introducing Jools!

So....about a month ago, my partner and I decided to take the plunge and adopt a dog!
Whoop, whoop! SO here is our beautiful Jools! (isn't she lovely?)
She's from the Lost Dogs Home here in melbourne and (now I'm sure every dog owner says this!) but we really think she's the loveliest dog ever!
She's about 5 years old and she's a Labrardor x great dane (we think... so she's a big girl!)
She's amazing, she has the most beautiful temperament, really mellow and sweet.
And amazingly, so far, she doesn't seem to have any major issues, apart from a bit of a mistrust of older men which is a bit sad :(
So we are really very lucky. Thinking back now, we really could have thrown ourselves in the deep end a bit as she's the first dog we've both had since we were kids and she could have had all sorts of issues that we wouldn't have found out about until we bought her home. So we are very lucky in that regard. She was also quite a bit underweight when she first came to us, poor thing. It's so strange, we have no idea why or how anyone could mistreat her and dump her. It's beyond our understanding how people can be so cruel.
But she's really settled now. She LOVES other dogs! Even if they're barking at her right in her face, she still want to play, silly thing! Sooo funny! She acts like a silly puppy with the other dogs at the dog park near us.
Look at her, what a sook, she's got us wrapped around her her little paw with her big brown eyes!

Photos by Gerard Rijs. thanks Gerry!

on the subject of stories

"Standing on the rock, looking out, I understood what the story was.
Here's the story: life is a dream.
It's all a story we're telling ourselves.
Things are dreams, just dreams, when they're not in front of our eyes.
What is in front of your eyes now, what you can reach out and touch now, will will become a dream.
The only thing that keeps us from floating off with the wind is our stories.
They give us a name and put us in a place, allow us to keep on touching.

-Tom Spanbauer "The man who fell in love with the moon"

Artists that inspire - Andy Kehoe

Golly gosh i love Andy Kehoe's work! There's something about his art that really strikes a cord with me.
"Kehoe rekindles a childlike sense of wonder in his work, recalling an era when fables and legends were believed as truths to explain all the mysteries of the unknown."

I found this great post over at Sour Harvest that I wanted to share. I love seeing sneak peeks at artists studios!

Artists that inspire - Paolo Ventura

Paolo Ventura . . . . . beautiful

Artists that inspire- Fidelma Massey

"Mother of All"


"Ingredients for a sacred grove"


"Queen of Beasts"

"Tiny little Owl"

"Spirit Bird"

"The Great Egg"

I'm really trying not to post about things found in other peoples blogs but I absolutely had to mention this breathtaking artist found through a-faerietale-of-inspriration.
I admit, I've been finding it difficult to inspire myself to create some more personal work, but seeing such wonderful, otherworldly work reminds me again what it's all about.

"Working with her preferred materials; ceramic and bronze, Massey sculpts wonderfully detailed figures and creatures – the current collection includes birds and trees as well as horned guardians of medieval legend which are both strange and familiar.
Massey’s work draws not only on western sculpture but eastern and classical mythology and through the fusion of these she leads her viewer to a world beyond the confines of any tradition"

Her beautiful work can be found on her website here

From my collection

So these beauties are from my collection of old photographs and postcards.
This last one is of Marysville, which a lot of you, especially those in Australia, would have heard of after the terrible bushfires in February. It's a rather fascinating look at what it once was so long ago.

From the darkness

"Truth, Leading the Sciences, Giving Light to Man"- Albert Besnard

"The eagle nebula"

"The Witchhead Nebula"

"Sadko in the underwater kingdom"- Illya Repin

"The catspaw nebula"

"Pickering's Triangular Wisp"

Beautiful, beautiful

How I love images like these! Love, love, love!
They just invite you to dream about other worlds, other places, where life is exotic, compelling and strange.
Found at this fascinating blog right here

Jasper Morello

So I'm a bit behind in the times but I've finally just watched the delicious movie "The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello" and was absolutely enchanted.
An absolute must see for all lovers of steam punk!

"We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams"

At the moment I'm working on a beautiful musical project that I can't really share much about yet but I thought I would share some beautiful imagery that I've found on my wanderings through the web-world. Most of these incredible instruments I've found through the Victoria and Albert Museum website which is well worth discovering for yourself.

Illustration friday - Flying

"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance, one cannot fly into flying"
-Friedrich Nietzsche

Little patterned Maya

So this was meant to be for illustration friday but I was a bit slow so I missed out being able to link it! Ahh well. I thought I may as well post it on here anyway. The theme was "pattern"

Illustrators Australia 9x5 exhibition

This is my contribution to the Illustrators Australia annual 9x5 exhibition. This years theme is '20' in celebration of the fact that the organization has been running for twenty years now, so a pretty good feat I reckon!
This little fellows called "Twenty Blackbirds begin the journey"
The opening night's always a lot of fun, so all should come along! It's being held this year at Space 39 Gallery, on Level 2, 39 Little Collins Street, Melbourne and it's part of the 2009 Melbourne Fringe Festival. The opening night is on Friday the 9th of October, between 6-9pm. The show will also run on the 10th October between 10am and 4pm. Yay!

Illustration friday - Infinite

"Into the infinite river he rowed"

Cool people who do lovely things

The lovely Carolyn from the awesome indie art and design blog has just uploaded an interview about my work. Thanks Carolyn!