Christmas Lucky Dip

A few odds and ends from my non-moleskine sketchbooks. Stuf that doesn't fit into a particular category.

Moleskine Diary - Bus Stop

Bus Stops are strange places where dramas tend to play out, and you run into all kinds of people.

An Ode To Sheela Na Gig- The Vagina

I created a post previously documenting the penis, so I am aware a celebration of the Vagina in art is long overdue. I was reminded of this recently by Katy Kretz, a talented artist known for her use of the vagina in her work.
Any discussion of the genitals in art tends to have a political colour however much I try to avoid it. Plastic surgeons are offering 'vaginoplast/labioplasty', surgical procedures apparently very important for women afflicted with 'ugly' vaginae! This is not about function, it is purely cosmetic! In the US this industry is worth $6.8m (£4.4m). In the UK the latest figures come from a 2009 report in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. It revealed that in 2008 the number of operations increased by 70% compared with the previous year: 1,118 labioplasty operations on the NHS. (There were 669 in 2007 and 404 in 2006.) And that's just the NHS. The Harley Medical Group reported over 5,000 enquiries about cosmetic gynaecology last year, 65% for labial reduction. So we have come so far we can have 'pretty vaginae' on demand. In other words, a vagina that matches up to those seen in pornography, neat, virginal little girl parts that don't offend!
There is thankfully women who have the sense and the confidence to question this dubious procedure and indeed protest against it. The Muff March chanting "keep your mitts off my muff", took place last Saturday in central London.Three cheers for the Muffia!

Sheela Na Gig, a mysterious image found on churches of all places.

Kate Kretz's Vagina Dentata purse

Kate Kretz's Fertilisation Purse

Kate Kretz's Defence Mechanism Coat, more of Kate Kretz's incredible work can be seen here
   Kate Kretz Flickr

Kira Scarlet's hand embroideries

Yonic Vagina by Jessica Marie

My contributions tend to be less explicitly vaginal, more about the role it plays. Giving life fills me with awe and I worry about trivialising the vagina by focusing on it too much. Strangely, I have no problem with portraying the penis as a comic object!

Moleskine pages

Hmmm...yes, well!

A few of the tenants that inhabit my brain and tell me things that I feel compelled to pass on.

Moleskine pages

Does this really require an explanation? I think not! Women do fill me with despair sometimes, most recently while watching a program on vaginae. Apparently the NHS, in it's infinite wisdom is offering 'vaginaplasty',: A completely unnecessary operation to tidy up 'ugly' vaginae! How do women fall for this crap? Most men are grateful for any access to a vagina, their 'beauty' has never before been an issue, so why now? And why is it that the NHS that is so strapped for cash, feel it urgent enough to provide this vile mutilation to misguided females apparently as young as 12? It is as if the suffragettes never suffered!

This follows on from the above image. I am a feminist, a very ardent, proud one. But I don't hate men, they have their own issues to deal with, even though I don't totally absolve them from their historical mistreatment of women.  I do wish women's history was given more prominence in the school curriculum, if only to empower young girls and allow them to see that they are more than a series of holes to accommodate men.

Sometimes women collude in their own misfortune, Showing no sense of sisterhood or loyalty, leading each other to the slaughter.

The Lambrini Girls - A comic that never was

Characters based on 'certain' people who shall remain nameless. It didn't go any further though, I don't have the patience required to be a comic artist.

Collage - All Passion Spent

Moleskine Collages

How many of you out there have heard this old wives tale? That if you swallow a fruit pit you will grow a tree in your stomach and it will emerge from your 'lady garden'? I took it a step further and added children! Is it any wonder that we are all so screwed up when trusted grown ups feed us these nightmares? I was stupidly gullible and brooded over these dark possibilities for years.

I'm still working on the meaning of this one, I may come back to it at some point.

Dogs are my passion. They have been used widely in art to symbolise faithfulness, trust and unconditional love. I like to use dog images a lot to say different things. We humans really don't deserve such devoted companions.

Every fear hides a wish, is that true?

Old Moleskine pages revisited

RCA secrets works by Lucy Mazhari

Moleskine Diary pages, Dec 2011 - Human Custard

Men who are on an eternal search for a mother wife, and women for a child husband.

Moleskine Diary pages Dec 2011 - We Sang The Dawn