Well, this turned out very spidery, didn’t it.
Hm. When the question is, “How many spiders is too many spiders?” the answer is usually pretty clear. I’m thinking about re-doing it with maybe just one dangling spider. Thoughts?
True/False
Every year, my friends and I return to Columbia, Mo., like the salmon of Capistrano for the True/False Film Fest.
For the most part, it’s all documentaries and because it was started by a couple of guys out of a theater called the Ragtag, it’s always been scrappy and weird. I love this fest. I started going in my sophomore year and I’ve gone back every year since.
In the beginning, it was just a wee little fest, but now that it’s hit its 10th year it’s started to attract some big films. I saw about 10 (I think – things start to go fuzzy after your eighth movie in two days) great documentaries, from a chilling one about the Afghanistan war called Dirty Wars to a wonderful doc about back-up singers called Twenty Feet From Stardom. I like seeing tiny docs filmed on a shoe-string budget, but the nice thing about seeing big films is that I know they’ll actually get a theater run and other people will be able to see them and love them, too.
This year, I got to participate in the fest a little. I submitted a design for a T-shirt and it was accepted! I nearly died when I got the email, I’m telling you.
The T/F box office on Friday. The theme of the fest this year was (among other things) “the collective architecture of the impossible.”
My T-shirt design! Those are bower birds.
These are just a few of the marchers in the March March on Friday. It’s a scheduled impromptu march that anyone can join. This year there were fire-twirlers!
This was part of the T/F scavenger hunt put together by my friend Lauren. I understand that it’s making fun of hipsters, but I still unabashedly enjoy participating in some of the things on that list. The big question among our group: How much flannel is gratuitous?
Usually, there are Q&As with the directors and subjects of the films right after the show. Here’s one in the lovely Missouri Theater.
Ushio “The Boxer” Shinohara rocks a punch painting outside the Missouri Theater after a showing of his film “Cutie and The Boxer.”
Noriko Shinohara, awesome artist and the “Cutie” in “Cutie and The Boxer,” wore my shirt to her Q&A after the film. Pretty much a highlight of my life so far.
Here’s a photo of my favorite T/F tradition, the Buskers’ Last Stand, when a bunch of bands that played all over town for the fest get together to rock out one last time. That’s the lead singer of Run On Sentence right there. You should go check them out, if awesome music is important to you.
That’s not a goldfish
Riusuke Fukahori goldfish from thisiscollasal.com
It’s a painting. Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori paints goldfish in layers of resin. This Is Collosal did a feature on him last year and they’ve got a video of his process on their website. It’s amazing how delicate they look. Even in the photos, the fish look like they’re moving. Painting on resin is something I’ve always wanted to try, but after seeing Fukahori’s sculptures, I’m just like, “Nope, that’s done. He did it the best. No point in anyone else doing it.”
A Cup of Flower by Riusuke Fukahori, photo by Dominic Alves
If you want to see more, Dominic Alves has a ton of photos of Fukahori’s London show, Goldfish Salvation.
Sketches: Spidery T-Shirt
Here are some design ideas I sketched out for a print that will hopefully become a T-shirt someday. Coming up with the Bikin’ Wolf and some other T-shirts designs has been super fun, so I thought I’d try some more. I have to think in a whole different way when I’m designing for a T-shirt – think simpler, cleaner, more colorful. It’s just fun.
Bikin’ wolf
Here’s one part of why there was such a dearth of posts around Christmas time here at ye ol’ Bibelots. I was busy drawing this.
That, folks, is a wolf riding a motorcycle. Specifically, a wolf riding an Indian Scout. I slapped it on the back of tank top for a certain motorcycle-y someone’s Christmas present. I can’t really offer an explanation for why a motorcycle-riding cartoon wolf, except to say that it was exactly what he wanted.
Here’s the little design I put where the breast pocket would go, if tank tops had breast pockets. Yep, it says “motocycle.” That’s how Indian used to spell it. Nerd fact!
Merry belated Christmas! Here’s a sleepy owl
Here is a wee tired owl, part of the decorations on the Canadian Christmas tree at the Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids. There were other notable photographic opportunities, such as the dozen other traditional Christmas trees, the fairytale railway or the tropical gardens. But I feel it’s most important to document the owlish details.
Why crochet socks when you can crochet jewelry
Here is a necklace. It’s made from yarn that I crocheted around one of those little vase jewels. I made it by trying to make the net in this Happy Raincloud Mobile, though her nets look like actual nets and not like someone just went nuts trying to tie a knot around a rock.
It was insanely difficult, please do not try this at home. I’m kidding – try it at home! The resulting necklace is not super fun to wear, because the lightweight yarn makes it very bouncy. I feel like if I had to run with this necklace on, it would bounce up and clock me in the teeth. But it’s cute!
