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I haven’t really had time to work on any personal art in the last few months and I worry sometimes that if I don’t take time out for myself that I’ll forget about all the things I want to say and draw. Yesterday I took a day off to recover from some busy weeks (and yep, the holiday!) and thought I’d take my pen to the latest issue of frankie which has ample space for doodling facetious little things.

I read popular culture a lot more deeply these days, and while I avoid most of it, some things are still palatable – frankie being one of those things. It’s not without its problems, in particular I find it to be quite homogenous in the sort of people it represents (white and young and left-leaning and fairly financially comfortable). When I do my little snarky doodles I’m not mocking the models themselves, rather I’m asking questions of the branding and positioning of the magazine itself (and any other magazine I doodle on!) So I submit these doodles without comment for you to think about and perhaps discuss in the comments between yourselves

One rather exciting thing that happened recently was that I was one of six featured lettering artists in How magazine’s 25th anniversary issue.

See, there I am! The write up was really lovely too and made me feel all busy and important. If you’d like to read the page I was profiled on, take a gander over here. Thanks How!

Enjoy the day and do something fun

The lovely Rebecca Murphy has organised This Little Piggy, an exhibition of 25 artists and 25 little piggy banks, and it’s opening on February 12th at China Heights. Indeed, I shall be one of those 25 artists and have vandalised a little piggy in the most loving way.

Let me tell you about this particular little pig. I received him in the mail courtesy of the brutish hands of Australia Post, and he was in pieces. I figured I’d incorporate a little of his turbulent history when creating the piece so instead of carefully gluing him back together and glossing over his many battle wounds I drew different patterns on his many portions and created Advice Pig. If you go to the show, you will see an example of his sage wisdom on the other side…!

Here’s an artist list to prove how fabulous it will be: Ben Allen, Burntfeather, Caitlin Shearer, Chrissy Lau, Dreams of Grandeur, Emma Kidd, Gloz, James Carey, Jessica Klingelfuss, Kaitlin Beckett, Little Gonzales, Luke Burcher, Megan Dell, Mz. Kat-ii, Natalie Perkins, Nicole Tattersall, Qwux, Rebecca Murphy, Renee Anne, Robbie Karmel, Tiger, Tony Curran, Yewot, Yolanda Stapleton, Yuki Nakano.

If you’re in Sydney town do go check out This Little Piggy
Opening night: Friday February 12th
China Heights
Level 3, 16-28 Foster St, Surry Hills.

The facebook event page is over yonder!

I love fiddly things that take hours to finish – it’s almost like a type of meditation for me (the girl who can’t shut her brain up to do actual factual meditation!) Recently I started playing with tiny bits of cut paper because I loved the patterns they formed as well as the meditative aspect. I’ve made a few cards with this technique to give to family members and friends, and I was thinking about selling similar ones on Etsy but I need to work on how much time I spend on each card while still maintaining the effect, because I know people probably won’t spend too much per card (even if they are pretty!)

I may get out my Gocco and print up some designs in the next few weeks, ready for cutting and pasting tiny bits of pretty paper!

Today I spent the afternoon with some friends at the Asia Pacific Triennial at GoMA. It’s one of the most fun and engaging exhibitions but it only happens every three years, so it’s always a must do. Entry is free, making it a lovely and value-packed few hours too! You can come back and find new things to explore and think about too, as it’s on for three months.

The lighting cast beautiful shadows, I always admire the delicate lighting at the Queensland Art Gallery and GoMA.

See more pictures of APT6, what I wore and our dinner at Vapiano!
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I was invited to submit some of my older work to Gestalten publication Hair’em Scare’em, and today I got my contributer copy. The book is full of fantastic illustrative and photographic work from a huge variety of artists – I was really impressed with it, and myself for being published alongside such great names!

That’s my stuff on page 74!

Tabitha actually sent me my issue of Forth Thread the other week, but I hadn’t gotten around to blogging about it. You’ll have to excuse its rumpled demeanor, Australia Post must have handled this with their elbows!!

There’s the Bearded Lady of Brussels!

The zine has heaps of young Australian talent – you can buy a copy of the first edition “This Ain’t Digital” here.

Kelley from Peppermint Magazine sent out my contributer copy of issue 4 and this lovely diary!

2010 is going to kick arse! Am I right?

Curvy publishes a book of over 100 female artists, graphic designers and illustrators every year, and each year I am completely intimidated by it. Earlier this year I submitted work for the first time and was pretty dejected when it wasn’t accepted… I guess I am pretty bad at dealing with rejection

So I drew this, haha.

Once again, I will throw myself to the lions, errr selection panel, but I’m having a tiny crisis about what I should submit for consideration for next year’s book. I know that lots of people really like my typographic pieces but there are some other more illustrative pieces that I am fond of too. So, if you could choose three, which would you choose?

La Donna Mascherata

A line is all I need

Neatly Daily

Have a fancy day

Red Ribbons

The Sky is Falling

Everything’s okay, I drew this for you

Please, please help me out!

ALSO! I have updated my portfolio site, if you want to see more work! I am stupidly proud of it, and will continue to be until I think of a better way to display it

My friend Kathleen wrote a tweet about forgetting things and tying red string around her fingers, and it inspired this image. There are so many things you have to do to remain a lady, sometimes you can tie yourself up in remembering it all.

This piece is for sale, if you’re interested in buying it please contact me with your best offer. Highest bidder wins, and I will close bids by next Wednesday 2 December.

Details: Ink, coloured pencil and watercolour on Arches Aquarelle paper, 282mm x 354mm.

When Damien asked me to draw some lettering for the cover of the International Superheroes of Drawing, Illustration and World Domination book I was totally flat out but I really wanted to do it. I met quite a few awesome people, like Damien, on Red Bubble (where the International Superheroes HQ is) and I wanted to support my fellow (talented!) artists within the group.

Check out more info and where to buy it here!