Water Babies

Playing with altered film stills.

The Water Babies.

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New Prints

A selection of recent, brand new prints have just arrived at the Art+Ghosts shop.

Little Apparition and the circular style Red Muses are my favourites :]

So frustrated with Facebook this morning. My status has been stuck at Monday since Monday evening. Basically, my posts won't update, and I have been really enjoying my mornings catching up with friends over there. On a positive note, I have just this moment re-activated my somewhat neglected Tumblr blog, which contains random images and inspirations from across the web. I may have mentioned in the past how Tumblr actually scares me, but how can I deny something oh so visually alluring? If only it was possible at least 3 times out of 10 to locate the actual source of an image.

I am nibbling fair trade double choc chip cookies. Drinking earl grey.

Also excited about a new pair of tights which arrived in the post this morning from Oregon's Sock Dreams. They are ludicrously 'Wonderlandian', diamond patterned tights. I doubt that I shall be hopping around Tesco in them, but they will certainly come in handy for creative photoshoots.

And don't forget that the competition to win one of the limited Art+Ghosts booklets is still going strong. Entries will close on Sunday afternoon, so lots of time yet..

xxx

Hello February

Webcam/photobooth photomontage.

Bobbed hair. May cut shorter yet. Either way, 6 frazzled inches of split ends are gone :]

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Under the Sycamore Trees

Because I can't remember...

And because I love this song

xxx

(Silence Fictions Series)

Feathered dark in thought

Red Haired Girls

 Red Muses

Islands of the Mad

Digital illustration.

I wanted to present them as large as possible, so please forgive the intrusive watermarks.

Title inspired by the colleced poems of Sylvia Plath.

Especially:

"....In faith

we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail

among sacred islands of the mad till death

shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real."

(Tale of a Tub)

"There is a panther stalks me down:

One day I'll have my death of him;

His greed has set the woods aflame,

He prowls more lordly than the sun.

Most soft, most suavely glides that step,

Advancing always at my back;

From gaunt hemlock, rooks croak havoc:

The hunt is on, and sprung the trap."

(Pursuit)

"...Feathered dark in thought, I stalk like a rook,

brooding as the winter night comes on."

(Winter Landscape, With Rook)

xxx

Gone Soleil

 

Gone Soleil. (digital painting for the Imagined Portraits series)

Up in flames.

Inspired by ball jointed dolls and Twin Peaks.

Seems as if I haven't created a painted portrait in such a long time, and this was something of a valiant effort considering my left arm and hand are still in quite a lot of pain. I'm not even sure what I think of the image, although I am really pleased by how doll-like she looks, and if I could design my very own doll, perhaps she might look very much like this!

It isn't a happy image, and it certainly isn't supposed to be 'cute'. I have never really understood dolls to be cute, they are really quite menacing at times, their symbolic relation to us so potent. This is why I love them so much.

Gone Soleil is lost in memory.

Innocence, lost.

Also, her hair is most likely the direct result of a recent passion to colour my own hair red. My plans were unceremoniously squashed upon visiting a trusted salon, where I was told in no uncertain terms that I would look absolutely dreadful. Apparently this has something to do with me having a cold complexion with rosy cheeks. I had previously thought that it ought to work so well, especially since my mother is a red head and has a very similar skin tone to my own. Alas, not to be. I had to transfer the obsession into visual form, so perhaps you will see more of the red haired league very soon!.

The following (altered) self portrait from a few years ago had convinced me that it might be a workable idea. Oh well.

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Tale of the Fox

Tale of the fox by Wladyslaw Starewicz (1930)

The following text has been copied from the Animatedclay.com archives:

"Have you seen the Tale of the Fox by Wladyslaw Starewicz? If not, you are missing out on one of the most amazing early films ever made in stop motion. It is actually one of my favorite all time films. Starewicz used so many ground breaking techniques in his film, from rear screen projection, long exposure blurs, flying rigs, moving backgrounds and excellent puppets. Harryhausen would have been proud to call this film one of his own. Here is a short historic description from the YouTube page:

This is the legendary feature film by Wladyslaw Starewicz. It is also his only one, and he directed it with his wife, Irene Starewicz. The story is an adaptation of a compilation or medieval French legends called Le roman de renart. Its an entertaining story, a social satire, but most of all a landmark in early animation."

To view all six parts, click here.

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Vanity Mirror

  Film, pentax, digital.

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When midnight comes around

I was lucky enough to actually see the Velvet Underground playing live at Glastonbury in 1993. Had to sit on somebody's shoulders in order to see the stage :]

xxx

Sparkle and Sleep...

Silly me left the tungsten setting on my camera. A few of my favourite things: soft, soft pillows and throws, pompom garland scarf, childhood guitar, beaded cat purse, doll mirror, fairy art by Henry maynell Rheam, glittering star mobile, H&M scent, Tintin books, shimmering lights and my kitten.

Watching Harvey with James Stewart. Again.

Listening to Future Days by Can.

Reading The Bell by Iris Murdoch.

Dreaming of an escape....

xxx