The sun shone!

Polly Dunbar illustration

I hope it was a good weekend.  I really needed the sun to shine and it did.  It was wonderful to be in the garden, getting ready for Spring, the boys playing, chickens having a grub-up and the cats looking non-plussed with it all.  Not the best day to escape to the cinema, but a promise is a promise, and Tangled delivered in all the right, Walt Disney ways.  I know it wasn't me who needed the parental guidance, but that witch really was scary!  I also found a grown up moment to sit with a coffee and read the new Selvedge magazine.  Bliss.

I really enjoyed this interview with Tad Carpenter, especially the images showing design development from drawing to digital artwork.  I'm endlessly fascinated by creative process, from inspiration to realisation.

Naive

Public Domain Wilco - Poster 2006/07

Strawberryluna Spoon-Poster 2007

Tad Carpenter Decemberists - Poster 2007

Jenn Ski Diverse - Art Print 2007

I've been well and truly hibernating and I'm really looking forward to some warmer days and some trips out into the Metropolis for some heavy doses of inspiration.  Meanwhile, in the uber-creative world of cyberspace and blogs, the book, "Naive: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphics" came to my attention.  It's been lovely to get my fingers on it, it's a book that feels nice.  Consisting entirely of images, I've been feasting on it.  The cover of "Naive: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design" celebrates the zeitgeist for graphic design that integrates hand-lettering, woodcutting and folk art.  The book is an inspiring collection of illustrations, textile designs and graphics.  I love the work of Helen Dardik and Jenn Ski.  I think the reason I like it is the strong graphic shapes and symbols, but there's texture in there which I've been missing in the stronger, cleaner graphics of recent print design.  I love the seventies colourings....especially the palletes in Helen Dardik's work.  The images of birds dominate, and I'm hoping to introduce some into my work.  I've a passion for robins that might find expression.  For some time, lyrics and poems and writings about birds have been finding their way into my notebooks and I think would be a fine start for a project for Spring.

"Early December, and brown as a sparrow, frost creeping over the pond.  I shoot a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime and beyond."

Paul Simon "Everything about it is a love song."