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It's the end of Saturday here in Sydney and the end of a very wet and cold winter's day. Technically, winter starts on Monday but temperature wise it started on Friday which was our first seriously cold day. It was quite exciting actually!
So, it was the perfect day to stay in and lie low. Here is a drawing I finished today. It's a rather cute fluffy determined looking bunny running errands. He's up in my shop here as a small print.
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Meet Alexandra Romano: talented photographer, Etsy shop owner and writer of lovely blogs! I first met Alexandra in blogland actually and was introduced to her amazing photography that way. She has two Etsy shops: Sugarspot, which is where she sells her photographs and Sugarspot Vintage which is where she sells vintage clothes and accessories. She also has a delightful blog: Mothersvea.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I'm a girl that likes rock music and cookies. I was born and raised in Sweden by an Italian father and a Swedish mother in a small town close to Gothenburg.
In my third year at University I went to Milano as an exchange student and got "stuck" in Italy (which mean that I fell in love). I now live in Vicenza which is located in the middle of Verona and Venice.
When did you decide you'd like to become an artist?
When someone calls me an artist I always look behind my back wondering who they are talking about because I've never really considered myself an artist. I'm sure I'm not an artist in a classical way but my goal has always been having a fun job and I have always been very creative so it wasn't a hard choice becoming a graphic designer.
Who are your favourite artists at the moment?
There's so many!! I can't believe there's so many talented people out there, thank you god for inventing the Internet! But at the moment I'm a big fan of C.C. Askew (http://www.myspace.com/sekretcity). He's a former Tattoo artist from San Francisco that now concentrates on his art and he's a truly amazing artist. I just saw some of his new paintings on his myspace page and my jaw dropped! Dan Hillier (http://www.danhillier.com/) from England is another artist I admire very much.
What are your top five favourite movies at the moment?
This is such a difficult question!! I haven't seen that many movies lately but my top five "all time favourites" ones are:
1. Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore , (the most romantic movie ever made)
2. Amarcord by Federico Fellini. (makes me laugh, Fellini as his best)
3. Black cat White cat by Emir Kosturica (Absurdly funny)
4. the godfather1 by Francis Ford Coppola (the classic)
5. Reality Bites by Ben Stiller (I loved it as a teenager)
Where do you see yourself in five years time?
I would really like to be able to work as a freelance designer and only take on really fun projects, well that's my dream anyway. Although I'm more of a "live for the day" person and hates to make to many plans for the future because it never works out like you think anyway...
Thank you so much Alexandra!
The images shown here are all from Alexandra's Etsy shop, Sugarspot. The top one is Carneval 1, Tiger Polaroid, and Carneval 5. To the left here is a pussy cat polaroid from her shop also.
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Both of these cartoons are from one of my favourite books: The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker. It's a compilation of the best cartoons from every decade published in The New Yorker from the 20s to today. I chose these two because they are from 1925 and 1932 respectively which makes them Art Deco cartoons! I thought they were kinda sweet and gentle.
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Something happened to me last week - I fell into the vortex that is Mad Men, that sublime poem to mid twentieth century New York advertising executives and the world they inhabit. However, it was far from a "love at first sight" affair, oh no it was a real slow burner!
I first became aware of Mad Men early last year. Vanity Fair magazine was swooning all over the show but because I hadn't seen it and was unlikely to for several years (! We get stuff quite a bit later here) I just skipped over the articles. Then several more articles appeared and there were write ups in Sydney papers going into great depth about the philosophy and costumes and period detail and ....! It seemed there was plenty to like.
So, I bit the bullet and rented out the first couple of episodes and got about half way through the first episode with my boyfriend. I felt like I was reading a zen buddhist Koan! It was sooo slow and quiet and so what if everyone was wearing twin sets and smart suits with skinny ties!
Then a local TV station showed a fascinating documentary on the original Mad Man: David Ogilvy "The Father of Advertising" and followed it up by showing the first season of Mad Men. Hmmmm...I thought, maybe I should give the show another go. I rented out the first season again and that was it: totally and utterly hooked! The clothes! The wonderful calm paced drama! The historical back drop! The sets! Strong and silent Donald Draper! The luxurious feeling as if you're in a time machine! Joan Holloway's magnificent sassyness! Ghastly Pete Campbell! I could go on and on... and now tragedy of tragedies,: my video shop doesn't have the second season yet. So I just have to sit here and pine away like a schoolgirl with a crush until it is finally released here. Sigh!
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This is just a quick "Hello" and "Happy Sunday" to let you know that a) I have a new print in my shop: "Fluffy Sparrow" and...b) the lovely Christina is having a terrific giveaway of my prints and cards on her gorgeous blog Down and Out Chic! You can find the post here!
Hope everyone is having a lovely relaxing weekend!
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This is Nancy. She's impossibly vivacious and lovely and as you can imagine the belle of any ball! I named her Nancy in honour of Nancy Mitford the English author of "Love in a Cold Climate". "Love.." is a real ripping yarn with plenty of dry humour and scandalous behaviour and it's a great read. It was actually made into a BBC mini-series (about 8 episodes long I think) in the '70s which I watched with my parents. Recently, though, it has been re-done into a 3 hour or so made for TV movie. This later one I watched recently and I can't recommend it enough! It really is fun! It has a great ensemble cast, the sets are gorgeous and it's set in my favourite period: the '20s and 30s.
Nancy was one of "The Bright Young Things" in London between the wars and I think some of "Love.." is quite autobiographical. Actually, I think I'll stop there discussing Nancy because she really deserves a post all to herself! (Hmmmm...now there's a thought!) Here you can see the cover of the first edition of her most famous
novel.
As for the young thing above, I have her now in all her girly green eyed loveliness in my shop here!
Happy Friday everyone!
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I first met Eloise a few years ago. I'm not sure why I wasn't aware of her existence before then. Maybe she wasn't such a phenomenon here in Australia as she was in the States. For the folk who possibly don't know, Eloise is a very confident and precocious bit of hilarity invented by Hollywood vocal arranger /cabaret singer/ actress/ script writer/ children's book author Kay Thompson. Eloise was apparently based of Thompson's goddaughter, Liza Minnelli, but most people who knew Thompson feel that the character was actually Thompson herself.
The first of four Eloise books was published in 1956. The adventures of the cheeky six-year-old who lived in the Plaza with her menagerie of animal companions (a turtle "Skipperdee", a pug "Weenie" and pigeons) and her beloved long suffering Nanny was an instant best seller. Apart from Kay's delightful writing style it was the wonderful drawings by Hilary Knight which also made these books a hit.
Hilary Knight was born in New York in 1926. He was the son of two artist writers: his father illustrated aviation books and his mother drew for fashion magazines and as a book illustrator.
He studied at the Art Student's League and after wards worked as a ship painter while in the navy from 1944 - 1946. He then moved back to Manhattan and studied architectural drafting (at Delahanty Institute), interior design and theatre design.
He started collaborating with Kay Thompson in 1955 on the first Eloise book: "Eloise" and the three sequels that followed. Unfortunately, Thompson decided to pull the plug on her mischievous creation in the mid sixties and even removed the existing publications from print. Apparently she had tired of the "Eloise circus" and almost public possession of her little six year old character. Knight's relationship with Thompson deteriorated when the two became involved in a struggle as to who actually owned Eloise. Eventually, Thompson didn't even take his calls.
Happily for us and for Knight, as he could start receiving royalties once more for his illustrations, the books were re-published after Kay's death in 1998.
Knight still lives in Manhattan where he continues to draw and illustrate. So far he has illustrated 50 books, nine of which he also wrote but he will always be best known as the illustrator of Eloise. Viva Eloise!
There is a terrific Vanity Fair article about Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight here.
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Here's Alex the lovely high society goddess who organizes once a month fund raising charity lunches at her six bedroom penthouse apartment that over looks Central Park. She is also almost always in the social party pages of Vanity Fair and of course has a permanent place on The annual Best Dressed list. She's endlessly patient and polite with the paparazzi that camp outside the door to her apartment block and has even been known to offer them hot tea on particularly chilly January evenings.
She's old money and comes from a long line of sensible investors and hard workers but she is resolutely single despite what you read about her in the press. She is famous, however, for her eccentric habits regarding her very beautiful Himalayan seal point lilac and magnolia cat: Tiger whom she sets a place for at dinner amongst other things.
She's now available in my shop here as a very refined and perfectly turned out small print (4" X 6").
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This is a drawing I worked on over the weekend: Lovely Rita. I'm not quite sure but I think she is a warrior princess of some description who lives in the jungle! She is now available in my shop as a small print. You can find her here.
I hope everyone is settling into their week so far. Thank you again for all the lovely coments you leave - I really do appreciate them!
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