Combing Sedna’s Hair

My previous post referred to the Inuit story of Takannaaluk, an powerful figure in Inuit legend.  This was my excuse to learn more about Inuit stories, and to do a Takannaluk – inspired drawing, as you can see. Takannaluk can be translated as “the terrible woman down there” or “the great one below”.    She has many other names but is best known as Sedna, so that is what I will call her.

There are many versions of Sedna’s story.  In some she marries a dog, in others she is so greedy that she tries to eat her father.  Here is my own version of her story, patched together from several sources:

This is the story of Sedna.  There she sits at the bottom of the sea with her long hair tangling  and all her creatures coming and going around her – the sharks, the seals and the all the little fish. When the hunting is bad the Inuit people say that Sedna is angry and has called all her creature to be close to her.  She is in pain and remembers who hurt her.

Long ago Sedna was a human girl, her father’s only daughter. She was beautiful and proud and many young men came courting her – but none of them were good enough for Sedna.  She was content with her life as it was and did not want to get married.

Germaine Arnaktauyok – Inuit Artist

After my post on Caroline Leaf’s animation, I’ve been very curious about Inuit stories and imagery.  Germaine Arnaktauyok satisfies both those needs – she tells stories through her prints and drawings.  

“Mother Earth” – a lithograph

Germaine was named after a blind woman that her mother cared for.  From an interview with Germaine:

Story in Sand:Owl and Goose by Caroline Leaf

Here is another stop motion animation, this time created by drawing pictures in sand on glass. Caroline Leaf based “Owl and Goose” on an ancient Inuit story about an Owl’s unrequited love for a goose.  As told in this interview she worked with Agnes Nanogak, an Inuit artist who created the animal silhouettes necessary for sand animation.

I found no information on Anges Nagonak, but did find this image by her from the Montreal Museum’s website:

Suzie Templeton’s Peter and the Wolf

There is something  deeply satisfying about a familiar story told from a new angle.  This is the case with Piotruś i Wilk – or Peter and the Wolf – a puppet animation adapted and directed by Suzie Templeton.  The story and music is the original Sergei Porkofiev’s Peter and the Wolf but in a contemporary setting and with a surprising twist in the end.

You can watch the animation itself here – I’ve included the youtube versions below. It’s been separated into four sections.  Small warning – dont get too emotionally attached to that duck…

The Little Prince and the Tiger Cat – Mischa Damjan & Ralph Steadman

Some more cute cat illustration.  This time its from “The Little Prince and the Tiger Cat” written by Mischa Damjan and illustrated by Ralph Steadman.

This is rather a change for “gonzo artist” Ralph Steaman, better known for his work with Hunter S Thompson, producing images like this:

The story is set many years ago in Japan, when the Japanese first came into contact with cats.  They had heard that cats were very good at getting rid of mice, but were not clear on how this worked. 

Steaming Heart

This drawing reminds me of some of the scenes in Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy – his characters always seem to steam in moments of stress:

Pin Screen Animation – Jacques Drouin

I’ve been meaning to write some posts on some of the lovely animations available on-line.  I’ll start with one of the lesser known techniques – “pin screen” animation.

detail from Mindscape by Jacques Drouin

Pin screen animation is made using a screen pierced by thousands of headless pins.  The animator creates images on the screen by pushing the pins into the screen.  When the screen is lit from the side, each pin casts a shadow – the deeper the pin is pushed, the smaller the shadow, which made it possible to create images with the subtlest of tones, rather like a delicate charcoal drawing.  This techniques was invented by Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker in the 1930’s.

detail from Mindscape by Jacques Drouin

As you can imagine, this is a very time consuming process and Alexeief and Parker made only a handful of films – and they are worth watching. But the animation I want to show you is by a contemporary animator – Jacques Drouin.

Translation is the art of failure

So – I’m in the habit of reading when I eat.  A book is ideal, but anything will do which is why I was browsing through an advertising insert from Pick & Pay during my lunch break the other day.

There was the usual assortment of pots, pans and brooms – and then I came across this strange device:  a Broodgraan Uitdeler.   I was a little disconcerted but read on.  Maybe everyone else knows what a Broodgraan Uitdeler is.   Then I found this:

I had always thought of it as a “gieter”.  But  that makes perfect sense.  “Watering Can” could, indeed be translated as “Natmaak Blikkie”.  Following the same logic, we have a “Elektriese Grasmaaier”:

The Hunting of the Last Dragon by Sherryl Jordan

The plot in Short: It’s Britain in the 14th century. The last of the dragons was killed almost a generation ago.  So how could an entire village be burnt to the ground, all its occupants killed in a night?  Young Jude survives, homeless, friendless and terrified.
He meets  tiny, fierce Jing-wei, crippled by her bound feet and trapped in the life of the freak in a travelling show.  Jude is torn by guilt and fear, but Jing-Wei is more than willing to  force him to turn and face his past,  to hunt the last dragon.

(image from tripreportwww2008)

What I thought: This is a wonderful book.  I’m a sucker for dragon books as it is, and this one is lovely.

Its a real story teller’s book. 

Giving in to Pattern

I’m really getting drawn into making more and more patterns.  Soon I’m going to have to find an application for them, as producing patterns for their own sake seems so very self indulgent:

***

Quilted Drawing

Here is another page from my sketchbook – and below are the patterns I generated from it.

Many, many patterns- it looks like a sort of drawing quilt:

Wallpaper

I’ve always been very drawn to the work of William Morris, and it shows a bit in this one:

Fractal Virus

So I’m sitting at home with a cold.  In the break between reading Deon Meyer’s far too intense thriller “13 Uur”,  I’ve been taking my pattern obsession to a new level:

Subblue’s Fractal Explorer plug-in lets me take snippets of my own drawings and turn them into fractals.  I got the link from this post on  feuilleton.

Starting with this seed image copied from my Dragon Girl drawing:

I created these fractal versions:

 

Nurse – Guardian

 

This is another one of those drawings that seems to have a strong story behind it.  I like the bird headed woman – she seems caring and fierce at the same time.  But for some reason I’m perfectly sure that she is not the girl’s mother.

Drawing and Reading

A fairly recent drawing that did not go quite as planned:

I was able to generate quite a few patterns from this drawing. I’m fairly sure that these shapes are inspired by my reading of Kim Stanley Robinson’s  Red Mars that I’d just finished, and Green Mars that I’m still reading.  There is a lot of detail about mutating algae and other microscopic plants in the effort to terraform Mars.

In a previous post I quoted from Green Mars - Hiroko explains her understanding of pattern in nature.  Here is a quote about different ways of understanding the world – the scientific, and the poetic: