f o o t n o t e s ....

i love when little reminders or footnotes of my life gently find their way to me.

You know...those little pieces of information that act as a tiny catalyst to unlock a happy memory that you had forgotten about... A word, a piece of music, an image; something that makes you smile inside + out and remember a time when you were happy, or excited or creative....

Well...those kinds of universal reminders have been happening to me alot lately. And old song popping up on my ipod that takes me back to Edinburgh in 2001, or an image popping up in the newspaper that unlocks the memory of a painting or drawing that I completed years ago...

One such image came my way a couple of days ago that intrigued me...

It was of a man selling blown up balloons in Kabul {above}.

Its such an interesting image of a man trying to spark colour, fun and creativity in a city that is grey and torn... These bright, shiny plastic toys mean absolutely nothing in the great scheme of things, yet in this context, they act as a sign of hope that things are recovering ....

A few years ago I saw a balloon selling group of immigrant men on the beaches of Sicily when I was visiting that part of Italy in 2005. I found them so contradictory...Here are these men with no money, in a new country with their families back in Africa, selling these coloured bits of air to the sun baking masses on Mondello beach in Palermo...Their lives are so serious and yet they walk around like brightly coloured clowns at the circus...!

Well....I guess summer in Italy is a bit of a circus...!!

From these images I produced a series of drawings for an exhibition at Ariel bookstore called 'On the Same Page'. Great show and great memories of travel...

Speaking of colour I just had to mention these crayon rings that are now on sale at Third Drawer Down - a brilliant store in Melbourne that now have an online store!
Love that you can now have a coloured pencils at the ready... on your finger!! What will they think of next?? Third Drawer down is such a fantastic store created by the ingenious Abigail Crompton who has recently been interviewed on The Design Files blog by Lucy... It's a great interview, giving an insight into the concept of the store, how they supports local artists and graphic artists with her tea towel pieces and what new projects they are working on overseas... very exciting projects too! Well worth a look...