Penned by Dorothy Wall in the early 1930’s, Blinky Bill is a cheeky fictional koala.
Not content to doze and munch on gum leaves all day long, he lugs about a tucker bag and slingshot and gets up to all manner of mischief…
Yoram Gross & Blinky Bill
This is my watercolour Blinky Bill
He’s a little geriatric looking, possibly pondering the ‘when I was a young koala….’
Who doesn’t love a good Chuck Norris joke? Gravity is Space’s way of keeping Chuck Norris away from it. Chuck Norris makes Newtons apple fall up. Well move over Chuck and make way for William Bonnet.
Wills character Leo is one fit fella, equipped with a musical suitcase and what looks like many years of devoted yoga practice, he performs on stage a. while you watch the inverted projected version on stage b. This physical theatre “suitable for ages 8 to 108”, starts with a musical collage. From Sinatra to soul Leo dances and defies gravity.
In the middle part Leo turns the slapstick down a notch and chalks it up as the production slows down its pace. This is where my seven year old rested her eyes a little (although I suspect this had more to do with the walk to and from Wooloomooloo for a one metre pizza!)
We were still plenty entertained as Leo ventured underwater. Things started to get sombre with a good dose of trippy video projection to display Leo’s ability to scale walls and hang from ceilings too before turning to his trusty suitcase for a Mary Poppins style exit.
Thankyou Arts Rocket http://www.artsrocket.blogspot.com.au/ for a great afternoon out!
LEO
28 June 2014 – 13 July 2014 at the Sydney Opera House
Who is Miroslav Váša? More elusive than John Galt, I could find little info on this Czechoslovakian Illustrator.
I stumbled across his haunting Halloween illustrations in Bohuslav Březovský: The Mysterious Castle (1969).
Radovan Krátký: Bubáci / The Bugaboos Or Little Natural History Of The Spooks, Ghosts And Phantoms (1961).
Ghoulish? Macabre? A little disturbing.
Miroslav Váša
Born, lived and died in the Czech Republic 16.5.1920 to 14.8.1996
Illustrator, Typographer, Graphic Designer.
Other illustrated books by Miroslav Váša:
Pisen Pisni, 1956
Mlady Technik, 1962
Kraj Dvoji Oblhy, 1969
Dobrodruzstvi Prostopasnic, 1973
After weeks of painting props and pimping the hills hoist, daughter had her jungle birthday party over the weekend.
Jelly, junk food and jumping castle …
Butterfly pinata and a jungle lady complete with cold blooded creatures that the kids were only too happy to peck, pet and wrap around their necks!
They sat on, pulled out and played with the party props…
carting them home too!
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” Albert Einstein
Well Chrissy Lau is one clever clogs. Leaving England for sunny Sydney, this lady has a law degree and is a self-taught artist. This is a mural she created around the theme of change.
Her illustrations are intricate and pretty.
I saw a few of these by Chrissy Lau at the local shops recently…
and thought to make something similar with water colour paints for our hangers at home!
The first time son was weighed by the local district nurse, she exclaimed, “Dear Lord, he eats like a Roman! If he keeps this up, you’ll have to install a vomitorium!” She chuckled heartily, so clearly this was a good gag.
Yesterday I smiled to myself when we went to see ‘The Incredible Book Eating Boy,’ as it reminded me so of that joke that was lost on me (though I did appreciate the nurses broad accent and thick rolling rrrr’s.) The tale is about a boy who eats a page… then a book… then books. Though of zero nutritional value, this is outweighed by the added bonus that with each book consumed he grows smarter and smarter (he would definitely get the joke about the vomitorium.)
His habit spirals out of control until his innards can take no more. Boy has to either a) install a vomitorium, or b) find another way to consume books. Fortunately he chooses the later and finds that he loves to read books too.
Although I found the book a little predictable (though clearly I’m not the bench mark to set these standard by), I was pleasantly surprised at how the theatre production brought this book to life for me …big time. There was song, there was dance and plenty of slapstick to keep me and 6 year old daughter similarly entertained. From go to woaw.. he’s throwing up bite size pieces of book, cascading like confetti! we were hooked.
I won a family pass courtesy of Arts Rocket (http://www.artsrocket.org/) a big thankyou!
The Incredible Book Eating Boy is playing at The Sydney Opera House from the 12- 27th April. So if you have kids (or adults) who’d be entertained by a book eating boy, do go! Daughter really enjoyed how this play opened, from the book that goes bad, to the opening of the visual domino effect.
Ps Vomitorium: hailing from the latin vomitus (to vomit) and ancient times when vomiting was part of the fine dining experience to make way for more food.
This is a tale about a tiger with issues with civilization.
Bored with living polite and proper, he decides to go a little wild. He ceases to sip tea and grows a little rowdier each day. One day he goes so far as to jump out of a fountain a la nude and streak around town in his birthday suit.
This earns him a one way ticket out of town and into the wilderness, where he can run, roar and rip into raw food to his hearts’ content.
Alas, he grows bored of this too. He heads back to town, only to find that his friends are getting a little wilder too. Only then does he feel free to be himself, and so does everyone else (safety in numbers?)
One question Mr.Tiger, why did you need to see that the other animals were just as weird and wild as you, before you could accept your wonderful self?
For a book about self-actualization why the need for self-validation through others? Mr Tiger, you’re much like us humans.
Mr Tiger goes wild… or does he?
ps I love it that Mr Tiger au natural is the books centrefold!
(Tiger craft to follow ….)
Summertime…
and the living is easy…
fish are jumping…
and the cotton is high…
School holidays… 6 weeks of kids & craft!
When was the last time you saw a Two Tonne Welsh woman advertising outdoor furniture?
In 1947 Tessie O’Shea, a Welsh entertainer and actress was at the height of her fame and the spokeswoman for Sebel Stak-A-Bye chairs. These pressed metal chairs with sweeping tubular legs were Sebel’s first chair. Having freshly disposed of their war time ration cards, the British were ready to come out of their bunkers and into their gardens. Their “cheerful colour contrasts” and “almost indestructible plastic finish” made them an instant success.
To this day Sebel still operates from its original site at Bankstown, NSW, Australia. Established in 1947 by Harry Sebel who emigrated to Australia from post WWII Britain, he started Sebel with his father David, a metalworker Russian emigree. The production of these chairs ceased in 1958, however with the recent revival of vintage mid-century furniture, they’ve made a comeback. You can’t pass a cafe strip from Newtown to Newington that doesn’t have a Stak-A-Bye out front!
These are mine. They stack nicely and serve well as extra outdoor chairs. The blue ones are a bit flaky and as am very pregnant it will be a while before they see a fresh lick of paint. However, with a cushion or two they do just lovely.
Pre-pregnancy I did manage to refurbish a set of Sebel Hobnob Junior chairs from the early 70’s. I bought these second hand. They were a sickly looking crayon pocked, toddler sticky set of peach chairs. After a thorough soap scrub and hose down I set to transforming these chairs to accompany the kids outdoor table. Getting the chairs to a shiny new Plastic Fantastic look was no small feat.
HOW TO REFURBISH OLD WORN CHILDREN’S PLASTIC CHAIRS
Step 1: With paint brush coat down every square inch of plastic chairs with Grip Lock Primer. I used the White Knight brand.
Step 2: Once dry I tried a variety of spray paints however found that Killrust in a can works best. Spray even strokes starting at the top and work your way across left to right on your way down. For more intense colour and better coverage of primer, spray paint evenly one coat at a time. Wear a face mask as this stuff really stinks and can render one devoid of smell for a full day. Despite all this it was worth the effort as gone was putrid peach and in came a combination of bright yellow seats with silver legs, silver seats with canary yellow legs, blue and deep Indian red plastic chairs.
This is what they look like around the kids outdoor table.
How are Ballet and the Food Pyramid alike? They both have a four level hierarchy and very little fat. 
In a ballet company there are four levels of dancers. At the bottom is the corps de ballet. These are like the backup dancers, they are the largest group and work as one with synchronized movements. Next are the coryphees who lead the backup dancers, perform in smaller group dances and some solo roles. Ahead of them are the soloists, who dance solo parts. At the top are the principals who dance the starring roles, aka Natalie Portman in Black Swan.
As we’re on a road trip over Christmas am pretty sure we won’t be putting up a Christmas tree. Unwilling to go without decorations I decided instead to make these paper ballerina’s and put them up in the living room for some Christmas cheer.
How to Make a Paper Ballerina Bunting
I threaded the ballerina arms through some balled cotton, however tinsel would also be very Christmassy!
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