I’ve been framed!

Two frames arrived today from Frameshop.com.au. I’ve had hit and miss success with them; I’ve had two frames arrive broken in the past, but their prices are also very competitive, and so with trepidation, I decided to invest in another two frames for two Wandsuna illustrations. And they are beautiful; arrived safely and everything.

*

Wandsuna – Foxes Don’t Cry was the first non-pastel Wandsuna work that I illustrated, and I was kind of hooked on the ink -> watercolour pencil -> pencil -> acrylic -> etc. format and knew I’d have to revisit it. I love this illustration. So many foxes! So much red! Foxes! Red! And basically all my sophisticated thoughts drift off from there.

*

*

Wandsuna – Remember? is probably one of the most personal illustrations I’ve ever done, though the symbology for Wandsuna is quite complex, I still found it impacted people in personal ways as they watched the progress on Dreamwidth. The interpretation of the image by others was perhaps – is still, perhaps – my favourite part of putting a piece of artwork out into the world. It’s because of this that I still maintain a great reluctance to explicate the themes and symbols of the Wandsuna illustrations.

*

I feel the artwork should be able to speak for itself; and I feel the dream-like nature of the Wandsuna series reminds us all that all artwork speaks first to unconscious processes, and then to consciousness.

*

I’m happier than I thought I would be with this colour combination. The cream mattboard really brings out the cream/white costume, and that’s awesome.

*

*

I’ve been very much enjoying the wild, blustery Perth weather of the past 24 hours, and I hope it continues. FOREVER. Okay, but in all seriousness, I would not be upset if the rain continued FOREVER. Particularly if it remained blustery and there were overhead booms of thunder and flickers of lightning. I know storms can’t last, but one can live in hope! I imagine all the angry powerless flooded people will be knocking on my door soon with angry letters and glares.

*

I’ve been living wild in the wondrous music of:

*

Woodpigeon
Joe Hisaishi’s – Ni No Kuni soundtrack (NI NO KUNI! Is anyone else as excited about the English release of this video game for the PS3? Has anyone heard of it? You don’t know? OH MY GOD, MIYAZAKI AND STUDIO GHIBLI TEAMED UP TO MAKE A DS and PS3 FINAL FANTASY STYLE GAME BUT WITH THEIR STORYBOARDS AND MUSIC AND OH MY FREAKING GOD IT LOOKS AMAZING. The DS version has been getting great reviews so far.
Ludovico Einaudi
Robyn
And a bunch of other things.

*

I’ve started a Master of Communications, to complement my Bachelor of Communications, and mostly because I’m a total suckah for punishment. It’s hard work, but it’s also a lot like revisiting my old friends. Oh media theorists, I’ve missed you. *pets Fiske and Hartley.*

Too many rabbits…

Well, obviously:

I’ve been doing so much art and writing lately, that I’ve actually lost track of blogging here. That’s just… incredible. Along with the art and the writing, I’ve been going through something of a PTSD exacerbation since mid-December, and have been feeling less buoyant as a result (somewhat of an understatement). There was a trigger in real life that caused this (a catalyst you might say), so at least I have the ‘comfort’ of knowing it doesn’t come from no where. But at the same time, three and a half months is a long time to deal with an increase in all of my symptoms, from nightmares to bruxing to stomach upsets to flashbacks to losing time to just general miserableness.

*

So, I decided to get some of it out of my system, and returned to the cathartic and personally symbolic Wandsuna series. The Wandsuna series started around 1998, I believe, and back then it was exclusively limited to pastels. But the series has been evolving as I’ve been, and now we’re into inked, bulgy-eyed rabbits:

This illustration, entitled Wandsuna – Remember? is unfinished, and still needs to be coloured, but there is a liminal moment after inking and pre-colouring where I feel I have a finished piece before the piece is a finished piece. It drifts between being complete and not complete. I treat the inking process as a ‘completion,’ and intentionally put more detail into the piece than can be visibly seen post-colouring. We all have secrets. Even the Wandsuna pieces do. What can’t you see behind the colour, even up close? Well…

*

What you can see however, is too many rabbits.