Some things I made for Christmas presents...

A Sho Dust Bunny from Totoro for Alison

A Kodama from Princess Mononoke for Sian

A Mexican Mushroom for Roni

Dream#11

Images from Tamala 2010

I am a gentle white cat
From the stars
I can fly when needed
I am part of something
Integral to salvation
The sadness is overwhelming

Something terrible has
Flown over the village
Leaving a trail of destruction
In its' wake
Fire and blood abound
Bodies strew the path they ran

Quiet singing fills the air
The lament permeates all
The dead lie draped over things
A grisly procession
A massacre on a vast scale
I swoop over the carnage

Following this macabre route
Through the streets
And into the village graveyard
Where naive innocents
Had fled that fateful day
In search of safety or protection

They lead me gliding over
The Church itself
Where the roof has been torn off and burned
And the breathless are bountiful
My immortal tears are falling
Glittering to the ground

Falling on everyone and everything
In the knowledge I could not have helped

I wasn't there
I was in heaven

Dream#10

Ornate golden turrets
Rise above houses
Towering higher than
The whole skyline

Castles floating away
As I try
To find batteries
For my camera

Lights pierce clouds
They are evidently
Going to speak
To the stars

This is of
Such great importance
The spires gather
Celestial colours beam

I follow them
Around the house
I grew up in
But it's over

Lights go out
Towers are dull
Summer is gone
I am alone

My Artwork: Obake Series #1 樹木子

Click Image for full size version

Jubokko/Vampire Tree

Anyone who knows me knows I love Japan. And J-Horror. I'm talking the good stuff; Junji Ito & Suehiro Maruo comics, and some Tartan Asia Extreme films such as Tale Of Two Sisters. I have always had a passion for ghosty goodness; it fascinates me.

At the moment, I have a growing obsession with trees and the folklore surrounding them. This piece begins a series based on Japanese Folklore and Obake (ghosts) & Kami (spirits). It is said a lot of these spirits live in trees or haunt them, and I am increasingly interested in why trees seem to hold a certain powerful energy of sorts, seeming to be used throughout the world's folklore in a variety of different supernatural ways.

'Jubokko are said to thirst for and suck blood. According to some tales, they were born by growing near carnage places or battlefields where so much blood was shed on the ground that it was sucked up in great quantities by their roots.

Folklore stipulates Jubokko are not like other trees; if a jubokko is cut, it will bleed red blood. However, they are also fast healers and any branch taken from a Jubokko, with permission, can be used to heal and purify. Jubokko may also hide themselves amongst other trees and bushes, and they may even appear to alter the flora around them. They may make it easy for someone to become lost in the nearby forest, through communication with other plants.'

Dream#9

Artwork by Jennifer Khoshbin

Fuzzy pictures

Fragmented pages

Perfect clothes

White tights

Brown shoes

A date

In the harbour

Secret things

Between us

Dangerous information

Shack nearby

Garbage landscape

Old Camera

Holds dark things

Murderous evidence

Pier games

Watery noises

Winter sea

Pretend love

Covering tracks

Picking through rubbish

Tiny kitten

Blackest fur

Runs toward

Down corridor

Ending dream

Speaks joyfully

'I am here!'

Japanese Artist Akino Kondoh

Akino Kondoh's work is both visually stunning and disturbingly odd.
She is one of my biggest influences, combining Japanese precision with unsettling subject matter.
Her obsession with the feminine and how it affects female lives is vividly depicted in her artwork, using imagery such as young girls, insects, splashes of colour (red is often used) on black and white drawings and fur/flowers.
Reminds me of a Bjork lyric from 'Sun In My Mouth';

"...I will wade out until my thighs are steeped in burning flowers..."

She has also created a series of animation pieces, this one is my favourite.
I found it about five years ago and haven't stopped watching it yet...

Densha Kamo Shirenai

Densha Kamo Shirenai/Maybe A Train by Tama 

No one knows that I'm not here now
I'm waiting for you to tell you secretly

Hey, it's almost time now
The time for us children who are bad at physics
To go walking about in the air

In the evening, click-clack, train jerks into motion
In the dusk sky
We are children born bodiless

No one knows that I'm not here now
I'm waiting for you to tell you secretly

Hey, in the lonely plaza
We children who don't know arithmetic
Are spilling sand from our ears

In the kitchen, clink-clank, the train goes by
Into someone else's house
We are children born bodiless

In the evening, click-clack, the train is running
In the dusk sky
We are children born bodiless
We are children born bodiless

Dream#8/Taxidermy

Last night
I found a tiny deer
In my dreams
Quiet and tender
As a weak kitten
Small and tan coloured

We went to live
In a house full of
Old furniture
And peeling, patterned velour walls
Bureaus and tarnished mirrors
Nailed to the ceiling

Settling in a small room
With high walls
Covered from the floor up
In bookcases and old paper
Thousands upon thousands
Of dusty books remain

And will remain
As we do;
Moth cocoons
Quiet and content,
And even after we are
Gone