Sugar glider

Sugar glider is a marsupial mammal, native to Australia.
They earned their name from their love of sweet things such as nectar and flowers (and insects too) and their ability to glide through the air between trees.
They are scientifically called Petaurus breviceps, "short-headed rope-dancer" because of their acrobatic skill!

Original drawing of Sugar glider

I drew her at Melbourne Museum a while back and finally printed her yesterday.
She has large eyes to help see at night and swiveling ears to help locate prey in the dark.
I'm pretty sure that this sugar glider is female as male has a bald spot on forehead which acts as scent gland.

detail

I heard they are popular domesticated exotic pet around the world, especially in the US.
I completely understand it as I felt like taking her home with me even though she wasn't alive.
But.. will they be able to glide through the air like they do in their natural habitat in someone's house...?

detail

 I would like to thank Wayne Longmore, curator at Melbourne Museum for your generosity in letting me work in the collection room and Tim Lane, artist and technician at Trinity Grammar School for helping me mix lovely colours and print like I was a master printer until late at night.

More information on this print is on my website.

Bakeneko day and night

Bakeneko at 2am

Cat is one of the animals that often become yokai (supernatural monsters) in Japanese folklores, along with fox, Japanese raccoon dog, spider and snake.

Bakeneko is a yokai that an ordinary cat transforms into.
Once transformed, Bakeneko walks with hind legs, talks like human, dances with tenugui around head, controls dead people, curses, attacks human with a wolf pack and so on.
There are also stories where Bakeneko played sumo with human too.

Bakeneko

I've made two edition called Bakeneko and Bakeneko at 2am.

First I made Bakeneko, as part of Impression fund raising exhibition at Australian Print Workshop.
Then I wanted to put this cat in a different setting, so I turned the sky into night time for the second edition, Bakeneko at 2am.
2am points around the hour of Ox in zodiac - even plants and trees are asleep, that's when we consider suitable time for demons and monsters to lurk around..

Bakeneko will be exhibited at Australian Print Workshop from the end of this month along with over 160 artists.
It's a great opportunity to buy prints at an affordable cost ($100, $150 or $200).
I've already seen what my friends Bridget Farmer and Damon Kowarsky have done for this show. Looking really lovely!
All works are edition of 10, so be quick or they will be sold out!