26 Jan 2009 Leave a comment
in Art, Opinions & reviews Tags: southern ink, tattoo
So I spent some time at the Southern Ink Xposure Tattoo convention.
I will remember – the sound of a perfect swarm of tattoo needles buzzing all around me. Strolling in and out of clouds of disinfectant. The intense discomfort on the face of a man having a Koi tattooed on his leg. A little girl under a table – drawing.
05 Jan 2009 19 Comments
in Myself Tags: arachnid, baardskeerder, haarskeerder, jag spinnekop, scorpion, solifugae, South Africa, spider afrikaans, sulpugid
OK! I’ve found the identity of our nocturnal monster insect. Its a sulpugid of the order solifugae – more commonly known as “haarskeerder” or “jag spinnekop”. Its not a spider, but it is an arachnid – which essentially means “it has eight legs”. Scorpions and spiders also belong to this class.
The afrikaans names translate like this: “Haarskeerder” means “hair shaver” as they are rumoured to have the ability to cut hair with their sharp claws. “Jag spinnekop” means “hunting spider” because it looks awfully spider like, and its very aggressive in its habits.
Just to remind you – here is the beast itself:
Here are some quotes about solpugids. This one from Trek Nature, Gerhard Theron writes:
05 Jan 2009 4 Comments
in Myself
So I’m back from my trip to Port Alfred. My new cell phone has a camera so I was able to document stuff. I was pleasantly surprised at how well my dogs traveled. Pippin just slept most of the way. Anna had to keep an eye on the road through that little window behind the drivers seat.
22 Dec 2008 2 Comments
in books, Myself, Opinions & reviews Tags: cornelia funke, diana wynne jones, escapism, fantasy, is fantasy escapist, morals and fantasy, tolkien, x men
One of my students interviewed me as part of a research project on readers of fantasy books. It was an unsatisfactory experience as she had already made up her mind on the fundamental issue. Question: “What attracts readers to fantasy and science fiction? “ Answer: “A need to escape”.
20 Dec 2008 Leave a comment
in Myself, Opinions & reviews Tags: South Africa
I’m not comfortable with patriotism. When I was growing up, that meant standing to attention in the school hall while the school and county’s flag were paraded down to the front of the stage. It meant us against them. It meant “Die Stem” and commemorating The Day of the Vow – or Blood River Day – in all its grim detail. Being told, as a small girl, that my thumb represented God, my index finger the President of our country ( P. W. Botha at that time) the middle and ring fingers were parents and headmaster and the smallest finger was myself.
I have not heard “Die Stem” for years. Blood River Day has become Reconciliation day. The flag is much improved, and I only ever see it in connection with sports teams.
Other things have changed. In the city center of Cape Town, foreign faces and voices. Nigerians, Kenyans and Congolese guarding cars and selling food, shoes and hair extensions. British, Dutch and American hippies fill the backpackers in Long Street. And there are so few other white South Africans in the city centre that I’m constantly being mistaken for a tourist. Why is it so infuriating to be asked “Where you from?”
I’m a stranger in my own country.
07 Dec 2008 2 Comments
in Art, Inspiration
I’ve been playing a new game after reading this post by sassymonkey on Blogher . I’ve been making a list of my favourite fictional female characters. This includes Lyra Silvertongue from the “His Dark Materials” series, Titty Walker and Nancy Blacket from “Swallows and Amazons”, Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax, Lireal and Sabriel and so many more.
I found some interviews with authors and directors about the female characters in their stories: More
03 Dec 2008 3 Comments
in Inspiration Tags: social media
I’m getting very good at rationalizing wasting time. I am still a stalwart ColourLover , but these days I also get my visual fix at visualizeus. This is an image bookmarking site – sort of like delicious for pictures. Its great because it lets you link directly to the image, and also see who else has linked to it. Because they probably have some other images bookmarked…
Its excellent for finding inspiration, and also for organising your finds. I find it very soothing to look at my variously organised images. I’ve got a bunch of round ones, ones that inspire pattern ideas , images of urban decay… The usual thing, organised with tags.
You can also have “watch lists” to keep an eye on people with similar taste to you. There is the usual load of pictures of girls in underwear (or without underwear) but I’ve developed a sort of internal girly filter to help me ignore them.
OK – its yet another time sink, but this one has helped me overcome several bouts of creative dolldrums and actually so some of my own creative work for a change!
01 Dec 2008 Leave a comment
in Inspiration Tags: flowers, fynbos, november, poem, silvermine, spring, thomas hood
Yesterday was the last day of November and we went for a walk at Silvermine. There were so many flowers:
Not at all like that Thomas Hood poem about November:
No sun–no moon!
No morn–no noon!
No dawn–no dusk–no proper time of day–
No sky–no earthly view–
No distance looking blue–
27 Jul 2008 Leave a comment
Walking our dogs in Newlands Forest today, after some heavy rains. The river was streaming over its banks – I took some pictures:
27 Jul 2008 2 Comments
in Animation, Art, books, Colour, Illustration, Myself Tags: children's books, Illustration
Some books touch your heart. ” An Ocean World” by Peter Sis is one of these. It tells a simple and powerful story about a whale’s search for friendship and love. Apart from the writing on the postcard on the first page, the entire story is told through the images- the evocative watercolour marks and the muted colours. We meet the whale for the first time in baby picture that has been turned into a postcard:
On the back of this card we can read a message from Peter Sis to his children: More
26 Jul 2008 3 Comments
in Art, Colour, Illustration Tags: children's books, Jaap Tol
This is a book that I loved as a child; “Het vroutjie van Stavoren” which means “The Lady of Stavoren” written by Maryke Reesink. This book tells a story with words but also with colours, the wonderful illustrations of Jaap Tol.
Jaap Tol’s paintings let colour run into colour in great splodges. The pages seem saturated and stained. We meet a young spoiled rich girl who has all the clothes and dolls and toys a girl could want – but is still unsatisfied.
She grows into a spoiled and self centred woman who owns more ships and houses than anyone else in the city of Stavoren. She is still unhappy and sends out one of her captains to find “the most precious thing in the world”. More
15 Jul 2008 5 Comments
in 2 Work in progress, Animation, Art, Myself Tags: 2 Work in progress, Animation, masha du toit
I’ve just returned from a long research leave during which I worked on an exhibition. I dont like showing my work before the opening night, but here is a sneak peek.
My exhibition is in three parts. First, I wrote some very short stories. Then I created the characters in these stories as puppets. Now I am creating small drawn animations of each of these characters. I am going to show you a bit of two of the characters. There are five of them at the moment.
Here is Benjamin.
His story starts like this: More
01 Jul 2008 4 Comments
in books, Illustration Tags: creative process, hobbit covers, JRR Tolkien, story telling, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, writing
Where do stories come from? The process of story creation is fascinating. I’ve been reading a lot about JRR Tolkien, and how he came to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Most of the following information was found in Humphrey Carpenter’s biography or Tolkien. You can also read about them here at Tolkien online.com and here at warofthering.net
Tolkien was someone who immersed himself in stories. He had been creating the language and history of Middle Earth for many years, and his stories seem to emerge out of this preoccupation. Tolkien, as quoted in Carpenter’s book: More
30 Jun 2008 3 Comments
in books, Colour, Illustration, Inspiration Tags: children's books, gennady spirin, Illustration
What makes a good subject for a children’s picture book? I see so many similar books on the bookshop shelves. Clear happy pictures, short happy stories. “Once There Was a Tree”, written by Natalia Romanova and illustrated by Gennady Spirin, could not be more different. As a foretaste, here is a page number:
You can read more about Spirin at this page. He is described as being “like a magician, using his paint brush as a wand.” I hope these scans of the books do justice to his work. I was once lucky enough to see an exhibition of his original paintings. They are breathtaking. More
Masha du Toit 
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