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.
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
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
12 Jun 2008 5 Comments
in Art, Myself Tags: doodles, insane art, outsider art
I’ve just come home from three days of meetings in Durban. All-day-long meetings. This time round I did most of my doodling between meetings, at the bed & breakfast. My doodles usually reflect my state of mind and I can usually remember what I was thinking when I did a drawing. Looking back on these, I’m not sure what I should conclude:
There aint no easy way was done before the first meeting. More
04 May 2008 Leave a comment
in 2 Work in progress, Colour, Myself Tags: masha du toit, south african art
Having overcome an absolute torrent of procratination I’ve finally started on the second half of my coming show – the animations. This is the unfinished face of my nameless girl.
Look well, as I may chicken out and remove these work in progress posts…
03 May 2008 2 Comments
in Myself Tags: dogs, walking dogs
This evening I walked my dogs past the house with the many huskies. They usually bark loudly as I struggle past. This time I stopped. My dogs looked at them. They went quiet and stared back. All seven of them in a row, looking rather silly. Not a peep, until we moved off again. For some reason, this struck me as very comical.
01 May 2008 1 Comment
in 2 Work in progress, Art, Myself Tags: polymer clay, puppet, super sculpey
Here is a fresh baked tray of hands, feet, heads and feet. Work in progress! I had to use my webcam to take these so apologies for the poor picture quality.
28 Apr 2008 2 Comments
And so here I am. Last night we were hijacked again. We were coming home from an evening out, commemorating my mother’s birthday a little more than two years since she died.
Brendon and myself had already gone into my father’s house to open the garage doors for him. Shouting and doors banging. Brendon running and shouting at me to “Get inside! Shut the door! Shut the door!”. I find the door and close it. I find the panic button and press it. Last time I had not pressed it long enough, so I hold it down. Then I rush to the alarm pad. I press all the little buttons. Fire. Ambulance. Police. Ambulance. Fire. My father comes in with his shirt rumpled and looking dazed. The security people arrive, fill in forms, and leave. The police arive. They are very calm and have to fill in a remarkable amount of forms. Then they leave. And we leave also. My father stays.
You dont care that the car is gone, so long as no one is hurt. You go over the events in your mind again.
It reminds me of working with a bandsaw. You guide the wood through and all is smooth and clean. Then there is a snag. The blade gets trapped, or catches and slams the wood out of your hands. For an instant you feel the true power of the machine you are leaning against and become aware of your vulnrability.
19 Apr 2008 Leave a comment
in Colour, Myself Tags: flash palettes, import palettes into flash
Ive been preparing colour palettes to use in the animations I am working on.
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I used a photoshop actions from ColourLover “mankineko” :
13 Apr 2008 3 Comments
in Myself, Opinions & reviews Tags: public transport south africa, south african railways
A topic that’s been on my mind for a while is that of commuting by train in Cape Town. I take the train to work every day, from Wynberg station to the central station in town. Mostly when people find this out, they are a little surprised. “But no one takes the train.” and “Is it safe?” or alternatively “if more people took the train, we could solve our transport situation.”
I am left with quite mixed feelings.
On the one hand, the train seems to be awfully full of people every morning if nobody is traveling by train. More
29 Mar 2008 1 Comment
in Colour, Myself Tags: cats, death
I just saw a ginger cat carrying a pure white pigeon he had killed. The cat had the pigeon by the throat and was carrying it like a flag, very proudly. The pigeon was so white I thought it was a cloth at first. Then I saw its little dark eye looking at me. I’m not sure if it was dead yet.
Masha du Toit 
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