I Love You Inside Out, Who Ever You May Be. Itchycoo No 3

The Itchycoo Story ... So far....

Somewhere Beyond the Sweet Milk Mountain,

Where the Silken Threads Surround You.

I Love You Inside Out, Who Ever You May Be.

 

Itchycoo 1                                         Itchycoo 2

Itchycoo 2                                       Itchycoo 3

The scary moment -

 do the pictures work together as I don't have picture no 2 to line up with.

Hard to see in the above so I tried it on the computer.

Thank's to Mr Apple Huge Screen, I am able to have two windows at the same time.

Not bad first try, much better second time around.

The joining of the orange in the sky, needed to be faded a little as the colour match was too harsh. 

That will teach me for being lazy in dotting for the roll over. I've made sure I've done it already for no 4.   

Getting ready, rolling onto Itchycoo No 4.

Details

A Pink Whale cries an ocean of happiness, with his friend Snail and Polka Dot Puddy.

The Russian Dolls untie a riddle, reading Mimi's thoughts/ future -
I love you Inside out..

An Emotional Life Tree of all Seasons.

A floating house guards the boy, enclosing his thoughts, emotions,
memories and experiences.

Above him it is his link back to his real home and family.

My Grandparent's home, Nobelsgate 13 becomes the starting point of Itchycoo.

  Although Itchycoo is from my imagination, it's based within my reality, while revisiting my childhood memories from Norway. It starts with a game in my grandparents house, Nobelsgate 13. The layout of the house in the story, will be the true to the actual house. Many of the familiar object's within the house will also be recognised within my paintings. 

 Mimi will get to Itchycoo by playing a game with her sister. Instead of Snakes and Ladders she plays Slides and Zebras, where they slide down the staircases and (zebra) cross the corridors into different rooms. There is no board with counters. Instead, the house stands for the board while the girls themselves are the counters. They start in the high vaulted attic, looking in boxes. Mimi finds and puts on her grandmothers red dress, there is a gold carousel charm in her pocket. Mimi is the first to make it to the secret room (the room where I used to think the troll lived) She walks further and as her eyes adjust to the light she is walking down a corridor. She wanders where she is going and then realises that she must be walking in a tunnel that lies directly below Nobelsgate. She goes towards the light and realises that she has come into a wonderland that lies beneath the sculpture park- 

This is the Land of Itchycoo - 

This is where my first painting of the series starts:

 Somewhere Beyond The Sweet Milk Mountain.

I Love you Inside Out, who ever you may be.

Back home, straight into painting! I'm pleased to say, I've got most of the base layer in.

Here's the Russian doll set, they pop in and out of each other, they will appear within the Itchycoo story giving Mimi clues when she needs them along the way. When no one is looking, they will move, popping in and out, revealing a riddle of objects inside of them. They are fast and like to tease us, often you may catch a wink, or think you have heard a whisper, chances are you are not imagining these things. They keep together within a red ribbon  communicating with it by reading peoples thoughts and answer what they are thinking. Here they are with Mimi, echoing her love for a boy that is there, and yet to meet waiting for their paths to cross, experiencing love in her future: Hence the title: I Love You Inside Out, Who ever you may be. (The inside - Out, exaggerated by the dolls that go inside each other.)

If I had or could do photoshop- I know very poor -

I would put my family and friends in the blank faces! Please feel free to do so yourself,

 as long as you send me your images so I can post up here. 

Starting to fill in.

The First Half, at The beginning of The Itchycoo Story Painting number 3

At last you can see something now. I have painted my Whale in a salmon pink, this is in memory of the pink dolphins that I saw in Hong Kong  around ten years ago, sadly they no longer exist there. He cries tears of pain and happiness that become the ocean he swims in. The white cat has a bit of a 'Hello Kitty' feel to her. I think I'm going to give her dots like my daisies as she looks a bit ghostly at the moment.  As usual I have crammed as much as I can in, I still need to learn less is more. I have taken out an upside tree, I'm sure there will be more to go. 

Possible Title Sequences, and Exterior Influences:

1. Somewhere beyond the Sweet Milk Mountain.

2. Where the Silken Threads Surround You.

3. I love You Inside Out, Whoever you may be.

4. Curiously We Wait Across an Arctic Wilderness.

5. Starfish and Coffee at a Table Laid for Tea.

6.  Super Fly High in a Sky, Beside us a City That Floats on by.

7. The World Tree Whispers Seasons to You and Me.

8. Northern Lights Flicker, Fold and Firecracker Bright. 

9. Under a Midnight Sun, Habbits Dance of Fun.

10. An Unbearable Lightness of Being, I Wait for You.

11. The Ring of a Bell, an Echo, Like a Butterfly I Flutter Free.

12. Yellow Wallpapered Tears, Hiding a Zombie Trance. 

I wander how many of the above or variations, make it in the future? I like to look back at my original thoughts, particularly if the directions change, which they usually do. 

Norwegian connections:

Arctic - Towards Norway's Arctic Circle.

The World Tree, from old Norse Mythology, echoed in context by Vigeland's Park in Oslo

Under a midnight sun. 

Northern Lights. 

While the Land of Itchycoo appears to me randomly through my dreams and imagination, I am interested in how the mind works, exploring the boundaries between the imaginary and real. Realising there is a fine balance.  As a child the imagination is able to be free and explored, while as an adult it becomes closed, a little escapism is okay but too much becomes boarder line insane. That is why I have introduced three amazing books. Not that I have illustrated any of their visions, I have suggested them merely as different thoughts of exploring the imaginary.

Literature

The Unbearable Lightness of Being: By Milan Kundera

The Diving- Bell and The Butterfly: Jean-Dominique Bauby

The Yellow Wallpaper: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Starfish and Coffee, at a Table Laid for Tea.

Looking at my last sketch, I love the idea but I think it is much too much for one picture as I have the Romany caravans and the tea party. After looking at everything I would like to put into the tea party, the detail that you can see below I realise that I have to spread it over two paintings.

On the side I have written carousel Puddycat with a fish on his way. On the top: Starfish and coffee, maple syrup and jam. Butterscotch clouds and a tangerine ..... Purple rain. (As a young teen I was obsessed with the music of Prince) At the bottom: Gingerbread house in the distance. Butterflies over ears, mouth and eyes.. Liquorish (as in all sorts!) In the picture then starting from the left: A gramophone on top of a red toad stall.  A table is laid for tea that is a butterscotch cloud, with ladders as legs, underneath it the rain is purple. There is a stack in the centre of plates, cups, cakes and starfishes (anything and everything). At tea characters sit on cakes and toad stalls so far there is my purple flower bunny, a habbit, horse, owl, Rhesus Monkey, Squirrel and a frog. Bloombie has just walked up. The tree behind acts as a server using it's branches to pour milk, coffee or tea, offering cakes and star fish. Above, not seen here, our boy will be sitting watching on. I'm not sure if Mimi will be at the tea or also watching from afar. 

The painting that follows has a floating city in it. The balloons are helped by various creatures, leaping over spring bunnies frolic in the air. The trees echo their formations from Vigeland's park in Norway. Taken from the tree sculptures that follow life's cycle in a circle around the great fountain. The tree's and situations in Vigaland's thoughts, use 'The Ash of Yggdrasil', The World Tree that refer to old Norse mythology, using 'The Ash of Yggdrasil' (I will continue his thoughts here.) Mimi will dive in one of the trees, just as a girl dives in one of Vigeland's trees. Other animals will mimic situations that exist within this circle. The habbits, purple bunny are talking around a tree. Off centre a lake is heart shaped. Bloombie watches on.

5 months breathing space, everything changes

At last getting back into painting big, it's been a while but I'm definitely ready. It's also funny how things change. I drew the image below about 5 months ago, and has since been collecting cobwebs in the garage. I've given the picture some space, taking out the giant apple and pear, leaving a strawberry behind. They have been replaced by a smaller carousel deer. 

Also 5 months ago I wrote this list:

1.    Somewhere beyond the sweet milk mountain,

2.    Where the silken threads surround you.

3.    I love you Inside out, who ever you may turn out to be.

4.    Curiously I wait across an Arctic wilderness at a table laid for tea.

5.    Super fly high in a sky, beside us a city that floats on by.

(A list of the first 5 pictures) and then wrote:  
Somehow and somewhat a little peculiar.

While starting off with the above, last night I did the next sketch for painting no 4. I realise it's easier to work in pairs while I'm on a roll. 

To the left of the sketch there are a group of igloo's, the back one has turned into a giant turtle. Within the ice, the space around it has formed as rock and vegetation, that has formed from trolls that have burst in the sun. In this area there are Gypsy caravans, one that has Mimi (name changed from Kiki) on the stairs in a doorway. The habbit and a horse are also there with Bambie, otherwise known as bloombie. There may also be a carousel frog with them. Joining onto the next iceberg along are a couple of zebra's that connect the the tea party. I'm not sure of the characters there yet. I'm thinking of the Rhesus monkey, See no Evil, Speak no evil and hear no evil, on a toad stall. I will be thinking more how to work this part of the picture. To the edge is a tree, similar to a tree that surrounds the great fountain at the Sculpture park, Vigeland's park in Oslo, Norway. The boy will be sitting there slightly hidden watching on. In the back ground there is another cake mountain, and a stranded iceberg that has the same pink tree from the second picture, although the baby penguin that was there has been replaced for an adult. I'm not sure if it has grown into the adult or it is the adult who is searching for it's child that was there, the last time they saw each other. 

I had this dream a couple of nights ago, I thought I would use the Zebra's to bridge the icebergs. Not sure if you can make it out in the centre of the sketch.

My Dream:

I had met a guy called Barry at

university who had won an art prize. I had gone to some type of awards

ceremony - you knew Barry was a serious artist because he had a

suitcase that would have fit 10 of my 30x 40inch paintings in it,

except it was full of giant tubes of paint and brushes. I thought the

prize was really naff- odd leaking jars of ink and half used tubes of

acrylic and oil paint. I said he must be disappointed, he said he

didn't care as it was in a Saatchi  exhibition in the spring, although

he had called it something else. The picture was amazing obviously I

have forgotten most of it. It was called Zebra's crossing the Yellow

brick road. (the only bit I can see clearly) At a closer look at the

canvas the paint turns into plastic, so it is modelled 3d (like a kids

toy) The yellow brick road then has retractable (real) Zebra's that

fold out flat retract across each side into a stair case.  As the

Zebra's meet (There is on on each side of the road) as stairs they

have become a bridge(thinking Tower Bridge.) They then fill out

becoming real zebras - I guess after someone has crossed over. Did I

mention there were Cheerios stuck to the ceiling?