My Doll Collection

I got a new photo editing program and thought i'd photograph some of my favourite dolls from my collection, although I feel bad having favourites! I have hundreds, but here is an overveiw.

I've been collecting since I was a child, I started off with a rag doll my grandmother had made for my mother when she was a child, and I just wanted more. Above is the Ragdoll by my Grandmother, along with Mr Beast made by my Great Aunt Beryl and sent to me when she learnt of my interest in dolls.

Civil War Tintypes

I found some beautiful American Tintypes from the Civil War posted on The Library of Congress' Flickr page
I was amazed by how young so many of these boys are and how beautiful they are, the tintypes themselves are so stunning, I would love to own one of these pieces of history.
















note reads -
“My beloved son Carl taken from me on April 1, 1865, at age 18, killed at Dinwiddie. Flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

Childrens Stories Illustrated

Over the past few weeks i've been working on a series of illustrations based on some of my favourite traditional childrens stories.

Little Red Riding Hood
"Oh Grandma, what big Teeth you have"



The Three little Pigs
"The Wolf blew the house down and ate the first little pig"



Goldilocks and the three Bears
"I know who's been sleeping in my bed" Said little bear, "and she's still here"



Hansel and Gretel
"Gretel pushed her in and ran away, the godless witch was burned to death"



Little Red Shoes
"The executioner struck off her feet with the little red shoes, but the shoes danced away with the little feet across the feilds"



Gerda and the Reindeer
"Gerda ran over to the Reindeer, threw her arms around its neck, and laying her cheek against its soft muzzle, said 'please help me to find my friend'

Death of an American dream

Here in northeast Ohio

Back in eighteen-o-three
James and Dan heaton
Found the Ore that was linin' Yellow Creek
They built a blast Furnace
Here along the shore
And they made the cannonballs
That helped the union win the war

Well my Daddy worked the furnaces
kept them hotter than hell
I came home from 'nam worked my way to scarfer
A job that'd suit the Devil as well
Taconite, coke and Limestone
Fed my children and made my pay
Them smokestacks reachin' like the arms of god
into a Beautiful sky of soot and clay

Well my daddy come on the Ohio works
When he come home from World War Two
Now that yards just scrap and rubble
He said 'them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do'
These mills they built the tanks and bombs
That won this countries wars
We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam
Now we're wondering what they were dyin' for

From the Monongahela Valley
To the Mesabi iron Range
To the coal mines of Appalachia
The stories always the same
Seven hundred tones of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the worlds changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

When I die I don't want no part of heaven
I would not do heavens work well
I pray the devil comes and takes me
To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell.

-Bruce Springsteen

Youngstown

home of an unemployed steel worker

Bessie mine, Jefferson County, Alabama

Monongahela Valley


Images From Photographer Ross Mantles series "In the wake of an American dream" depicting the death of an American town, The Monongahela Valley, find more here

Old Youngstown and Bessie mine photographs from the wonderful Shorpy.com

Abit of my own stuff

I've just realised its been a long time since I posted my own artwork on here, and in the last couple of months I have done a few pieces that i am really happy with, so I thought i'd share them

Haunted Air

I recieved the most beautiful book yesterday, 'Haunted Air' by Ossian Brown, A collection of Anonymous Hallowe'en photographs, America 1875-1955.

It has a stunning black fabric cover and the photos are reproduced perfectly in their original size.
Its such a stunning book.

"The photographs in Haunted Air provide an extraordinary glimpse into the traditions of this macabre festival from ages past, and form an important document of photographic history. These are the pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementoes of the treasured, now unrecognisable, other. Torn from album pages, sold piecemeal for pennies and scattered, abandoned to melancholy chance and the hands of strangers."
-The Random House Group











I hugely recomment that you buy this treasure of a book

Christmas Time

Its Christmas day! I've had a pleasant, chilled out day. My parents are watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special, which I don't like, so I decided to share my Christmas pressies on here.
I got two amazing postmortem pictures from my dad, so Chuffed with them.





The Man who sold these photographs said they were both of the same child. This could well be true, the children appear to be the same age and the wreath of flowers round the head on the one picture does look alot like the wreath resting on the childs lap in the other picture.
The only thing is I wonder why the two set ups are so different in background, the one in white with wallpaper behind, the other completely surrounded by Dark fabric. the mounts are also different, why would only one mount have the photographers stamp on it? I guess we'll never know for sure.