Posts Tagged ‘illustration’

if you’re in melbourne this weekend get thee to the finders keepers market and check out my top secret artwork (a detail of it is above) that is part of the drawn from fashion exhibition organized by leeloo. the show consists of artworks by a whole bunch of talented people (including me and my tremendously talented talent) inspired by l’oreal melbourne fashion festival runway events from the last few years. if you see me at the club market on saturday say hello and buy me a taco.

 

the old woman who lived in a vinegar bottle

written by rumer godden

illustrated by mairi hedderwick

published by macmillan, london, 1972

this book has been with me since i was little, and its possibly responsible for my love of patchwork. isn’t that a gorgeous cover? i really enjoy the pen and ink illustrations by mairi hedderwick. they evoke the colors and textures of the rugged parts of the UK countryside so well.

aren’t the pebbles and hillside rendered nicely? so washy and soft looking, with that added complexity of the pen lines. but on to the story…

the old woman lives a modest life in her vinegar bottle, which the author explains is most likely a modified oast house which bears a resemblance to old style stoneware vinegar bottles. her cat malt is well fed while she ekes out her existence on bread, trimmings from the butcher and a drop of milk for her tea.

one day while cleaning she finds a sixpence just as the fishing boats are coming to shore. she buys what she can from the fishermen – a small fish but she can’t bring herself to take it home and so she throws it back into the lake. just as she is leaving the fish calls to her. he is a prince and he offers to grant her anything she likes in return for saving his life. the old lady is stunned and thanks the fish but says she doesn’t need anything.

she returns home in a daze before realizing she has nothing to eat. nervously she returns to the lake and asks the fish for “a good hot dinner”. the fish tells her that when she goes home she will find one. at home the table is covered with roast beef and all the trimmings, bread and dessert, with milk and catnip for malt the cat. full from dinner, the old lady falls asleep and awakes later to a clear table and a note reading “another one tomorrow”.

that night a storm batters the vinegar bottle, and the following morning the old lady visits the fish if it would be too much trouble to have a little cottage. the old lady turns to head home and is met with a pretty little cottage. she walks through it in awe, but realizes her old furniture looks shabby and sparse. she once again asks the fish who grants her request. at home, in the new bedroom mirror the old lady sees how plain she looks. she asks the fish for new clothes and she’s immediately in a fresh new dress. at home her wardrobe is stocked with everything she could need. as she eats her dinner that night she realizes she no longer has clothes to work in and she couldn’t possibly get her new clothes dirty. she hurries to the lake and without greeting him, demands a maid.

“‘go home and you will find one’ said the fish. his voice was quiet … and a shade tired.”

at home, the old lady is irritated by the maid’s presence and the lack of her rocking chair. she hears the church bells and decides to go to church to show off her new clothes. but her shoes pinch and so she marches down to the fish to demand transportation. when she finds a cart and pony she sniffs in disdain and stamps back to the lake to explain she wanted a car. a car appears, but the old lady wanted a different car with a chauffeur.

the little fish did not say, “go home and you will find one,” but stood up out of the water on his silver tail. “you used to curtsey to me,” said the little fish. “yesterday you came and said ‘thank you’ before you touched a morsel of the dinner i sent you. that was yesterday, but now! you are a greedy and ungrateful old woman,” said the fish. “go back to your vinegar bottle.

back at the vinegar bottle everything was back to how it had been. the miserable old lady goes back to the lake to apologize and beg the fish’s forgiveness. the fish offered to restore the dinners, and cottage, and clothes, and maid and chauffeur for the repentant old lady, but she insisted that her and malt were best in the vinegar bottle. all they needed was a nice hot sunday dinner.

have we all learned a valuable lesson from the fish? i think i’d be happy with someone magically providing dinner!

today’s bookpile book comes from the incredible collection of ms peta pledger. i couldn’t believe this book when i saw it its just so wholesome and sweet! its a lutheran-based ‘life education’ book. so if you’re still wondering where you came from or why you’re having these strange new feelings, read on! firstly, you should be a natty teen – i’m pretty sure if these preppy kids stripped down they’d be strategically covered by fig leaves.

wonderfully made, by ruth s hummel & w.j. fields
published by concordia publishing house, 1967
purchase a copy from amazon

recipe: take one man (preferably in a suit, shade of lime green not important) and one lady (must have petite waist and be partially transparent when standing by her man).

love brought you to life! also: ovaries. aren’t they neat and tidy looking? i hope mine have a groovy lettered sign like that.

this is where a baby lives. please note more fabulous typography. type like that makes the miracle of birth way better.

as a parent, i must point out that kids don’t produce giant purple, fun, lettering. its mostly shouting which is undetected by the eye, but doubly detected by your rapidly diminishing sense of hearing.

i’m captioning this illustration ‘valley of the doll: the joy of being a mother (or just the joy of those awesome sedatives everyone took in the 60s)’

i have a feeling this poor teen has been put in a coma by that wallpaper. so many roses! as you can see he tried to cover it a bit, but the pennants! they do nothing!

just one more bit of fabulous typography! can you imagine how this book would go down with the ‘youth’ today? i think their irony-meters would fall off!