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Every Picture Tells A Story: A Lady and Her Pupper during the London Blitz (1940)

Classic Russian Animation: Hedgehog in the Fog

Hedgehog in the Fog is the Russian equivalent of Winnie the Pooh, Paddington or Beatrix Potter stories.

This delightful cartoon was made in 1975 by Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn and introduced the world to a hedgehog that becomes bewitched by different shapes obscured by thick fog.

Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn is one of the most respected animators in the world and yet in the English speaking world at least, not much is known about this man.

In addition to Hedgehog in the Fog, Norstein produced Tale of Tales (1979) and The Heron and the Crane (1974), that were highly acclaimed by critics.

His mastery of visual elements and imaginative story telling techniques combine to create a genuinely unique poetic universe with the same eastern spiritual heritage as Russian fairy tales and folklore.

Born in 1941 in Andreevka, a small village near Moscow, Yuriy worked as a manual worker in a furniture factory and later an artistic director and animator. His big break came when he worked with well-known Russian animator Ivan Vano Ivanov on the animated feature The Left-Handed in 1970.

Undoubtedly best known for The Hedgehog in the Fog made in 1975 and since then has had a cult following of artists and illustrators who are enchanted by this simple and beautiful story.

Yuriy’s life’s work is an animated feature film called The Overcoat which has remained in production and unreleased for the past 35 years.

Every Picture Tells A Story: Louise Armstrong plays to his wife under the shadow of the Great Sphinx

At the height of the Cold War era, the United States send ambassadors for the American way of life by sending its best ambassadors abroad in the form of creative emissaries — jazz musicians.

After all, music has a way of bringing people together and forgetting their differences. As part of this cultural diplomacy, the great Louis Armstrong and his wife Lucille went to Egypt in 1961.

There, under the shadows of the majestic Great Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza he serenaded his wife on the trumpet. She appears transfixed by his exceptional playing.

Book Review: Today, Tomorrow and Everyday by M.H. Clark

You know how you sometimes have those days, or even weeks or months when you feel un-moored to the shoreline and adrift in a lost world, floating aimlessly, feeling sad or morose?

This is the kind of book every woman needs to feel found again. It’s that miraculous book that brings you right back to the present moment and where you are right now. It’s a book to settle down with in a comfy chair and feel satisfied that you’re here, right where you are, right now.

Today, Tomorrow and Everyday is a book from the worn-out genre of self-development or affirmations. When I googled the book I discovered that it came from a company called Compendium that produces other seasonal books of high quality designed specifically as gifts, such as Christmas books and so on.

Yet despite this fact, (which did mortify me a fair bit) I found myself instantly and magnetically attracted to this book’s contents.

Today, Tomorrow and Everyday is different from many other books of this genre. For one, it’s designed immaculately and beautifully and has laser-cut endsheets, cloth quarter-binding, gilded edges, and a foil-stamps on it.

The design is beautiful but the words themselves are undoubtedly personal and written by someone with a true gift for engaging and personalising text, so that this book felt at once mine and mine only, as though it was written by a close friend.

This book was gifted to me from my mother for my birthday, and it felt strangely as though she would say these words to me herself, if she was feeling particularly open that day. So much so that I actually cried a bit while I was reading it.

This is no small feat – In fact this is nothing short of miraculous. These kinds of schmaltzy books normally make my stomach turn and make me squint my eyes.

So in short, I would heartily recommend women to get this book either for themselves or for someone they love. And if you’re a man and looking for a gift for your girlfriend (and she happens to enjoy deep-thinking, heart-felt affirmations and pretty design) then you can’t go past this book as a potential Christmas gift. See here.

Virtually nobody seems to have reviewed this on Good Reads, so here you go- I’ll be the first.

Every Picture Tells A Story: Travelling Salesman’s case with neon tubes, 1935

Not much is known of this travelling neon salesman’s case, other than it’s beautiful and would have no doubt attracted scores of customers. It belonged to a company salesman for Dorwalt Signs in Pennsylvania and dates from 1935.

As you probably already know, I am obssessed with neon, having written about Neon Art and Loneliness in the past, announcing the unexpected beauty of lonely neon signs on the rainy London cityscape. Also another story about how old powerplants can be turned into surreal wonderlands through the use of neon in the Most Beautiful Relics From The Industrial Dawn. And also how a medieval church can become born again into a laser paradise in Churches, Wildflowers, Weeds and Wonder.

Love letters sent by the wind

Every day, priests minutely examine the Law
And endlessly chant complicated sutras.
Before doing that, though, they should learn
How to read the love letters sent by the wind
and rain, the snow and moon.
~ Ikkyu
(1394–1481, Japanese Zen Buddhist monk, saint and poet)

Historic Jukebox: Everything But the Girl, Deep Dish and Patrick Hamilton — Hastings, East Sussex

Every Picture Tells A Story: When Depeche Mode met Derrick May in Detroit in 1989

In 1989, Depeche Mode came to Detroit to hang out with Derrick May and Juan Atkins. The two early techno pioneers had been mixing the band’s songs into their sets at clubs in Detroit like the Music Institute.

So Depeche Mode’s David Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher ventured from Essex in the UK to Detroit, it was the meeting of two electronic music’s biggest luminaries.

Keyboardist from Depeche Mode Andy Fletcher told the Free Press. “We were just mobbed by beautiful black people, young girls and boys. It was kind of weird — we always thought we were the whitest of the white. But I think the way we made music was in a similar vein to the way they made music.”

Derrick May explains their synchronicity at the time. “They’ve set the standard in what they do. In America they’ve been able to please almost everyone, from a guy like me who’s a hardcore dance addict, to the stadium crowds. They’re right on time, right in synch, and they can’t even help it.”

Gemma Correll’s spirit animal is a pug and her cartoons are all kinds of charming wonderful

Gemma Correll is the high priestess of wry, cute and amusing cartoons that are compassionate to women’s bodily woes and emotional complexities. Her cartoons are sweet, sassy and charming and I’m totally in love with them. Also she’s an aquarius, an INFJ and pretty much loves all the same things I do, so I have a feeling we would get along in real life.

Who is Gemma Correll?

[Poached from her website]

Where did you study?

I went to art school in Norwich (England) – I have a BA (hons) degree in Graphic Design specialising in Illustration.

Why do your illustrations look like a five year old drew them?

I hire a five year old to do all my work for me. I pay him in fudge. His name is Alan.

Are you available for an interview on my blog?

Possibly. I am very busy and get a lot of interview requests, but I will answer if I can.
You can e-mail me at gemmacorrell @ gmail dot com

What’s your favourite colour?

Turquoise.

What’s your starsign?

Aquarius.

What’s your favourite word?

Albuquerque.

What are your favourite Movies/Tv shows/ Books?

Movies – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Dogtooth, La Vie en Rose, Wayne’s World, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, The Royal Tenenbaums, Anything by Michel Gondry or featuring Gael Garcia Bernal.
Books – I’ll just tell you some authors that I like, or we’ll be here forever – Bill Bryson, Jeffrey Eugenides, Torey Hayden, Margaret Atwood. I like books, I do. I have a Goodreads page, here.

How do you scan your images / contrast them / clean them up?

I scan my images into photoshop and then use the “Levels” tool to adjust the black/white until I’m happy with the result. Same if the image is in colour, although that makes it a bit trickier to get the balance right. I just use the good ol’ fashioned eraser tool for any mistakes (although often, I’ll just leave the mistakes in the drawing)

Which pens do you use?

I use PITT artist pens, Uniball Eye and UniPin fineliners, as well and Kuretake ZIG Art & graphics Twin. For colouring, I use watercolour, ink, Kuretake brush markers and Kuretake Clean Colour brush pens. For murals, I like Posca paint pens, or Kuretake “Paintys”

Are you related/married to Damien Correll?

No. It is funny that we have the same surname though, as it is quite an unusual one…. but we live in different countries and have never actually met (yet).

Is being an illustrator a real job?

No, it’s a fake job. I actually run a very successful drug smuggling ring. I just pretend to draw things and distract people with my cute pug.

Who are your favourite artists?

Camilla Engman, Lab partners, Sandra Juto, Beatrice Alemagna, Elisabeth Dunker, Quentin Blake, Tom Gauld, Simone Lia, Sara Fanelli, Ray Fenwick, Aya Kakeda, Carson Ellis, Brian Rea, Oliver Jeffers, Mary Blair, David Hughes, Harriet Russell, Anouk Ricard, Lizzy Stewart, Mia Christopher, Julia Pott, Marc Johns, Anke Weckmann, Jen Collins, Maira Kalman, Liza Donnelly, Tuesday Bassen … the list goes on, but my fingers are tired.

where do babies come from?

You don’t want to know.

Find out about unique gifts made with Gemma’s illustrations on them like mugs and bags and follow Gemma on Instagram

Microscopic treasures: Abstract art discovered under the microscope

Sometimes the most unimaginable beauty comes from the world cannot be seen with the human eye, but yet still exists in the invisible netherworld of the microscope. Here are some artistic treasures, spied on the Reddit Microporn page, have a look and you will become hooked.