Say it with me, "A Flamboyance of Flamingos"

Is that not the perfect term for a group chorus line of hot pink, long-legged flamingos? Alliterative, apt, succinct, this flamboyance of three pink and fuchsia flamingos are about to break out into a can-can routine.

The typography I designed for the words represents their meaning; "Flamboyance" is flamboyant in line and colour; the letters of the word "flamingos" are made from the distinctive shapes of long, flexible flamingo heads and necks, and their long, thin legs.

These linoleum block printed flamingos are printed on Japanese kozo, or mulberry paper. The block is inked 'à la poupée', meaning the multiple colours (pink, fuchsia and black ink) are all inked at the same time, in small areas, and the print is pulled all at once. Each print is 10" by 12.5" or 25 cm by 39 cm in dimension. There are 10 prints in the edition.

I like how the reflections turned out.

This is my latest in my terms of venery series.

Maps, typography, slogans and unfortunate place names...

Via stange maps we have maps which combine two of my favorite things: typography and, well, maps-

[This map is taken from this page at vladstudio, a website for Siberian graphic designer Vlad Gerasimov’s work]

and this one, which admittedly has been all over the blogosphere, but it is so intriguing and pretty - it is a map of use states as their mottos:


[The map, The Fifty United States and their Mottos, 30x40 inches, 2008 can be found on the Two Eyeballs website, where the artist Emily Wick showcases her work. She's also done individual states.]
I am not familiar with the history here, but some of these are quite unexpected (i.e. Oregon "She flies with her own wings"; Kansas "To the Stars through Difficulties"; Washington "By and By" - what sort of motto is that?; and Michigan is so literal that it made me laugh). These are linoleum block prints!

This is a map I found via biophemera. It was published by the NY Times, it shows (allegedly, formerly innocuous) embarrassing place names in Britain, now the subject of two books, "Mr. Bailey, who grew up on Tumbledown Dick Road in Oxfordshire, and Mr. Hurst got the idea for the books when they read about a couple who bought a house on Butt Hole Road, in South Yorkshire."

vocabulary charity and things one finds in cyberspace

Like words? Feed the world. You can take a few minutes and test your English vocabulary at this site. For each correct response they donate 10 grains of rice. If you keep playing, the difficulty increases, but you can always reset the counter to the beginning. I find it strangely addictive. Also, I am intrigued how often you can guess words you've never previously encountered.

On an unrelated note, I've decided to blog about art, illustration, design, fashion, cabinets of curiosity, and assorted random things I find and enjoy over at Magpie & Whiskeyjack. This blog is a near mirror of minouette but a little more focused.

Reading is sexy XV

(image: Léopold Batut (1856-1902) Jeune femme au livre. via Guada chi legge)

1. The Radiant City Lauren B. Davis. This is an amazing, though sporadically gut-wretching book. A Canadian journalist, Matthew Bowles, a world-weary war correspondant, recuperates in Paris, after being shot in Gaza. He does not like being the news. This is a man with PTSD, though his depression, of course, has much deeper routes. He re-connects with a war photographer and sometime mercenary Jack, and his friend former NYC cop Anthony (whose career ended when he was hit with a table). Slowly, he is adopted by the Lebanese family who run the cafe across the street from his apartment; mother Saida, shy about her acid-burned neck, frustrated teenage son Joseph, Saida's brother who dreams of a life where he will be more than an outsider, a refugee, and their father. This is a novel of outsiders, and of bridging the gap. The characters seem full and real. Paris itself is a character- and is alive. This book is a real accomplishment- it left me shaken, though there is hope. I am particularly impressed by how she made this rather macho, male-dominated world of war correspondents real- she gets in their skin. Read it.

2. The Disheveled Dictionary Karen Elizabeth Gordon. Apparently, I now read dictionaries. This was fun. Her irreverent and rococco definitions are something else.
coruscation a gleam, glint, sparkle, glitter. Before getting the sack for making a crack about "Molotovian cocktail hours," the captain's recreation and refection officer vouchsafed to the refugees from Bosoxia shipboard romance against nacreous nightscapes, which included pelagic acrobats amidst phosphorescent coruscations glancing off the surface of the sea."

3. Playing Sardines Michèle Roberts. This is a book of short stories. They are clever, but hard to summarize. They are mainly about women, looking for things in the wrong place. And food. Fairy tales and families, Mary and occasionally, obsessions. An enjoyable read.

4. Of Love and Other Demons Gabriel García Márquez. This is a beautiful short work of fiction. I would have read it for the image of the snowing paper cranes on orange trees alone. It tells the story of an eighteenth century young 12 year old girl, Sierva María, the neglected daughter of the less-than-sharp Marquis and his manipulative wife (whose let herself go to her cacao, honey - not to mention adulterous sex - addictions), abandoned to be raised amongst their slaves, who one day is bit by a rabid dog. Five months later superstition wins and her life is ravaged by her "treatment" and her response to the alleged evidence of rabies. The "medicine" is so primitive and painful her response is viewed as evidence of rabies. Ultimately, she is entrusted by her father to a convent, when the Church decides that rabies (which she does not have) is in fact a mere smoke screen for the demon possessing her. Having been raised by the slaves, and being fluent in African languages and religions, her behavious is taken as evidence against her. The Bishop assigns Father Cayetano Delura, to her case. Surprisingly, this is a love story, a story of superstition, human stupidity, ignorance, books, beauty and tragedy.

5. A House Called Brazil Audrey Schulman. This one was usual. Our narrator, remembers the period of her life 20 years previous, in 1970 at age 19, when her called her daily from an unknown location, to tell her all the tales of her ancestors. Her mother left her when she was 14 and she had been living on the family farm in rural Ontario by herself since then- going to boarding school, forging her mother's signature as needed, generally carrying on. The way she copes with this abandonment is touching. The stories of her ancestors are staggering; there are saints and murderers, lovers and thieves, cigar-smoking grandmother entrepreneurs, and hundreds of them living in a house called Brazil in Ft. Lauderdale. This is quite the read- I recommend it.

6. The Pharmacist's Mate by Amy Fusselman - I bought this book because of the rave review by Zadie Smith and the cover by Marcel Dzama. So far, so good...

Who mixes Mr. Brown with Panic in Detroit...

Thinking of books, Gorey-lovers should go here.