Inkblots

A series of inkblots. Created a little while ago, in the midst of other deadlines, in a fit of desperation to make-and-finish something, anything. Even so the accordion set did not please me. The textures on the larger pages were interesting (Winsor & Newton Indian Ink, dropped or swirled or spattered into patches of water).

A parrot. The eternal game of finding patterns in ink and kettles and clouds.

A story. Another game, of finding a tale in the structure created by something else — in this case, something to connect ten inkblot drawings (it turned into a little story for patrons).

Art or writing activities:

• Make inkblots.
• Find other ways of making inkblot-equivalents. Dropped scarves become landscapes. Homewares become historical personages. Take photos of strange clouds.
• Find pictures in them. Draw or describe them into greater clarity.
• Take eight (or five, or three — the number will attract a story-shape, but any number will do) of any of the above. Fix up a story (graphic or written) to fit them.

The Patreon

Now that I’m back catching up post-jet-lag, it occurs to me I haven’t really updated you with what’s going on over on Patreon, besides the calendars! If you don’t know about Patreon, it’s a site where you can patronise artists from as little as $1/month, contributing to various projects. My primary activity there is creating the fairytale calendar, but in addition to that there are other things going on at every level of patronage:

There are sneak-peeks of secret projects and work in progress:

There is stationery based on the calendar:

There are tiny stories and snippets of tales:

And occasional original sketches travelling off to folks:

And then there are there are other oddities, updates and even occasional discounts, such as a discount code I’m just about to put up from Literary Book Gifts, a shop selling… gifts for lovers of books! Totes and tshirts etc. I haven’t got my hands on any yet, but if you like (for example) Peter Pan or Beowulf, you can check them out here: Literary Book Gifts.

I actually like that Beowulf design, which reminds me to tell you that, unrelated to Patreon but very much related to books, Maria Dahvana Headley is in Australia on book tour with The Mere Wife! Her last date is here in Brisbane at Avid Reader on 29 August.

But back to Patreon! I really value the support and freedom all my current patrons have given me to just make things and send them back out into the world. If you enjoy the calendar or would like to help ease some of the rockier passages of the freelance lifestyle, if you like looking over artists’ shoulders or being involved in making pictures happen, or want suggestions for presents for the artists in your life, I would of course welcome the support!

But it isn’t just me: I really recommend checking out Patreon and seeing which artists, folklorists, writers, musicians, inventors, etc are on there, doing things that particularly excite you. I love the community of creative folks, and patrons — no matter which creatives they support, and no matter whether it is with money or food or spatial reasoning or cups of tea in a crises — are and always have been such a vibrant part of that.

Christmas mice

Some tiny cut-paper mice I put together as printable gift tags for my Patreon supporters as thank-you gift for helping make art like this happen (the full set is for $3+ patrons, and one is available for all patrons).