Teddy's Dream after a Dormitory Feed!

Original image from The Boy's Own Paper, Saturday, February, 1899, No. 1048. - Vol XXI, page 8

The Black Market, The Dormouse and The Meerkat

The Black Market is an alternative culture market featuring crafts, art and bric-a-brac. I will be sharing a stall with my housemate who has knitted goods.

We will be called  
The Dormouse and The Meerkat.

Click here or below on the titles in the price list to see some of what will be on sale from me, The Meerkat.  There will be Black Market Specials on my artworks, dropped from their previous gallery/Wunderkammer prices. Prices start from $30.

The Black Market

Saturday, June 9

11-6

@

Revolt Melbourne Artspace

12 Elizabeth St, Kensington, Melbourne, VIC 3031

Entry is free for the Black Market, with ticket admission for other events as part of Fiend Fest.

Creature Comfort

Illustration by T. Cromwell Lawrence

Illustration by T. Cromwell Lawrence.


The good runners...


... and the beetle that loved them.

Original image from The Boy's Own Paper, Saturday, December, 1898, No. 1040. - Vol XXI, page 3

More Vintage LOLrus

Original image source: The Boy's Own Paper, Saturday, July 29, 1899, No. 1072. - Vol XXI, page 1

According to the text this is an illustration of a 'bladder-nose'. That's 'Mr. Bladder-nose to you, and not to be confused with the elephant seal, who is quite another bucket of fish.

Koalas like trams - and love Australia

These koalas were seen on the 112 tram to the city last Saturday morning, quietly blending in with the onboard decor.

'Dear' Old Aunt Sally

Original image and text from The Boy's Own Paper, Saturday, November 12, 1899, No. 1035. - Vol XXI, page 13

 'The following games will not only cause much amusement to the different players joining therein, but will afford that healthy exercise which is so necessary for the maintenance of health...

... Fig. 1 gives "dear old Aunt Sally," who, no matter how much we may knock her about, still smiles, and keeps it up too, as if in encouragement and invitation to have another shy. Aunt Sally's head should be carved out of a block of wood, and the sculptor's art exhibited need not be of any high order, as the more grotesque the features the better. When the head is carved it must be painted black, in imitation of a neggress* with a sweet smile, bright red lips, and pearly-white teeth**. A hole should be made underneath the head, large enough to insert the end of a broomstick, the other end to sharpened to a point, as seen in the illustration, so that it may be easily pushed into the ground ... A small hole should be drilled in the nose to receive a short clay pipe, a quantity of which may be obtained from the tobacconists' shops for a few pence ... round sticks, as A in fig. 1, about eighteen inches in length, can be made by sawing up broomsticks into the required length.

All is now ready. Stand Sally up, and place a pipe in her nose. Three sticks are to be given to each player, the game being to break the pipe by aiming sticks at it...'

I'm not going to dissect the obvious racism, and violence against women such a game suggests'. Almost one hundred and thirteen years later I think we can all agree this is so many levels of wrong. Additionally, promoting waste and destruction is hardly healthful exercise ... the modern equivalent would be to gather several empty glass bottles together to throw rocks at them, thus 'fostering quickness of sight'. I have put in italic the parts I found especially abhorent and leave it at that. I'll be flippant and say: Good luck finding an intact broom afterwards to clean up all that broken pipe!

*Blogger's dictionary doesn't know what this word is :) Good!
**We know that no one actually looks like this!

King of Cookies, design for Threadless

Please vote for my Threadless shirt artwork for the Sesame Street Design Challenge:

King of Cookies.

To vote for it and any of the other awesome designs by my fellow artists you can either create a Threadless account or use the Threadless Facebook application and use your Facebook log in (don't uncheck the boxes on that or it won't work). Thank you :)