hatefulcrawdad’s Neighborhood

This was my first project at uni. Everyone was given colour to research, to be inspired by and to create a piece capturing the essence of. Mine was scarlet and I went down a little red riding hood avenue. I'm getting very into the darker side of fairytales and their prevalence in our culture. This bit in the Guardian about fairytales is definitely worth a read.

Anyway, ironically for a project about scarlet I draw it all in black and white. I carefully cut red riding hood out so that last red page would show through all the way to the first. 

Camden Passage, not to be confused with Camden Lock, is an antiques village in Islington. My Granny remembers when it was full of antique silver and jewellery, but now there's more trinkets and vintage clothes. Still fun. I made this book of all the little things I liked. Painted with coffee of course.

I will be the first to say that the scans and photos are bad.

Deleted entry due to huge amount of ugly ranting not fit for this journal.  Not even ugly ranting.  Depressing, wallowing ranting.  guh...

It all started with a visit to a shop called bygones and curious which is full of beautiful old things. I did some drawings and decided to make them into a repetative pattern and it was actually really fun. The original drawings are done in ink and then repeated on photoshop.

 

The fabulous children's magazine Anorak is holding a competotion to design the winter cover and this is what I came up with. Rather cool - my old tutor and mentor Simon Wild is a regular contributer.

I know I have been awful about updating, and it not because I've had a creative slump or gotten lazy (kind of the opposite), I just haven't had the internet for quite a while. I thought I'd start my resumed blogging with some good news. A few months ago Millie Boyd contacted me about one of my Christmas card designs and it was shown to Woodmansterne in a meeting. I didn't want to say anything in case I didn't get it, and for a long time I didn't hear anything and then last week I got the email saying they wanted to buy my design. My drawing will on Christmas cards sold in shops everywhere in 2010. :)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mail Order Bride or Wicked Witch of the West Side?

Wedding dress with mail and FedEx stamps all over it or ghetto fab myself out and then get a witch hat and broom.

Which should I choose?!

Well, folks! I'm back for a brief moment. This evening I sit awake and only vaguely see a faint sign of sleep coming on from the two PM's I took around 11 PM. As I sit here, I've imported tunes into my iPod and have a pretty good collection started. Takes time though.

News as of late? Well, this past week has been a very trying and emotional one. I've buried three friends in five days. Drew and Sarah who both passed on Wednesday of last week were dear. Drew is the son of my close friends Dale and Richard here in Atlanta. He was killed in a tragic freak accident resulting from a blown tire. Very shocking for all of us. But I so feel for Dale and Richard. Drew was Dale's mini me in so many ways and such a love of a person with passion for life and love for everyone he met. I'm very sad that he is no longer with us. The service was beautiful with a full house of all the folks Drew touched in his short 24 years. He will be missed.

My friend Sarah is a friend from high school who was diagnosed on her birthday five years ago with Leukemia. She was sent home shortly before last Wednesday for hospice at home and she passed shortly after. She was such a joy to be around and such a love with a smile and laughter that would make the meanest snake of a person smile if even for a moment in her presence.

And finally, a newer friend who I met only this year passed away in his sleep Monday night this week. Aaron is survived by a very sweet man, Joey in SC where his services are to be held tomorrow. My thoughts are with these families in their time of grieving.

And this added to my already trying year with the loss of a relationship and friend in my ex partner. However, I can say, that I can see him now and am no longer controlled by my emotions. It was freeing to realize that this past Saturday when I saw him and his new "best friend." I can finally move on. Yippee! Nice stuff that. But I'm still trying to get my life back on track and it's slow going.

All in all, I'm good, just resolved to this year being I think my worst ever. I'm ready for about ten more really really good ones and then I can die happy. Well, I hope there are more than that, but if I only get that, I'll be happy with it.

Peace and iPods!

JD

I tried to get to bed early last night so I could get up early today.  It didn't quite happen that way, but my friend texted me at 8:10 this morning so I got up and made a pot of coffee.  A little later I sat out on my patio in the cool morning air drinking, reading the Bible, and praying.  Fast forward a little later and I sat at my computer reading the funniest email from my Mom about how she accidentally said that she would be in a talent show with my Dad.  HAHAHAHA!!!!!  This is where when learning a language really sucks if you are in a country that doesn't speak your native language so you can't clarify. 
After a marvelous morning I headed off to ballet class at my local community college.  I parked three blocks down from the school and walked in (I won't buy the parking pass to not have any parking spaces) with the sun shining on my head and my feet light.
Class was hardcore.  I don't get why my legs just shake standing, but there you have it.  I'm out of shape and ballet is strenuous even standing in one spot.  Later we did little demi jumps over and over again until I felt like my legs were going to fall off.  He wouldn't turn on the AC (which is more like an air blower) and then proceeded to shut all the doors so there is no circulation at all.  He looked at us smiling all stupidly and in his thick Asian accent said, "You all are hot yes?  Very good...you will lose some weight."  LOL  Reminded me of my old Japanese ballet teacher except he's not being a bastard about it.  It's weird because I see the same traits of my crazy Japanese teacher in him but not quite as insane like my old teacher.  My old teacher pushed us as if we would be professional dancers knowing that most of us never would be that good.  She would scream, hit, lecture you on your weight, and generally be the most manipulative jerk ever.  That's the way she was trained and that is how she trained.  This guy pushes you and will make you feel this [  ] big if you come in late or miss class but seems to sincerely love to teach and want to spread that love to the youth of this area.  My old ballet teacher would have slapped my butt and given me the most evil stare ever if I wasn't tucking it under properly but this guy just comes up behind me now and then and helps me adjust and then keeps walking.  I like this dude.
I googled him and found his story to be quite amazing.  If you feel so inclined, check it out here. 
Well I feel like this entry is not worth crap but I promised myself I would keep writing even if I felt like I didn't have much to say.  So that's just PERFECT for my readers. :)

And for something fun.

I went to Paris with three amazing friends for the first time last week and I loved every second of it. I found it an incredibly inspiring place (the architecture, the carousels, the pastries!) and was constantly sketching during my brief three day visit. Naturally I couldn’t wait to get drawing when I got back and made Paris my fourth summer project.