Making noise and dressing up

I do more than just sit around in my pajamas drawing pictures all day. Like playing in a protest Samba band, for instance. We recently played at the Summer Wildlife Carnival at the Waterworks Nature Reserve in Lea Valley Park to show our support for British wildlife and wild spaces in cities. I made paper masks for each band member to wear. Here they are from low to high on the food chain.

Animal: wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus)
Diet: seeds
Instrument: tamb

Caged Bird Club free graphic

Fountain Pen by Sav Kyriacou
Download pdf

Woody Guthrie wrote a song called Pretty Boy Floyd about the famous American outlaw. It tells of how he got into a fight with a deputy sheriff, killed him and had to go on the run. It then depicts his generosity to the poor as a modern day Robin Hood. There was a line that always struck me relating to the bankers who drove families from their home:

You say that I'm an outlaw
You say that I'm a thief
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.
Now as through this world I ramble
I see lots of funny men
Some will rob you with a Six gun
And some with a fountain pen.
But as through your life you travel
As through your life you roam
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

Now, where have I heard that before?

A tale of two cities in Yorkshire: Part 1 Shipley

A long weekend visiting friends in Yorkshire was tarnished by one of the most unforgivable crimes committed by the Coalition government so far: the passage of the nearly universally derided Health and Social Care Bill. This bill ramps up the march toward privatization, dismantling a national health care system that is the envy of people around the world.

Pivo & Flax: I never will marry

Needlework, like samplers have traditionally provided girls and women with a wholesome activity (preventing the devil from influencing their idle hands) and often included bible verses or quotes about morality. A quality sampler was also seen as an indication of how marriageable the girl who stitched it was and how ordered a house she would keep.

Saint Drogo

I was watching a documentary about Medieval Christian mysticism and the cult of the saints sounded a lot better than the cult of celebrity we are now expected to worship. Drogo is the patron saint of mental illness, coffee houses, sheep and unattractive people (I've illustrated him before the nasty accident he had on pilgrimage). More saints to follow.

the ghosts that broke my heart before I met you

Laura Marling's Ghosts and the imagery in the lyrics kills me (no pun intended). I love the idea of us all forever living with the ghosts of lovers who have broken our hearts and who's hearts we've broken. But that it won't ever stop us from loving again. I had to illustrate it. The video also has super-cute animation.