Japanese hare

Japanese hare, 2014

Latest print from my time at Australian Print Workshop.
It is a Japanese hare I drew from Tokyo Nature and Science Museum.

Original sketch of Japanese hare

More hare prints to come!!

Manchot Adélie

Adélie II, 2014

I did a little sketch of a specimen of Adélie Penguin in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris in the beginning of this year.
I recently turned the pencil drawing into two versions of etchings.

First of all I printed Adélie for a print exchange project with Rona Green on the theme of animals and later I printed Adélie II with a second plate to introduce new and warmer colours.

Adélie, 2014

I remember watching a TV program about Antarctica as a child and saw the image of penguins sitting on the egg in the cold wind.
Male and female penguins take turns to incubate until the egg hatch.

It left me with a somehow strong feeling that penguin parents were the same as mine, keeping me in warm and comfortable place.  

Original sketch

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle

National Museum of Natural History was a beautiful place to be with lots of different animals including extinct ones. Lots of art students were drawing from the collection too.

I hardly buy any souvenirs for myself when I travel so drawing at museums and elsewhere is a bit like a memento. It's lovely to flip through the sketchbooks and re-visit the memory of the time and the places.

I could have easily spent another entire day or two here.

I have to go back to Paris and visit the museum again, along with so many other great museums!
I love to see you again soon Paris!

I want more rabbits!

I want more rabbits! original book

 I want more rabbits! is a little book about multiplying rabbits I made while I was artist in residence at Australian Tapestry Workshop.

It's a concertina book with original drawings of watercolour and ink.

I want more rabbits! original book

I then decided that I also want to make a digital print version of this because I wanted to multiply these multiplying rabbits.

So I scanned and got my friend and font king Cameron to help me coordinate the books with additional cool English and Japanese fonts. 

I want more rabbits! digital print zine

I want more rabbits! digital print zine

I want more rabbits! digital print zine

They are available through me or Sticky Institute or Port Jackson Press in Melbourne at the moment!
I hope they will multiply in different locations soon.

Kangaroo

Kangaroo, 2013

I've always liked kangaroo's unique fascinating body.

Features such as the powerful hind legs for hopping and a strong tail that balances its body, as well as the pouch that carries the baby roo have been very familiar to me even as a child in Japan.

There is even a courier company that uses the image of roo as their logo in my hometown too, which I kind of feel strange now that I've lived in Australia for so long.

I made this drawing when I visited the Melbourne Museum mammal room with Damon Kowarsky last year.

Original drawing

Damon also made a print of a similar looking animal from Melbourne Museum collection.
They do have lots of roo / wallaby specimen there!

Damon's print 'Thylogale'

Effector

My friend Cameron has a collection of guitars as well as guitar effect pedals.

I've never used one before but apparently every single pedal works differently - some make subtle variations to the sounds, while others transform the sound dramatically.

Earlier this year Cameron suggested that we make a zine based on these pedals.

I didn't know anything about them but I like the idea of drawing such fetishised objects with diverse and cool design.

As I was in Japan at the time, he started drawing the pedals from his collection and I started drawing pedals borrowed from my brother's friend.

Big Muff Deluxe by Cameron White

Russian Big Muff by Kyoko

As we worked tother, we realised I called them 'effectors', as that's what we call them in Japanese.

Thus the name of the zine!

Front cover

Cameron also has many, many resistors of different colours.

I think his suggestion to use them as staples worked very nicely.

Back

Commune - gallery, cafe and shop in Tokyo - stocks this zine in the shop.

It offers lots of great handmade jewellery as well as zines and exhibition space.

Commune

5-28-3-1F, Daita, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 155-0033
〒155-0033 東京都世田谷区代田5-28-3-1F

http://www.ccommunee.com/

contact.commune@gmail.com

Opening hours:

Weekdays 14:00 - 20:00
Sat, Sun & public holiday 12:00 - 20:00
CLOSE : Thursday

If you are in Tokyo, it's worth a visit!!
Details of the zine is on my website too.

New Bestiarum - opening

Thank you so much for coming to the opening of New Bestiarum at Boom Gallery on Saturday 4 May.
It was great to meet and talk to the people in the local area.

Emmet O'Dwyer

Thank you so much for Ren and Kate at Boom for making the exhibition look fantastic!

I know that there are quite a few people who are involved in hanging the show too - Thank you so much for your help!

Thank you so much also to Alex Game for organising this exhibition!

I feel very fortunate to be involved in this show.

Alex Game

Exhibition runs until Saturday 25 May.