whistling ninjakitty

I have a habit of jumping into things (icy water, overseas adventures, marriage…) without giving the situation due thought. I used to call it “flying by the seat of my pants”; but now I prefer to think it’s called “acting intuitively” because that’s something grown ups with beautiful children are allowed to do.

No matter what you might like to call it, that is what this image is about. Very specifically it’s a combination of two adventures - one at about age 11 when I went swimming off of Kangaroo Island and discovered the water to be full of very small, delicate, stinging jellyfish; and the other at age 21 in Oregon when I swung off of a tyre swing into a river (egged on by several young men yelling “C’mon Australia!!) only to discover that the water had melted off of a glacier only moments before and the rocks on the river bank were covered in tiny leeches. Both absolutely remarkable and beautiful experiences, but with an unmistakable element of terror.

After a brief but traumatic lobotomy incident, our mechanical friend finds a new lease on life channeling The Light in aide of a group of magically-inclined adventurers he’s joined (consisting of a white witch, a sorcerer, and an anthropomorphic squid biochemist/illusionist) as they stumble upon exotic lands and distant planes of existance via the sickeningly-sweet yet strangely compelling Lolliportal.

Click here to see the larger version in my gallery.

My mailbox has been very friendly of late: in amongst the delicious Christmas greetings has been a letter from Arts SA to say that my grant application for my upcoming exhibition a toy boat on the Serpentine has been successful, a letter from the University of South Australia advising that I’ve been accepted into the Master of Visual Art program with a scholarship, and a letter from Nexus to say that they’d like to include my work in the Adelaide Ink 2 art exhibition as part of the Adelaide Fringe. Merry Christmas indeed! ^_^

I’ve been working on this one ever since I found out I was pregnant - that’s over two years ago! Talk about a slow worker…

Anyway, despite fear of spoiling the mystery, I can tell you that this image is all about the big physical and psychological changes I experienced when pregnant. It’s also part of the continuing adventure of the characters we first met in your place or mine? Remember Big Red? Well this is her all knocked up - glowing gold and with the most luxurious hair ever imagined, wandering around barefoot in the woods at night. The glowing ‘library’ is a reference to safety and the familiar. I suppose her bear friend is off on his own journey of discovery.

This image will be exhibited at Gallery 139 in December as part of the preview show for 2009.