If spoke slang to orangutangs, the advantages! Any fool on earth could plainly see...

... If I could parley with pachyderms, it's a fairy tale! Worthy of Hans Andersen or Grimm! God... I'd stop if I could.

Here's the results of a bit of sketching I did on the weekend with new friends Nori Tominaga, Michael Manalac, and old friends Peter Yong and Adele K. Thomas. In order of appearance, the Giant Otter, the Guar, the Okapi and the Lion. Sounds like material for a children's poem...

The Okapi and the Lion

went out to sea one day,

and ploughed the waves till they could smell

the spice of Mandalay.

T'was the shore they were well met

by old friends Otter and the Guar,

and soon were laughing till they wept

while eating Persian caviar.

If someone said to me, "Can you speak Rhinocerous?" I'd say, "Of courcerous" and then give them a comfortable seat for some splendid...

Carrying on with the essay 'Nostalgia for a Lost World', p. 20 of 'Starting Point: 1979 - 1996'.

"Today I rarely watch any animation that amazes me or makes my heart pound with excitement. I'd of course love to see works that do, even if only once a year; for most people - and not just professionals like myself - it's probably the way real animation is supposed to be, after all. But creating animation of that caliber requires a huge amount of concentration, even when drawing the individual illustrations, and the animated film won't come to life unless the animators themselves pour their hearts and souls into their work. In reality, we rarely have the luxury of doing that. And even if we do throw ourselves into our work, in this industry we can never expect commensurate rewards or treatment.

As a result, the sort of work I am describing cannot be created without the help of people who are truly willing to go hungry. I'm not talking about people who make experimental animation, but something completely different. I'm talking about those who create animation designed for a wide audience that includes children - the type of animation that cannot be made by a single individual. Commercial animation almost by definition requires group effort. Even if the animated images ultimately move as a result of the efforts of each individual member of the group, the final product can never be from one person alone. It must belong to everyone, as well as to each individual. For us, the ultimate dream is to create works this way and have as many people as possible view them."

Sampo

Hai~ Yai~ FORCES!

Didst thou call down the thunder?

Nay milord...

Art thou prepar'ed to reap the whirlwind?

Nay milord...

Then verily I havest thou mistaken - OR HAVEST I? - *thokk*

Has anybody read the Once and Future King by T.H. White? The Arthurian fantasy? I am sure I remember a part in it where Arthur or someone shouts "you've called down the thunder, now prepare to reap the whirlwind" before he jousts some fool with his picard. Love it. Boys and girls who played StarCraft in highschool might remember the Ghost unit saying the same thing when you clicked him enough. Google can't help me on the Arthur context but revealed the origin of the quote is from the Book of Hosea 8:7, and goes like this:

"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall yeild no meal: if so be it yeild, the strangers shall swallow it up."

So there you go! Whoever said StarCraft didn't have Biblical roots! Not a soul, I'm sure, but if the argument ever arises I'll be all over it like zerg rush^^. Moving on, I have something to share with you! A couple weeks back I bought a book called 'Starting Point: 1979-1996' (Studio Ghibli Inc., Japan, 1996) translated by Beth Cary, Frederik L. Schodt and written by the wonderful Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. In it is a collection of essays and lectures given by Miyazaki to various publications. It's brilliant. Every paragraph is inspirational, clarifying and interesting. This book pulled me out of a dark patch I tell you, and so I'll share it with you post by post - It'll be like Julie & Julia except instead of cooking French cuisine I'm going to make a two hour feature length animation each chapter. Please join me for what I would now like to call the...

Look at his wonderful face for God's sake! For theme music let's have 'Sampo' from the Totoro Soundtrack. Wasting no time, the first chapter is an essay called 'Nostalgia for a Lost World' which was printed in Gekkan ehon bessatsu: Animeshon (Animation: Monthly Picture Book Special) by Subaru Shobo, March 1979. In it Miyazaki discusses what 'animation' is to him, boiling it down to 'whatever [he] wants to create.' '...if it isn't something I really want to work on, it isn't animation to me.' He goes on to explain his theory as to why anime is so popular with teenagers. To him it is a case of needing to have a private world in a period of oppression. He 'was never more passionate about manga than when preparing for [his] college entrance exams.' But what about when we grow up?

The word nostalgia comes to mind. Adults, fondly recalling something from their childhood, often speak of nostalgia. But even three-, four-, and five-year-olds feel a similar sentiment. It's something that all of us, regardless of age, actually experience. And as we get older, the breadth - or depth - of our nostalgia definately increases. I believe, in fact, that nostalgia is one of the fundamental starting points for most people involved in creating animation.

Human history exists in a continuum encompassing both the past and the future, but the moment someone is born into this present instant, into 1978, he or she has already lost certain opportunities or possibilities, including the chance to be born in other ages. Yet we can still enjoy ourselves in different fantasy worlds. And this yearning for other, lost possibilities may also be a major motivator in creating animation.

You see what I mean? The whole book reads like that! Please share your thoughts and join me next time for more Miyazaki Meditations. Ja mata ne!

HUITTT - HERE BLUEY!

E-a-a-asy tiger...

Sorry that drawing is a bit scrappy, I was dealing with muscles and perspectives out of my league. Drawing the Blue Cattle Dog was fun though as they are the greatest breed of any living thing that has ever drawn breath. Draws to my mind a ruler I had in primary school with the names of all the English Kings and Queens running down it chronologically. I often think of that ruler but with the names of our dogs running down it. It'd look something like this:

*This list does not include those other animals who were themselves integral parts of the Drake family, or the Dogs of the Other Families.

Ben - 1970s-80s, Legendary First Blue Cattle Dog of the O'Briens.

Sally - 1980s-90s, Legendary First Blue Cattle Dog Bitch of the Drake Pack, Bore Witness to the Births of Three Human Pups and Guarded Them Valiantly Unto Her Noble Death.

Minty - 90s, First Miniature Fox Terrier, Died Tragically by Car in only the First Month of Her Reign.

Sam - 90s, Second Cattle Dog of the Drake Pack. Was Bitten by a Tick and Found by the Alpha Male of Drake Pack Under a Tree, Awaiting his Death with Dignity.

Pipi and Bluebell - 1990s-00s, This Miniature Fox Terrier and Cattle Dog Cross Staffie Shared Stewardship of the Drake Pack for Nearly Two Decades and Lived Simultaneously with nearly every other Dog of the Drakes, O'Briens and McCullagh's Combined. Both Their Visages May be Viewed on the Right Hand Bar of this Blog.

Flossy - 2009 - The Beautiful and Current Dog of the Drake Pack.

Hoo... It's getting closer to Christmas. Thoughts turning back towards Queensland! I'll be seeing Brisbane's waters soon enough.

Cousins in the Cages

Drawings? What?

A Dutch gentleman and Korean lady on a plane.

Baboons.

Silverback Gorillas and some baby Mandrills.

The young Mandrill I was drawing was such a good sport. He sat facing me for a long time with his hands neatly folded in his lap, his legs stretched out and crossed.

"I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; the man has no advantage over the animal... ...Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down to the earth?"

-קֹהֶלֶת Qoheleth,
or the Book of Ecclesiastes 3:18-21

Ou~!

So I was shuffling through files and I found some things I think I've never posted. Are, are those planets in the alignment I think they're in? Yes they certainly are - Must be time for:

"BENTROSPECTIVE DEUX-MILLE-NEUF."

I drew this samurai when I worked at Liquid.

I know I missed an 'e' but this is before I got Franced. A going-away card for my old guitar teacher Gucki Reissenberger. She played gypsy jazz, or jazz manouche, like Django here:

God, look at these heroes would you!? Reinhardt! Grappelli! I'm sure in heaven smoking makes your lungs go better and improves your health as God intended.

A freakin' mind blowing collaborative effort with the incomparable Qiu, Xin and Moski.

Drawings of Folks on Trains

Here's some drawings of folks on the buses and trains on the way to and out of Box Hill, where I lived for three weeks back in August. I miss those drowsy times already! I was so worn out from life back then I fell asleep at my table in the restaurant the first night there. Both my legs were so paralyzed when I woke up I had to zombie-strut out of there, Thriller-styles. Nice anecdote Ben. Thanks. Here are more more drawings this time closer to the present.

My Box Hill Uncle to the left and an Er-Hu player who you can see outside the National Gallery on a weekend. He was going to finish up but kept playing just for me when he saw what I was up to, i.e. a crafty mime. I drew him from memory later.

Xue Yi in consultation with Wein who is using the Ba Gua (bā guà) to make some predictions for her. He looked at my fortune too once. Interestingly he accurately divined that I had two siblings and one was finishing school. He also told me my luck was bad but will improve next year. Astrology aside, here are some fantastic lines from the Tao Te Ching (dào dé jīng), the fundamental classic of Taoism:

We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the wheel depends.
We turn clay to make a vessel; But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends.
We pierce doors and windows to make a house; And it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness of the house depends.
Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not. (chap. 11, tr. Waley)

Mum once told me that if Jesus was never born she probably would have become a Taoist. An odd thing to tell a young pilgrim? Nansensu. It's a brilliant thing. I'll tell you something. I was talking to a Chinese Christian at the house one day and he told me that in the Mandarin translation of the New Testament the English word 'way', as in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life..." is translated as Tao, as in Taoism. I wish I could show you the Chinese characters to illustrate the point! It seems to me that in the West the 'truth' of the other world religions poses a dilemma, but for the Chinese Christians it's simply a given! I would like to write a lengthy essay on Christianity's relationship to other religions but it's late and too many words is a bad thing and Hans Küng has written about all of this already. Let's have some more refreshing Taoist wisdom.

The Way that can be told of is not an unvarying way;
The names that can be named are not unvarying names.
It was from the Nameless
that Heaven and Earth sprang;
The named is but the mother that rears the ten
thousand creatures, each after its kind. (chap. 1, tr. Waley)

May I See a Crucifix Level with my Eyes?

Now with French Grammar Corrections!

Quick sketches of people and things on the grass.

Two studies of the statue 'Jeanne d'Arc' by sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet.

On the lawn of the State Library of Victoria there are two statues, one of St. George slaying the dragon and another of my favourite saint, Joan of Arc. Let it be known that j'adore Jeanne d'Arc! I've loved her since that cheesy telemovie in 1999 that starred Leelee Sobieski and Peter O'Toole. Follow that link and see if you can spot the blaringly obvious sewing machine work on medieval peasant hoods and, while you're at it, enjoy the incredibly evocative musical score. I remember playing Joan of Arc missions in Age of Empires II as well, that's where I learned the French word 'embuscade' meaning 'ambush'. Cut a long story short it's a beautiful statue and Joan's face is sculpted with a stern beauty that makes me pause every time. You can see my two attempts at drawing it. One day I'll get it. As I was drawing though I had the funny feeling I'd seen her leg before. Like in a dream. I shrugged off the feeling at first but, as I was going through some photos later on I realised that I had seen it before! In a place that might as well have been in a dream, anyway.

These are two photos I took in France earlier this year. As it turns out the Joan of Arc statue in Melbourne is a replica of this statue in Paris, which was created by a man called Emmanuel Frémiet, who also created the elephant statue at the Musée d'Orsay for anyone who has the know to care.

Here is our Jeanne d'Australie looking over Swanston Street. If you live in Melbourne, or are ever in Melbourne in the future, make sure you say salut to her.