Everytales.com

Ninja Kitties! Best Christmas Present Ever!

Jan 5, 2009 Cuteness!, Illustration & Design Leave a comment

My friend gave me this awesome ninja kitties t-shirt by Gama-Go

Cuteness that takes the cake

Jan 2, 2009 Cuteness! Leave a comment

Cupcakes from a NYC market - slightly creepy, slightly cute

Happy New Year with cute things from NYC!

Dec 31, 2008 Cuteness!, Paola Opal Leave a comment

What better way to bring in the new year than to think about cute things? Here are a bunch of details from cute things I saw on my trip to New York a few weeks ago:

Yes, in Canada even our toys live in igloos

Dec 10, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a comment

From the Ark's window display, on Main Street, in Vancouver BC

Someone at Penguin Books was obsessed with circles

Dec 3, 2008 Illustration & Design Leave a comment

This is what I have concluded after scanning through “Seven Hundred Penguins” a collection of odd, interesting and memorable covers from Peguin’s books over the years.

The covers that captured my attention most were the super contemporary and minimal ones that manage to say so much with so little, and are just…cool. The best part about these is that they are so interpretive.

To make my point, let’s play a game:

See if you can match the titles in this list, below, with the correct cover artwork, above.

(Answers at the end of this post!)

1. A Dictionary of Computers
by Anthony Chandor with John Gram and Robin Williamson

2. Disorders of Memory and Learning
by George A. Talland

3. Evolution and Revolution: The Rising Waves of Emancipation
by W.F. Wertheim

4. Economics Peace & Laughter: A Contemporary Guide
By J.K. Galbraith

5. God Is No More
by Werner and Lotte Pelz

6. Management and the Social Sciences
by Tom Lupton

7. The Organization Man
by Willliam H. Whyte

8. The Penguin Dictionary of Physics
Edited by Valerie H. Pitt

9. Self-Love
by David Cole Gordon

10. The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Atomic Radiation
By Margot Bennett

11. The Pacifist Conscience
Edited by Peter Mayer

12. The Strange Case of Pot
by Michael Scholfield

ANSWERS: 1L, 2E, 3A, 4F, 5K, 6H, 7B, 8D, 9J, 10C, 11I, 12G

Dexter Dragon Learns to Fly

Nov 25, 2008 Everytales.com Leave a comment

In more breaking super-fantastic-big news, I am proud to announce the 2nd official (outside) submission to everytales.com - Dexter Dragon Learns to Fly by Dawn Goddard. I don’t know much about Dawn but send many thanks and good wishes in her direction for sharing her wonderful work!

Whoo-hoo! A SUPER FANTASTIC BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:

Nov 18, 2008 Everytales.com, Illustration & Design Leave a comment

Check out Poultry United - World Cup Special by Alen Puaca, the first person (besides me) to upload a tale to everytales.com! Alen is an animator and artist extraordinaire and you can see more of his work at oprosti.com and more of Poultry United on his blog.

Thank you Alen!

Remembrance day reminded me to remember things

Nov 18, 2008 Everytales.com, Web Site Development 1 Comment

To conclude the story from my earlier post “How NOT to advertise your web site” (about how I was being locked out of chat sites for spamming to promote everytales.com) I had said that Protagonize.com was one of the sites I couldn’t log back into because I thought I was banned for spamming, but that turned out not to be the case after all. And in response to one harsh comment that was made about the fact that I tried to promote everytales.com in my profile, Nick Bouton, the guy who runs the site, posted a comment saying:

“As long as it’s not blatant spam and it’s related to writing or publishing, I don’t mind. It’s a profile, as long as it’s within reason, it’s all good.”

So I am still a member of their site - yay! - and send happy vibes in their direction.

Joke of the day:

What did the programmer say to the web site before it went on stage?

“Break a link!”

hahahahahaha

Hello Kitty for Halloween…

Oct 27, 2008 Cuteness! Leave a comment

Happy Halloween! We all know hello kitty is cute but what most of us don’t know is that she can be evil too, as shown so perfectly in these posters from a Japanese horror punk rock band called Balzac. These were part of my inspiration for this year’s Halloween costume: “The Hello Kitty Grim Reaper” who (in my version of the universe) guides the poor lost souls of cute fuzzy creatures into the underworld.

Hello Kitty Grim Reaper

PS - (for more obscure hello kitty paraphernalia see kittyhell.com)

Yay for Wordscapes Youth Arts Journal #1

Oct 16, 2008 Illustration & Design, writing Leave a comment

Wordscapes Youth Arts Journal #1 showcases youth writing and design (and is published right here in Vancouver by the REAL Society), and I have to say it totally blew me away. The quality of the writing and the perspectives in the stories by young writers is so much fresher and more moving than so much of the supposedly well crafted officially published stuff I’ve read lately.

3 of the stories that stood out for me were Lowell Fleming’s Thesaurus-Induced Vernacular (funny!), Sarah Bouwman’s Philosophy 101 (amusing) and Alana Potter’s Drawing from the Music (brought tears to my eyes, and it’s been a while since a story did that to me). And the reason I picked up the Journal in the first place was because the cover artwork by Brianne Tweedle looked cool (yes, I do judge books by their covers).

It makes me reflect that I have spent so much time developing and refining my craft as an artist, when really, if I look back at the body of my work, I see that a lot of my best stuff and best IDEAS were from high school and college days. After that the craftsmanship may improve but some of the soul seems to be missing. This served as a reminder for me that I wanted to pass on to everyone: don’t underestimate the depth, intelligence, and ideas of “youth”.

You can find out more, and subscribe to Wordscapes Youth Arts Journal at rippleeffect.ca