Auction for The Real Alice’s 1st Edition

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091124/media_nm/us_books_alice

Gorgeous piece of piano music on Classic FM this morning, which reminded me of the theme tune to Beatrix Potter (sung by Miriam Stockley).

It was called Wind in the Grasses, by Helen Habershon, and was played by John Lenehan. It comes from an album called Found in the Rain. You can hear bits of it on Helen Haberson’s website.

We woke up to sunshine this morning so, after boiled eggs, headed to the coast. Worth Matravers is one of the most ridiculously picturesque villages in Dorset, a series of higgledy-piggedly stone cottages with limestone roofs. The cottages huddle around a duckpond, like so many gossips. Three ducks decided to waddle across the road, in no particular hurry, all quite content to make the traffic wait while they quacked – doubtless debating whether to go for an afternoon swim. I felt I had taken a left turn into a Beatrix Potter.

duck at worth matravers

Writing Fred, I’ve been yearning for the sea. I need to fill my lungs and mind with salt-air, and then, imagination brimming with the rush and roar, I’m ready to return home and write again. Today, it was wild up on the cliffs, the wind and sea battling against one another. I found myself staring at the water, trying to preserve the image in words for later, while the wind crashed into me and I lurched along the path like a drunkard.

And yet, perhaps unsurprisingly, when I returned home, I craved both a cup of tea and a dash of Seamus Heaney. Like Thomas Hardy, Wordsworth and the other great poets, he often writes about the impossibility of preserving nature in words. We writers are jam makers and picklers at heart; we want to find the perfect word to hold the scent of a freshly picked strawberry, that cry of the wild duck, or the way the light looks as it fall upon the cliff. But, we never can. It is merely a question of how beautifully we fail.

looking down at Chapman's Pool

Worth is an ancient village and quarrying and its sister skill, stone carving, is part of the village’s history. This sign was certainly true today…

Explore Beatrix Potter’s world.

Artist, storyteller, countrywoman… read more about the incredible life and work of Beatrix Potter.

I have been so busy this month of October and have so very much to tell you about.  I am just struggling today thinking about where to begin.  I am often reminded of Julie Andrews whenever I have this problem.  Just start at the very beginning, a very fine place to start.

But here is a little bit of background.  I have been working at Macy’s decorating Christmas trees for their Holiday Lane shop.  Visual Display!  I also went to Quilt Market in Houston with my sister.  Went back to Christmas trees and 16 hour days.  My neice was married and my daughter was asked to be a Leaf Girl.  A dress and shoes had to be found, for the both of us.

This is all the stuff of lengthy blogs, but little time to blog about it!  So back to the beginning.

taggie blanket

If you look at my etsy you will find a new category called Baby Registry.  I have a special girlfriend who is going through her fourth pregnancy and we decided to do a baby registry for her.  Rene is already really familiar with all of  my special vintage baby creations.  So when she came to my studio (home living room) we had fun looking through my fabric stash.

She is doing her nursery using the Peter Rabbit line from Pottery Barn Kids.  And I found some quality yardage in the fabric that was close to what she already had.  So she picked out about ten different items for me to sew up for her.   Isn’t that a special gift to buy for someone?  I love it and love the idea of doing this for my friend.

It’s all custom handmade work.  I’ll be sharing most of the photos of the baby items through my flickr account and you’ll also be seeing some here as well.

So now the Baby Registry is a new service that I am providing.  If you know of someone who is pregnant or interested in any of the other items that I make, pass it on please.  Thanks!

In Beatrix Potter’s enchanted world we  meet a curious but sometimes naughty rabbit named Peter, who lives with his brothers and sisters in a little sandbank under the root of a large tree near the woods.  His wise mother tries to warn her bunny children  about the danger of visiting Mr. McGregor’s vegetable garden.  Did Peter listen to her?  Find out what comes of too much curiousity in The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

We packed up the car in Pitlochry this morning and headed off, but not before writing in the comments book.  I’d read through all the past ones and people had been quite creative (and also had waxed lyrical about a former staff member called Chad, who I think I am sad that I didn’t meet lol) but I just left a little scrawl at the top of the page.

We went through Birnam on the way down to Edinburgh.  Yup, as in Birnam Wood, as in MacBeth.  There’s only one tree left from the original wood now, an epic oak, which, of course, I took way too many pictures of.  Dad looked a bit concerned  when I kept saying things like ‘Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and Thane shall be, what thou art promised’ in a spooky voice, so I had to give him the major plot points of MacBeth.  I’m not a huge Shakespeare fan – we did a few plays in high school English, but none of them ever really grabbed me, apart from MacBeth.  Maybe because we also kind-of did it in drama one year.  I played one of the ‘witches’ (in this version we were the school witches-with-a-b, in sexed-up uniforms and knee-high boots.  I wasn’t very good at this, and spent most of every drama class being told by the teacher to ‘be more provocative’.  I can still remember a lot of Lady MacBeth’s speeches though lol).   We were kind of right in the middle of MacBeth country; Glamis was just up the road and Cawdor was further north.  We didn’t go to either one though, just the Birnam oak.

Also in Birnam was a Beatrix Potter exhibition, which on the literary scale is about as far removed subject-wise as you can possibly get from MacBeth!  I’d seen the movie Miss Potter when it came out, so didn’t learn much that I didn’t already know, but it was still pretty cool, and I bought some cool souvenirs there too.

Got on the M9 after that and headed to Edinburgh, stopping off just before the Forth bridge (over the Firth of Forth, which, like Anathoth jam, makes me feel like I have an epic lithp) to have lunch beside another little port.  Then had lots of fun trying to find our way into the city centre.  The actual place was easy enough to find, because there’s a whopping great castle on a rock in the middle of it, but all of the roads seemed to lead OUT of there, and none IN.  I swear it was worse than the Christchurch one-way system.  Eventually found the hostel.  Like the Pitlochry one you get your bed assigned to you, and instead of having numbers they have names, which go with whatever theme the room has (there’s Lord of the Rings, Winnie the Pooh, etc).  We’re in the ‘Happy Days’ dorm, and my bed name is…Arnold!  This is only funny (and maybe not even then) when you know that my predictive-text name (the word that comes up first when you try to write my name in predictive) is Arnold.  I laughed.  Then had to explain it to dad, and both the receptionists.

Went off exploring.  Decided we didn’t have enough time to properly explore the castle so we’re leaving it till tomorrow.  Found a Writer’s Museum instead, focussing on Robert Louis Stevenson (I totally didn’t know he was Scottish.  But then I have never read any of his books either, I don’t think), Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Burns.  I sat down in a chair at the end of it and started falling asleep so dad sent me back off to the hostel and kept exploring.  On my way back I found a shop that sold…wait for it…Maltesers ice cream.  We totally need these in New Zealand.  I had Maltesers here the other day, actually, and thought they weren’t quite the same as the ones in NZ (I think the chocolate is made differently, maybe?  Our Cadbury’s Caramello is way better too – the stuff here is pure sugar and WAY too sweet) but the ice creams are brilliant.  And in exchange we can introduce the Brits to those Goody-Gumdrops-on-a-stick things.

And now I am back in the hostel.

Today I remembered two things that I left out of previous blogs:

The first is what we did on our first night in Pitlochry.  We visited the Hydro-electric power station, because dad likes hydro-electric power stations.  While there, I saw my first-ever fish ladder.  When we were on Skye, planning this bit of our journey, I had pointed out the area and all the stuff there was to do (MacBeth and Beatrix Potter for me, power station for dad, etc) and laughingly mentioned the fish ladder, thinking it was some kind of joke (I was picturing a fish climbing a ladder).  Dad looked surprised and asked me did I not know what one was?  Me: ‘WTF?  They’re actually a thing?’  They’re a series of pools, arranged in step formation, that the fish can swim/jump over so they can get over the dam.

So a fish ladder is a real thing, but it still makes me LOL.

The other thing was also in Pitlochry: LIME AND SODA!  We went to a pub across the road from the hostel for beer o’clock and the barman asked me what I wanted.  ‘Do you have soda water?’ I asked.  ‘Yep,’ he replied (I guess they must in Scotland, coz people drink whisky and soda).  ‘And do you have lime cordial?’ I continued (I was getting a bit excited by this point).  ‘Yes, we do.’  ‘Ooh!  Can I please have a lime and soda?’  ‘Sure…’ (clearly unsure as to why this was such a momentous event for me).  It was actually a little bit too sweet, and dad had to finish it for me, but it was  a lime and soda!

/ridiculous excitedness

Dad has just come back and informed me that he found a cute pub for dinner (I think he is even less keen on the idea of eating the haggis that we bought than I am), and that we are going on a ghost tour of the city, which I am quite excited about.  Sure, I don’t believe in ghosts, but I can still enjoy a good ghost tour in the same way I can enjoy Buffy without believing in vampires!

We packed up the car in Pitlochry this morning and headed off, but not before writing in the comments book.  I’d read through all the past ones and people had been quite creative (and also had waxed lyrical about a former staff member called Chad, who I think I am sad that I didn’t meet lol) but I just left a little scrawl at the top of the page.

We went through Birnam on the way down to Edinburgh.  Yup, as in Birnam Wood, as in MacBeth.  There’s only one tree left from the original wood now, an epic oak, which, of course, I took way too many pictures of.  Dad looked a bit concerned  when I kept saying things like ‘Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and Thane shall be, what thou art promised’ in a spooky voice, so I had to give him the major plot points of MacBeth.  I’m not a huge Shakespeare fan – we did a few plays in high school English, but none of them ever really grabbed me, apart from MacBeth.  Maybe because we also kind-of did it in drama one year.  I played one of the ‘witches’ (in this version we were the school witches-with-a-b, in sexed-up uniforms and knee-high boots.  I wasn’t very good at this, and spent most of every drama class being told by the teacher to ‘be more provocative’.  I can still remember a lot of Lady MacBeth’s speeches though lol).   We were kind of right in the middle of MacBeth country; Glamis was just up the road and Cawdor was further north.  We didn’t go to either one though, just the Birnam oak.

Also in Birnam was a Beatrix Potter exhibition, which on the literary scale is about as far removed subject-wise as you can possibly get from MacBeth!  I’d seen the movie Miss Potter when it came out, so didn’t learn much that I didn’t already know, but it was still pretty cool, and I bought some presents for my goddaughter and her new brother there.

Got on the M9 after that and headed to Edinburgh, stopping off just before the Forth bridge (over the Firth of Forth, which, like Anathoth jam, makes me feel like I have an epic lithp) to have lunch beside another little port.  Then had lots of fun trying to find our way into the city centre.  The actual place was easy enough to find, because there’s a whopping great castle on a rock in the middle of it, but all of the roads seemed to lead OUT of there, and none IN.  I swear it was worse than the Christchurch one-way system.  Eventually found the hostel.  Like the Pitlochry one you get your bed assigned to you, and instead of having numbers they have names, which go with whatever theme the room has (there’s Lord of the Rings, Winnie the Pooh, etc).  We’re in the ‘Happy Days’ dorm, and my bed name is…Arnold!  This is only funny (and maybe not even then) when you know that my predictive-text name (the word that comes up first when you try to write my name in predictive) is Arnold.  I laughed.  Then had to explain it to dad, and both the receptionists.

Went off exploring.  Decided we didn’t have enough time to properly explore the castle so we’re leaving it till tomorrow.  Found a Writer’s Museum instead, focussing on Robert Louis Stevenson (I totally didn’t know he was Scottish.  But then I have never read any of his books either, I don’t think), Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Burns.  I sat down in a chair at the end of it and started falling asleep so dad sent me back off to the hostel and kept exploring.  On my way back I found a shop that sold…wait for it…Maltesers ice cream.  We totally need these in New Zealand.  I had Maltesers here the other day, actually, and thought they weren’t quite the same as the ones in NZ (I think the chocolate is made differently, maybe?  Our Cadbury’s Caramello is way better too – the stuff here is pure sugar and WAY too sweet) but the ice creams are brilliant.  And in exchange we can introduce the Brits to those Goody-Gumdrops-on-a-stick things.

And now I am back in the hostel.

Today I remembered two things that I left out of previous blogs:

The first is what we did on our first night in Pitlochry.  We visited the Hydro-electric power station, because dad likes hydro-electric power stations.  While there, I saw my first-ever fish ladder.  When we were on Skye, planning this bit of our journey, I had pointed out the area and all the stuff there was to do (MacBeth and Beatrix Potter for me, power station for dad, etc) and laughingly mentioned the fish ladder, thinking it was some kind of joke (I was picturing a fish climbing a ladder).  Dad looked surprised and asked me did I not know what one was?  Me: ‘WTF?  They’re actually a thing?’  They’re a series of pools, arranged in step formation, that the fish can swim/jump over so they can get over the dam.

So a fish ladder is a real thing, but it still makes me LOL.

The other thing was also in Pitlochry: LIME AND SODA!  We went to a pub across the road from the hostel for beer o’clock and the barman asked me what I wanted.  ‘Do you have soda water?’ I asked.  ‘Yep,’ he replied (I guess they must in Scotland, coz people drink whisky and soda).  ‘And do you have lime cordial?’ I continued (I was getting a bit excited by this point).  ‘Yes, we do.’  ‘Ooh!  Can I please have a lime and soda?’  ‘Sure…’ (clearly unsure as to why this was such a momentous event for me).  It was actually a little bit too sweet, and dad had to finish it for me, but it was  a lime and soda!

/ridiculous excitedness

Dad has just come back and informed me that he found a cute pub for dinner (I think he is even less keen on the idea of eating the haggis that we bought than I am), and that we are going on a ghost tour of the city, which I am quite excited about.  Sure, I don’t believe in ghosts, but I can still enjoy a good ghost tour in the same way I can enjoy Buffy without believing in vampires!

It was two years ago today that our Founding Fox Leena made the first ever post on the new collaborative book blog Vulpes Libris.

She’d originally started the blog as a one-woman undertaking, but soon realized that in order to create the sort of blog she had envisaged – covering a multitude of genres and offering something for everyone – she was going to need some help.  So, she drafted in her most opinionated articulate friends and the Vulpes Libris collective was born.

In honour of the occasion we’re running one or two birthday-type pieces this week, along with a review of a biography of an Edwardian genius, the confessions of a Trotsky addict and a stonkingly good interview with a Booker short-listed author. We hope you enjoy what we’ve got lined up and join in with your comments, thoughts and memories.

Happy Birthday to us.  Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday dear u-us … Happy Birthday to us!!

~~~o~~~

Monday finds Jackie sketching a profile of Beatrix Potter:  A Life in Nature by Linda Lear.

On Tuesday Kirsty tells us what binds her to the fascinating, infuriating, complex creature that is Lev Trotsky and why she just signed up to spend several years in his company.

Wednesday sees the first of our anniversary items as we remember the last twelve months on Vulpes, and the Foxes recommend their own favourite blogs and websites.

On Thursday we’re publishing a (slightly abridged) transcript of the talk about Vulpes that Moira gave in the summer at the Annual Conference of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

On Friday Lisa talks about murder, outsiders and good writing with Booker short-listed author, M J Hyland.

And on Saturday RosyB closes the week by looking back on some of Vulpes’ more contentious moments and explores the thorny question of what makes a good review.

(The photograph of the gorgeous twin fox cubs is courtesy of Bugman50 on Flickr, and reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence.)

Did you know that Beatrix Potter was a fan of Border Terriers??

I was browsing the collections of the V&A (as is the right of a dog to do), and came across the fact that they have a photograph of Beatrix Potter sitting next to a Border Terrier and and … feeding him!! Unfortunately there is no image on the website, but I have it on good authority that this is an accurate description of the photograph. Perhaps I will visit the V&A and request that I can view the photo. I’m sure that dogs are allowed in museums.

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O176536/photograph-beatrix-potter-1866-1943-with/

It was 9:15 PM, on Wednesday, September 30th, and I was with senior thesis student, Allie Bajew, at her studio in the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. The assignment was to interview each other as artists and students, while referencing each other’s past works. We went about this by looking over each other’s pieces first, and then getting into the interviewing. Here is the resulting dialogue (with physical actions displayed in italics):

Rohan Mitra: So, uh… should we start?

Allie Bajew: Um, sure.

RM: Alright. So, do you know what you’re interested in? Or do you have a specific purpose or direction that you are going in with your work?

AB: Well, I have certain things that I like and I just try focusing on those themes. A constant theme are bunnies and ghosts.

RM: Haha, yeah, I can tell.

AB: Heh, yeah, I use a lot of children’s illustrations.

RM: Uh huh. Do you try and use children’s illustrations to show something dark or something more… lighthearted? It seems more lighthearted than dark.

AB: I use ghosts and stuff like that, but they’re not scary.

RM: Nothing comes out as overtly gothic. There is a lot of texture, or rather, a play between texture and flatness. For instance, there’s texture here, but the ghosts are still flat. And even the houses here—they have these faces that are really flat. It seems like a lot of your stuff has that going on.

AB: The thing is that, I almost never use backgrounds. It’s usually just a figure and then open space, and the collages help me with that since its like, instant background.

RM: Yeah, thats what it seems like. It seems like the magazine acts as the background and then you tend to draw either over or in between the cracks of the paper.

AB: Yeah, and I have some more stuff over here too.
Allie hands over more sheets of paper, the paper being more artwork.

RM: Is this from stuff that you’re doing this year?

AB: No, this is from Silkscreen [class] last year.

RM: So all of this stuff is silkscreened?

AB: Yeah.

RM: Ah, that’s pretty cool.
I pick up a small piece done in a book format of sorts.

AB: Yeah, it’s supposed to be a series but I guess it didn’t really turn out that way since it’s all on one piece of paper.

RM: So was it originally supposed to be a series and then it evolved into this book format? Or was it originally supposed to be like a book?

AB: Well the assignment was to do a series but I decided to do a book but, printing all of the panels on one piece of paper and making it one picture. I like how all the images are connected, so it’s really just like one picture but with spaces between ‘em.

RM: Do you like the spaces in between them? Or would you rather have done it as one continuous piece?

AB: No, I like the spaces; I suppose I could have ripped them apart and had them as individual prints.

RM: So they can also stand alone, basically.

AB: Nods

RM: Do you like using text in your work?

AB: I’ve only started to do that recently. That was the last project that I did last year and I’ve been using text in my work since then. But I never really have before then.

RM: Yeah, I think it definitely adds something to the piece. It’s a different texture. With text, people’s eyes are drawn straight to the text, but you did this in a way where the text does not really function as text—it’s more like a line.

AB: I think it also helps your eye move around the page a lot too.

RM: It definitely does that. It also connects the two pictures. Without the line, it would just be two sets, not one full piece. I really like the cover a lot, actually. That’s some really cool text.

AB: Oh yeah, I got a typewriter and it was broken; I actually spent two hours pushing the letters up with my fingers. Haha.

RM: You can tell that it’s authentic. It doesn’t look like it’s printed on a computer, at all. I do graphic design here [at school], so I really like type.

AB: So you do your stuff using the computer?

RM: Me? Oh yeah, definitely. Well, in design, the computer’s just a tool. Its not like I do everything on the computer. Designers do a lot by hand, or try to find other means to circumnavigate using a computer. The computer’s more a means to an end.

AB: Allie points to a new piece of work that I was looking at. That was a series I had to do on Goya. They all have to do with Goya prints.

RM: Are they on a specific Goya piece?

AB: Well, his etchings. I hand colored some of the prints but thats the only one I have. I don’t know what happened to the other ones.

RM: Yeah thats really cool. Was that a conscious decision to leave the edges ragged?

AB: Oh, yeah, you can cut the paper down or you can tear it down. I usually tear it down.

RM: It adds a nice contrast to the border. And in this piece, I like how the border is overlayed here.

AB: Ah, that’s kind of a mistake.

RM: Really?! I think it looks good. It adds something else that’s surprising. I think the big benefit of printmaking is layering.

AB: Yeah.

RM: So do you have specific influences? For example, why do you use these ghosts and the birds and all of the childlike references?

AB: I don’t know. I guess I just started using them because I like ghosts and birds and really happy things and dumb, kind of scary things. So I just kept using them. And I really like flowers a lot.

RM: You used text again here. The hand coloring came out really cool. It really pulls your eye out the center.

AB: Yeah, if I had more time, I probably would have silkscreened more colors in.

RM: I guess building too many screens gets annoying.

AB: Yeah.

RM: That’s really nice. It also has a lot of texture to it.

AB: That was an exercise on color separation. Have you ever done silkscreen before?

RM: Nah, I haven’t. I mean, I’ve silkscreened t-shirts at home, but I’ve never taken a class.

AB: Well you probably understand this more than I do then. It’s the whole CMYK thing—I didn’t really get it—but thats what my project ended up as.

RM: I think it came out well. It’s still really dynamic. Especially with the contrast of the background to the figures in the center to the edges.

AB: Thats the thing that I like about it. It’s kind of hazy in the background, but there are parts that I’d have rather done by using transparency.

RM: I think having the three characters in the center, with one of them having that bright, red cape really pulls everything centerwards, however, the flowers bring the viewer out to the edges, so there is a really nice play there. And it’s very fairy-tale-esque. Fairy tales are cool because they have so much depth and meaning that goes beyond the literal meaning. It seems like you have a lot of that in your work. When I think of fairly tales, I think of the Grimm Fairy Tales and how many of those can be read as morbid or have some kind of underlying pretext to them that goes beyond your typical “Little Red Riding Hood” story. I also like how some of them have lines patterning ‘em cause printmaking tends to flatten things out, and the lines give those areas more depth.

AB: These two are the first two prints that I did, so they’re not done as well as the other ones. I thought I should show them to you so you can see the progression of how I got from point A to point B.

RM: This one’s still very collage-y. But this one seems like it was done later than this one. Was it?

AB: No.

RM: I’m thinking of an artist, but I can’t remember her name… Her stuff reminds me so much of yours. Or rather, your stuff reminds me of hers. I want to say that she did fairy-tale paintings and cartoony things in the 30’s? Maybe 40’s? Earlier?

AB: Oh, wait, Beatrix Potter?

RM: Yeah, there you go. I feel like this can be a graphic on a skateboard or something. Because it’s really graphic, as opposed to these, which are more like pieces on their own. I guess because it just sits on the page and is really logo like.

AB: Here are the things I’m working on now. I really suck at printing etchings because I just started doing it, but thats the direction I’m going in. I’ve been really interested in architecture lately, and I’ve been trying to incorporate that into my work now.

RM: It definitely feels, I don’t want to say, “thought through,” but maybe it’s more conceptual than the other stuff? But once again, what’s really nice about it is the texture.

AB: The thing about etching is that it creates its own ground in the white space.

RM: Yeah, you can really play with lights and darks. Do you like that?

AB: Well, I like anything that makes me not have to think about the background. Teachers always give me shit about it, but here, I don’t really have to think about it. There’s automatically a background.

RM: So, even in this piece, did you start with the figures in the center and work your way out?

AB: Well, this was all a photograph, and I drew on top of that, and then I drew the flowers on top of that, and then the clouds.

RM: I still really like that etching. All the little scratches and drips really make it.

AB: Yeah I like the drips too.

RM: I suppose it makes it feel more human and less mechanical. And because you don’t have a background, the little details become even more important. Even the coffee stain in this other piece—if you’re looking at it as a full piece rather than just a graphic—adds something to the white space. I guess I feel like getting away from the mechanical is a common trend now. Even in graphic design, a lot of designers are trying to do hand-drawn stuff; that’s like the way to go. I feel like being hip today is having  to acknowledge that technology is evil or something.

AB: Yeah, even in movies credits; you see it a lot more now, where it looks like someone doodling in their notebook—the way they right the titles. You know what I’m talking about?

RM: Oh yeah, definitely.

AB: Like after Juno—the title credits…

RM: Yep, I was just thinking that. Even in Superbad and all these new, hip, comedy movies. It’s this huge cliché and it bothers the crap out of me. Haha. But anyways, I like your stuff. The innocent motif is cute and funny, but when you start moving away from that and more in that direction (I point to the etch) then it becomes more than just innocence and happiness and lightheartedness. I suppose it becomes more dark and brooding in a way.

AB: I feel like my artwork needs to be more sophisticated. When I started I was all, “Oh, it’s so cute and happy” and I was really happy with the work, but I feel like it just gets old so quickly, you know?

RM: I guess that’s why I feel that some of your earlier prints are very graphic, because with graphics and logos—they may have meaning—but they don’t necessarily need or want a lot of depth or interpretation. But with other art, outside of design, I think that pieces need a lot more conceptuality. Do you have any thought about what you want to do your thesis on?

AB: Um, I did, but my instructor totally shot me down, so I don’t know what I’m going to do.

RM: Do you still want to work with the ghosts and animals, and the same kind of images?

AB: I want to, but she said that they were too predictable with the way that they’re drawn. that. I’m trying to work on that but how do you even go about that?

RM: I guess whenever I am working with one particular image or topic, I’ll do a whole bunch of sketches where I’ll keep one element from the previous sketch, but then really push and explode out the rest. Really explore and completely change everything. You might end up with something that suck, but at least it’s different, and will give you options. Something to compare to.

AB: True.

RM: Well, I mean, that works for me, I know people work in different ways and all…

AB: No, that’s good advice.

RM: In design, we have to do tons of sketches until it sucks and you hate it, but at least the end product always turns out better than the first five or six sketches. Usually.

AB: Well, I want to work with the same themes because this is what I like.

RM: Your is a breath of fresh air because of its lightheartedness, whereas, I feel like in the contemporary art world, pieces tend towards darkness and over-conceptualized ideas. I guess artists overanalyze stuff.

AB: I think it’s cause people think that artwork is an outlet for them and they have to sometimes tear these terrible things out of them. Haha.

RM: Therapy. Heh. I like how your work shows historical grounds. Or rather, is historically grounded. You reference victorian fairy tales, and even with the houses you work with, they seem like they’re very victorian. Do you like that victorian kind of style?

AB: Haha, yeah I do.

RM: Yeah, there’s a lot of depth in that time period. The Rococo era had this whole veil of delicateness and pretty-ness over a lot of messed up shit such as rioting and revolution, people’s heads being chopped off, the whole Marie Antoinette thing.

AB: I think there’s a lot of symbolism there as well.

RM: Yeah, the period gives you somewhere to go. And references to look at. Well, Is there anything else to add?

AB: Did you have any questions about the studio space or anything else here?

RM: Um, did you want to say something about the photos on the wall? Are they yours?

AB: No, I just cut them out. I like to keep a lot of things around me for reference. Like that’s a picture of Jesse James in his coffin. You were probably wondering about that, since it’s, you know, pretty weird.

RM: Haha. What’s the significance of Jesse James? I’m just curious? None?

AB: None. I just like the picture.

RM: Ah. Did you see the movie?

AB: Nah.

RM: I mean, The Assassination of Jesse James.

AB: Ah.

RM: I mean, it was alright. It’s kind of an artsy movie. I mean, if you could call a movie “artsy,” then I’d say it’s an artsy movie. It was good, but Brad Pitt gets a little annoying.

AB: Yeah, he’s a bit cocky.

RM: Thats a cool dear statue.

AB: Yeah, but the leg broke off. It was in my car for about a year and then the leg broke off.

RM: Have you used it for reference?

AB: No, not really.

RM: It’s kind of funny with the leg broken off.

AB: I feel like it makes it cuter.

RM: Kind of sad really. Alright, are we good?

AB: Yeah I think that’s good.

RM: Okay.

-rgm

A very sweet, simple baby book for people who want a sentimental memory book of baby’s first year. The pages have beautiful Beatrix Potter pictures on them.All general topics are covered, and most pages allow you to fill in baby’s firsts (i.e. first smile, first laugh, first time baby sat up, first pair of shoes, etc) while keeping the fill in the blanks about feelings (i.e. “When I was born, my parents felt ___”) to a minimum.**One interesting note:In the US, babies usually go to the doctor at 3weeks old, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months the first year (or something like that).This book only has sections for baby info (height, weight, etc) at 3 month intervals, starting with 3 months, then 6 months, so if you want to record doctor visit stats from all your baby’s doctor visits, this book will not have the space you need, and that’s why this book doesn’t work for me.

Product Description
Frederick Warne is proud to offer this revised edition of a perpetual bestseller. With an all new design and a bonus keepsake pocket in the back, My First Year will be more popular than ever. Once this book is filled in, it will tell the story of the first twelve months of your baby’s life. There are spaces to attach prenatal scans, photographs, and your baby’s hospital bracelet, as well as room to record the many exciting events in the year, from the first smile to the first party. A pocket at the back enables you to store precious keepsakes, making this a complete journal of your first year together.

Click Here to see more reviews about: My First Year: Revised (World of Beatrix Potter) (Hardcover)

When kids ask me for advice on how to do well in school, I always tell them: Stop watching so much TV and start reading at night.
Lee A. Iacocca

Don’t hurry, don’t worry. You’re only here for a short visit. So be sure to stop and smell the flowers.
Walter Hagen

If you are ever in real trouble, don’t panic. Sit down and think about it. Remember two things, always. There must be some way out of it, and there must be humor in it somewhere.
Louise Fitzhugh…5

Whatever you do in this world, no matter how good it is, you will never be able to please everybody. All you can strive for is to do the best it is humanly possible for you to do.
Jeri Ferris

So one thing I want to say about life is don’t be sacred and don’t hang back, and most of all, don’t waste it.
Joan W. Blos

Don’t listen to the advice of bad companions; if you do, you will repeat it!
Carlo Collodi

Advice to a fool goes in one ear and out the other.
Danish Proverb

Good medicine tastes bad…just as good advice hurts your ears.
Yohiko Uchida

Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.
Beatrix Potter

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.
Leroy Paige