Sketchbook Party Crasher

I happened to see Mary last weekend & lo, she had a sketchbook with her from the current exchange. It was her own book, about to be sent out & around, so she asked me to do a page before she mailed it. Intended as a collab, I left most of the righthand page for her to complete. (Click on photo to view larger.)

This image is from a dream I had, which Mary has known about for years. I dreamed I was walking in nature & came upon a grove of sumac trees. The sumacs were covered in conical red blooms, or so I thought -- but when I got closer I suddenly realized they were not blossoms, but male cardinals! So many, more than I'd ever seen together. At the same instant I recognized them, they burst up & away in a cloud of flight. It was a magnificent dream!

Yes, I creep the site on occasion, just for fun. Love the work you're all doing! :-)

Toys. Ballookey in Andrea's Book

Grumpy. Ballookey in Andrea's Book

Outsider. Ballookey's doodle in Andrea's book

I didn't have Andrea's book with me, but I wanted to do this little composition, so I used some paper I had lying around at work. More like this to come.

The work never ends. Ballookey's doodle in Andrea's book

That was a bad day at work.

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date

My collaboration with Aya, in Andrea's book. Inspired by real life where I posted a photo of my latest purple and pink hair to Facebook with the caption "Don't hate me because I'm colorful".

Sorry that I'm terribly late on this - I'm overwhelmed with work and I knew I would be. I almost didn't do this round of the exchange because I knew I would get this busy - it happens every year. But I did a lot of work in Andrea's book while at work, in the form of little doodles and vignettes. I'll post them throughout the weekend as I finish touching them up or pasting them in.

Arrove

My Moleskine arrived on the 29th.  YAY!  I was so pleased to have it back.

Biker Buddy and Biker Buddy,

I did my collaboration with Andrea first, which I posted as a Halloween Card, but here is is plain:

Sugar Skull by  Andrea Martinez and Mary Stebbins Taitt

And now I have done my first piece, which is an illo for a book that I working on for my grandson Frankie for Christmas.

Mrs. Goose and her Mate
Acrylics and watercolor
by Mary Stebbins Taitt

Mrs. Goose read the invite to her beloved mate

and said, hurry, my darling, we must not be late.

I was hoping to have it done for his birthday.  Now I hope to have it done by Christmas.  We will be traveling Sunday through the following Monday (~N3-11), and I may not be online much and I apologize for missing stuff, but I have yet to figure out how to work the gmail tabs, so I missed a lot.  I will catch up at some point, but probably NOT while traveling.

To see images much larger, click and scroll.

Sugar Skull

Sugar Skull
collaboration with Andrea
and Mary Stebbins Taitt

I got my book back in the mail yesterday and it looks great.  I took some pictures, but haven't had time to download them.  Will do so ASAP.  Whenever that is.  We're going away for a week to ten days,s o it may not be until we get back.  Also, I'm behind seeing and commenting on posts because of gmails new tabs--I never see the emails.  :-(  I'll catch up as soon as I can.  I;m going to try to fix it so the emails about the exchange come into the primary box so I don;t have to searcg for them in three tabs.

Collabs

Here is a collab I am working on with Mary in the back of her book.  I've left some room on the page if someone els would like to add to what we have going.

Here is my collab page with Ballookey's eye.  I kind of ruined the simple black aesthetic she had going here with my slapdash color style.

My first solo page across from the collab between Ballookey and I continuing the eye theme.

Biker Buddy Collaboration with Mary Taitt

Biker Buddy Collaboration with Mary Taitt, a photo by Mike "Dakinewavamon" Kline on Flickr.

Bad dreams?

Bad dreams?, a photo by Mike "Dakinewavamon" Kline on Flickr.

Not a Jan van Eycks

Not a Jan van Eycks, a photo by Mike "Dakinewavamon" Kline on Flickr.

Poor Cocoon pupal feeling a little left out...

Poor Cocoon pupal feeling a little left out..., a photo by Mike "Dakinewavamon" Kline on Flickr.

Hey! Angry bird balloons are not for kids collaboration with Aya Rosen...

Hey! Angry bird balloons are not for kids collaboration with Aya Rosen..., a photo by Mike "Dakinewavamon" Kline on Flickr.

SWA Barf Bag Project

SWA Barf Bag Project, a photo by Mike "Dakinewavamon" Kline on Flickr.

In the pocket

A set of mobiles that marks the directions of the winds. I found this pretty lovely prayer to the 4 direction, which is modern, but have just enough old feel to it to make it feel all magical and beautiful. That's where I took the spirit animal for each direction. 

Ballookey's half page

It's funny to leave a half page in Ballokey's book for Ballookey. I guess that means I'm getting my own book next?!
As ususal, i can't wait to see how she finish this one.

Abraxas is a name of a daemon, I think originating in Jewish mysticism. I picked him over a million other daemons with  equally cool names because I used to go to a bar in Israel called Abraxas before I moved to NY.

The description, which I really like is, strangely enough, from Carl Jung, I really like the way he related to psychological and mystic ideas in much the same way and the fact that he was a scientist didn't make him stop relating this myth and his beliefs.  

In Ballookey's - pages 3&4

Those are from an odd text, part insightful, part rambling (much like everything else he ever wrote) By Aleister Crowley about Alchemy. 

In Ballookey's

It took me so long to finish my work in Andrea's book, and super quickly to finish Ballookey's. Mostly because I was working a lot the month I worked on Andrea's and got Ballookey's in the best time for a moleskine - waiting to hear whether I got a project or not...

So 5 days later, we found out that we aren't going to Vancouver to shoot a scene for a TV show, which is a bummer, cause it felt so close, and I was sure we got it. We might have a smaller part of working with the footage, but it isn't as cool.

Anyway, those 5 days, I just had to fill time cause I couldn't make any other work arrangements and so I finished my page's in Ballookey's.

The theme for this one, is totally influenced by Steve's last page. And it's about Miracles and myths from different religions.

The myth of st. Veronica is one of those miracles of seeing Jesus is a Tortia or a piece of toast. The story is that she wiped Jesus's face with a cloths and the imprint of his face remind printed in blood. 

The vail keeps popping up in different churches through the ages, and recently, was pronounce a hoax, since it turned out that a) the fabric is not as old as was claimed and b) the blood is actually red paint. 

Moleskine Exchange Smoking with Skeleton

Moleskine Exchange Smoking with Skeleton, a photo by Mike "Dakinewavamon" Kline on Flickr.

First one in Aya's Moleskine