Michael Sowa

Michael Sowa's quirky animal art was featured in the French film Amelie. Unfortunately there isn't much information available about him on the internet, with no official site though many poster sites sell prints of his works.


























Bunny Dressing

Julia deVille's Memento Mori

Listening to Safety Dance by Men Without Hats

Julia deVille is a New Zealand artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Last year I had the priviledge of seeing her work in the flesh as part of the touring show Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award 2006.

This morning I got reaquainted with her work through discovering her steampunk flavoured website.

Her works combine leather work, taxidermy and gold smithing skills. Most of it is wearable art. It's exquisitely detailed, often combining the remains of (naturally deceased) small mammals with precious and semi precious materials. A major inspiration is Memento Mori jewellery especially of the Victorian period. All of her works deal with mortality, which some may view as morbid, perhaps even grisly though this is not the intention. Instead DeVille is interested in exploring the fragility and value of life.


Brooch: Bird Claw 2006
Sterling silver, black rhodium plate, Keshi pearl
9 x 4 x 2 cm

Natural History Inspired Art Overload

Invidia/Sebastian
Emoto Hajime
mixed media, 2005

I started looking for a particular artist, Emoto Hajime (thanks Scoia)
then found this wonderful blog combining art and science,
Bioephemera

which led to,
Morbid Anatomy (NSFW)

a well as a range of artists and fantastic works my favourites being:
Peter Callesen, poetic paper sculptor
Peter Milton, steam punk flavoured
Unusual taxidermy
Les Deux Garcon aka more surreal taxidermy
Custom Creature Taxidermy, quite a few squirrels some cute, some an aquired taste!
Jessica Joslin, fabulous skeletal animals, combining Baroque with steam punk.

Chai Tea with kick

Listening to The Way I Are by Timberland

Chai lattés right now are the hottest thing since ... café lattés a few years ago. Most cafés make them.
What about when you're at home?
Try this:
Brew some chai tea (I'm sure loose leaf is best but I have only bags myself).
Sweeten with honey. Sugar cubes daintily dropped into your cup with sugar tongs are fun as well :)
Sprinkle a shake of ground cinnamon, then stir it in.
Stir in a shot of Vanilla Galliano.
Delish!

Quokka Nest Island

Listening to Ladykiller by Alice in Videoland

;) aka Rottnest Island
M took most of the photos since he had the SLR with him. Check out Cute Overload for his best quokka shot which made the grade!
Here are some of mine taken with the compact.

Our accomodation was so close to the beach we could fall asleep to and wake up to the soothing sound of waves softing breaking on the beach. The curtains on the windows were cute (if only they had matching tea towels in the gift shop!).


We hired bikes and went for a ride each day. I took this pic on our first ride (it may well be an outdoor toilet but I thought it made a good photo anyway!).


In lieu of going swimming - it was too cold even though the weather was fine - I lay down and made this:


The quokka were adorable and mildly inquisitive. They are at their most easy to spot in the late afternoon around 4/5pm and into the night (they're nocturnal). They are macropods like kangaroos. At this time of year there are many mothers with their joeys out and about.