. For Christmas I've asked Santa for a Wacom tablet.

Another perspective

Orange lanterns, a fall treat.

The arrangement of the parallel leaves on an angle caught my attention.

My first winter in Vancouver was tough, terrible bout of depression. However, this year I am noticing the natural beauty which comes with lots of rain and late day sun...perfect conditions for rainbows. Here's one from today, so broad, I've never seen rainbows this strong before.

More Autochromes

By 1907 the first practical additive colour process was being used: the Autochrome. Red, green, and blue are additive primary colours; they can be mixed to create other hues. For example, yellow light is a mixture of green and red light. In the Autochrome process minute starch grains stained in red and blue--with lampblack to block light that would otherwise go through the starch grains--were mixed with a sensitive emulsion. This mixture was rolled onto a glass plate and put under great pressure so the emulsion was only one starch grain thick. This screen was then coated with panchromatic silver halide. When exposed to light, the starch grains acted as filters on the film.

Auguste and Louis Lumiere created the delicate autochromes, which produced dusky-looking colours. To view autochromes a diascope is used: by placing the glass plate into a holder, the autochrome is back lit by light reflected off a mirror.

Image source: George Eastman House

Mimic Octopus

Very charming cut-outs, wait to watch the end for the footage of this amazing animal.

Mabel and Mr Moto in field

Mabel and Mr Moto will be sitting down on the flower buds pretty soon. I just had to get them in there for this trial run.

[updated-Nov 11 2008]

Helen Kane skit - she's a cute thing

Mabel and Mr Moto finished

Process: Mabel and Mr Moto: hand drawn, photo, Photoshop - adjust exposure and gamma, place in illustrator, trace and live paint. Background: 'place' photo in Illustrator and live trace (16 colour channel).

Florence Kate Upton Illustrations

Florence Kate Upton (1873-1922) Flushing, Long Island New York. In 1901 she studied art in Paris and then made her way to London, until her death. The first book appeared in 1895 and the last of the series in 1909. Her mother, Bertha Upton wrote the verse for each book.

"When Florence Upton entered her first contract with Longmans, all of this excitement lay in the future. She could have had no idea how successful the little character and his friends would be and how anxiously children would await the appearance of the next adventure."

I first encountered the Dutch dolls and gnome in 2000 at the Bethnal Green Children's Museum. I loved the illustrations. Some years later I shared this love with family and lo and behold at Christmas 2004 I received three of the books, (I usually admire from afar so this was a real treat).

The Golliwogg books, because of the drawing of the heroic lead character (the gnome) is thought to be distasteful. I see the point considering the climate of that time; the way I see it is that the drawings are anthropomorphic dolls, we are not skinny little hard sticks or fluffy things with button eyes.

Sources:
Davis, N., (1992), A Lark Arises, The Scarecrow Press, Metuchen N.J and London.
Upton, F and B, (1902), The Golliwogg's Air-Ship, Longmans, Green & Company, London, New York Bombay.
Upton, F and B, (1900), The Golliwogg's Polar Adventures, Longmans, Green & Company, London, New York Bombay.
Upton, F and B, (1901), The Golliwogg's Auto-Go-Cart, Green & Company, London, New York Bombay.

Winds of change

There is no doubt that Americans want change. The country has been drilled into the ground by the last administration. What I appreciate about the new president is simple and twofold:

1. He acknowledged that the people did not vote for him personally, but for change (and equality).

No single man or woman can possess power, this exists in imagination only; to be in a position of power the person is put there collectively by the people. In despotism, the leader rules by force, thus the people are oppressed, but they will revolt sooner or later.

2. When he talked about Americans he included people with disabilities and gay people.

This seems to indicate legalized marriage for all, and with urban planning perhaps the needs of people with disabilities will be taken into account. E.g. sidewalks that curve down at the correct angle and audible signals at crosswalks.

Here is a much more knowledgeable commentary outlining the implications of last night's victory.

I will be paying careful attention to American politics in the coming months.

Barack Obama has been elected President

This is certainly a momentous day in history. I feel hopeful for the future of the world.
I am speechless and in shock.

Short trip to Seattle

Arriving into Seattle from Interstate 5, going west on 85th Avenue.

Pumpkin house.

From what I saw, Seattle has lovely neighbourhoods with lots of trees and little houses.

Barber shop's Halloween Decorations on 15th Avenue (which takes you downtown).

A park in an affluent neighbourhood off of Magnolia Drive, where we picked up a cabinet from a nice man with a nice dog, called Sophie.

On the steps down a steep hill I saw this lovely spider.

Pike Place Market, huge advert for "Ask Alexander - The Man Who Knows". He was famous and had a lucrative business prognosticating.

The devil has blinking red eyes. The book display shown is of a Frenchman who could suck in air through his bottom and emit dulcet tones through remarkable control of his abdominal muscles?! Needless to say, he was very popular in...where else...France (wink).

Picked up this great little jackrabbit pin at Pike Place antique market.

Leaving Seattle I spotted this...brought the car to a screeching halt at the side of the road like a lunatic. At the equator, which rotates, it says "It's in the P-I * * *" (Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper building). At night it lights up neon.

Back in Canada at the border there is this lovely road winding round a peninsula with the railroad tracks to the South (left of photo) to the town White Rock and even better Crescent Bay.

Had to stop to put oil in the car. While we waited for the engine to cool we had some dinner, and watched about 300 seagulls take off from this field...we wondered why so sudden a shift? Well, we then noticed in the centre of the field one bald eagle. It's the closest I've come to one of these amazing birds. It was really big, at least 4 times taller than a large seagull. They have very thick, strong legs. Imagine one bird, scattering 300 other birds. (Seagulls are not timorous, in the summer through my binoculars I watched a herring gull violently attack a bald eagle at a very high altitude. I couldn't figure out why, the eagle glided and seemed a bit bothered and after 15 minutes of being harassed it floated off out of sight. It wasn't close to a nesting site, and I don't think herring gulls' territory is that vast...)

Mr Moto - 5 minute test image

Only God knows why I don't post my finished stuff...perhaps procrastination.