gathering magic

gathering magic
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

for www.illustrationfriday.com
This weeks illustrative challenge was the theme"magic". My first thought were of herbs and their medicinal/magical properties. The hidden power within these inoculous looking plants.

metal tea pot

metal tea pot
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

oh the humanity

It occured to me today that I am a bit of an intense people watcher. I honestly never forget a face. I even age people in my mind, once in my 20's I recognized a woman who was in my public school a year ahead of me. I remembered her name and went on to tell her, that I knew her when I was in grade 2. Usually after revealing such facts people are a little freaked, it is my particular party trick, remembering faces. Sometimes something touches me so deeply on these people watching forays, I explain it with this phrase, "oh the humanity is killing me". What I mean by this is the mundane, tender, madness, ordinary, extraordinary minutae of life and people just slays me it is at once so gorgeous and grotty and true.

Sea monkeys

we are growing sea monkeys
i said to my daughter "i must go and irrigate the sea monkeys"
she said "ok you go and interigate the sea monkeys and tell me if they change colour."

dental work

dental work
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

Dental Work

today this tuesday was special i went to the dentist. I like the dentist. I have good teeth, but I do tend to get a build up of plaque. So because my husband currently has health insurance that covers my teeth I go regulary to get em cleaned. I feel a little like a grateful hippo, being picked away at by some gentle bird. Symbiotic. I listen to easy listening music leaned back and hear little snippets of wonderful mundane family tales from my dentist. My dentist and his receptionist are not glamourous people. I like them, they seem authentic, good at their jobs and without gimics. Once I had a dentist that I told I didn't want certain work performed, he told me all sorts of rot about how dangerous a decision this was and made me sign a waver leaving him free of charges I may lay against him when my teeth fell out, certain teeth needed immediate attention I was told. I told him that most things I do, I do slowly. I said "I rot slowly." He hadn't an answer for this, years and years later those same said teeth that needed attention are still very well. Okay I did a little mental heal, focus work, you know sending my teeth good vibes and all that, so I was thankful for the heads up.

rafter, home

rafter, home
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

a late entry for www.illustrationfriday.com
in which i opened the dictionary to the word "rafter"

new paint

in a box
olive green
bengal rose
alizarin crimson
naples yellow
vandyke brown
sap green
magenta
and
purple lake

gong

do you remember that show called "the gong show" it was a talent show in which really awful performers got gonged off the stage. i am looking for a gong, an internal one will do. does anyone know where i might find one? then when i am up too late at the computer i can gong myself off to bed. think of the uses and possiblities. if you have never seen this fabulous show i am sorry, it was much better than any idol show around and it harkened back to vaudville days which i am sad that i wasn't around to see. where is that gong, internal or not when i need it. wait i hear it now, good night.

apalachian mountain music

it went like this hum ta da ta da dum dum

Big and Little

big and little
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

walk

walking in the snow and ice, every step counts.

beautiful dream: the words inside

milkpod wish
the world
shaking hands
catch fairy fluff
before it hits the ground
a child said...
"war happens because they didn't use their words"
peace dances
like fluff distant dust
hands together
in a simple holding
in between the days
soft breath
and
quiet peace

beautiful dream

beautiful dream
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

chocolate

oh chocolate

chocolate thinking starts small
the memory of a sweetness
the flavour enjoyed

chocolate

i am thinking about chocolate
oh
nothing but deep rich chunks
dark,light, or white

oh i think edit this thought
don't go there
write, draw, doodle

but oh don't think of chocolate

even the name is seductive
such a full mouthed flavored name

like a huge pink chocolate elephant
it fills the room,
don't look, pretend it isn't there

it leaves me not only thinking but consumed

awash in sweet bittersweet dark chocolate feelings

throw me a life buoy, a butterscotch life saver,
let one small piece melt in the mouth
boil water, this is serious
get the marshmallows
dive in
break into
leap onto
run don't walk
rattle down the road
with little bits of change
and
damn it
buy a bar.


or maybe two.

Everyday Angel, Maude

everyday angel
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

for www.loobylou.com a month of softies. This months softie theme is "Holiday Hang Ups". This is Maude, who is not completly new but really did want to have a debut! She is fully jointed and has wings that can be detatched, as the pressure of angelhood can at times be a tad overwhelming.

Home, on a snowy day

snowy day at the window
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

for www.illustrationfriday.com
this weeks theme is "home"
(please click on image to make it bigger)

suds n' duds

3 and 5 are my dryers
collecting quarters and technical information

Friday it seems is a laundry day tradition

there seems to be a humility in the laundromat,
no one can hide it
we all have dirty laundry

the Laundromat people,
open like a flower to the sun
when questioned, spoken to

at first on guard

but then, a smile, a helping hand
advice offered in kindness,

you are like me
we both have laundry

somethings soiled
to be washed and dried and folded

to take us through another week of
routines

laundry

I have more dirty laundry than you can shake a stick at.

p.s adopt a kitty

please click on image for a better view, if you can't make out what these cats are saying substitute your own sad and happy dialogue.

Adopt a Kitty

Adopt a Kitty
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

www.illustrationfriday.com for more on the 'adoption theme'
nice and naughty kitties to adopt, a wacked out doodle done late at night!

shirt

shirt
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

yes i am

yes i am the great matahari in a canoe on a lake with a lumber jacket.

why do you ask?

yes i do look like joan of arc in that old film by karl someone or other when my hair is cropped short to the head.

why do you ask?

yes it is true i can belly dance and peel cucumbers with my teeth while swallowing a sword.

why do you ask?

yes it has been said that i am rather unique like everyone else.

why do you ask?

yes i am sort of fond of the kiwis that are yellow.

why do you ask?

yes i can spare change.

security also

security also
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

This was my original thought for illustration friday, I intended to do a little painting, but I like the simple line of this fetus, looking secure. The womb as a secure place to be

security

security
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

Here is my post for www.illustrationfriday.com ,see many others there, the theme this week is 'security'.
Please click on the image to make it larger for better viewing.

sweet grey cold and cloudy

I love sweet grey, it is one of my very favorite colours but I can understand when one grey day blends into another it can make people feel grim. Personally my favorite weather is rainy weather, one of the reasons is because the colours of things really glow, cabs, newspaper boxes, anything shiny and wet, leaves. Dressing the part is important for weather survival, I wore shoes for a long time in the snow, then one year I got boots, and I could play and really enjoy the weather. Yes I look the total geek, and it makes me laugh all the way over the windy hill, wearing my thermal underwear and two hat, I am a happy warm geek, so very much enjoying the crazy weather that is thrown at me. If I have learnt anything, it is to not take myself too seriously and to dress for the weather.

vacuuming bovine

vacuuming bovine
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

hello. I thought that my site was a little bare so I am adding this little drawing of a vacuuming cow.

pool

If I'm ever lost I can always find myself in a pool.

Vacuum

vacuum: empty space, the inside of a vessel exhausted of air
from the Highroads Dictionary New Canadian Edition 1961

vacuum
i have a feeling that the improper use of the vacuum will one day cause my death

i picture it as the way i will one day die

an acccidental electrocution, running my Hoover over a patch of water, black ice of the carpet if you will

it will be a shocking death, a little like hari kari but not with as much choice involved

i will be swallowed whole by white light
hopeful all the flicks are gone from the living room rug

dead

i will look peaceful in death, slightly wind swept, mused hair with the list of chores happily complete

note on bubble

Please do click on the picture, for bigger, bolder better bubbles!

bubble

bubble
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

check out the others at www.illustrationfriday.com
I am posting today, Thursday because today is a "yes" day, I am happily floppy and over tired and ridiculous in a nice way, but tomorrow it might be a "no" day because the late nights and broohaha, will have caught up with me and I will crash and rise like so many tiny bubbles to the surface of dilirium, or perhaps I will have a nice little cup of espresso, and let the yesssss continue.

Connect the dots

we are all connected like dots making the outline of the silly elephant with the silly hat in the cheaply printed newsprint colouring book

we are like stars too up in the heavens connected to make meaning and myth our own secure blankets pulled snug under our chins

like ice cubes melting and boiling and turning to steam

beads on a string

all in the darkened stage followspot finds us backlit and beautiful and if caught by surprize maybe bearing all

threads

threads
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

I found these today at a junk store, a whole box full. I am looking for the thread as it happens, sometimes I drop stitches.

small floral

small floral
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

cloudy sunday
little russian dolls on the window sill
she patters down the hall,
my soul opening catches on my throat,
aperature too bright to be seen writing
shut down the f stops
she resumes her spot in the other room
little russian dolls havn't moved a muscel
lacy curtain
timeless cloud and street
antique car sounds
she coughting in the next room
my father's voice and me
"spit it out, spit it out, get it up, and spit it out"

float

float
on the surface
of an unmade bed

Buddha's Parable

Buddha's Parable
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

Here is my illustration for Penelope's Illustration Friday, it was posted previously but disappeared, hmmh to cling or not to cling that is the Buddhist Question. The parable can be found also somewhere on this site.....

The Felt Square Project

http://www.vandavilela.no.sapo.pt sorry this is the correct address for the felt square project...

sketchbook doodles

sketchbook doodles
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

crash test spelling

I heard that in computer language if you write in all caps you are yelling, is it true?

I would like to take this opportunity to appologize to webster, and all the rest I AM SO SO SORRY I CAN NOT SPELL I AM SORRY I APOLOGIZE , thank you

Illustration Friday,Cling, Budha's Parable

more illos on friday at www.penelopeillustration.com/journal
here's mine it's been a long week and it is only Wednesday, I am participating in cold and flu season, reluctantly, i think that the rest of the week i will hide in bed and contemplate, or perhaps eat a ripe strawberry.....

this basis of this is borrowed from the telling by Paul Reps in his book
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, and retold by me, I twicked the sex of the protagonist the place and time,

Buddha told a parable in a sutra
A girl traveling across a parking lot encountered a tiger. She fled. The tiger after her. Coming to a precipice she caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung herself over the edge. The tiger sniffed at her from above. Trembling, the girl looked down to where far below another tiger was waiting to eat her, only the vine sustained her.

Two mice, one white and one black( or was it one black and white mouse)little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The girl saw a luscious strawberry near her. Grasping the vine with one hand, she plucked the strawberry with the other.

How sweet it tasted!!!!!

book of weeds

book of weeds
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

I am a collector of scraps, of bits and pieces, in that mad whirling dirvish way I have been creating books. I have made 3 others similar to this one. They are made from whats at hand, pulling here and pushing there, with little bits of drawing, fabric and oddments thrown into the mix. I will have them and other mad bits of delight (i hope) on sale at the annual Ontario College of Art and Design Book Arts Show. If you are in Toronto, I encourage you to come by. I have always found it to be a really inspirational and fun show. I have found many a delightful prezzies there, as things are for sale! It's on December 5th,at 100 McCaul Street, just behind the Art Gallery of Ontario, at Dundas and McCaul.

fire and ice

Yesterday I cleaned out the fridge. Got rid of old and rot. And went and bought fresh and promising. Last night I cooked, washed, skinned, boiled and baked, waited, watched and checked. We ate happily flesh from bone, red skinned potatoes. Me and both of you. I felt purpose and happiness as I let you fill your bellies as I filled mine with accumulated baking, slow cooking, eatten full of love and sleep and sweetness.

orange knitting

orange knitting
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

Music

Yesterday I bought a cd, of the English Beat, remember the ska band from yesteryear? It had me dancing and doing dishes in the kitchen, I literally closed my eyes and was transported back in time to a youth dance that I used to go to called "Start Dancing" I used to go almost every Friday night and I danced nonstop for hours maybe 5? At the end of the evening after my fast dance dish workout my legs ached a little and I wondered why, my brain thought this is the way you move to the beat but my legs had forgotten just a little bit.

P.S. to Illustration Friday

You can click on this picture to make it bigger! Can anyone tell me how to put Penelopes address up so that one can simply click on it and the magic techno fairies will take you there automatic like? Here is the site via my clunky unsophisto-techno way, www.penelopeillustration.com/journal.html I ask you what's a not long ago ludite to do?

Illustration Friday: Regal

Illustration Friday: Regal
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

This is for Penelope's Illustration Friday, yes I know it's Thursday, but would you believe I did it on Monday; I enjoyed the theme "regal" so much.

red felt flowers

red felt flowers
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

Inspiration came from,http://flickr.com/photos/miriam/

The Felt Square Project

felt square
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

a very nice project to participate in is by an artist from Portugal named Vanda Vilela to find out more check out these sites

http://flickr.com/groups/felt_square_project/
and
www.vandavilela.no.sapo.pt

much blather

much blather, i think i am enjoying seeing myself talk!

Bertram

Bertram was made for www.loobylou.com a month of softies,
he is made with yellow felt, and he is accesorized with a very warm little turquoise mohair scarf, these northen climes get very cold. My little accesorized elephant Bertram, if you will, never Bert he is far too formal an elephant for that, thank you!

Bertram the little yellow elephant

Bertram the little yellow elephant
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

need

Isn't it need that conects us? that strange connective tissue between me and you. it is so important to be needed and to need. at some point one must depend on someone else, at some point, at birth, at death. sometimes being needed is difficult, the times i want to pretend i am some floating dust, but of course i am not, i am important connective tissue, the pulls and bends of this life, you lifting up, me shifting down, like a well oiled machine, maybe, a bucket of rust other times, whether we like it or not we are so much so joined at the hip. all in the same big bowl of soup, all connected all important connective tissue.

mushrooms

mushrooms
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

Often I don't know what I am looking for. I do know what I like when I come across it. A certain nostalgia, colour combination or type of drawing. I like the hunt for the stuff the find the capture. I guess it goes way back, to our hunting and gathering past, and of course the stories that accompany the adventure, are sometimes the part that nourishes the most.

Shopping Vintage

illos vintage
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

This little 60's gal is gazing with fondness at the bygone era of the 50's. Inspired, and a part of the continually wonderful Illustration Friday, at Penelope
Illustration;

http://www.penelopeillustration.com/journal.html

Welcome Home

At home I realized all the dates had been jumbled
You see that sometimes happens with time zone changes

It also sometimes is true of rapid shifts in the temperature
of the day

That day I felt fine when I sat under a very tall tree
and lay on the ground

with the curve of my back
around the round in the earth

and my friend,
my best buddy,
who said,
'Hey can you feel it rotate'
and I said

'Friend, Welcome Home'

tree

tree
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

vintage suitcase, vintage picture

cafe may
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

Thinking vintage. This is a photo taken by a wonderful film maker named John Porter. It is me at Cafe May, circa 1988. Inside my suitcase, are little chairs that I made, one per day, to be the audience for the S8 film that I made, to be projected on the painting that I painted. Very multi-media eh? Me and my dear suitcase have been around a long time together. It is even more vintage than myself, I think suitcase was born in the 1950's.

hungary?

hungary?
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

can we talk borsht?
beets so fine
purple red
invades your urine stream even
last night i made a pot
bionic borsht with the beet greens
red cabbage
carried away by the scent of caraway
chopped carrots
onion
a little soy in the broth
vinegar for vim and vigor
and after it makes
some honey
a tonic for what ails you
don't be ascared of the colour by friends
it's a medicine
a witches brew
and yes dears did i mention,
it is good for you?

stay

stay
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

small press book fair

i like to open my suitcase in public, when i do nice things happen.
i am a rock person, according to native beliefs everything is alive, the rock people are the oldest living beings on earth, to hold a rock is to ground you, you are holding an ancient piece of the earth something that goes back a long long time.
at the small press book fair yesterday i had a bunch of rocks that i had harvested from the beach, i often have rocks in my pockets as touchstones, i believe they work in grounding me. I like to roll them in my hands something like a rosary i suppose or worry beads, i work the stone into my hand and i am so soothed, i thought the addition of words would add another element some of the rocks i sold had just images others images and words, i worked on one at the show that said "staY' it had the image of a chair and the moon, i will show it soon, what i found the image word thing did was to create another level of affirmation self talk, it was nice. please steal this idea, get rocks, draw, paint, something of relevance to you and then varnish, give them away or keep them or leave them to be refound with your additional words or images, see how it feels to roll a rock in your hand painted or plain.

think positive

think positive
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

Search {for illustration friday}

Check out the site that inspired this illustration:ttp://www.penelopeillustration.com (look under journal )

search
as a little girl i had a flashlight
it ran on pure frenetic energy
i ran to pick it up and it glowed
it taught me to watch my heart
illuminating me, inside, out

search

search
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

Overload

sometimes there is too much newness, sometimes everything goes just a tiny bit too fast. What to do. count to 10. Breathe. let it rip away from small children, the elderly and anyone else, make soup, chopping things into small bits, admit it,confront it,
say 'this too muchness sucks i am afraid i want i hope i am nervous, let it rain, feel the flood,release

Close to Home

we stayed close to home
the day moon laughed,
out loud
we stared in disbelief
then
the realtor Gweenie called,
she looked
at me with scorn,
saying,
you can't be serious...
about
living in an acorn
i said it's true
we are happy not blue
we wouldn't sell our wee nut
not for a mansion
nor a hut
we stayed close to home
we didn't roam
did use the phone
ordered some eggnog
and a piece of pepper corn
the moon giggled
our cat had a fit. HA HA HA
i took some scissors. i started to snip
a patch of sky around the moon
of a peaceable noon
the tv blared
we ate toast
said farewell Gweenie and became our own host
(bye,bye)
03/05/02

sitting

The wind rustles the leaves. Outdoors feels foreign for sitting and writing. A bug on my notebook, leaves flirting so nicely with me. Catch one. Keep one. I am noticing that if I slow, if I wait I can acclimatise to a space. The not perfect spot becomes the right place.

leaves

leaves
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

from my notebook

b-day card line drawing

b-day card line drawing
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

it isn't my birthday, is it yours? Happy Day to You!

Ice Skater

Ice Skater
Originally uploaded by Kim's Suitcase.

a little drawing, i wish i could skate as well, however my drawings replicate my almost 2D world i have a problem with depth perseption

Begin

I have been reading here and there blogs and am fasinated. I have been enjoying mostly pictures, hopping around in the newness of it all. Delicious words to be sure but more delicious images. I am starting slow learning step by step this new found place to put my words. I operate in slow time real time. I have always enjoyed the bumble stumble of taking things slowly.