(dinner-time sketch by jordan)
today i learned how to get rid of toxins caused by spending time with icky people.
you stand up, and shake your hands, and the toxins start to fall.
then you wrap one hand around a finger of the other hand and pull off the toxins that fell to your hands during the shaking. repeat for each finger of each hand.
then shake one more time to remove any excess.
the negative energy falls off.
try it. it works.
i wish the 13-year-old me had owned a copy of fool's gold. penny, the protagonist, would be my hero. maybe, she still is. penny is a 15-year-old fashion designer/activist who makes it her mission to end the reign of male jerks at her high school while strutting around in adorable handmade outfits. AND she lives in colorado.
we recently went to a little talk given by the artist and author of fool's gold, amy reeder hadley. amy (a colorado native) never drew comics before she fell in love with the first volume of rising stars of manga. eight months later (after teaching herself to draw manga) she entered the rising stars contect and was a runner-up. after that she was offered a three book deal with tokyopop. crazy.
now amy's working on a new series for vertigo called madame xanadu. she also spends a lot of time drawing in her fan's copies of fool's gold. find out more about fool's gold, madame xanadu, and amy at her website.
ever wonder about how the sun and moon appear and disappear each morning and night? the answer can be found in the feminist and oh so groovy children's book, amy and the cloud basket. published in 1975, the book is the story of amy mclune, who bucks the gender roles in the town of pan.
instead of wanting to spoon clouds on and off the sun and moon as the females of pan traditionally do, she wants a basket to collect the clouds. at first the men of pan are outraged that a girl would even think of asking for a basket. eventually, everyone realizes that each person should be able to choose their role in the cloud changing process. thank you amy mclune!
i highly suggest clicking on the photos to get an even better look at the far out clothing and hair worn by the citizens of pan. the book is an homage to bell-bottom overalls.
amy and the cloud basket was published by lollipop power press, a feminist publishing collective based in north carolina. you can buy your own copy for only $88.95 (!!!). my crumbling copy is not for sale.
another one of my favorite childhood books is the best-loved doll by rebecca caudill. i tried taking photos of the cover of my copy, but it is so faded and torn that the photos were terrible. my version has a pink cover, which i think may be the original cover from the early 1960s.
it's the story of a little girl who is invited to a birthday party where each child is invited to bring a doll and prizes will be awarded for categories such as "best-dressed" and "oldest" doll. the main girl decides that she will bring her favorite doll, one that is not particularly old yet has matted hair and and patched cheeks from constant play.
i love to go back and re-read the books i loved as a child. even though i read these books hundreds of times, i always notice details i didn't as a girl (like the simple smiley faces on the girls).
i like that i was exposed to both traditional girly influences along with '70s progressive influences such as the free to be you and me record, where it's the boys playing with dolls and the girls who want to be athletes and firefighters. (can anyone else still sing every song from this album?) it's interesting how when reading the best-loved doll i never thought to myself, "wow! this book is really girly!" and yet i do remember thinking after listening to the song "william's doll" that it shouldn't be a big deal for william's parents to buy him a doll, even if he defies the lyrics of the song and decides not to be a father.
some of my favorite books in my picture book collection originally belonged to my mother. one that is particularly special to her and me is a tall red book about horses illustrated by the dutchman, piet worm (great name!).
i especially enjoy the part of the story when the three horses go into town dressed up as women. piet perfectly captured the kind of costumes i loved as a child.
i also love my mother's copy of the the steadfast tin soldier. the inside cover always makes me smile.
p.s. it's really hard to take photos in colorado in november when you work full time. i miss the ecuadorian sun!
yesterday, it was a postcard advertising the daily drawings at partyka by shawn cheng (see above), sara edward-corbett, sean mccarthy, and matt wiegle.
don't miss their catalogue. i may buy this.
i also rediscovered cameron tiede's sketchbook.
happy friday!
while cleaning out some old boxes this summer, i stumbled on an old set of postcards i used to play with as a child. my first reaction was, "look how cute these are!" then i turned the cards over and realized they are from sambo's pancakes, an old restaurant chain that i think was popular in the '60s.
sambo's owners supposedly chose the name based on their names (Sam and Bo for Bohnett) but used the story, "little black sambo," as a promotional tool. The story is about an indian child who has his new clothes stolen by a group of tigers. he finally outwits the tigers (they run in circles so fast that they turn into butter) and returns home where he eats big piles of pancakes. while the story takes place in india, the sambo character in the original book (written by Helen Bannerman) is depicted as black, and not just black, but as an offensive stereotype with crazy hair and big red lips.
it is interesting to me that sambo's restaurant would choose this name but chose to illustrate the sambo in their story as white. i wonder if these postcards were the original ones used or if they were used later once the restaurant faced a drop in business due to opposition of the racist sambo story? the last of the sambo's restaurants closed in the early '80s.
thank you for all of your insightful responses to my last post! i love when people who have found my blog take the time to comment or write me an email telling me they enjoy reading it. recently, i received an email from the talented new york artist, denise despirito who is interested in spending some time in latin america. i am happy she wrote me because i was able to discover her beautiful work. i love all the details and how many pieces are made up of multiple pieces of paper that can be combined differently to create different looks. this is the kind of art you can stare at for hours.
i also love the work by sarah blohme and the other ladies at lula.
and this hippo painting (scroll down) by national badger.
a trip down the stairs to my grandparent's basement was always an adventure. once our feet touched the cold linoleum tiles my grandfather would begin offering us every item in view. do you need a broken beach umbrella from 1969? how about a box of giant rubberbands? an old bottle of scotch originally received as a christmas present in 1977? when i would explain i lived in a small college then manhattan then brooklyn apartment he would yell, "You need a stretcha!" (stretcher) and would then proceed with the offerings. we were not allowed back upstairs until each member of my family agreed to take some object home.
when we were younger, we would always look through the basement bookshelf that held books that belonged to my mother or one of her two brothers. there were old mad magazines, textbooks, notebooks filled with homework assignments, nancy drew novels and hardy boys books that had lost their covers. once i brought home a copy of native son. another time i found how to be a nonconformist.
i rediscovered this book while going through my old books in new york. originally published in 1967 the book was written and illustrated by elissa jane karg. as a teenager, i loved comparing the advice she gave for being a non-conformist in the '60s with what i considered to be acts of non-conformity in the '90s. (the idea that following any rules is a form of conformity had not yet hit me.)
the illustrations are charming and definitely have a '60s vibe to them. the book was recently re-published and is available here.
now my grandparents live in a small condo in florida. there is no basement for storing old possessions. yet when we visit, i am still told i need a stretcha and am not allowed to leave empty-handed.
