Hope you're having a good Valentine's Day. It's a strange sort of holiday. We all know
love is where it's at, but that needn't mean it's limited to couples and traditional ideas of love, or another reason to spend money. I had to explain to someone at a bookstore the other day that I wasn't interested in her coupon (get a discount on books if you buy a greeting card) because nothing could convince me to
buy a mass-produced greeting card. Personally, as you may know, I am overly fond of cinnamon hearts. I like to eat them until my mouth turns red, which is surely unhealthy, but it's tradition, and only occurs once a year. When I was living in Tokyo (briefly) I noticed how the Japanese love to import a good holiday, but occasionally something is lost or gained in translation. The version of Valentine's Day I saw there involved emergency chocolate pop-up stores on every corner, with lines, hundreds of metres long, of
women (in stilettos - it was like a uniform), desperate to buy chocolate for the men in their lives.
This can be a rotten day to be alone, and it can be difficult for those in committed relationships too because of unnecessary expectations. So, when I made
some valentines I tried to stick with something lighthearted (brains are big with the zombie-set) though open to interpretation. But also, a valentine appropriate for sending love to friends too - cause I love my friends, don't you?
I am very happy to be having a good day (surprised with flowers, instructions not to look in what must surely be a
gift-hiding place and plans for dinner). To anyone reading this, I hope your day is going well, that you know that your people love you, and that you can do as much or as little as you want to recognize the day. Now, though I'm happy in steel-toes, coveralls and a hardhat, I'm also enough of a girl that I to need to try on several dresses and question what I will wear, so I must run.
So, this February, the Mad Scientists of Etsy challenge is Keith Campbell the biologist, who was part of the team that produced the cloned sheep Dolly. You remember Dolly? She was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. She was born 5 July 1996. Usually, when the theme is a scientist, I do a portrait. I am a little more wary about the 20th century scientists, because we lack distance. Further, being out-numbered by biologists, on the Mad Scientists team, we do get some characters about whom I know next to nothing. Undoubtedly, Dolly was a big science story, but I know nothing of Campbell and I can't say that naming this sheep, cloned from a mammary cell, for the "most impressive mammaries" really impresses me. Ms. Parton has a great sense of humour, but that doesn't mean that I support objectification. I wouldn't want to be humourless, but people are more than their parts. Likewise, sheep. Though really, I suspect we likely need more distance to fully grasp the ethics of cloning issues too, so this is not that kind of post. No, this is simpler: the really cool thing about block printing is that one gets (or can get) multiple originals so there's a obvious analogy to cloning. The title I'm blaming on the accidental punning headline-writer. After groaning, I decided RJH's comment of "Hello Dolly!" was corny but funny. Plus, I'm obsessed with typography. He also said I chose to "go pink or go home" but I really wanted the contrast with the gray. I must say, my magenta ink is the pits. I wonder if it's a bad batch or whether there's some sort of chemical problem with their emulsifier. Anyhow, enjoy the sheep: edition of 6 on Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper, each sheet is 12.5 inches wide by 10.25 inches tall (31.8 cm by 26 cm).
RJH sent me an email with that title, containing this snapshot of a housefly on my vintage moon globe*. I think this is a sign that he's at least as crazy as I am. I told him, when he took the photo that it was very Ed Wood.