The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

Art journal page.

Face the future

Oh dear, I hope this one is not too depressing. I recently watched a Dutch film called Vroeger is Dood which is based on the book by Inez van Dullemen. It reminded me of this journal page which I made a few months ago. The journal page is a little less dark than the film though, I hope ...
Perhaps I was reminded of the film and journal page today because it is my mom's birthday, She would have been 87.

I guess at some or other stage we all have to face the future.

Two new Things.

This is what I made - a necklace and a ring.

Definitely not to be worn at the same time - that would be too much of a good thing, I reckon.

More unnecessary necessities.

I often let my hair dry naturally, but in winter I absolutely need my hairdryer. For stuff like warming up my hands and  feet ...

Let's just state it upfront: deep down I am quite shallow. What is life without lipstick? I have no idea, but I know that I have to have lipstick. Always. It is the one thing I would take to a desert island. Water? Moisturiser? Sunscreen?? Pfffffffffffrrrrrt.

Weekword: Story

Yippee Yay - weekword is back! Rachel has chosen this week's word and has a list of all the contributors. As I have little time I am posting something old. About 10 years ago I had this terrific idea of writing the story of my life - in comic form. I started with the birth of my brother - as this is my earliest memory. But oh goodness, the effort involved to draw all those frames! I finished one more strip, and that was it. (The story of my life, indeed ...) Maybe I will continue one day - Jesse's book here is a great inspiration to me. The only difference being - she can draw. Oh, well...


PS Most of you won't be able to understand - it is in Afrikaans. Also, there are two bad words in there. Forgive me.

Your relationship to That Stuff

Yesterday was the monthly car boot sale. I rushed down, pink shopping bag in hand to carry back my goodies, Snous in tow. But here is the thing, although there was some stuff that would normally have attracted my attention - a small succulent, two books, a piece of fabric, a few tiny plastic animals, an ink pad, a small glass bowl, and a sheet of computer labels - I didn't buy a thing. Because I didn't really need any of it. Is my addiction at an end? Is my relationship to that stuff changing?

Art journal collage with magazine cutouts, paint, cut up store card.

Everyone has his own version of that stuff. For some people it is not a material thing. What is your relationship to that stuff? In my journal page I included: addicted to, overwhelmed by, in control of, tired of, in love with ...

Have a great week! Don't fill it with too much stuff... Hmmmm, my week will be filled with words, too many words ...

Patterns

A while ago a very dear person (and friend, I would like to call her) gave me this beautiful piece of mud cloth. I look at it every single day and as I look at it my love for it grows and grows. It is beautiful. It is perfect. And if she knows how much joy it brings me, she will be very happy, I'm sure ...

It inspired me to make some mud cloth doodles in my moleskine. (Tippex is one of my unnecessary necessities, remember? In addition to obliterating proofreading marks, it is also really good for making patterns on black paint ...)

Companions

Coming up for air ... and to say how I miss your company! Before I started this current editing project I made a family for The Doll, as Sarah Jeweller and Sarah Dollmaker suggested. My three dolls were meant to keep me company as I worked, but oh, they are not half as fun as my sweet bloggy friends. No, they are a sorry substitute. They've settled themselves on top of a cabinet in the livingroom, soaking up the sun, discussing the Philosophy of Dressmaking amongst themselves, while I sit in the dark and dingy study at the back of the house ...

Dear friends, I hope you are all well and happy! I'll be visiting you all. Soon, I hope.
xxx Anairam

Fluttering thoughts.

I liked this quote by Edna St Vincent Millay when I read it a while ago, so made a little moleskine illustration for it.

Most of my thoughts tend to be of the fluttering kind - unconnected to other thoughts (or sometimes reality) - they go here, they go there, they twirl a little when a breeze comes along, they cannot really decide where to land ...
PS Have a great weekend, all! Think thoughts. Fluttering or not. (I will be editing. It is going sooooooo sloooooowly.)

An Abundance of Love

Dear friends, thank you for your messages of concern! I am quite okay now, still on some medication, but that pesky poisonous yellowtail is a thing of the past ... xxx Anairam

(Art Journal Page - origami hearts, book page hearts, tissue paper hearts, torn out hearts from magazine pages, embroidered heart, plastic mesh heart - all covered with layers of paint and tissue paper.)

May you find an abundance of love this weekend. (Just look below the surface.)

A Perfect Present.

L'Usband gave me a perfect gift last week:

Yes, I know what you think, but really, there was no ulterior motive. (I hope.) And I absolutely love it. So now, in addition to going stab, stab, stab-stab, STAB, I can also go chop, chop, chop-chop, CHOP ...
What a fun way of getting rid of aggressive impulses! I used it to make some decluttering notebooks - i.e. notebooks made from old postcards and art invitations and the insides of old envelopes.

What is the most perfect gift you have ever received?

The Shy Little Grey Mouse

Linda Sue has so inspired me with her lovely felted art. So this weekend I grabbed my second-hand felting needle (courtesy of the car boot sale) and some leftover wool from Snous's blankie and made the Shy Little Grey Mouse. She might become a brooch. Or maybe not.

Red Cross.

BC #10 of a painting by Nicholas Hales, October 1999.

(Collage with magazine cutout, paint, pen drawing, potato print and beaded AIDS ribbon.)
Note: The Red Cross Children's Hospital lies below Table Mountain.

Griffonage

I've always wanted to write beautifully. But even when I try it turns into an illegible scrawl.
Art journal page with collaged note (on Gnosticism - I think) which I wrote in 2006.

Decluttering - A Lesson.

Remember this? For years I kept them, waiting for the right project. But the right project didn't appear. And so, in a bold and brave move, I got rid of them. A few hours after I did, Freshly Found alerted me to this link. So I slowly started collecting again, until I could make this ...

(which hangs on my studio wall). And now I want my big bag full of tp inners back! I want to make a huge screen for my kitchen window which is now looking out on the brick wall of the neighbour's house instead of the beautiful sea.

Oh, somewhere there is a lesson to be learnt. I am just not sure what it is ...

Declutter and Make Something. And then Give Something Away.

Somewhere (I think it might be on Frayed At the Edge) I read about a challenge to use one's stash of whatever bits and pieces one hoards, and actually make something. I love picking up bits and pieces on my walks; I keep broken jewellery; sometimes I buy odd bits from car boot sales or junk shops, because I "might be able to use them for something". So I took out my boxes of bits, and made myself some chains and a pin ...

This one is called Red Mary. (Glass beads, wooden beads, round plastic disc picked up on one of my walks, a piece of an old rosary - with Mary medallion - found in a molehill, and a bit of broken earring.)

The Three Roses. (Vintage marcasite earring, opaque stone bead, silver rose clasp from 1940s bracelet, pink rose pendant, silver rose from broken earring, silver bit picked up on walk.)

Not quite finished yet - this one is called Angel's Harvest. (Small piece of painted wood broken off wooden Indian angel mobile after a too vigorous dusting by moi, small medallion, wired bead from broken earring, piece of rosary found in molehill, glass grapes bead, bee charm from old jewellery.)

The pin is called Sea. (Piece of old vintage chain, glass fish, sea horse charm, polished shell discs from old bracelet, key chain clasp found on a walk, sea shell picked up on our local beach.)

I am giving away the Sea pin and one of the chains. Leave me a comment and tell me which one you like best and why, and on Friday 29 Jan I'll pick the two winners!

The girl I used to be.

Art journal page (collage with catalogue image, drawing, magazine cutouts, paint, plastic toy).

Travelling ...

This started out as an art journal page about wanting to travel, not necessarily literally and not necessarily to a geographic location ...

Through a series of coincidences, it ended up being about Mary Kingsley, a British woman from the 19th century, one of the few women to travel independently to exotic locations, in her case, West Africa. I did not know about MK before. I was merely looking for a picture of a female traveller, not necessarily from that period, to use in my collage. Via some hops, skips and jumps I landed up with this picture. The face intrigued me. I read (online) part of the book she wrote,  Travels in West Africa.  (I incorporated the first few sentences on the collaged map). Then I decided to find out more about her. Here is the interesting thing.  Mary Kingsley, aged 38, died in Simon's Town, about 2 km from where I live now. She died in 1900, from typhoid fever, while working as a volunteer nurse, treating Boer prisoners during the Anglo-Boer war.
A bold woman ...

Bad Copies - Women

Bad Copy #6 (of a painting by Polly Alakija from the exhibition We Are Such Stuff as Dreams are Made of, January 2007)

Bad Copy #7 (of a photograph by Dave Robertson from the exhibition Remember - October 2005)

Somewhere that is not here

Sometimes I wish to be somewhere that is not here ...

Collage with magazine cut-outs, polaroid and tram ticket. (Polaroid by Sarah Wallis.)