Card for Jaimie & Gord

Hi! So did you know that Jaimie (Nick's sister) and her husband Gord are expecting their third kid? Well, they are. It's past the 'risky' period (phew) and thus "official" (it's customary not to make any public baby announcements before 3 months, because shit happens, y'know?).

I am sending them a little word of congrats. Check out the envelope I made! (it's an illustration glued onto one of the little envelopes I got for Christmas from Alex- such an awesome gift).

I mean, you guys know the symbolism of the stork, right?

In English folk mythology and old wive's tales, storks deliver newborn babies to mothers by dropping them down chimneys. This is the origin of the phrase "Dr. Stork" to refer to an obstetrician.

Storks have been revered in Europe since the Middle Ages. Their association with babies and birth announcements originates many centuries ago in legend and lore native to northern Germany. One popular stork tale revolves around the folk legend that the souls of unborn children live in watery areas such as marshes, wells, springs and ponds. Since storks visit such habitats frequently, they were believed to fetch babies’ souls and deliver them to their parents.

More on the stork in popular (baby) culture here.

Word Portraits

Artist John Sokol has a collection of portraits made out of the words of famous authors:

Walt Whitman as "Leaves of Grass"

John Keats as "Lamia"

Dante as "The Inferno"

James Joyce as "Ulysses"

Charles de Beadelaire as "Les Fleurs du Mal"

Alice in Wonderland Test Footage

In animated film-making (and I'm sure it still must be the case with digital animation today), creators would often film actors saying the script and "acting" a scene, and then illustrators would use their mannerisms and movements as inspiration for their drawings. What's amazing here is that what the actors in the test footage actually voiced the characters themselves; the animated characters capture and exaggerate the essence of the real-life actors, who seemed pretty larger-than-life themselves. Old classics in a new light, pretty cool!

Illustrator Noma Bar

Israeli illustrator Noma Bar makes incredibly clever and evocative images, which are all the more impressive for their simplicity. You may recognize this cover of the Economist from a little while back:

He also makes images to accompany news stories:

Beware the Wolves

Artwork for an article on older men who pursue younger women.

Fat Cat

Artwork for an article on how CEOs invest their personal wealth

The Big Squeeze

Artwork for an article on the oil politics behind the Iraq war.

This one is simply entitled Prison.

And few other neat ones...