Toy-Portraits 1

One of my first postings was about the toy portraits I've been making and this week I think I'll mainly be showing them off .
These toy portraits are basically "self-portraits as cartoon characters" , also known as
"Events in our Lives as depicted by kept and found children's toys "

"Parenthood was an alien experience,
Fortunately, The children were human. "

Jaboopee on holiday : Day 1 : Toy-portraits

Hello and Good bye.I'm taking a well earned rest this week
and am off on my Easter Holidays.
But I'm not going to neglect you because I've scheduled some
posts for the next 5 days.

Each day I'm going to leave you with an overview from each
of the five different categories I've subdivided this blog into.
My mosaic work,
My Stained Glass work
My Home
Toy Portraits
Side-Projects

Today, Please click on the following link to see all the postings
I've done so far on my Toy Portraits .

















Enjoy

2009 review continued

Continuing this week of  2009 reviews  ( seeing as i've done nothing yet in 2010)


I never knew at the start of 2009 that I'd have a blog and would be sharing all this.
Knowing you have an audience or even an  audient......changes things.....


 So I started showing off my  "Portrait as a Toy " work,
 aka "Episodes from our lives as depicted by kept and found children's toys"  . 
Then I made more , and,.... for other people too. 

1. fionn came to rue the day....., 2. laura and michele, 3. ms fat to fat,

 4. toy portrait: parenthood, 5. studio shelf, 6. toy portrait : she had biddie,
7. toy-picture:  kissing frogs, 8. toy portrait:  barca 2006, 9. toy portrait of dee,rory ,david and conrad

  I started taking photographic portraits  like these.......

1. elaine and joe- portrait as the books we are reading, 2. joe and elaine - portrait as shopping bags, 3. portrait of cait as her desktop,

4. in house photographers flowery wardrobe, 5. happy halloween, 6. family portrait as cups drying on a shelf,
7. toy portrait: parenthood, 8. family portrait as cups at the cake cafe on my birthday 2009, 9. family portrait as computer keys

My Home- Dining Room-Toy- Portraits in situ

This is where the toy -portraits live.

Toy- Portraits 6

The introduction to my "Portrait as a Toy " work,
aka "Episodes from our lives as depicted by kept and found children's toys"
is coming to an end.

Today's portrait is from the beginning of the Me & Joe Story.

This particular lift home on the back carrier of Joe's push bike ended in the four courts with me being fined £10 for dangerous driving on a push bike!






















I do have lots more to show but I think I'll leave that for another day.
Tomorrow, If I can I 'm going to post a picture of them all in situ .

There is a very curious ,co-incidental and all out weird karma thing
going on !
That last toy -portrait is about an incident from 1983
the year Me and Joe met.

Last Friday , I won the friday find over at lucys lounge
and so I went in to collect my surprise prize and this
is what it was.....





















The Wanderley Wagon yearbook from 1983!!!!BRILLIANT!

Not only was it the best childrens TV programme when we were kids
it was the only childrens TV programme when we were kids.

Deirdre had no idea that was the year of the beginning
of the Elaine & Joe Story.

I love the book and I love the special certificate Deirdre has made too,
Everything about Deirdres shop is amazing and I'm going
to post a little more about it on Friday.

Toy- Portraits 5

Continuing the introduction to my "Portrait as a Toy " work,
aka "Episodes from our lives as depicted by kept and found children's toys"

Today's portrait is from our trip to Barcelona in 2006 ,

I will never forgot Caits big scared eyes looking at me from the other side of the doors
 of the metro train as it left the station ....and that 45 minute wait to see if she came back.


 




































It all ended happily ever-after.

Toy- Portraits 3

And again another post to introduce the work I call
"Portrait as a Toy / Episodes from our lives as depicted by kept and found children's toys"(phew)!

Today's portrait is 'the one where' ......Cait in her exuberance to show off her brand new silver iridescent Doc Martens accidentally gave Fionn an unmerciful kick in the head




























I love it that Rue means " bitterly feels the consequences of"
They all lived happily ever-after .

Toy- Portraits 2

Continuing the introduction to my "Portrait as a Toy " work,
aka "Episodes from our lives as depicted by kept and found childrens toys"

This is Cait and Biddie.

Between the ages of 0-6 Cait was an only child ,
Some people told us we ought to " give her a brother or sister" .
This was our response.


























"She didn't need a brother or sister, she had Biddie "


THE REAL CAIT AND BIDDIE (1993)

Toy- Portraits 4

Continuing the introduction to my "Portrait as a Toy " work,
aka "Episodes from our lives as depicted by kept and found children's toys"

Today's one is more of a statement,
It's sage advice from Mother to Daughter























The caption reads "You'll have to kiss a lot of frogs"
I also like to call it "There's an awful lot of eejits out there."

our house....before we wrecked it.....

I’m waiting for a change in the weather before I can install the latest ‘ Fort & Wood” commission

So, I’m going back in time for this post 

The day after we had the photographer here for the HOUSE & HOME magazine 

photoshoot I took advantage of that never since repeated tidiness and had the in-house photographer take some more in-house photos 

Here are some of those photos , the text in italics is some of the unprinted questions and 

answers from the article 

What are your main inspirations ?

It's probably quite relevant that as a mosaic artist and surface decorator it’s the mosaic art form of 

Pique assiette that has greatly informed my Artwork, my interior design sensibilities and my style.  

Pique assiette is  about reusing  materials in a different way ,It’s about thinking laterally ,it’s about 

humour, the art of recycling ,the significance of found objects and it’s about using what you've got.

I 've also found that  Necessity is indeed "the mother of invention." 

THE 'OLD' DINING ROOM

In your answers, it would be great if you can make reference to the following items which may be selected in photography: 

Your art  

Over the last 20 years my home has been the blank canvass for my artistic experiments and expression . 

I work mainly doing  glass and mosaic work but I make lots of other things.....and I collect things. 

One of the walls in the dining room houses my toy-portraits collection, they are  my "self-portrait as a cartoon character" 

pictures,also known as " Events in our lifes as depicted by kept and found chlldrens toys "

Every year I try to learn at least one other new technique/medium/skill. This fruit bowl  resulted from 

a glass slumping workshop, the ‘two flowers’ print over the light switch below came out of another 

textile and screen-printing workshop 

Tell us about colour choices in your home - for example, the darker colours in your living room, the blue floor, and the turquoise. 

Why do you like them? 

I absolutely LOVE black, It's my favourite colour,like white , it complements every other colour, 

I've had a black feature wall in my home for over 8 years now. I was inspired by an article on the English 

architect Edward Luytens who believed every  home should have at least one room painted black. 

I've also painted one of the walls in my sons bedroom black and that doubles as a chalkboard, 

With black its just win win . 

THE OLD SITTING ROOM

 Tell us about the most treasured things in your home

Cáit’s drawings : In the front room on  the wall to the right of the guitars are two pictures my daughter Cáit drew when she was 8  . 

They amaze me . 

treasured things [cont.]

There is a ceramic car on my mantlepiece in the front room , it was the first christmas present 

Joe gave me, He's bought it off a Nigerian street dealer outside Clarendon St. church in Dublin 

in the early 80's , he'd said it was a Nigerian 'kitch' car, apparently that's a Nigerian 

wedding car??? We never felt the need for a formal ceremony after that......

In your answers, it would be great if you can make reference to the following items which may be selected in photography:

The items on the open sideboard (turquoise background) and the photo on the wall 

I think of these open shelves as a piece of collage/ assemblage work,  a temporary art installation 

if you like, . everything on it and around it pretty much tells you a lot about us as a family ,  

There’s  a little bit of every one's stories  on these shelves . Things that are personal ,

favourite  and meaningful .  

It’s a work in progress and it keeps changing.

The photo on the wall 

I mentioned my daughter Cáit's drawings as an 8 year old as being one of  the  treasures , 

This photo is on the opposite wall and is another one of her artworks.  

We only have it on  loan though as  it’s part of a forthcoming photography exhibition."Legacy" 

Very soon after these photographs were taken we started on the new

extension and now, all has changed , changed utterly ......

The new rooms are too shy for their close up just now,.....but 

one day.....one day .....

Toy Portraits - Do you recognise anyone?

Someone I know who is reading this right now is in for a little
surprise this morning.

That certain someone has been a bit down in the
dumps lately so I decided to make this for them ...

Oh! wait, I think I'll just prolong the suspense for a
line

or two.....



or three......

Well ,actually I'll show you the reverse of the portrait
first....

Does this give you any hint as to who this could be for ?






















Any wiser? ......




well scroll down slowly .......





At last!



Do you recognise these people ?



























Yes,Dee its you and yours !



I did think about using this little lady as your character.......






















You could use her as your google profile instead!

Thank you for all your supportive comments .
I really appreciate it.

Toy characters as Portraits.

I have a collection of my children's toys that I 've kept.
 Last July I struck on the idea of making 'self' and 'family' portraits as toys/cartoon characters.
These photos show some of the process involved in making them I'll update this post soon
with photos of finished pieces