Rachel...

Well it was a tough one...
I loved the beauty contests, sad Ophelias, talking, singing and dancing your way to second place, all of you. None of you determined to miss out on anything again...
But Rachel, you get a copy of Glory because you fessed up about always being in trouble. Florence Bright gets herself in to a fair bit of trouble too, and she also find out what she needs to do to step up and get out of it. Happy reading!

Glory at last!

Well isn't it nice to get home and find amongst the bills, a package from your publisher with multiple copies of your book inside it? This one has been a long time coming and I have to say....I'm very happy with the result! Scholastic and I are launching 'Glory' next month at the Storylines Festival Family Day in Wellington. You will get the opportunity to make your very own prize with me through the wondrous medium of arts and crafts of which I am so very fond.

Not getting awards can be very motivating- if I had, for instance, got the 6th Form Art History Prize (instead of that other girl!!!!) I never would have written this book. What prize did you miss out on that has bugged you for months or years? I will give away a copy of 'Glory' to the most entertaining story of missing out- but you have to leave it in the comments box!

Local colour

The interesting thing about a holiday is not how many tours you go on or how many cocktails you drink (although the latter can have interesting consequences) but who you meet on the way.

Vanuatu is full of colourful characters and one can spend a lot of time watching, observing and imagining lives for them. Other than the usual tourists, there are the boaties; gnarled men of fifty plus (still with long hair and weather worn bare chests) coming ashore for a bit of leg and other limb stretching, Tusker beer and Tanna coffee (the best brew mostly at Numbawan Café on the shore at Port Vila), the ex pats here for a tax and frost free living and the people from the islands around making a living of sorts in the markets, restaurants and tour operations of Port Vila.

The other interesting thing about a holiday is the small worldness of it, where whilst sipping a latte and looking out to sea a voice will come from your left ‘Fifi!’ and you turn to find an old acquaintance. Lesley Moyes in this instance. You may remember her lovely illustrations for ‘Annie & Moon’ by Miriam Smith and her gloriously detailed ‘Alphabet Apartments’ which won the Childrens Choice award in1998. She and husband Peter live in Vanuatu, (which they have done before) and were able to fill us in on all the local politics, intrigue and best restaurants. We dined finely at the new ‘La Tentation’ and Tamanu on the Beach where, if I ever win lotto, I will stay for a month.

Now I could at this point put up many photos of me drinking ‘Blue Lagoons’, eating fresh mangoes and sautéed fruit bats but in my last post I mentioned that I’d be taking my paint box with me, so these are a few of the more meaningful pictures that I will share with you.

At the market, I sat down quietly and sketched women in their ‘Mother Hubbards’; one size fits all dresses that begin to look very attractive after eating and drinking to excess for ten days. But sitting unobtrusively is impossible here as any new activity draws an interested crowd. This lady came up and sat beside me to watch as I drew- which made my task a little more complicated. The young man sitting under the tree was none the wiser as I painted him furiously before I fell into a languor myself and had a kip on the lawn along with everyone else at Port Vila during lunchtime.

We met Bob on our way to the Cultural Centre. He was very keen to sell us cheaper accommodation than we had already paid for but seeing as we were non starters, offered to shout us a coffee at his café on our way back. The museum tour by Adi, a gentle Vanuatu man, was wonderful and memorable, particularly for the traditional sand drawings he demonstrated- fluid, woven pictures from his fingertip telling tales of love, renewal and sharing as he worked. We learned about being buried alive with your husband in the old days, drumming protocol and saw colourful masks with large phallic projections ‘its all about the penis’ said Adi. We left more educated in Melanesian history and called in on Bob next door, who was a bit all about size himself. His lovely and rather much younger wife served us delicious freshly fried whole fish and rice whilst Bob gave us his take on everything. He had particular views on the local Melanesian people and I got the distinct feeling that as he ordered everyone around in Bishlama (the Vanutau pidgin) that come the revolution, his head would be the first one on a stake…

The holiday finished with more food, more coffee, more beer and it was time to beat a hasty retreat back to Wellington, because if we stayed much longer, I would have ended up eating more dainty morsels and become larger in life than I ever intended. Back to climb our 47 Hataitai steps just in the nick of time. I call this image The Ghost of Holidays Future.

On the flight back I sat next to Drew Bowdon, a friendly returned kiwi musician who I enjoyed the easy company of. He gave me a copy of his recently released CD Be Still. Very nice it is too. Check it out. You can easily imagine you are on the shores of somewhere warm with the surf roaring and good times at hand; which is my idea of the very best kind of holiday…

Investing

I was reading the interview with Kate De Goldi in the Dom Post Weekend magazine and she was saying how she spent her time deliciously reading and lazing about as a child. Then I picked up the paper this morning and there was an article about the value (or not) of having our children race about doing after school activities. I wasn’t a child who had ballet, music and sport to attend. Our mother was simply too busy and too constrained by lack of a drivers licence in our early years and no money for extras like these. But she and our father did supply us three girls with the essentials; play time, books and paper.

I recall of my childhood, endless role playing (“It’s my turn to be the Queen of the World!”) and reading (Little Women- oh how I identified with Amy, the artist sister) and above all drawing. I drew everything; pretty girls with long hair (mine was short), witches in cottages (overcoming my fear of Hansel and Gretel), mermaids (see post below), hands and feet (to get practice), horses (but hiding their tricky- to- draw- hooves in long grass), my father watching the news, our dog, sunsets with herons, Micky Mouse replicas, Holly Hobbie rip offs…and my favourite thing of all. My piggy bank- drawn here age 10. Into this cheap china receptacle, I would squirrel away 5c coins found on the footpath (and 5 cents could buy you a whole Eskimo Pie icecream back then) and save for a rainy day. Or more paints. My favourites were ‘Maries watercolours’; enticing little tubes of alizarin crimson and ultra marine.

Nothing much has changed. I’m off on holiday to somewhere warm (not rainy) with money saved in a more secure place than my old piggy bank, which sits on a shelf in my kitchen presiding over the crumbs on the bench. I have packed, along with my laptop, many books to luxuriate with, high heels and dresses to be a dancing queen in and my faithful water colour box and sketch diary. Because a holiday isn’t a holiday without them.

I’ll be back blogging on the 22^nd June...with more pictures.

First Impressions

I often go to schools to talk about my career path, my lifelong obsession with drawing, writing and creating things, and the first book I show is the one I got as a child and was the first book I could read 'all by myself'. The Silver Thimble Storybook published by Blackie arrived to me via either the post or my older sister. We were living in Ghana, West Africa at the time, and I was six. Our big sister was at boarding school back in Devon (there being no secondary schools for her in Takoradi) and it was her duty at age twelve to buy supplies of things from Boots the Chemist and other luxuries hard to come by before she boarded the Lollipop Express- the plane the air force kids came home on for the 'hols'. So possibly it was she that bought me this book at the request of our mother.

That book became my personal benchmark for illustration success. I had no idea who Rie Cramer, the artist was or even that she was a woman. Or that she wrote under the pseudonym Marc Holman (and we still have to pretend we are men at times to get the book buying audience), or that she was born in Java and moved to the Netherlands at nine years of age, or that she designed stage sets, costumes and ceramics. All I knew was that if I could draw 'as good as that' when I grew up, I would be a happy girl. I copied the pictures faithfully, read and re-read The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina and the other treasures within. I wrote my own versions of the stories as you do when too young to think of anything much yourself. After all it is said that there are only five stories in the world and everything else is a variation of one of those themes...

So here I am forty something years later, with my very battered and well loved book- still trying to draw as well as Rie Cramer (her real name was Marie) and come up with new stories. It pleases me that my first artistic inspiration in life was a woman who lent her hand to many creative pursuits and lived a fully expressed life because of that. And I am eternally grateful that my parents saw the value of flying precious books across continents to their children. We grew up reading- what a gift.

To all my fellow writers and illustrators out there and the publishers that deliver our work to children; may the arts continue to inspire generations. You just don't know whose future you will create.

Never stuck for ideas...

I had a busy few days last week with children and books.

On my Good Morning show spot I featured ‘Duck’s Stuck’, the hilariously simple finalist in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. Written by the very humorous Kyle Mewburn and illustrated by the awesomely talented duo Ali Teo and John O’Reilly, I wondered what on earth I could bring to the book that wasn’t there already. I opted, as you can see for interactivity. Nice little clippie beasts that serve very well as bookmarks, school notice pegs or hangers onto your little sister’s plaits (when she isn’t looking).

I tried these out with year 4&5 kids the next day at Mt Cook School with the G&T’s (gifted and talenteds) during a festival workshop. They LOVED them. They also loved the book as I read it out- genuine delight, so good to hear.

Many thanks to Ali and John for letting me rip off their great illustrations for this craft project, and may you and Kyle break literary legs on Wednesday night at the awards.

Gotta love those gals!

In lieu of a long observation on anything, here’s an advert for Dr Sketchy’s anti art school at Mighty Mighty this Saturday. I’ll be there, paper and pastels in hand. Last time I won a prize for the best drawing on a hard boiled egg! It was an Easter theme and tested everyone’s creative abilities on a smooth oval surface. The fabulous model for these drawings was the very cute Ponie Ryder- some 2 minute gestural drawings and a longer study in pastels below.

Afterword: Went to Dr Sketchy's yesterday and was greatly entertained by 'The One Night Stands' who sang and danced and were cheeky as, in their great retro outfits. These gals are fabulous and wow, can they sing! Thrillingly I won model's choice for my pastel portrait- not pictured here as I gave it to the lovely Emmy who posed for it. This got me a $50 for Chow where I intend to spend it on their delicious food sometime soon!

Jiggity Jigging

One of the very nicest things about being a presenter on the Good Morning Show is that I get to celebrate the talents of my fellow illustrators and writers by featuring their work and making arts and crafts inspired by their creativity.

‘Piggity Wiggity Jiggity Jig was a long sort of name for a short sort of pig.’

This great picture book by Diana Neild and illustrated by the ever brilliant Philip Webb is of course a finalist in the NZ Post Book Awards this year and it just makes you want to bounce about with its gloriously addictive rhyme. Forget swine flu, here is a mask that’s a lot more fun, as seen being made by me and Brendon Pongia this morning on TV1.

Were-Nana-ing

This is possibly the most unflattering photo of me I'll ever put on my blog (believe me I have plenty of others...) but its all for a good cause. The Were-Nana by Melinda Syzmanik, illustrated by Sarah Nelisiwe Anderson. It's a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards 2009, and to celebrate, I made some were accessories on the telly this morning, so you can play along with the story. The Were-Nana is one of those great tales of a brother (Simon) putting the fear of God into his little sister (Stella Rosa) about the grandmother they have never met and is coming to visit from a long way away. This is a great piece of writing with truly excellent illustrations and I wish it all the best in the forthcoming awards. If you want instructions on how to make the were-accessories, including the origami claws, just e-mail me at fifisart@gmail.com

Art in Action

I am too busy working to blog- well at length anyway- which is a good thing in these current economic times. So go to my Crafty Arts blog instead and take a look at some photos of the Wearable Art workshop I held a couple of weekends ago. We all had a great time and especially enjoyed dressing up the mini mannequins. There were some ideas with real 'legs' that came out of it and I hope to see some of them on the stage at the WOW show in September- including my own if I get unbusy enough to finish it in time!