Caitlin's Book / Petr's Entry

The world of dreams has always been an inspiration and a mystery to me. I love the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman and the work he's done with Dave McKean.

Caitlin's book came as an invitation to open doors - and so I decided to open doors to the world of dreams.

Coincidentally my friend Ruth excitedly shared with me last week that Tapir represents a dream-eater and/or dream guardian in certain Chinese myths. See her email with couple links:

This is the dream eating tapir reference
http://www.squidoo.com/tapir

BUT...even more interesting, in the Japanese version they eat nightmares. They are both mythological and zoological....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku_%28spirit%29
http://www.do-mana.nl/www.do-mana.nl/tapir.html

Hmmmm...even more interesting... 

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/baku.html

While I very much love collage (in the Dada context) I never used it much in my own work -so this has also been a door opener to broaden my expression. The piece features photograph, pen drawing, watercolour, cut outs from a 30s book on medicine and human body along with some Photoshop.

Loony Explorations, but do donkeys explore?

I was impressed, no, amazed today when I finally tuned in to our ELMLEsketchers blog after some passive weeks on my part. You chaps are tremendously clever.  Jen's raven sent me off into a sphere of birds, I took wing with a loon! I am not sure if donkeys are really curious but I found one in a magazine that looked as if he was "hungry for travel". I collaged it onto Caitlin's invitation to explore and I look forward to more of this creative stuff.

Stephanie's Book / Petr's Entry / Connectedness

We had a brief mail conversation about this with John some time ago - how this exchange is more to us than just creating one piece a month - at least for me it brought somewhat heightened awareness of the world - I find myself constantly visually mapping the outside and inside world of mine - constantly making connections! That's why this mini book from the legendary Mr. and Mrs. series by Roger Hargreaves killed me yesterday as I found it in my daughter's room - all's so interconnected, so tangled together...

From Raymond's Point of View

The weather in Nice has been gloomy which gives me an excuse to stay inside and do things like order gifts for family online, cook vegetable curry, read Runner's World and create. I've been nesting in a way. Not answering calls, not meeting friends for coffee. Basically, I've been a bad friend. I've been mildly self-absorbed which will, in a way, contribute positively to a small part of the world-my grumpiness won't rub off on others for example and I will have learned something that I can share. I think of the character, Raymond, who observes from his basement-he has started working from there too. Raymond came about when I started thinking about the prospects of shutting oneself off from the world. I would imagine this action could be easy with internet, grocery deliveries and imaginary friends. What if we had a balloon eye to watch it all? What if we could sit underground and watch from above? Community keeps us healthy and they say that those who interact with others live longer lives.

One of my friends was talking about his flat in Brussels where the bottom floor was underground. I imagine a little light shining through, mold and a radon detector. At least they had a trampoline in their garden for jumping to great heights. Raymond doesn't have a trampoline and I imagine that his lower back hurts from sitting and his legs are swelling as I write.

Another side to the Raymond composition goes back to my love of the writer Don Delillo and the idea of being watched. Some of my earlier works were inspired by his novel, Libra. Thus the eye and the industrial type building.