I mean, what part of those product names sound anything less than *HELLA TIGHT*?
I had the privilege of creating the print design, logo design and photography for my very excellent friend Sarah’s new babywear brand, Milk Riot!
Mad kudos to her for keeping the fabric organic, the dyes natural, the production local (Aussie designed and made), and the vibe epic. Tell all those nasties to get on their bike.
Check out some pics from the shoot, starring my extremely handsome godson and his outstanding group of pals.
So when my Californian wilderness enthusiast pals Casey and Allie were getting married this month, I decided to boycott the wedding registry and draw them a couple of marmots instead.
The portable piece to match the Flatiron mural is complete! The background is an abstraction of a section of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, and creeping in from the left there is an American Buffalo/Bison. The ‘canvas’ is birch wood (takes me back to my architecture university days of model making!), so it took a little bit of extra priming. Big ups to Klaus who collaborated with the taping, geometries and colour advisory… And also helped me with the opening gag for this post.
Let it be known that the proceeds of this work is directly funding the software with which I’m writing my next screenplay. Literally, art for art’s sake. It’s like that movie ‘the human centipede’ – except without all the people dying. Maybe it’s more like an arty ecosystem. I think I should buy a felt hat. Or grow out my armpit hair.
Did I mention the house this work is for is in an area called Cow Hollow? Bovine coincidence? I think not.
Wait! I’ve got one more:
Q. What did the buffalo say when his son left for school?
A. Bison.
Gold.
Prime then tape. This project clearly took priority over the screenplay I’m mapping out on those system cards underneath the plastic!
Being up to my eyeballs in a ton of creative ventures, it may take a moment for any more of them to surface here….. but trust me, they’re coming. In the meantime, here are some cards I’ve drawn for pals over the past few months to tide you over in my cyber-presence drought.
In the interest of staying relevant and on the pulse of popular culture. Wait. Let me start again. In a convenient coincidence, I have just finished a mural of foxes in the same week as the release of that catchy new hit single “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)” (dingadingdingding ding) touted as this year’s Gangnam Style – so you know it’s a ripper.
Finally someone (three former members of the Harvard Fox Club) let me paint a massive double-height wall in their residential home with the help of many pals, two big-ass ladders, a ton of nachos and the occasional beer. After drawing a shockingly vague sketch on an old cardboard box of how I wanted the geometries done, it took about a month (a few nights every week and a party) and here’s the progress:
Pascale taping
Klaus checking out his tape work
Painting party
Kramer and Katie helped us one night… But this is a picture of Kramer and Klaus
Big-ass ladders
After the tape came off… Crisp geometries
Krink pen for the foxes
Yep, little guy on the right is totally dreaming up those shapes.
An overwhelming number of people who came to see the mural commented how strikingly ‘3D’ it appeared in person. About 4 people. Such feedback pleased me as it is, after all, 2 dimensional pretending to be 3 dimensional. Which is not that many dimensions compared to how many we might actually be existing amongst according to string theory. Anyone who has ever wondered about space and time should watch the series The Fabric of the Cosmos: It’s fascinating.
Special thanks to all who helped: Klaus, Paul, Pascale, the 2 Canadian Alex’s, Katie, Kramer and all you cats at the post-masking tape party. And the landlord – for not spewing about it.
If you think this is the last fox post, buddy – you are wrong. All good things come in threes.
My life thus far has been a decoupage of mixed emotions and messages surrounding the common fox.
1. My mother hates them as they kill all the chickens and only eat one – necessitating her locking them in their coop every evening. She also used to go shooting foxes on farms as a young vet student.
2. My godmother’s family share the name Reynard and swathe their house in ornate figurines and tasteful imagery of delightfully mischievous, handsome foxes.
3. My favorite Dr. Seuss book was Fox in Socks… Which resulted in my ICQ name and first email address back in the 90’s (Wow. Just wow, that I just said that) being Fox In Sox. At hotmail of course. Also, I thought, what a foxy and appealing name to the pimply braces-clad boys who might court me via the internet in the hopes of sharing a bag of Wizz Fizz at the train station after school the next day; or more desirable even, that we might both be attending the same school-organised dance (I was enrolled at an all girls school, inter-school dances were our livelihood) where I would put on an impressive display of branding, upholding my web presence as the ‘fox in sox’ by donning a pair of knee-high rainbow socks.
4. I was also a big Roald Dahl fan as a kid, and frankly, Fantastic Mr Fox carried on like a complete jerk.
5. My closest family friend has a penchant for arctic fox fur, seizing any opportunity to travel to a climate cold enough and accepting enough for her to adorn herself in her plethora of luxurious wintry garments. Mind you, she’s in the Reynard family so I imagine that had some influence.
6. My most-viewed video on the internet to date involves Banjacks and Pervis (Anna Bennet and I) purchasing fox furs from a vintage store and wearing them while we have a spitting competition in the park. It’s called Vintage Furs.
So where does that leave me? Loving them? Hating them? Killing them? Filming them? Well I’m clearly thinking about them. And in doing so, Klaus and I noticed a flaw in the English language. Check it out:
One Ox, Two Oxen.
So…. I propose
One Fox, Two Foxen.
Come get some, Oxford dictionary. Or should I say, Oxenford dictionary.
Anyway, all this fox business came up as I’ve been asked to paint a fox mural with a friend from work this weekend. We shall name it Foxen and be paid in beer. Thus inspiring the following:
THEDARCLAUD■ 
