JaMiE BaKeR: fallout

Even though it is about a very grim subject, the hunting and poaching of elephants, this is one of my favourite illustrations that I did for the book, mainly because of the colours. Choosing a colour palette is something that I always wrestle with, but in this case I was rather happy with the way that the limited palette came out.

It remains to be seen whether it will reproduce in print the same way it looks on my monitor… but I should find out soon enough; I am expecting to see some advance copies in of the printed book sometime in February.

In 2006 I was pretty consistent in updating this here NEWS page, on average about once a week. But I was very slack in every other section of my website… Until Now!

The galleries in the FOLIO section have been updated to include a few of the many pics posted in this page over the past year. I still have a lot more to add, so check back in a week or so when hopefully it will be more representative of ALL the art I have stored on my FTP.

I just added TWO new galleries in the PHOTO section. Like the first three they are each a random jumble of pictures taken from different places and times and there isn’t any consistent “theme”.

The LINKS section has been updated with some new blogs and couple of websites that belong to some friends of mine. I also added an Emma Peel site that might interest any AVENGERS fans out there. I bought myself an Avengers DVD for Christmas and really enjoyed watching those old shows a great deal.

I have a memory of what could easily have been my premature death, had things only gone a little differently…

One day, while playing in the front yard of our house, I hit upon the splendid notion that it would be very interesting to see how far it was possible to run with my eyes closed. This was at around the age (between two and three, I’m thinking) that “running” was a new and wonderful super power that had only been recently discovered. I wanted to see what the new limits were, you understand.

Realising immediately that our garden was not big enough to do the experiment justice, I went out the front gate and, closing my eyes, ran as fast as I could down the pavement that paralleled our street. Thankfully, rather than running out into the road and being hit by a passing car, I instead ran full tilt into a concrete telegraph pole, copping a fearsome smack to the forehead from a big rusty metal bolt that was embedded in its surface.

Immediately, blood sprayed out of the gash in my head, while maniacal screams poured out of the quivering hole under my nose. A house painter, working across the street, had the good fortune to witness this spectacle in its entirety as he sat on a scaffold eating a sandwich and having his cup of tea.

It amuses me now to wonder what this man made of the sight of a small boy coming out of his house for the express purpose of running headlong into a telegraph pole and almost knocking himself unconscious. In any case, it was this kindly man who picked me up (still screaming blue murder) and carried me home from my experiment, drenched in my own gore and humiliation.

It was precisely at the moment of bloody impact that I had realised that running with my eyes closed was a supremely stupid idea. Oh, if only that epiphany could have struck me before the telegraph pole…

This was driven home to me in our kitchen, as I was obliged to listen to the kindly housepainter explain to Mum in great detail what he had just seen me do to myself. While Mum cleaned my blood away they both asked me, over and over again, just what the bloody hell had I been playing at? I never told them. The blow to the head had knocked enough sense into me that day to realise that it was better not to let on what my original goal had been…

I have the scar, physical not emotional (or maybe it’s both, come to think of it) from that episode to this very day. It’s right in the centre of my forehead, where the third eye would be if I were more enlightened.

This picture was made with assorted photo textures and illustrates a story about elephants being sedated with ALCOHOL when they are transported in certain countries.

Speaking of BOOZE, 2006 has come and gone and along with it my least favourite holiday of all. Some people express frustration with the pressures of Valentine’s Day and Christmas, I even know one reactionary curmudgeon who dislikes Halloween, but for me NEW YEAR’S EVE is the holiday I most like to dislike.

Other holidays are criticised for the rampant materialism and crass marketing that accompanies them, but at least most have some idea at their core but I can relate to. But boozing up and hitting the town so as to have your tongue down the throat of a drunken stranger at the stroke of Midnight just isn’t a worthy goal…

…besides which, how come it never happens for me? Boo Hoo…

I have tried to get into the spirit of the occasion and gone off to wherever you have to go to get boozed up, and watch the fireworks displays… I’ve put on the fancy clothes and shelled out the money for a posh “New Years Eve bash” a few times, but despite the fanciness and high expectations I’ve always ended up being stranded with hundreds of booze-addled people trudging over broken Champagne bottles and fighting for taxis at 3 am.

The times that I have enjoyed New Year’s Eve have been those that I have spent with a few close friends who turned their backs on the madness and did something else. Like a dinner party. One time I even saw in the New Year while sitting by a campfire under the stars when camping in Death Valley. I liked those particular New Years Eves because they were a bit more reflective. If the traditions were different, New Years Eve COULD be a moment to pause and reflect on the past, present and future… but all that often gets obscured by booze, belligerence and broken glass…

Anyway, I have been engaged in a bit of reflection of my own recently, and not just over the events of this last year I’ve also thinking about events from many years before, as I continue to sift and sort and scan my photo collection. There are already 3 galleries online and I should have another up soon.

Happy New Year, everyone!