Trooping for love and charity.

As some of you may know, I recently became involved with the 501st here in Tasmania. It's been great, because apart from raising money for various charities and making children smile, I get to do what I'm good at which is stand around in costume and have my photo taken with happy people. I've never been a huge Star Wars fan, but I am really enjoying using different parts of my creativity that I haven't had much of a chance to revisit since childhood, such as my interest in movement, dance, acting and costumes. I've always been involved in campaigns to help out animals or humans in need too, so the charity aspect of the 501st suits me on that level as well. So, today, for some of my new trooper, friends I decided to make a somewhat silly video about some of the issues we face when dressing up! :-)

Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads!

I didn't take this photo, it's a scan from one of my favourite sticker books about Australian insects that I had when I was a kid. I was really obsessed with this picture. Actually I still am. Looking on the internet today I have found other pictures of gum skeletoniser caterpillars with their old head skin hats on but none as good as this photo from the eighties! Now days when hear the song We want a rock by They Might Be Giants and the lyric: "Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads!" I think of this photo and these cute caterpillars!

Thank you.

There were certain books that I had when I was a child that were just so precious to me, for their stories and their sweetness. This one, I have finally managed to find on ebay after a long time of searching. When I was about five I used to borrow it all the time from the town library, intrigued by its smallness and by the fact that the main characters were an ant and a bee. It inspired many of the comics I made as a child and still inspires me now. My favourite page was the last one, shown above, as it amazed me that the author had known just what I was thinking when I worried about the skate going over the bump!
I was also very inspired by book I had that was one of those record, read along books.... It was called The little house, I think and was one of the first things that made me think about houses and cities and other inanimate objects having spirits of their own, another theme that comes up often in my art and writing today. These things and many, many others from childhood have had such a deep influence on me and my work that I often wish I could find the people who wrote them and just say a heartfelt "thankyou."

Oh oh oh oh sweet child o mine...

Oh yeah, here's my slightly more silly purchase that I bought while looking for a new jumper. I couldn't find one I liked so got this instead. Mmmm... where do we go, where do we go, where do we go now?