They asked if we could do a decorative frieze in the dining area ...

and here are some bits of it. I just love this - all designed by the patients, and painted by anybody who stupidly stood for too long in the general area. This included staff, visitors and even a passing dustman who tried in vain to get out of the window.





The brief was 'to brighten the place up a bit' and I think they managed that!

Dear Agony Auntie,

My name is Bill. For some reason, people try to pretend I'm not really there.

Please help!

And there was I, wondering how Wildlife Photographers managed ...

following on from my difficulties in photographing a hamster. Then, a news item very soon explained everything.

I'm delighted, and relieved. It genuinely is as difficult as I thought!

Here are some more pictures of Tootsie, my new hamster, who is a bit older than she used to be.

Every time I photograph pets - hamsters, budgies, rabbits, alligators etc - I am filled with feelings of admiration and awe at the skill, patience and supernatural abilities of people who can photograph wildlife. Members of my menagerie are just downright perverse and cussid, and if these so-called speciments of domestication behave like that, how on earth does anyone get to photograph REALLY wild critters, such as sasquatch, the yeti and the Loch Ness monster?

Victoriana at Dr Sketchy, Brum!

Well, the clue's in the title ...! I managed to remember to take all my pens, my sketch pad AND my glasses. It's very unusual that I remember all three, but it made so much difference I may even take up the practice permanently! Anyway, here are the pics:


The above features the lovely Amelie Soleil, who picked my drawing out as a winner, promising faithfully that it wasn't just because the paper was pink! Then, in no particular order ... in other words, I can't remember which order ... OK ... were:


Candee Handful and Cherry Fox (Candee's the masterful one);


Fanny Malone, who made everyone sing music hall type songs before she would stand still;


Fanny Divine, who I think is in disguise and, finally:


Red Sarah, doing a strong man act. I think she was in disguise, too. I was ably accompanied by fellow PCO members, Gerard Whyman and Alex Hughes, which just goes to show that you can't have Victorian soft pornography without a cartoonist or two having sniffed it out!

Illustration Friday - Confined

The activities of Elvis impersonators are not confined to pubs, clubs and music halls:

I've just been reading a horrifying post (well, actually there are rather a lot of them over there) on the blog of the esteemed evil genius, Tim Leatherbarrow. Just to show how his apocalyptic vision is coming true, Elvis impersonators have even infiltrated the Nativity; you can determine immediately that these three Kings are not the real Elvis.

Eroticism in Art (2)

For anyone who hasn't met her, here's a Sheela-na-Gig. This one is resplendent on the corbel table of Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire, where she has delighted visitors for centuries.

There is much scholarly dispute about her precise meaning, academics being too shy to articulate the words "Up my Wigwam, Big Boy!". It has been observed that 'They are often positioned over doors or windows, presumably to protect these openings,' [Bumsquash & Rattlesnake, 1904] when it is more probable that she was just there to catch the produce of any local young buck who missed when trying to have a tuppenny upright with a local hooker. Against the church door.

It is, however, heartening to realise that the church at one time espoused causes like this. And though modern churches do not generally feature a Sheela-na-Gig, she still finds expression in the Australian colloquialism 'Sheila', which refers to any female woman of the opposite sex - and provides a fascinating insight into the psyche of the male Australian.

The Sheela-na-Gig, in Sligo town, has also become just another name for another Irish pub, again reflecting the aspirations and expectations of the drinking Irishman. [Sutherland & Wyndebagge, 1932].

However, all this refreshing realism was swept away under the metaphorical carpet during the Victorian era. The Obscene Publications Act 1857 banned works 'written for the single purpose of corrupting the morals of youth and of a nature calculated to shock the common feelings of decency in any well-regulated mind', but an amendment to this act made by the Lord Chief Justice in 1868 included anything that could corrupt, whether this was intended or not. It led to the banning of medical textbooks, bird-spotters' handbooks and the sale of chicken portions.

However, it is questionable whether the Lord Chief Justice really had a 'well-regulated mind'. His name was Cockburn.

The net result of all this, of course, was merely to drive eroticism underground from whence it emerged in disguised forms. An early reference to oral sex can be located in the following verse by Lewis Carroll. It is an excerpt from 'The Crocodile' mentioned in 'Alice in Wonderland'

'How cheerfully he seems to grin
How neatly spread his claws
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws'

Note that, as is typical with Victorian literature, 'he' can refer to either male or female of the species - or both - as the recipient of the 'little fishes'. I do not need to elaborate on the true meaning of 'little fishes' to a sophisticated bunch like the readers of this blog. So here we have what seems at first to be a sexually ambiguous exploration of the theme. There are, however, some puzzling references here - specifically, the one describing 'gently smiling Jaws'.

The discerning scholar will recall that the original 'Jaws' had a facial expression which made Mr Grumpy of the Mr Men clan look positively radiant; 'gently smiling' being a hardly appropriate description. However, as with much of Lewis Carroll's work, he metaphorically 'turns things upside down', and the puzzle can be further deciphered by inverting the image to which the verse refers, whereupon the following pleasing result ensues:



The link between the image of the white shark in 'Jaws' and the Sheela-na-Gig is immediately apparent, and will be explored in a future post.

I have just henna'ed my hair ...

... and both ears, the back of my neck, a sweatshirt and the work surface next to the sink. I will have to sit here with this cowpat on my head for the next 90 minutes or so, whilst having to sit quite still on account of not wanting to henna anything else.

It's my way of renewing my autumnal colouring, whilst it tries vainly to ebb towards winter, with frosts an' all!

Illustration Friday - Renewal

The University of Glossop took staff renewal very seriously.