Dan Morelle

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

After failing to get Rosa’s card to Milkshake (a childrens program in the UK) in time Ella’s one is going in a a lot earlier. Check out the next photo to see the chaos that when around making this. Oh and if you don’t know who Peppa pig is you have to check this out: www.peppapig.com/ she very cute and funny – its like the Simpsons for small children.

Now as seen on TV!!!!

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

This was Ella’s card I made for her last year. Sadly Rosa’s card didn’t make it on to Milkshake this year (but I did get a nice email from the Milkshake team) so I will get cracking on an ‘Ella is 6′ card for the show in a couple of weeks.

In case you don’t know this is Oswald a really beautiful and gentle animation for children created by Dan Yaccarino.

‘We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.’
Marshall McLuhan

At a North East London health centre some devilishly good illustration is hanging on the walls. A great charity called The Nightingale Project unveiled Quentin Blakes latest work. The charities objective is to brighten the dreary and depressing world of hospitals, with Quentins help and some bloody great big printing machines they have acheived just that.

Huge blow-ups of scenes from Planet Zog adorn the walls and Monsieur Blake was there to present his wonderful works.

The alien world of ‘Planet Zog’ is intended to warm the reflection of the world of the institution to the child. The vivid colours combined with the subtle details and minimal pen-strokes evoked smiles from everyone who cast their eyes on Zog.

Nick Rhodes the director of the Nightingale Project kindly took me on a private tour of the illustrations. There are no plans to publish them so unless you are a patient or staff at the centre its unlikely that you will get an opportunity to see the rest – so thats why I took all of these photos!

All the pictures are all hung at adult eye-level. I am sure the staff will absorb the good vibes. They just need a few steps for kids to climb up in to Planet Zog too.

Its a brilliant idea, more art in hospitals but I was told that convincing health-care trusts to put a line in their budget for art when its continually being stripped back is an uphill battle. Arts Council England should be throwing money at this!

There’s a great article about some other work Quentin did for the Nightingale Project at the BBC’s website here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6216758.stm

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

Still rocking at 75! To find out more about these exclusive Quentin Blake pictures click here.

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

Rosa’s 2nd Birthday cake. I ate alot of icing whilst making this.

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

You can read more about how I got Quentin Blake to draw in my Moleskine here.

This morning I heard that Quentin Blake was giving a lecture at the Institute of Education in London about 125 miles away and I decided instantly that I had to be there.

My new friend, Drew Anderson (Millions of Hundred Dollar Ideas) is opening a gallery to sell 1 x 1 inch pieces of art in his hometown of Portland, Oregon (USA). He is pimping his sketchbook (at http://www.buymysketchbook.com/) to raise funds to fit out the gallery. Yesterday I decided to help him by working on my own sketch book and donating it for auction.

So this evening I found myself at the Institute, near Russell Square in London.

At the end of the engaging and educational lecture I humbly joined the que for autographs. I read Quentin Blake’s pictures as a child and read them now with my children – Roly Poly Birds, Vermicious Knids – the whole kit and caboodle. Quentin was wearing very cool white shoes, I was amazed how clean they were and complimented him on them. A real dude!

I didn’t have a book for him to sign (most people had a Roald Dahl one of some form or other) but asked for a doodle for my Moleskine – he was happy for me to offer it to Drew’s cause.

Here it is. Its a beautiful picture. One of a kind. And I am giving it away! There are 99 pages left in the book for me to fill and I have a ridiculously high standard to reach. Maybe I will just give it to Drew as it is…

‘In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes’
Andy Warhol

Well this is the future. Every one in the world can get at least 1 second of fame (if that floats your boat).

The world is so small.

Following on in the series of re-publishing interviews I did a while ago, here is an interview with The Aloof. I honestly have no recollection of doing the interview and was surprised when I stumbled upon it in a dusty back issue of G-echo December ‘99! Alas, The Aloof do not appear to have done much since this outing although band members are also elements of the gestalt entities that are Sabres of Paradise and Red Snapper. This is the interview:
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