Chillin'

Hoo boy, has it gotten cold in South Gippsland this week. We've had to whip out the winter woolies quick smart, and even the chooks have been refusing to get up out of their nice warm nest until they've got a hot steaming bowl of porridge for breaky! 

Praise the Lord

Praise the Lord for Easter long weekends! I've spent a fair chunk of it unshackled from my new life of full-time workin' and put pen to paper on a comic book I have been meaning to ink for basically ever. Most exciting. Its a sad kind of story about half-sisters and imaginary friends and I'm holding out for Anzac day to get the next instalment done!

hot & sticky

Its International Women's Day and today in the mail (in the weird way that the universe does things sometimes) I got my 6 comp copies of Sticks McLennon, a little chapbook I penned and Blake Publishing published. Sticks is a book for boys that is full of girls. Its about Samson McLennon- a shy 12-year old who is forced to join his big sister's all-girl band, lead by the formidable Harriette.

Gold Star

This week I was thrilled to the back teeth to find out I was awarded one of 12 mentorships by the Australian Society of Authors in the picture book category. 

Ragged

Yes I have a new zine for Sticky zine fair! Yes it is another messy-scribbled-comic about radical ideas and stuff that gets me worked up! Would you like one??? Then I am catching a 3-hour bus to be there!!! You should so very definitely come!

woof woof

For someone who doesn't like dogs, I ended up drawing a whole lotta puppy last year. Out of all the canine commissions though, this is my favourite - a pair of pups for the lovely M + P's wedding invite. Congrats you two!
xx

splooshin and a' splashin

OK! So we're moving house tomorrow... I start my new job on Monday... and I gotta awesome idea for a picture this afternoon so instead of packing, cleaning or pulling my hair out I decided to get paint everywhere and generally make a mess. Yeah!!! (N is not pleased). (I am.)

grey little town

Its official! N and I are moving to the country! After toying with the idea for rather a long while we will be removing ourselves to the rolling hills of South Gippsland before the year is through. We are filled with joy and excitement! And being just 1-and-a-half hours from the smokey metropolis we will be welcoming visitors too.

top dog

Yesterday morning N and I arrived back in Melbourne and what was waiting on the doorstep? A beautiful box of Mandy Sayer's new book Coco in which I drew all the pictures. The book is an absolute riot and it looks so pretty (and shiny) in the flesh. And it might just convince you to buy a chihuahua, which is always a good thing (I'm still having trouble convincing N, who has his heart set on a border collie. Sigh.)

history lessons

Being a pathetic lady-fan of period dramas I was so tremendously excited to hear about Sam Wallman's Australian History Comics Anthology. Being a Bellarine Peninsula native, I thought I'd have a go at smashing out a part of the William Buckley story, with requisite silly-BBC-period-drama-style ship captain dialogue and a speedy montage to end this rather complicated and lengthy story! Submissions are due at the end of September.

***UPDATE*** Submissions are now due at the end of the year!! ***

par avian

So! I finally finished my zines for Sticky's Feed The Animals Fundraiser at TINA - my hands are sore from cutting, my fingers are covered in glue and I've just paid an exorbitant amount to post them to Australia from across the ditch. I ended up doing a little illustrated zine that takes many a cue from a this beautiful exhibition of Graham Percy's work that N and I saw a coupla days back in town.

into thee wild...

For the past three weeks N and I have been living in a little caravan, at the edge of a frosty wilderness in the "far out" far-north of NZ. This strange place we've been staying in gets stranger at night: when the morpork's start their hooting, and the wind goes icy cold, and everything must be done by candle light. To make things stranger, amongst the rumpty forest in which we live, there are a number of other caravans - each in a differing state of disrepair, dotted amongst the long grass and the straggly trees. In the daylight, they're unoccupied, but at night time my imagination fills them with all sorts of creepy fly-by-night characters, or the ghosts of those who've inhabited them before. And its then that I thank my lucky stars I've sensible N beside me, with his sensible torch, to aid in any moments of irrational terror!

fare thee well...

As of tomorrow N and I will be setting off on a journey to the land of the long white cloud for a bit. I am taking my sketch book and some inky things and some pencils too, so hopefully I can find the time to write you.
xxx