Quite Possibly the Best Food Combination Ever

Quark, for those unfamiliar with it, is a soft, white, and tangy cheese. It reminds me of yogurt cheese, or labne. This delicious product can be spread on toast, or used in place of sour cream. It's lovely. Especially on toast with Nutella slathered on top. Delish! Scrum-diddly-umptious! I make mine in an unorthodox way, according to my German boyfriend, who insists that the quark should be on top of the nutella, and not the nutella on top of the quark. I don't think it makes any difference. If you want to have dessert for breakfast, try this combo (any way you want to).

The Squid and the Birthday Cake

the squid and the birthday cake, originally uploaded by beancollins.

I love cake. And I have a passing fancy for squids. Squids and cakes seemed to be a natural combination to me. Or maybe I was just hungry for cake and calamari.

Full Moon Weirdness

Does the moon affect you? It does me. Every time I'm feeling antsy and crazy and just generally dissatisfied for a few days running it turns out to be around the full moon. It's pretty rough. Yesterday I was so deep in a gray-blue funk that even my yoga class, pho for dinner, followed by gelato and a few chapters out of James and the Giant Peach(Read to me by my wonderful boyfriend! English is his second language but he is just so good at reading aloud!) did nothing for me. I went to sleep at nine-thirty-ish but felt worlds better this morning.

Everything I work on seems to take for-ever. I've been working on this squid drawing for a long while now, and I'm only now starting to get it finished.


Perhaps I should have made it a wedding cake. I still can afterwards in photoshop I suppose.

Since I've been on etsy.com alot I've noticed a distinct artistic style that seems to be pretty popular. I can't quite define it however, it's sort of like creepy children's book illustration. The defining characteristics are little creatures/people, animal costumes, animals in costumes, disconnected objects, and a certain muted palette. Lots of muted and/or flat colors and deliberate naiveté. I love it all, I'm just curious as to how this style developed.

betsywalton.etsy.com
ashleyg.etsy.com
berkleyillustration.etsy.com
timssally.etsy.com
katcharly.etsy.com
OrangeWillow.etsy.com
yumiyumi.etsy.com

Is it an asian influenced thing? The style reminds me of cute Japanese things (but at the same time also of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are ). Jason Sho Green also seems to fall into this category. It also reminds me a little of Takashi Murakami's art if it had been whitewashed. Aya Takano, one of my favorite artists, is also floating on the periphery of this style.

Anyhow, I find it interesting.

A Very Merry Un-birthday to you!

I've finally started on my squid and cake picture. Aaron Brothers had a big sale so I picked up some nice bristol pads for half off. It was fabulous. Lovely thick paper that will take ink beautifully. The paper is actually white, not tan. I took this in the living room, so the light was a little orange. Haven't decided whether or not to put candles on the cake.