Art&Ghosts Blog

The Destiny of Trees, and other stories...

I appear to still be working with the 'nature' theme. Something stirs within me; my dreams, mysterious, are leading me through a vast, endless forest, populated with curious characters, ancient sounds, and that irresistible aura of adventure. Really.

And they tend not to quit on waking.

I have been furiously busy this past week (worrying myself purple over postal deadlines to boot). Working from home has this peculiar effect on me - it seems as though the work never stops. Ever. Perhaps I will get the hang of it eventually, who knows. At the very least i have enjoyed two exquisite, hedonistic, transcendental nights of unbridled self expression out of the past seven. I cannot complain, for somehow this 'restriction' tends to render the eventual creative liberty almost holy. I was literally drunk with inspiration by the time I could actually sit down and play with my pictures again. I imagine what might happen if you locked me up for a year then released me............it may strike you as over the top, but there's no denying a fact)

So, I continued (or elaborated upon) the nature theme. The concept of returning to nature, whether symbolically (as in the discovery of our true selves) or literally, as in a surrender to the passionate wilds (to which my heart belongs).

There.

And trees. They are a huge feature here. I am fiercely protective of them almost as much as i am of foxes. It often disturbs me, but so do most things that move me on a primitive level. A love that knows no restrictions, no bounds. And trees, they like me, too, I think. Well, they better had.

And this is the only way i know of translating such potent feelings - In pictures:

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And a Rose Grows Over the Stones

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Bliss is sifting through the rubble for that lost key.

OK, that wasn't entirely the point, nor was it terribly serious, but there is some truth in it. I think that i am attempting to illustrate the idea that the search for what we desire may as well be enjoyable...elevating even, an adventure. She knows, of course. She may appear blind, but this is simply my way of expressing the obvious; what she seeks in not without. The houses represent the self, although I'm sure that some of you are getting quite used to (or even bored with) my Jungian prattle by now.

I'm very fond of this image. It pleases almost as much as The Architecture of Dreams, which is possibly my all time favourite creation.

The Music Room

I love the idea of the hair becoming 'lyrical', or at least expressive of a state of mind. In this instance, we have very content hair that likes to dream. It has a penchant for sweet harmonies and sudden cessations of gravity. Poetry hair.

The Allure of Lost Lands

 

Something about this image moves me beyond words. It is the feeling alone that does this to me. Technically, I'm not so sure about her hair, or the horizon, yet it does not deviate remotely from the concept that inspired it. Liberation, a sense of belonging - to eternity, to the winds and the rain and the timelessness of the earth beneath your feet. The rhythm of the earth is in her blood. She is quite possibly Irish, of Erin, and not altogether mortal.

And now, a temporary break in the theme........some brand new anomalies and a portrait of 'Us':

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Penny Farthing

 

And finally, a somewhat deranged portrait of myself and the Kitten..

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A Portrait of Us

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This is hilarious! We both so seriously aspire to that luscious crimson love seat.

Heavily manipulated, apart from the boy.

Enjoy!

Loup xxxxxx

Wolf Lover Wallpaper for the Soul...

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New silhouettes.

TO VIEW THIS SET OF IMAGES, PLEASE VISIT THEIR FLICKR SET:)

Possibly illustrations for the fairytales i might yet write. Who knows? I couldn't quite resist playing with pattern as well as shape, hence the curious, wallpapery backdrops. I also like the idea of the process showing through, somehow. Not caring so much about the 'overlap'. I had a lot of fun with these (whilst listening to Amiina), so there are sure to be more in the making!

Yesterday i smashed my head into a shelf at the local supermarket. Ever since, i have been walking around in a daze, brooding upon it, then, alternately, trying to distract myself from the pain (like a sickening hangover without having indulged in alcohol). Working on the pictures, a nice long walk in the crisp winter light....and several servings of soluble codeine have certainly helped to ease the discomfort.

into the Wallpaper 1

 

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I have been working with the idea of combining natural/wild and domestic themes, symbols from folklore, nursery tales, and then bringing them together in a sort of picture-book style. Well, this is what i set out to do. I think i have come at least part ways to achieving it. The above image, something akin to hickory dickory dock (without the infamous clock), is how it all began. I stuck with simplicity over detail, the main focus for me being the posture of the girl, her braids. Her turned up toes suggest that she is quite relaxed in the company of the mouse/rat.

Two worlds merge here, or are supposed to. The black areas (feet and mouse) may represent the hidden, the repressed, the unconscious (you know, i like these themes)

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Into the Wallpaper 2

 

I have no idea how to even begin explaining this. Folklore again, the hare as a symbol of the feminine, the moon, etc. I like how this particular image appears more like a shadow against the wallpaper than merely a flattened silhouette. We have a full moon tonight (cloudless) and I do tend to get quite excited about such things.....so back to the image: I was thinking of old festivals (English), curious rites, and of course, childhood games.

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Into the Wallpaper 3

 

The wolf and his longing for the forest. A longing quite similar to my own.

The domestic meets the primitive.

Into the Wallpaper 4

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A meeting of minds here.

They appear to be in the midst of some sort of conference. A meeting before a journey. I see them as such, about to set out on a moonlit adventure, a top secret expedition. The girl can speak with the rabbits and hares. She's a natural. They are belonging to two worlds; again, like the images above.

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Into the Wallpaper 5

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I have used this figure quite a lot recently. And here she is again, expecting to fly. And why not? She may just do so in the blink of an eye. Or perhaps she awaits instruction. I'm not entirely sure. She too longs for the forest, the tree tops, for the glacial air to embrace her.

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Into the Wallpaper 6

 

Into the Wallpaper 7

 

xxx

The First Day Of September.......

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My favourite time of year is almost here. Soon the light will change, the temperature will plummet, and my senses, all three hundred and eighty six of them, will come alive.

And i like how dark it is at 5am nowadays.

So, a mixed bag of new offerings for a new month. Artwise, that is.

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Claire Voyance (click title to view)
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The emotions, intuition, instincts.
Water, Pisces, a positive response to what is often regarded as weak, negative (also the feminine, lunar).
I have been listening to sea sounds, that old conch in the bathroom.......and sea shanties, my take on them, like Electrelane's 'Eight Steps', for instance, or Sunset Rubdown's 'Swimming'. My dreams, too, concerning the ocean, floods; as if for some reason right now it is my mirror. Too vast, perhaps, yet so seductive.

The Heart of a Stranger (click title to view)

(apparently, if you throw a toad against a wall it is said to transform into a handsome young prince. But i want to know if this same logic applies the other way around - a prince becoming a toad, etc. Although, i don't advise trying to find the answer to this by hurling your significant other over the bannister)

(And to my knowledge, a princess rarely transforms into anything other than herself in fairytales. She will ascend to womanhood, or sleep for a thousand years, or become a prisoner of the heart, but i rarely hear of princesses becoming animals, like many of the handsome princes do. Please feel free to enlighten me. Just a thought. You'll have to ask Marie Louise Von Franz, she appears to know the deal)

And the moral of this story is.........never leave home without your crown.

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I would also like to share some of my favourite discoveries of recent days before i leave you for the night (or month, as is the way it often goes with Artandghosts...)
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From top left to bottom right:

.  Splendid Company by marmeecraft

.  Pony Postcard by enna

.  One Misty Morning by sarahblank

.  Portrait of Little Red Riding Hood by rosieNZ
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(please view enlarged)
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.  The Twins by eekdesign

.  Handsoap by foliage

.  The Day He Could Not Sleep by LaMaga

.  Black Cat by NaturalForms

And one of my all-time favourite images..........
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. Parapluie by marinkel
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And some websites i would recommend:
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.  Jeffrey Michael Harp

.  Swan Bones Theatre

.  Puppychick 

.  Mikel Robinson
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♥  Happy Birthday to my dearest Mirlo (he is six today)  ♥

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And thankyou, eternally, for putting up with the strangeness of my world.

Enjoy September, for it will soon be October, my very very very most favourite month of all.

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

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.