Art&Ghosts Blog

The Autumn Circus, and other stories..........

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The Art and Ghosts Circus are recruiting. (please see my profile for details of application). We do this every autumn. Autumn is when we come alive. That said, we already have a small number of new performers and friends that i would like to present to you this evening.

I decided to do away with props, backgrounds, the extraneous details, and even colour in some of these new images. I wanted to concentrate on the characters themselves, with a possible view to incorporating them into new scenes in the future. Muted hues and only the barest of details; this is the closest i get to actual drawing or painting (digitally, of course), working into the faces, expressions, hairstyling, etc. I had a lot of fun with these pictures! I literally had to get up and dance around the room, laughing out loud during the creation of some of them.......particularly the new Proud Sally outing, the Harpy, and a delightfully silly portrait of my friend Maren's cat, Milou....

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Sally Antoinette  

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Yes, Proud Sally, this time playing the role of Marie Antoinette. You may have heard of her ever-so-lofty film aspirations before, particularly her debut, but this is her all-time favourite part, her dream role, so to speak. Have you ever seen a more dignified portrait of an anomaly? Perhaps you have, but please don't tell her that, she is proud after all.....

Sadly, she could not be persuaded to have her hair 'done' Antoinette style. She is almost frighteningly particular about the elegant positioning of her ears.

The Somnambulist

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She's my new favourite.

I had great difficulty deciding upon hairstyles for this little madam, but i dare say that was 90% part of the fun. I finally settled for this curious little number, but i cannot tell you why; i think the incongruity of the hair flowing forwards kind of swung it for me. She is the masked somnambulist, nowhere near as sinister as the Dr Caligari variety, but far, far more mischievous.

I actually prefer some of these images without the distraction of backgrounds. I see them as a sort of sketchbook, of ideas, portraits of characters that might go on to perform in future works. Like Sally.

The Somnambulist is one of the more silent members of the Art and Ghosts Circus. She doesn't care very much for the company of the other circus members, or even our infamous Twilight Tea Parties. She much prefers to sit alone of an evening, playing with her cardboard cut-out shadow puppets by the light of a solitary candle, listening to the radio or the shipping forecast . A bit like myself, come to think of it.....apart from the shipping forecast part.

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Polar Girl

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Polar Girl thrives on the cold.

Please don't pity her condition, she is likely the most content polar-anomaly this side of the north pole. She is one of our sweetest new members, too. A warm, generous, lovely little thing, and a rather gifted storyteller. Since joining us, she has helped to curb the habitual bedtime naughtiness of our younger circus members by lulling them to sleep with her magical, warmhearted stories....tales of lost and found princesses and of hero's who journey across wild, raging seas just to comb the hair of their sweethearts in lost lands.

She also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in surreal folklore.

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Laura's Hair

 

Unicia

 

My unicorn child. Something like a cross between Bacchus and Pan, perhaps, but a little girl...not your average wood sprite. But i love her. Her creation was fraught with difficulties, particularly her legs ( i practically recreated the entirety of that cursed unicorn body with a digital pen and a rather wonky expedition with the smudge tool - best if you don't hear the details).

Another new circus recruit. Shy, conceited, just a touch. She also plays the pan pipes extraordinarily well. Some of the younger members are a little jealous of her, they have taken to tweaking their noses in imitation of her apparent snobbery whenever she passes by. Even her name is suspiciously snooty, the younger ones insist. I am hoping that she will integrate, eventually, join in with their more frivolous games, share those precious peppermint flavoured bon-bons....you know.

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Our very first Siamese sisters.

Meet the Emilia's. It may surprise you to hear that they are our most gifted of all performers, especially on the trapeze (The Art and Ghosts trapeze being renowned for its 'mysterious' ropes, which are reputedly suspended from thin air. Many have tried to debunk this 'myth', but to no avail, it is yet to be proved that anything is holding the ropes up at all...excepting the sheer mind power of the performers, but nobody likes to think about that one for too long).

The Emilia's are both Aries, born at the full moon... on a Tuesday i think it was. They have a great fondness for Regency furniture, fancy ribbons, papery ephemera and costume jewellery, all of which adorn the entire interior of their rather spacious, seven-cornered caravan. This particular caravan suffers from a somewhat poorly documented malady referred to (in magical circles only) as the occasional dubious enchantment - put simply, it was presented to the Emilia's as a gift from their maternal grandfather, The Weird Whistling Warlock.

A snippet of circus history:

This particular warlock was one of the greatest, most expensive circus performers of the last century. His speciality act involved separating the butter from freshly toasted crumpets with mind power alone. In private, The Whistling Warlock was a lovelorn, rather miserable old man, whose preferred mode of relaxation involved hexing the caravans of his fellow circus performers...... particularly those who possessed a beautiful wife and several healthy children. The Whistling Warlock's first and only wife had mysteriously disappeared in 1931. That very same year, a rather handsome young man known as The Flying Fox had caused a sensation all through the West Country with his daring renditions of the Dorset Jig (The dorset Jig is quite unlike the Irish Jig. It is also known to be hazardous to the ankles). The Whistling Warlock's first and only wife was last seen stumbling through a moonlit wood at half past two in the morning, laughing out loud at something just a few feet ahead of her that nobody else could see. (Although further reports suggested that whatever the nature of the invisible entity that had accompanied the Whistling Warlock's first and only wife through the moonlit wood, it had a curious habit of falling into the shrubbery at intervals like a man who had partaken of a few too many ales. Either that, or it was suffering from the preliminary stages of the Dorset Jig Ankle)

The mystery remains unsolved, but the Emilia's inherited their elaborately embellished home-from-home with this one and only drawback; said caravan still wears the evidence of a hex-gone-wrong, namely, a backfired spell. The Whistling Warlock was a genius with crumpets, but somewhat shoddy with the execution of practical magic. Nowadays, the sisters are quite used to the curious, changeable behaviour of their inheritance, but the seven-cornered caravan has a disconcerting habit of turning into a seven-and-a-half-cornered caravan whenever there is a sudden drop in temperature. Love or loathe the winter months, the Emilia's do find it all quite tiresome if truth be told.

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Enjoy your weekend!

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Oh, and i absolutely love Dorset. 

I want to go and live there, but i shan't.

Get acquainted with all manner of English and Cornish (West Country) folklore....here.

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The World at Large.............

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I am temporarily incapacitated by the heat, the humidity, a backlog of responsibilities, a teetering pile of commissions, The World at Large, and a Fox.

But today has been the most joyous of all days, for so many different reasons, not to mention a scattering of new creations......

Telepathy

 

Whenever i utilise twins, one of them will most often be blind.
I have my reasons, of course: this is more often than not a suggestion of what exists (or may exist) beyond the confines of ordinary 'sight'.
I made this image whilst listening to peculiar yet playful songs......i think the polka dot stockings might have evolved somewhere around Fairport Conventions version of ' Si Tu Dois Partir ' (Bob Dylan) and the White Stripes 'Jimmy the Exploder'.
Stranger things have happened............

Discarnate Deep
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Of dreams and the sea...... and when moons collide.

Titled by He Who Inspired It (Brandon).

Crimson Waltz
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Yet more dreams..........and crimson ideas.
I have recovered a passion for watercolour and acrylic washes. It could possibly be interpreted as an adventure with textures or a desire to fall through time.
I think i prefer the latter.



Harlequin

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A character from the story-I-never-wrote.
His passions are fairytales, anagrams, quicksilver and glass hearts.


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And finally, such gratuitous loveliness..........the kitten:)
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And speaking of gratuitous loveliness, a thoroughly unexpected surprise package of Alice related goodies arrived in the post for me this morning - a set of cards, a picture pamphlet and this mindnumbingly beautiful book by Suzy Lee...

(Leone, i am forever indebted to you for this...every particle of my being yells thankyou very much!)

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Meep!

I must apologise...I didn't photograph the images very well.

My concentration is kind of 'stacked crooked'.

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Enjoy!

And sleep well...


xxx

GhostsandArt

There's something about ghosts, it seems.

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(Green Ghosts/The children of Green Knowe, by me:)

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I am not really referring to the well-worn concept of the 'spook' here, but more so to my own impressions and feelings about ghosts.
To me, they are a beautiful metaphor; like fairies, in one sense, and really quite devoid of the usual macabre associations of which they are so famously related. I seem to have a natural predilection for all things spectral - this is quite evident in my obsession with ghost stories, ghost films and even more so, my art.

So what do they mean to me?
I'm still trying to work that one out! But i do believe that my fascination is primarily expressive of a more positive relationship to the theme, as opposed to a morbid fascination with fear, death and terror that might so readily spring to mind - although it must be said that i do enjoy cavorting with shadows on occasion, quite on purpose, because I am a law unto myself.  
I suppose, in many ways, that I'm leaning towards the poetical, the mysterious, the ethereal, the potential with my ghosts.
They allude to my dreams (in which i meet the deceased quite often), those fleeting wonders that assist inspiration, like thoughts and ideas made manifest...or almost.

And my cat likes ghosts, too, ok? especially White Ladies.

(I am also aware that the concept of 'ghosts' will have completely varied significance for each and every one of us (culturally, religious, etc). For some, they are the souls of the departed, electrical anomalies, the embodiment of horror, absolute stuff and nonsense, or manifestations of the unconscious mind, etc, etc. So i do not intend to start up a discussion about what ghosts actually are, by any means - i simply wish to waffle, as i am prone to do on occasion:)

The Playroom

I just like the idea of endless possibilities and potential. That child-like openness again, which i have mentioned before, creeping into my love of imagery and words. The above image encapsulates this very concept, for me. I was recalling a book from my childhood at the time, called 'The Children of Green Knowe' a story about a young boy who goes to stay with his old, eccentric aunt at an old English country house, haunted by the ghosts of three small children who had at one time occupied the very attic room where Tolly (the boy) now slept. Steeped in the type of fictional imagery that i adore (forests that whisper, rooms with secrets, hidden doors and curious creatures that inhabit ancient trees), this particular book, and it's long lost BBC dramatised accompaniment, must have had a great effect on me. And so have many other such stories and films; dark perhaps, yet rarely devoid of warmth, love and adventure.

Little Apparition


And this little wraith is one of my favourite ghosts of all. The stairs had collapsed inside of my dollshouse, so i decided to make the most of it! I cannot decide whether she is a visiting apparition, exploring the rooms of a home she once knew, or whether she is suspended in time, stranded at the scene of a previous existence which is no longer a part of this world.

I am also enchanted by the possibility of her actually being a living creature, dreaming this scene in which she appears as a projection of her self.
I have often flirted with this idea, especially after dreaming about the areas where i grew up. We had a farm, surrounded by fields and streams, rambling woods and long, winding dirt paths that lead to who knows where (I still perceive it with a child's mind). And when i dream of this place, which is quite often, i can almost imagine myself actually appearing there, as a sort of transparent, hazy figure, snooping around the hedgerows and apple trees...... which aren't even there anymore - they eventually tore it all apart and built a housing estate over the landscape of my memories, but such is life:(

The ghosts of memory - perhaps the most haunting of all.



Bridey's Ghosts (Garden Dreams)

These were taken from a project that i worked on with a friend, consisting of paper collage, photography and crepe paper.
'Bridey's Ghosts' was the story of a girl's transition from innocence and naivete towards self knowledge and awareness. The process is painful but also quite beautiful, and that, of course was the entire point. The images utilised the ghost metaphor throughout; allowing me to express the inexpressible, capturing those essential yet intangible landmarks and awakenings integral to a young womans life - in much the same way as a fairytale might utilise the motif of a frog becoming a prince, as a metaphor for transition.

And so it seems, my ghosts are quite as often constructs of the mind and emotions, a visual representation of the transient, just as often as they are products of a playful imagination. I dare say they make up the more thoughtful, 'intellectual' portion of my works, at the same time attempting to throttle the intellect into giving itself up to the impossible.

I'm left handed, you know, it causes havoc ^_^

And my last ghostly offering for the evening....


Mirror with a Memory



What do YOU see in the glass?


I so wish that i could elaborate more on this theme, perhaps it could be part of another blog post.....especially my thoughts and musings with regards to the use of ghosts in film, literature and so on. But time will not allow it, alas, so please accept the following spectral weblinks as a humble expression of my apologies - i have some long, overdue art to attend to...and a handful of ghosts besides;)



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And now for those ghostie links...you know you want to:)


.  Ghosts in film

.  More ghosts in film

.  Ghosts in photography (like, really) sheesh!

.  The Ghost Story

.  Phantasmagoria (again!)

.  Edith Wharton - The Ghost Feeler

.  The Virago Book of Victorian Ghost Stories

.  Symbolist Art

.  Arthur Machen, also here

.  Ghostly Showgirls by gilfling

.  Print of Ghost by shannondzikas

.  The Ghostly Cradle by MarmeeCraft

.  Dancing Ghosts Mobile by collabolabo

.  Untitled Apple Doll Print by thisisblaise



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On that note i will leave you for the night!
Enjoy your bedtime reading:)

take care

xxx

Musings, and more tea.

I have been doing what i do best: drinking too much tea, tossing thoughts around like confetti.... idle musings that will somehow, more often than not, eventually transform themselves into something quite magical and productive. We hope.

My Tuesday musings:

. The photography of Lewis Carroll (or The Rev. Charles L. Dodgson, whichever you prefer)

. Rabbits; the loss of, the art of, the love of all things bunny.

. The music that infiltrates my imaginary worlds.

. A book, of magic.

. And Tea.

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So, i will begin with the Carroll Photographs, and the book that i still need to buy.

My thoughts?
I love them, of course. And yet i am somewhat disturbed by the controversy that occasionally surrounds this mans work and his adoration of children.
Do i think that there is anything essentially wrong with these images?
Certainly not.
To me, they are extremely beautiful, innocent, precious, and insightful.
When viewing Dodgson's images of children, i get the feeling that i am truly looking into another world, regardless of the date they were taken, the distance in time between my perusal of them and the actual events and 'scenes' depicted.
I sense a quest, a search for what it truly means to be a child. No banal smiles adorn the faces of his subjects, nor do they appear to delight in the fact that they are being photographed (ie. playing up for the camera). They are quite unlike any other portraits of children that i have ever seen.

His subjects appear almost detached from the photographer : as if they are just a little too relaxed, disinterested, perhaps, or simply so used to his presence that they have almost forgotten he is there. Their poses are often dramatic, romantic, whimsical....surreal. The children seem to have secret understanding of what the photographer seeks to capture...the ethereal, fleeting, and above all - the mysterious nature of childhood itself.
The children are seemingly introspective. They appear to have secrets, a storehouse of knowledge that they do not intend to share. They allow us to take a peek into their curious, private little worlds, only to withdraw immediately, coinciding at that very point where our adult understanding has reached its own, paticular limits. For this reason, they fascinate me, endlessly, almost as much as his stories.

I may very well be wrong in my 'reading' of these pictures, but this is how they make me feel, just my own particular interpretation, so feel free to disagree, of course!

And thankyou, kindly, to the wonderful creator of the Curiosities for scanning and sending these images my way:)
And i know that i have surely mentioned it before, but you really must see this site, not least because Lord Ogglesworth (a rather dapper owl in a top hat) will personally answer all of your burning philosophical questions via email request. I tried him just last month, and i can proudly report that my life has taken a decidedly knowledgeable turn for the better:)

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The Rabbits.
They're everywhere. I didn't quite know just how everywhere they truly were until somebody mentioned it to me, like

"Hey, Louise, what's with all the rabbits, hoh?"

My answer could be taken like this -

My Rainy Day Rabbits

 

They just happen.
And i'm mighty glad they do!
I particularly love the little one at the back here. She seems to be the only one who has any concern for the absconding umbrellas.
A little secret - their eyes are all my own. Except ultra blue, because mine are merely a basic kinda blue. I keep doing this; putting images of my own eyes into my collages. Surely there is a psychobabble-able theory about this lying around somewhere, but if you find it, i don't wanna know!

The first and last time that i actually shared my life with a real rabbit was when i was eight years old. We lived on a farm, so there was a menagerie going on, much to the consternation of my poor mother, who complained eternally about us never having the free time to take proper holidays, like 'ordinary' people. Well, my rabbit, Misty she was called, came to a horrifyingly untimely end between the jaws of our semi-domesticated tom cat, kitty (originale!). I used to have an old Polaroid image of me holding her on my knee, which was very dear to me, but i lost it some time ago, sadly.
But no, i dare say my rabbit obsession does not spring from unresolved grief.
We had so many animal friends that i was quite accustomed to their lamentable short-gevity by the age of about four.

So perhaps it came from elsewhere.....the great elsewhere that i use to explain pretty much most of my strange art. But as long as it keeps me happy......

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The music that illustrates my imaginary worlds?

Try this, and im rather partial to a bit of Saint Saens too, especially his Danse Macabre.

And speaking of the musically inspired....

Twilight Symphony 1 & 2

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And finally, the book of magic!
This, poorly translated, involves my collaboration with the beautiful Marinkel (Maren), a sweet (yet darkly) illustrated book of fiction, Tapestries.

A painfully haunting yet perfectly beautiful story about a young girl called Aurelie, and her curious relationship with Chione, a forgotten, antique doll that Aurelie accidentally discovers whilst sneaking around inside of her mothers old armoire.
Why should you read it?
Well, Chione is actually conscious, endowed with perfectly tuned vocal chords, and has something to reveal to Aurelie that will change her life forever.
And also you should read it because it is a damn fine work of art!

Oh, and i am 'Estrella' by the way:)

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And now, the aforementioned Tea.
I must go and make some!

This post turned out to be ever-so-slightly longer than anticipated. 
I apologise to each and every one of your eyeballs in advance.
When i start to waffle, i really do waffle.

Enjoy your evening!   

xxx

My favourite work by Julie Morstad.

Newness !!!

Welcome to my brand new blog!

I am still flying around and obsessing over the knowledge base, but something tells me i quite like it here and will soon be something close to organised and settled.
I would say that i am about 60% established, with only a few categories and links to bring over from my old blogger pages, which i intend to keep running (without posting) for the sake of posterity, and also to have access to previous posts and comments.
I spent many hours designing and printing new business cards a few nights back, so you can imagine i'm none to joyous about having to redo them all with my new blog address, bah!
But slowly, slowly, it will happen....

Lots of postal joys too, today! (and yesterday)
My new Amazon order arrived, which contained 4 wonderful books that will be joining the steadily growing queue of other wonderful books that are teetering in a tall pile beside my bed, awaiting long, overdue attention.
Two of them were by Neil Gaiman: I'm new to this writer, but i expect good things!

The other Gaiman book is Coraline, a book that i have been meaning to purchase for a very long time.  Well now i have it, at last!
I also ordered two good old fashioned compilations of ghost stories (im an addict, particularly for the Victorian/Edwardian variety) by Sheridan Le Fanu and E.Nesbit. Le Fanu is one of my all time favourites.

And yet another delight : the arrival of two exquisite art prints from Marjorie (marmee craft).
The Good Lace Collar and The Red Balloon -  
And oh dear, i find myself drawn towards this now...........

I like it when a postman can make me smile.

I would also like to share this little picture of my cutie Mirlo before i sign off.

The little black prince and his ultimate favourite toy - the mechanical white rat (which dashes about the room like a maniac when fully wound;)
Also pictured are a few sheets of giftwrap that i bought today, which of course he likes to covet, simply because it is new, and mine, and he knows how good he looks sat posing beside it like a perfect little statuette. He is quite the neatest little soul i have ever known.
Right this moment, he lies curled in a little C-shape beside me, uttering occasional kittenish squeaks to let me know just how adorable he really is. As if i didn't know. The thing about cats is, they like you to know it just a little bit more than you did just a moment before.

And finally, for today, i must thank every last one of my blogger contacts and friends for supporting my work and endless ramblings over at my blogger pages for the duration of my short stay there, and i hope to see you over here very soon!

(especial thankyou's to Emily of the blackapple and Marjorie of marmee craft for typepad advice and guidance!)

And fiiiiiiinally, thankyou eternally to Brandon, for so gently guiding me through the underworld (blogger template) almost all of yesterday, and also for introducing me to this........

Until later,
Enjoy!

Lou xxx