Category Archive

I am a huge fan of the Little Chimp Society and have been an avid reader since it’s very early days. So I was shocked to discover this…..

“Last week a British illustrator called Jonathan Edwards informed me that he had come across a book that contained his illustrations along with other illustrators work. He contacted me because the book titled Colorful Illustrations 93°C is also riddled with interviews that he recognized as being the interviews I conducted for the LCS”
Darren Di Lieto

…. on my last visit to the site.
Incredible to think someone would and DID plagiarize a website of it’s contents, interviews and images (apparently there is a CD of files with names matching those on the LCS site) and take it to a publisher, produce, print and sell it.

Darren is a huge supporter of illustration and has spent the last three years compiling, editing and publishing interviews and illustration inspiration online, he has sent out a plea to anyone who could help him remove this book from the shelves and/or with legal issues, see his blog here.
There is also a link to all the pages here. I did have some images on his site some time ago but it doesn’t look like I’ve I’m in there, Darren is now going through the painstaking process of contacting all the illustrators who have been published. The internet is certainly a ‘brave new world’ in terms of copyright and plagiarism.

And of course, whatever you do, don’t buy this book!

When making the bed or sitting in hours of traffic, something I have done way too much of this past week, I am acutely aware that I will not be getting those wasted minutes back. Hope you don’t feel the same way after watching ‘Cat’s Guy, parody and satirical comedy are worth something, sitting in a car and folding sheets neatly, in my opinion, aren’t.

Unfortunately the original title sequence of ‘Cat’s Eye’ is ‘no longer available’ on Youtube so you’ll just have to trust me that this is an excellent take off.

I used to love watching this show when I lived in Japan, I am pretty sure it was on every year over the New Year break. I shudder to think how many hours go into preparing for most of the performances but the winner gets a big novelty cheque at the end, so it must be worth it. Some of them are so incredibly ingenius… there are plenty more here too if you want to check them out!

Little Red Riding Hood - Anabuki Construction

The title of this post comes via the local newspaper in my area, one whole page of articles with that exact headline. Obviously they ran out of time before going to print…. as have I recently…..

::Kimono Hime::

My creative life of late has been eclectic, explorative, fickle, haphazard but most of all frustrating. Fear not dear reader, as I do know that some hidden progress is being made, but I seem to have lost my way somewhat due to an overall need to re-organize and evaluate. Seems I have also spread myself so very thinly professionally that nothing I produce has been given the right amount of ‘baking time’ … under and over-cooked images proliferate. The four works I have added here were all created this weekend. Haven’t even had time to evaluate them myself but am just happy I took the time to just sit and draw and think.

::Character Fever::

::A little Salaryman told me::

::Chinese Whispers::

Crayon Physics Deluxe

Ever since watching ‘Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings’ as a teeny girl (I was teeny btw) I have dreamed my drawings could come alive one day, and not just in my imagination, maybe it will soon come true. Now they only need add some AI along with the physics and we may just be able to chat to our creations too, just like Simon.

I also started a new series I have been walking around with in my head for some time, it finally got a chance to come out this week so I could enter it in this.

“Folklore in Ehime prefecture, Shikoku, Japan tells of a female ghoul, who has on her head a huge and terrible
mass of mobile hair, each serpentine strand tipped with a sharp, barbed hook. She is fond of tormenting and preying
upon young men.
Appearing on roads as a beautiful woman, she laughs derisively at whoever strikes her fancy, and if he makes the
mistake of laughing back, she lets down her deadly hair and gives chase”. (Text from www.obakemono.com).

The rich history of Japanese folklore is littered with ghost tales just like these … begging me to illustrate them … a close friend of mine has also been begging me to illustrate them so consider it a beginning D!

I also managed to dress myself in yukata and head on down to the ‘Osaka Twilight Festival’ where I met my neices, that’s AI2, Arare and me all matching on a rug:

BTW you can download a clunkier prototype of the game above here. 

Here is yet another irregular post for your reading/viewing pleasure.

I was recently interviewed by the awesome Brad Eastman for weAREtheIMAGEmakers as I currently have some works on show at aMBUSH gallery for the new WATIM show “Grrls”. Above is one of the new works I recently created for the show “Cry Baby Koi”… this hybrid had been swimming around in my head for some months so I was happy to let it out….. the rest can be found on my Flickr page.

Check out Issue 14 for my verbose answers. The exhibition itself is on for another two weeks in Waterloo, Sydney.

Lately, I have been very preoccupied as to how to work on my productivity and creative output of late and have also been distracted with random thoughts on my dna … as in my ancestry. I recently got an email from a medical student in Florence, Italy who requested the use of one of my illos for her blog, in my reply I made a passing comment on how my surname ,Innocent, somewhere way back was apparently once Innocenti. Her reply was a surprise to me :

“Your surname, first of all in its “Innocenti” form, is very very common in Florence in particular. I’ve written much about that. There was here an important institute, the “‘Spedale degli Innocenti” (that’s the Italian standing for “hospital for innocent people”) - still existent - which took in orphan-children. They grew up as they could (there are even now a lot of stories circulating about their poor life with no family no freedom) and they were all given the “Innocenti” surname in order to make them recognizable for their origin and enough rejected. The Innocentis living at the moment all over the world probably represent the discent of all those poor children belonging to the ‘Spedale and to noone else.

I find it’s nice to see life expressing itself in any case.
Isn’t there some magic? :)”

Is it wrong that I feel overjoyed at having come from a long line of abandoned and/or orphaned children… so much drama and intrigue…..and, dare I say it, magic too.

Another issue I have been pondering, related more to memes than genes however, was that of ‘latent inhibition’. When I first heard this phrase I guessed it had something to do with how shy you were… when in fact it has more to do with how you see and process the world around. Everyone needs a certain amount of ‘filtering’ the huge amount of visual information that we are subjected to on a daily basis and the more ‘latent inhibition’ you have the less you are distracted by it. ‘Low latent inhibition’, believed to be linked to some mental disorders, is when an individual finds it difficult to filter and block out some or all of this information thus creating a chaotic and/or mind numbing state. More info here.

“In recent years Low Latent Inhibition is being looked at as less of a mental disorder, in the past it was often confused with schizophrenia, ADD, Bi-Polar disorder, and even Depression.” Wikipedia.

Suffice to say, this answers many questions about how personality and creativity are linked. Food for thought me thinks.

Hope you are making happy pictures!

::i can has maneki neko!::

I rang in the New Year in our backyard in 40 degree heat, entertained by my neices… seriously hilarious… they had us on the floor laughing until our sides ached. Nothing like an insight into the minds of a 9 and 6 year old and their reaction to the media they are bombarded with on a daily basis. The performance ran like a American reality tv show but was pleasantly infected with some ironic Australian ’shitstirring’. Nice.

I have spent the past week and a half madly piecing together the long list of notes and ideas I took during my last trip to Japan and connecting these with current themes running in my work… no easy task due to the chaotic nature of my scribbles and shorthand and disconnected feelings that come with travel.

I also finally got to visit the Japanese T-shirt Mart Aoi(review) and (website) in Exhibition street where my friend Ryohei has been working. Highly recommended. Ryohei asked me “Why did you want to live in Japan” … ah if I had a dollar. He also asked “Why do so many westerners like Japanese stuff”… again if I had a dollar… but this time I thought long and hard about it only to realize that to answer from my perspective only does not suffienctly answer the question in a way that could truly satisfy Ryohei’s, and now my own, curiosity on the subject. At it’s most basic explanation, mine is based on childhood experiences, friends and family influences and there is no one ‘defining moment’ that stands out, and so if anyone out there has their own musings on the subject please post a comment.

I do remember reading an awesome comment ‘Coop’ posted on Boing Boing some months back that I found summed up some of my feelings on the subject quite succintly:

“I never cease to be amazed at the ways that the Japanese recombine and reconfigure completely foreign elements in ways that are alien to western sensibilites, yet still manage to create new hybrids that are completely droolworthy in their coolness. Example? Limited-edition, handcrafted punk rock fishing lures. My brain hurts. “

This is also something I strive to do with my own work.

The question was still bouncing around my brain the other night when I was finally reunited with the issue of Wired Magazine* I purchased prior to my flight to Japan so many weeks ago… there it was half read… “Manga Conquers America” and “Japan, Ink: Inside the Manga Industrial Complex”. Both brilliant reads on on the subject…. and hats off to the writer Daniel. H. Pink for the second article. Although hard to summarize here it is basically an insight into the world of dojinshi in Japan and how this homemade industry of writers, illustrators and publishers feeds back into the commercial publishing houses and vice versa, all the while, copyright laws and licensing issues are being broken and ignored.

Here is just an excerpt:

“Imagine Disney’s response if some huge comics convention in St. Louis or Houston were selling exquisitely rendered, easily identifiable comic book versions of Mickey Mouse and Goofy falling in love. Picture the legal department at United Feature Syndicate hearing about someone selling $6 books that show a buxom teenage Sally and a husky teenage Linus canoodling on a beach. The violations at Super Comic City were so brazen and the scale so huge — by day’s end, some 300,000 books sold in cash transactions totaling more than $1 million — that just about any US media company would have launched a full-metal lawsuit to shut the market for good.

Why aren’t Japanese publishers doing the same? I posed that question to two of the main organizers of Japan’s dojinshi gatherings, Kouichi Ichikawa and Keiji Takeda.”

It’s true just look at ‘Steamboat Willie’ as one example…. and the irony is that ‘Steamboat Willie is actually a parody of a Buster Keaton film ‘Steamboat Bill Jr’!?!? Didn’t Walt Disney spent the majority of his career retelling stories just as the dojinshi publishers do? Might leave that one there for all to ponder…

I also wanted to include a couple of links to two artists I rediscovered lately ‘Suehiro Maruo’ ….positively and deliciously, ghastly works! And the soft and alluring illo’s of another fav of mine Sayaka.

And finally here I am interviewed in a wonderful online magazine called ‘Blanket Magazine’... Aqua issue, Release 2 or download the pdf here.

*Awesome magazine I would love to illustrate for… nudge, nudge, wink, wink …

Ncha! He, he… (cough, cough). Well coming to the final leg of our tour here in Tokes and it’s getting a little nuts… why innocentgirl insists on a shopping frenzy just before she leaves and then discovers it impossible to carry home I don’t know!

Saturday 8th : We wake up, but not so early as we are still feeling the head colds, and get ready to head out into the streets of Shimokitazawa with Little Brother for some hardcore shopping. We prepare ourselves for this with a coffee at the cafe just opposite some shops in the street that leads to the station. innocentgirl notices some colourful buckets in one of the shops and says that they look really cool … next minute some passersby stop and assess the buckets, they buy one, no sooner has that person left than another does the same, and another… even Little brother is eager, he runs over and grabs the last purple one…. it’s become a bucket frenzy! It would appear innocentgirl’s powers of persuasion are quite strong today. If only she would use them for good and not consumer evil!

With coffees finished and buckets acquired it’s time for shopping. Christmas presents, clothes and some seemingly ‘useless’ items are the order of the day. Big brother has asked for more t-shirts from a cool little shop called ‘No more tears’ so we spend endless hours messing up neatly folded shirts, buy some and head off for more shopping. Basically what Shimokitazawa doesn’t have… isn’t worth buying.
That night we head to Shibuya to the bar of a guy we met in the Yakitori place just opposite Little Brother’s apartment… it turns out to be a huge restaurant and he’s the chef! Even though the place is packed they find us seats and treat us like royalty. At the end of the night the chef takes us to the register, bows and says it’s all on him!
We head back to Shimokitazawa on a train, packed with people, I am squashed in my bag and almost seperated from innocentgirl in crowd… just when you think no one else could fit in suddenly the doors open and more people cram in. innocentgirl tells me she always has the urge to start singing out loud just ’cause everyone is so quiet and trying to avoid looking at everyone else.
We have a couple of drinks at Little brother’s favourite bar ‘Ma and Ka’s’ and have some laughs with the bartender and the regulars that are frequently attached to the counter. Since I lost my shoes and I kinda look pathetic I have started asking for money… it’s a new trick I learnt. Whenever I meet a new person I ask them for money and if they give me some (I have a little bag) then I give them a kiss. I really ham it up and the other night I earnt 726 yen! innocentgirl says she felt a little uneasy about the whole thing but I’m totally fine with it.
The funniest thing was one guy innocently mentioned that he wanted a kiss from innocentgirl instead…. so funny when Little Brother swung his head around, stared him in the eye and said “What!”. Even funnier when he stood up, towering over him, and grabbed him by the collar… he he he… totally joking of course but the guy was really sweating bullets. Ha, ha Little brother is so funny!

Sunday 9th : We get up, drink coffee again and leave Little Brother at home cleaning while we head off to the Nurie Museum (a museum about colouring books!). It is hard to find and really tiny but there are lots of works on the walls and everyone is really friendly. The museum, although about colouring books in general, is dedicated to the works of Tsutaya Kiichi… innocentgirl has always loved his illustrations and was happy to see them up so close.

Then it’s off to the Edo Tokyo Museum, which is right near where the sumo train, we got to stand next to two big guys on the train ride there.. innocentgirl was fascinated by their perfect hair juxtaposed against their totally mashed, cauliflower ears….at the musuem innocentgirl saw the works of Hokusai and some really cool artifacts from the Edo Period… I, however, was left in a coin locker….huff!

It was getting really late and innocentgirl remembered she still had to pick up her portfolio from the Chance 10 exhibition at Gallery Lele… we made it with 2 mins to spare. Heading back to the station we went to the little coffee van that sits opposite the station entrance… best coffee in Tokyo… seriously. We stand there in the cold warming our hands on the cup and sipping our latte when a girl, who is also sipping away, asks innocentgirl where she is from… thus begins a conversation. We find out she was a ballerina her whole life until she broke her back, since that time she has travelled and lived in Switzerland, now she is back in Tokyo but wants to live in London and teach Yoga, her mother runs a macrobiotic restuarant in Tokyo and that is her part time job. We both agree that Tokyo is wonderful but with all that there is happening, but often people work too hard and make very little time to meet new people…. so many people but so much loneliness.
When we get back to Shimokitazawa we have a soup curry with Little Brother and then head back for an early night.

BTW innocentgirl was recently on the Awagami blog, cool! …. byecha! See you in the Antipodes!

Ncha! Achooo! We are kind of not function right now…..

Well it would seem all the cold air and walking and meeting and greeting and stuff has led to me and innocentgirl getting colds.
Still we must soldier on….
Here are some of the reasons we might be sick…achooo!

December 4th : After losing my shoe (and much complaining on my part) we headed to Tokyo station to meet our friend Kumi and Hime!! Hime is my bestest friend in Japan and we always have a good time. We drove out to Chiba where we had dinner with lots of lots of old friends… dinner was Shabu shabu.. you know “What kind of restaurant makes you cook your own food?” Bill Murray in Lost in Translation.
A boy called Pinku came and Jun and Ishida san and Akane chan and Yuriwa chan and even Dai chan. It was a great reunion followed by drinks at Joint bar and watching some weird Reggae dance competition of some girls wearing not many clothes… humans are so funny!
Yuriwa chan as a teeny tiny apartment but we managed to share a futon and a kontatsu together that night.

December 5th : We woke up kinda late, after getting to bed at 4pm, actually I didn’t want to get up at all until I found out we were having Tarako Pasta at Hime’s favourite restaurant. So good, then we had cakes too!
It was so cold and we couldn’t decide whether to go to an onsen or Disney Sea so innocentgirl got out her Magic 8 ball… best of three decided ‘Disney Sea’!
So we all packed into Kumi’s car and headed along the bay where we had some drinks in the bar there while we waited for the after 6pm cheap pass. Wow, Disney Sea was just as innocentgirl and I suspected… a totally surreal and bizarre experience. Everyone seemed really happy but it was the kind of happiness that is more of a maniacal grin than a smile. All the buildings are kind of twisted like cartoons and everything is just a little bit off in size… really kind of ‘uncanny valley’.
The rides were insane : ‘Tower of Terror’ which is a freefall drop in an elevator, ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ and some others I can’t remember the names of… all of them included a running commentary with intermittent screaming by Kumi… we all laughed more than we screamed really. We saw some show on the big lake which apparently had Mickey and Minnie singing… I got bored though… jeebuz those guys are such showponies sometimes.
We got back in the car and headed back to Chiba around 10 pm or so and ate some awesomely good Japanese food before heading off to share Yuriwa’s futon again. I realize it’s been some time since I laughed this much, something about Hime and her friends make me feel like I have no cares and I just laugh and laugh at their funny stories.

December 6th - Wake up feeling really sore and tired. Seems we have both caught colds…. we manage to find our way back to Shimokitazawa where we both fall onto the bed and sleep for a few hours. We grab a conbinni bento… so good to be able to find healthy food in a convenience store, that really is convenient! When little brother finishes work we go out to eat Oden, which is basically a whole lot of yummy things floating in hot water and you pick what you want. Seems little brother had a big night the night before so we are real keen on both getting a good nights rest…. ahhh, oyasumi!

December 7th - Off to Shibuya… we check the Tobacco and Salt museum but the lady says they don’t have my shoe … poo! Down the street though at Tokyo Wondersite is a real cool exhibition on Digital art… they have games on DS and even a Wii that makes waves in a ukiyo-e picture… yatta!
As promised innocentgirl takes me back to Harajuku where she buys me a new outfit… finally! She also buys some real cool toys for her nieces and nephews.

innocentgirl has been taking lots of notes and scribbling little pictures all the time… she tells me lots of new illustrations will be on the way soon!

We have more photos at flickr too…. until next time … ncha!

Ncha! Hi, Arare here in Japan.

Here is some of the stuff we have done so far and don’t forget to check our flickr page too:

Wednesday 21st : arrived. Meet little brother and Tomo… ah, good to be in Tokyo again.

Thursday 22nd : Wandered the streets of Shimokitazawa getting lost and found and going in circles. Eat Mister Donut and buy knick knacks. Got ready at around 6pm and head into Daikanyama for the opening of Chance 10 Gallery Lele where innocentgirl’s portfolio is on display.

Friday 23rd : Public holiday here in Japan so woke up late and wandered down the street for coffee with little brother. So funny when we took him to the station and there was the big brother waiting. Ha, ha, ha… surprises be of much goodness. Then it was all day shopping, eating Mister Donut, playing in game centre’s and exploring Shimo again. Gyoza restuarant dinner, drinking at an Okinawan bar and late night karaoke. Got home around 3pm climbed into the futon and went straight to sleep.

Saturday 24th : Woke up early again and the apartment was getting real squashy with four people. It was like playing human tetris! Big brother came with us to Roppongi to visit the Mori Arts Center. The exhibition “Roppongi Crossing 2007: Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art” was pure brilliance… lots of fun interactive stuff! We even went in a wind tunnel that replicated what Hurricane Katrina might have been like. Then it was off to Kawasaki to meet a friend of younger brother who has a new baby… I wanted to take the baby home but they wouldn’t let me… strange, ne? I was dragging my feet by this time…. so much walking and really cold as I was still wearing my summer yukata but then younger brother took us to an all night crepe place run by a really cute old lady with eyes that go in different directions. How clever!

Sunday 25th : The skylight above my futon is waking me up early every day and the novelty of this has begun to wear off now… but it’s and up and getting ready for the ‘freaks’ (what big brother calls them) at Harajuku. He, he… I even got a photo with them. The best part of all was the trip to Kiddyland where innocentgirl bought me a winter coat… so cozy now and I even have ear muffs! We also checked out Design Festa gallery and saw live painting and drank a really yukky coffee.

Monday 26th : innocentgirl and big brother take me to Akihabara where they visit a maid cafe. ‘They are such otaku sometimes!’. When I introduce myself to the maid’s they go crazy with love for me… we got a picture taken and we learned how to speak otaku… ‘moe, moe!’ Then we spend the afternoon eating bento in Inokashira Koen in Kichijoji, so lovely. On the way back we visit Nakano Broadway… more otaku stuff, innocentgirl looks for more Arare goods but can’t find any… ‘I’m really rare!” We decide to head to Chiba to visit Jun at his bar, Jun can’t believe its really me and has to pinch me to make sure… more surprises! We meet a real crazy plumber with a broken finger who keeps hugging big brother and looks drunk but he explains to us origin of otaku and for the first time I really understand it! We stay in a hotel… I am thankful our room doesn’t have a skylight.

Tuesday 27th : Big brother shoots lots of video’s in and around Chiba port… I don’t exactly know what it’s for but some kind of art project I suppose. innocentgirl and big brother talk alot about that kind of stuff. The train ride takes us past Tokyo Disneyland and back into Tokyo again. We head on in to see some exhibitions, the one in Daikanyama and another in Hatsudai at the ICC. This one is way cool!
Big brother is leaving tomorrow so he goes home to pack all his items while I head off to meet the Cotton’s or Martine’s bday party in Shinjuku. They all came as a surprise for Aunty Marty who turns 40 on Wednesday! Happy Birthday!
Meet big brother and little brother on the way back and have a drink at a bar called Ma and Ka’s…. big brother is still packing when we get back, he’s so funny how he’s always crazy rushing. He has to take a train at 5am!

Wednesday 28th : Wake up really late… yay! Sleep is good. innocentgirl catches up on emails and stuff while I go done to get a bento and coffee for lunch. It’s fun to just sit and listen to the Tokyo sounds outside, kids running home from school, neighbours talking and shop keepers spruiking. We have a nana nap together and then head on in to Shibuya for Tokyo Dr. Sketchy! Crazy fun but innocentgirl forgets I am in the bag and sits on my head while she draws…. I forgive her though when she tells me she won a prize for her sketch and my head doesn’t hurt ’cause its made of plastic anyhow. Tokyomade goodies were being handed out and we meet Deanne who runs the site. Very cool goodies… check it out!

Anyway that’s all for now… bye bye cha!

::Me in the green room waiting to go on, Oat Montien to my left, Michael Birchall to my right, Daryl Prondoso walking through and Dave Follet’s knee. Photo courtesy of Cut and Paste::

Last weekend I headed up the Emerald City to participate in Cut and Paste. It was a weekend of intense nerves that had me wired as well as enormous fun and happiness at meeting some extremely talented and beautiful people….. such as:
Matt Huynh - winner
Morten Rowley - finalist
Haline Ly - semi-finalist
Daryl Prondoso - Audience winner
Dave Follett
Michael Birchall
Oat Montien

The best bit, I won myself an awesome new Wacom® Intuos3 9″X12″ Tablet, just the piece of hardware I need for making some nice, new, happy pictures!
Thanks Cut and Paste and thanks Sydney friends for the couch!

I will be stepping back for a bit from the blogging in the coming weeks but that’s not to say less will be posted, instead I am going to let Arare chan do the talking since she has more authority on the subjects coming up, she’s tugging at my sleeve now in anticipation!
Until then … bye cha!

Tag Rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.

2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.

4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My 8 random things:

1. I name my freckles/moles/beauty spots. I have fair skin and seem to have inherited some random chocolate coloured moles from my grandma. I remember being fascinated by them when she held me close when I was little. I recently noticed a new one close to my bellybutton and I named her Samantha, don’t ask me why. There is one on my back that transformed into a butterfly once so her name is Chou chou.

2. I love Arare chan from the Dr. Slump manga/anime series. I first saw it at about age 8 when my friend, Cheryl, had videos sent to her by her relatives in Hong Kong. It’s quirky humour made me laugh then and it still does now.

3. I think alot, dissect everything, have an internal monologue that often escapes and has me talking to myself out loud (usually in Japanese), often it’s about random stuff but sometimes about mind bending stuff like “If the light from those stars is millions of years old what does it really look like now?”, “Where does the wind come from?” and “What did I do before the internet to find answers to my random thoughts?”.

4. I believe in ghosts, not floating sheets, just spirits. I don’t believe in heaven and hell however.

5. My favourite pair of underpants at the moment are the Spiderman ones I bought in Japan. They fit real snug and are Y-fronts, which is purely aesthetic considering I don’t have a penis or unless I purchased one of these.

6. From the age of nine to about nineteen I tried to avoid smiling as I broke my front tooth in a bike accident and had a horrible yellow replacement. I have come to realize this had a fundamental affect on how I saw the world and how people saw me. I even told my Ballet teacher that I would not smile in the rehearsal but promised I would smile on stage….!?! When I look back at photos to be honest you can’t really tell.
I broke my $2000 crown last Christmas eve on a Gingerbread cookie I had baked a tad too long. Then I stuck it back on with superglue… will it never end!

7. My first crush on a ‘celebrity’ was at the age of 10, it was on Nik Kershaw. …how embarrassment!

8. I always carry a shit load of stuff with me wherever I go, I am constantly being asked why, it has taken me some time to work out but have come to the realization that when I leave I pack like I may never come back. I also hate to be bored more than anything else in the world so make sure I have at least a book, sketchbook, pencils, erasers, reference material, ipod, notebook, passport……etc. So all of you out there who keep commenting “Why do you have so much stuff?” there is your answer.

frangipani
pinku rocks
arumanda
halcyon realms
atariboy
Byron Scullin
mathieu tozer
Open Doors to Japan
…..consider yourself tagged!

Note : This is kinda one of those “You had to be there” posts.

Yay! Yesterday was my Birthday. There were many times when I was little when I often wondered what I would be doing and who I would have become when I was THIS old… if I could go back and tell me little self now I really don’t think I would have believed it. Or then again maybe my little self would, maybe it’s just my big self that doubts it.
In the morning I took some Birthday purikura with Arare and wandered towards the station to head into Tokyo.
I spent the afternoon wandering Daikanyama again and visited Gallery Le le, of course I stopped by my favourite coffee van to chat with Watanabe and get the best coffee in Tokyo. Later I headed off to an exhibition opening with my new found acquaintance, Shizu-san, she works for the Awagami paper factory here in Japan and is in charge of finding new artists who use their products. My brilliant printer Brian led me to her and she is truly lovely. We went to a small suburb of Tokyo close to Ogikubo Station, to a gallery called Youkobo and spent the early part of the evening chatting to the artists who have just completed residencies there and others that will be showing there very soon.

The conversation ranged from Tibetan Sand Mandala’s to the strange world that is the Tokyo art scene. I had to leave early as I had to meet Kumi at Shimbashi to take me back to Chiba for a Birthday party at Joint… I made a mad dash for the Yamanote sen and made it just in time, Chibiko came along too.

We got to Joint Bar around 10.30 pm and I was handed far too many wonderful presents by far too many wonderful friends and given far too many potent drinks. DJ Kumi, DJ Yasu and DJ Jumbo are the reason my body aches today… powered by the alcohol and good company meant I truly believed I could get away with dancing for 6 straight hours.
Kenji once again entertained us with his use of props and general child like enthusiasm towards all of us off our nuts and ready to play along.
The party ended with 5 am Ramen on Kumi’s request. For some insane reason the sun here rises around 4 am, this made me feel and probably look vampirish as we all poured out of the ramen shop at 5.30 and started to make our way home.
Jun and Kenji were still closing up Joint Bar when they shouted out to us that one of the cats (homeless kitties adopted by Jun) had just had a kitten. We all rushed to see it but were fended off by Kenji and rightly so… I wouldn’t want seven drunk strangers staring at me when I was only a minute old.
I did sneak a look when I picked up my bike this morning though. Four little kittens!!!

Another year older, an exhibition opening, new friends made, candles to blow out, ramen to eat, four kittens are born, someone wants to be added to my myspace, the guy in the booth next to me is snoring, I’ve added new photos to flickr and another sand mandala has been constructed and destroyed.
Little me is happy with big me.

Well, well, well… who’s lovely illo is that on the Portland Mercury you ask?
Well, it’s mine! A recent illo I did “Umeboshi Otaku” was chosen some weeks back… oh happy days!
So cool, so happy… now I wonder if the “Melbourne Weekly” might be interested?

… in other news I have three new works on show at Art Melbourne 07 at the Pharos Editions stand this weekend so if you’re in the neighborhood head on down and take a peek.

Tofu Donuts (from Mr. Donuts)

The donut that got me hooked… Tofu donuts!

Some weeks back I wrote about a question that had been making it’s rounds on some forums “Is Illustration dead?” I would like to continue my argument against the negative with a some very delicious looking works by some of my fav artists in the field. Exhibit A is part of the Artists Bar series of chocolates being sold at Alison Nelson’s Chocolate Bar in New York. Created by peeps such as Nathan Jurevicius, Gary Baseman, Toy 2R and Friends with You just to name a few, it gives me deep, mouth watering feelings of happy joy over the existence of such a commission. Lets Enjoy! Exhibit A!

Now I hate to get all, “When I was that age I never did that….” but my return to Western “civilization”? this year and some of the things I have experienced involving ‘young ones’ (a friend of my parents used to refer to us kiddies with this label when I was younger….and probably still does) has led me to ponder on the subject of childhood and the point at which it ends. It would seem that age is no longer a prerequisite for the following:
Wearing deodorant - my 8 year old niece will not leave home without it, apparently she has a sticky note attached to said deodorant saying “Do not touch, must use everyday”.
Shouting out rude remarks to strangers - on my daily walk around “The burg” I pass a primary school, on one occasion three boys, aged about 8 years old was my guess, shouted out “Nice Ass!” as I passed by… now I am not questioning the accuracy of this comment as my rear, in my opinion, is in fact rather nice, however I do not condone this behavior from a adult let alone an 8 year old child!
This one however takes the cake! In the early hours of this morning a 12-year-old self-taught driver went out looking for boys in her grandmother’s car and led police on a brief chase that reached 110kmh in a 60kmh zone. Read more here.
Apparently when apprehended she exclaimed ‘I’m just taking grandma’s car for a spin to meet up with some boys’. HUH! (ed)
Now please tell me, am I overreacting here, am I a prude, have a lost touch with the youth of today?
All I know is all of this makes me feel really old.

As I miss my Japanese TV so, so, so very much I find myself searching for episodes of my old favourites (ie: The Fountain of Trivia, Gakko Eko and Wakuwaku Doubutsu Land). I have written about ‘Fountain of Trivia’ before in my previous blog.. can’t get enough of that stuff. Great for those uncomfortable silences at dinner parties, eg: “Did you know that Salvador Dali designed the logo for Chupa Chups?” or “When you pull out a nose hair, your tears come only from the eye on that side?” You can’t tell me that won’t get people talking!

As is the nature of the internet in my travels I have found alot of obscure stuff, including this one entitled Funny Japanese Kid. Thought I would share it with you. If you listen real close in the last few frames I think you can even hear his tiny heart breaking. Kawaii so da ne!

Ah, summer in Melbourne. Hot asphalt, north winds and now … water restrictions. Stage 2. Joy.
Apparently my sister in law and two nieces went for a walk down the street the other day and AI2 (my youngest niece) spied a sprinkler in the front yard of someone’s house. “Oooh, look they have a fountain Mama!” …. AI2 is four years old, this misplacement of nouns was due to the fact that she has never in her life seen a sprinkler and so had no idea what to call it. Long gone are the days when my brothers and I would dance ‘nuddy’ under the sprinkler on a hot summers day.

In other news, entered two works, “Tanabata” (see pic) and “Momotaro”, to an exhibition at Intrude gallery last week. The exhibition entitled “Summer Samples”, is an open show and as long as the works were all under 22 x 22 cm they were included in the show. Not easy to find frames of this size, but I ended up finding them in one of the many 70’s style malls in “the burg”. The frames are strangling the works but it was the best I could do.

In an effort to move into a new phase of creation I have abandoned my previous blog “Curiouser and curiouser”, however if you are new to this blog and find what I have to say remotely entertaining you may want to view previous posts. If so feel free to head on over here.
Insert random cute picture here…..

The original Kewpie was created based on the original illustrations by Rose O’Neill, in the mid 1910’s, I have been a huge fan of these little dolls ever since I received my first Kewpie doll in the early seventies when I was a toddler, it came with a small Kewpie sized baby bath and sponge, often I would even wash my little brothers hair and scoop it up ‘Kewpie style’ with the shampoo froth. I didn’t really question the existence of the Kewpie or ask where it came from …it just was.

Whilst living in Japan and shopping around I noticed this cute little doll in many toy stores, aisles of them in fact. I even found one that had to be at least four foot high, I also noticed the Kewpie icon on several condiments in my local supa…the company being Kewpie Mayonnaise…. producer of the most delicious mayonnaise in the world (in my opinion). Of course, being Japan, this character was integral in the marketing and promotion of the products they had on offer and new toys were constantly being designed and limited editions released as part of promotion. Tarako being the most recent phenomenon.

What I didn’t know however, is that apparently Kewpies were the first case ever of merchandising based on a comic character. Incredible is it not? Rose O’Neill is credited with writing more than 5000 kewpie stories for magazines and with the subsequent creation of the first Kewpie toys (made of celluliod) they soon made her both rich and famous. This got me thinking…

Now, nearly 100 years later, thousands of designers are now turning their illustrated characters into merchandise through companies like ‘Flying Cat’ , craft blogs proliferate the web with women making ’softies’ and other merchandise, and it seems now to be taken for granted that illustration to merchandise is the next logical step for many of these creators. Even as consumers I am sure most people don’t question this phenomen too often either, and if you did I am guessing most people would have suspected Disney or another equally large corporation, most probably Japanese, to be the instigator of all this character merchandising.

I also recently read some statistics, did not bookmark the page however, on the internet that said that over 90% of the illustrators doing character design for merchandising in Japan are women…. interesting, ne!

To come full circle however I found this Japanese toy company, Buildup, on my travels recently and that’s what began this whole sojourn back into Kewpie land. See pic.

They have redesigned the Kewpie, naming them pikew’s, and given each an equally un-cute affliction. What would Rose say?