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By: andrea joseph,
on 11/24/2010
Another new one from the travel sketchbook. Or, at least, it will be new to you if you weren't rifling through my Moleskine over the weekend.
This one is one half of a pair of drawings. You can see the other half, and the rest of the travel sketchbook set, HERE.
By: andrea joseph,
on 10/9/2010
Here's one of those spur of the moment drawings.
Earlier today I was clearing out my bags. Three bags in total. Amongst all the usual rubbish I found these items; a tin of tuna, a dolls head, a sock and a peg.
Now, that reminded me of this thing I once heard. I'm not sure how true it is, or how my source came to find this out. But I was told that the mother of the Bee Gees always kept a pork pie in her handbag. At ALL times. Wherever she went, she would have a pork pie (I'm guessing a Melton Mowbray, but I could be wrong) in her handbag. I always found this the most fabulous piece of trivia I'd ever heard. It quietly waited in my long term memory until I had a chance to use it.
Girls, I wonder what unusual things you have in your handbag? Let me know. I might just make it into a drawing. I'm not talking about stuff like chocolate, tampons, nappies, make up, etc. What I'd like to hear about is your, well, pork pies.
By: andrea joseph,
on 3/29/2010
Can't be bothered explaining this one. Just stick your nose in and have a look around. And if you don't know by now, you can do that by clicking on the drawing and then on the green arrows in the bottom right hand corner. Fill your boots.
By: andrea joseph,
on 10/3/2009
This drawing was never really going anywhere. So, as I have nothing else to show, I'm posting it half finished. I could have worked on it some more, but I know that it would be a pointless task. I think this is probably the best it's ever going to look. Which ain't great. But, there we go. Win some lose some. It does have one moment that I particularly like, though. The finished key on the left. Hmmm. I kinda like that.
By: andrea joseph,
on 6/29/2009
(Click on drawing to view)
This drawing had all the ingredients to be great. A beautiful subject matter courtesy of my friend Annette. Stunning colours. Heaps of nostalgia. And hours of time to simmer. Somehow, for me, it just falls short of being an extremely tasty dish.
By: andrea joseph,
on 5/15/2009
I'm happy with this one. I hope you like it, too.
You have to click on this drawing to view it. Stick your beaks right in and have a proper rummage around.
By: andrea joseph,
on 2/18/2009
Click on image to view.
The obsessional part of me knows no bounds. I first did a drawing like this for the MoleyX project. Those little Japanese Moleskines are so tiny, I knew I wanted to revisit this subject because I needed more room to put the notes in. I felt I needed to explain where granny had gotten her jewellery from. So, revisit I did, both in a brand new Moley and on an A4 sketchbook. I abandoned the sketchbook halfway through and kept going with this. I now realise what this drawing actually needs. And, that's an A3 page. So, yeah, one day, in the future, I'll be revisiting it again. On A3!
I hope you can read the notes, they are very tiny. It's almost like a mouse has written them.
By: andrea joseph,
on 9/29/2008
Nearly there folks. I've nearly finished the children's book drawings that have been taking up all my time over the last couple of weeks. I'll tell you more about it in my next post and then, I promise, back to 'normal' drawing and posting.
Oh, yeah, and this is a collection of hat pins that I found cluttering up the old dusty attic. The old dusty attic in my head.
By: andrea joseph,
on 9/23/2008
Click on image to view.
Well, today is my blogs second birthday. I did have something planned for it, but didn't quite pull it off in time. Ambitious but rubbish, that's me. It will still happen - just not when I intended. Anyway, all will be revealed in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned folks. My excuse, for not getting my act together, this time, is that I am frantically trying to get some of this children's book down on paper. The aim is five drawings by the end of the month. Yikes.
This birthday is a good opportunity to say another big thank you to all you guys. For all the visits, the comments and the encouragement that you've given me over the last couple of years. I've learnt so much in that time. On lots of levels. It has been quite a journey. The fact that you choose to join me makes me happier than you'll ever know. Cheers.
By: andrea joseph,
on 5/23/2008
A bit of kitchen kitsch. I've just noticed that this is my 250th post. That seems amazing to me. All those drawings I've drawn, all that rubbish I've written and all the fine folk I've met. Thanks for all the visits and encouragement.
They've been revamping the site over at Moo. I don't like to blow my own trumpet, but when I saw my work on there, looking so good, I felt quite proud. It's mad to think of how this adventure all started, all those posts ago. I'm excited to see where else it'll take me.
Check out Moos revamp HERE (the stickers are cute TOO).
A Cautionary(?) Tale: Or, There are no Morals in Book Selling
We all get jumpy at times - especially if you have an open shop and you start to see your monthly rent running like a cab meter in your head every time you close your eyes and it’s been a week of customers few and far between, mostly browsing or idly thumbing through the bargain rack. Funny too, because it looks like there are humans outside, wandering about, some look like they might have a few coins in their pockets jingling about, but the cash register collects dust. The same certainly happens online - we have those weeks where the orders just stop and you’re forced into that familiar bookseller position of concocting stories about why this is happening.
Bad Weather
School vacations
Economy looks sketchy/Stock market is down
ABE has disappeared my books
Amazon disappeared my books
My books are terrible
I knew this day would come, everyone just stopped reading at once.
Once we got a book about dead people - how only the dead can see the dead, etc. and became convinced that we and our customers were dead and that explained all the people walking blithely past the shop - they just couldn’t see us. Sometimes the simple explanations are best.
Anyway, I was having one of these months last year - not a week, a whole month of dreaming of drowning in unsalable books, wondering if I should start selling something sensible like Pokemon cards or malt liquor - and it was compounded by the beginning of the housing slump which meant we weren’t getting calls to clean out houses and our stock was starting to feel thin and a little stale. So, I noticed an interesting auction on Ebay - someone was getting out of the book business and selling 20 some odd thousand books cheap, real cheap. I knew they’d mostly be terrible old bookstore stock, but for the price if they were only horrible, it was going to be a win. A win involving back breaking labor, but a win nonetheless.
So we exchanged a few emails with questions about the books - found out they were from a few shops that went under, that the current owner was getting out of the book business to concentrate on Civil War textiles (note to file: There was probably an alarm that should have gone off in here somewhere, but I present my foolishness unadorned for your benefit) sounded like they’d been cherry picked somewhere along the line, but still a nice bunch of dreck, as they go. We decided to go for it - this despite (or because of) the fact that I’d just had my first child and was saddled by fatherhood, lack of sleep, and the pressure to get this business going, pronto.
Every time something is going to go terribly wrong, there are foreshadowing missteps that not only make you cringe when you look back, but also provide ample time to anticipate your undoing. This time we get a call for delivery only it’s the wrong day and they have them on a truck without a lift. We’ll need to pay $200 and they’ll put them on the right truck - and deliver them next week - no problem, what’s another $200, right? This is why they call if hemorrhaging money not spewing money. So the books arrive on 20 some odd pallets at the storage location we’re using, and we start to go through them. It takes about six seconds to realize we’ve been had - then about ten minutes of working up a scenario where it isn’t as bad as we think and salvageable, don’t worry, only to backslide into the realization that:
1) It’s at least as bad as it seemed as first
2) We are now the proud owner of 20,000 useless books
3) It’s apparently (who makes these laws) illegal to set fire to books at storage facilities or to throw them onto the conveniently located railroad tracks.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. What happened is they didn’t send a mixed bunch of mostly terrible books like we’d hoped, but sent boxes upon boxes of remainders. Bad ones. The sort that looked like they were born as remainders - the book equivalent of straight to video. Around 15,000 of the 20 some odd thousand books were 14 titles - the rest were as advertised - dreck with some high points. So what to do? File a Paypal claim - email the seller (maybe it was a mistake), etc. But it wasn’t a mistake - and Paypal, bless their furry little hearts, doesn’t refund shipping costs. This is funny, of course, because 2/3 of the cost of the books was shipping. What’s not funny is that with no loading dock, and no forklift, shipping the books back is going to cost more than the whole thing cost in the first place. You can rent a forklift but between the cost and the all too vivid image of myself operating it and the ensuing damage to the storage facility, nearby cars, loved ones, pets, it seemed like a bad idea.
I contemplate loading them into a U-Haul and delivering them myself to the seller - perhaps covering them in feces and setting them on fire so that when they went to step on them to put them out…I contemplate other things that my mother wouldn’t approve of. I move on…no, I really don’t, I’m stuck there in bileville for quite some time, imagining divine retributions, natural disasters…bad thoughts.
But this isn’t good for me - not to mention that it’s pointless. I got screwed, the wheels keep turning, so we move to the mitigation of disaster phase.
1) Try to put some boxes on Ebay in bulk - one book is in some mild demand and we can move a few boxes for $10-20 a piece. This is not a good use of time.
2) Find someone to take the rest off our hands - as I’m sure most of you know, this is much more difficult than you’d think. Americans love free stuff - unless it’s books or PBS.
3) At least clear out the storage facility so that the nightmare where I’m stuck behind a pile of remainders and someone forgets I’m there and locks me in overnight, ends.
4) Try to find a moral in this.
1-3 were doable - 4? I’m not sure. While generally an optimist, I must admit that a positive side of this one was becoming hard to identify. Most of the lessons that I could have learned from this - don’t buy bulk lots on Ebay, don’t take on 20,000 books without looking at them - I either had learned already or had proven resistant to. I knew these and had decided after much thought that this was the exception. Ha. Is that a moral? Too early to tell. What complicates matters - and what caused me to revisit my blunder, was that we’ve been going through the last 20 or so boxes of cast offs and ne’er do wells (we whipped through the first 150 or so, but it was as if, despite ourselves, we didn’t want it to end and the last of the boxes festered downstairs, became powerful as we avoided them) and pulled out a scarce signed copy of a Hollywood memoir. Sold it three days later for $800.
If I stop thinking about it now, this will have to pass for a happy ending.
—
Pazzo Books
4268 Washington St.
Roslindale, MA 02131
pazzobooks.com
617-323-2919
By: andrea joseph,
on 2/8/2008
This week I lost my marbles. No. Seriously, I did. And, not just because I went and did this drawing all over again. When I completed it first time round I knew that there was something wrong - the marble. Back then I drew it from my head, when really I'd prefer to have the subject there in front of me. Knowing that I intended to re-draw it I went and bought some marbles. It took me ages to find the perfect blue one, one that looked a little like an eye. After all, the marble is the punch line in this picture; it's the cherry on the cake, so it had to be right. So I selected the perfect one, bought the bag and then proceeded to lose them. Annoying. Very annoying.
This is one reason it's taken so long to complete this drawing - losing my marble. I spent hours on Flickr getting lost in stunning photos of marbles, but to me, the one in my drawing still looks contrived. There are a few other new additions to this picture, since the original; my favourite being the corn plaster. There are other things that became subject matter out of desperation to finish the drawing, like...erm...well I'll let you find them.
Anyway, you know the drill; click on image to enlarge.
By: David Elzey,
on 7/21/2007
by Yukihisa Tokuda illustrated by Kiyoshi Takahashi Kane/Miller paperback 2006 originally published by Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers, Japan 2003 Do you know why the pill bug lives near humans? Do you know how a pill bug deals with an ant? What about a frog? True or false: a pill bug eats concrete. True or false: a pill bug eats its shell once it's shed. True or false: a pill bug sheds half it's
By: Garden Painter Art,
on 7/14/2007
Good Morning:
Well...here I am cruising through another Saturday, no closer to creating than I was last Saturday. My week was filled with Dr. appointments for my mom and other "not so fun" logistical messes. Planning and time management have never been an area of strength for me, and as I've gotten older, I think I'm actually less inclined to be logical!! But...I have no real plans today other than piddling around in my garden and watching a ridiculously horrible movie on Sci-Fi tonight with Gary. The Saturday night movie on Sci-Fi has become almost legendary around my house. Tonight, we're watching "SuperGator"!!!! Now, doesn't that sound compelling and intense? Seriously, the movie is simply an excuse for my husband and me to have a glass of wine and share a bowl of popcorn together. After a week of dealing with "Gastrointerologists", I could use a nice, do nothing week-end.
I've strolled through my garden this morning and discovered the always dreaded cut-worm feasting on my Geraniums:
They are hideously masterful at camouflage...
and even after all these years, they still give me the creeps. I must admit, I do take a bit of sick pleasure out of squishing them beneath my purple garden Crocs. They are devastating little buggers and I really have no way to control them other than physically picking them off and destroying them. I don't use any chemicals in my garden that could harm my dogs or harm the naturally occuring lizards and birds, therefore, hand-picking it is.
On a brighter note, I have a flower box full of gorgeous "Angelonia"...
I love these flowers because they look like they have two huge teeth in their big wide open mouths...
After taking in the wild array of colorful growing things in my yard, I'm feeling a little creative spark now. Will it catch fire? Will I sit down in my studio chair and feel exhilirated and worthwhile? It is yet to be seen ~~
******************************************
Although I haven't "created" a new collage in weeks, I have a huge inventory to make prints from. Considering my darkish mood lately, I've listed 10 of my crow collage prints in My Etsy Shop. Here's an example:
Thanks so much for dropping by today. My loyal readers mean so much to me, especially during these dry spells when my art and writing are intensly lacking.
Until Tomorrow:
Kim
Garden Painter Art
allaroundthemall.blogspot.com
By: Ginger Nielson,
on 6/22/2007
These illustrations are from 'THE ADVENTURES OF CALI' by Michele Lallouz Fisher, featuring my illustrations. On his flight home from California to his city apartment a young boy 'HIDES' his caterpillar friend in an airport food stand salad..... Naturally it is a bit surprising to the other passengers on the plane.
By: Garden Painter Art,
on 4/27/2007
Well, here it is Friday again. How does time manage to fly by so swiftly?
I am so anxious to share with you my latest "gift" from my husband. No, it's not a diamond ring, it's not a fur coat or a new sports car ~ it's a pair of gloriously beautiful Walking Sticks. No, not canes.... Insects!! 
I have had a passion for Walking Sticks since first seeing them as a child while on vacation in the Ozarks of Arkansas. They were all over the trees in the hot, steamy summer. They absolutely fascinated me. We don't have them here in Southern California. My husband accidentally fell upon the opportunity to adopt two grown Sticks. He brought them home to me yesterday after work. What a joyful surprise.
One of them has lost most of it's front left leg, but I read that they can sometimes regenerate lost limbs. Wow, maybe my Stick will grow another leg!! I'll keep you informed.
So, some women receive luxurious jewels and furs from their husbands. Other women receive trips to exotic locations. But my husband knows my heart and he gave me Walking Sticks.... My love for the simple things in life has often led me down an odd road, a road with lots of twists and turns. What more could a girl ask for?
Now...here's my two newest ACEO prints listed in My Etsy Shop.
Watch Me Pull A Rabbit
Two Cowboys And A Crow
Until Tomorrow:
Kim
Garden Painter Art
gnarly-dolls
Wow at first glance I thought the pencil and glasses were real and you just placed them on the page! That is some awesome skills you got there!
peterpatterpeter.blogspot.com
soo good! :D
I thought those glasses were real too!
Have been following your blog for over a year now - I continue to be blown away by your talent.
SO awesome :)
Yes, love the glasses! Yours? : )
Andrea, I just have to tell you, I love love love viewing your drawings. You have a true gift! Someday I gonna purchase one of your zines...just as soon as I can choose! Ha! Happy Thanksgiving to you!
The new blue pen works well :)
I like the effect and the colour is divine!
xx
http://flossyblossom.blogspot.com
You are an inspiration
I'm new here at the party - can someone show me where the drinks are?
Wow that's a gorgeous drawing! The lines are sure, colouring subtle, and compositions so studied. And the way you translate solid forms in space onto a 2D surface - it's all so thoughtfully rendered Andrea. Lovely!
Gorgeous draftsmanship - I like your glasses too :)
Your sketchbooks are beautiful and this is stunning. The pencil and glasses are so realistic.
http://noodlebomboodle.blogspot.com/
Beautiful as always - and the glasses look a little like mine - have a look http://fadwas-inspirational.blogspot.com/2010/08/rambling-about-my-glasses.html .. I'm still not used to wearing them.
You never cease to amaze, but those glasses are out of this world.
Thank you, folks.
This is one of my own personal faves of late. I dunno what I like about it. I just do. Glad you do too.
Cheers, me dears.