Source Aside from being the birthday weekend of yours truly, this weekend marked a special celebration for friends of Mr. and Mrs. ShellHawk.
A Red Egg and Ginger Party.
Huh?
If you've not heard of this tradition, don't feel badly. We were in the dark, too. We got the invitation from our friends a few weeks ago, and had some time to do a little research on the topic (so we didn't look too ignorant!).
A Chinese tradition, the Red Egg and Ginger celebration marks the end of the first month of life for their new baby. Traditionally, the baby wasn't named until this time because of the high infant mortality rate. At one month, it was a safe bet the child would live, so the baby was brought out into the community to be named.
The child was either given a "milk name," (a temporary name used to fool evil spirits until the child started school or was married) or a formal name. The grandparents were often given the honor of naming the child, though sometimes the task was given to a fortune-teller. Remember that many cultures hold that a name means something and can bring that person luck, and that to know someone's true-name was to have power over them.
Traditionally, the child's head was shaven at this time; girls in front of an image of the Goddess of Children, the boys in front of the family altar. It was a symbolic shedding of dependence, and for girls it was believed the shaving would bring more lustrous hair.
It should come as no surprise to our pagan brethren that the red egg symbolizes fertility (that's also where dyeing Easter eggs had its start), and the color itself represents happiness and good luck. Red eggs are given by the family to the guests, as well as ginger. The ginger (yang, which is warm) adds a touch of "hotness" to the new mother's diet, who is weak (too yin, or cold) after the birth of the child. Traditional gifts to give are lucky money or clothing. I had knitted a little hat for the baby girl, so we were covered.
It was a great honor for us to be a part of the celebration, and we wish the happy couple and their new little one happiness, health, and prosperity!
I mentioned a few posts ago that I'd gotten some project out of the kiln at school. Here's the last one, the first of a series of Day of the Dead-themed skulls I plan to create and sell. He looks charming on Mr. ShellHawk's bookshelf in his office. Neighbor V still says she doesn't find skulls festive. Oh, well!
(All images are used with permission of Mike Vosburg and belong to him. Don't even think of stealing them!)
In the Wilds of Southern California, a mere stone's throw away from Angeles National Forest, there lives an artist of such talent, that a statue came to live on his mantel. Or maybe it's in his closet by now. I'm not sure.
The statue is an Emmy award, given for his role as director of the HBO animated series, Spawn. "He" is Mike Vosburg, an artist whose work I have enjoyed for years. And you have, too, even though you may not realize it.
Mike has done storyboards for The Chronicles of Narnia, drawn an entire cover run for Tales From the Crypt, and produced artwork for the L.A. museum of Tolerance. He also continues to work on his own graphic novels, Lori Lovecraft and Retrowood.
Mike grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, with a crayon in one hand and a horror comic in the other. His parents were supportive of his interest in art from the beginning, always making sure he had a "healthy supply of materials to work with," as he puts it. He lives in Tujunga with his mild-mannered, jewelry designer wife (and sometimes model), Anna, and is also owned by several cats. He met Anna in 1976 and they married "much later." When you see the two of them together, working on their separate projects in their shared studio, you know this is a true partnership.
I was lucky enough to have Mike answer a few questions for me, so I could share with you. ShellHawk: What first got you interested in comic art? MV: As soon as I could hold a pencil, I was drawing. I always wanted to be a writer, and started adding pictures to spice up the stories. I found the drawing was a lot more fun than writing and made the switch.
SH: What do you like and dislike about current comic art? MV: I love the comic book medium, but I am completely disinterested in the business and what they produce. Super hero comics bore me, and they dominate the industry today. I like a wide variety of styles as long as they use dynamic compositions and interesting drawing techniques. Again, the overly stylized rendering of the superhero genre generally leaves me cold.
SH: What's your favorite medium to work with? MV:I like just pen and ink drawings for comics and storyboards. Painting for illustration is fun; I use acrylics and apply them like watercolor. I always use Photoshop to put tones/word balloons on my comic artwork. It's a very versatile tool.
SH: What was your first art-related job? MV: I started out as a school teacher after I finished college. I left that after three years to pursue a comic book career. I did my first stories for underground comics... Not much pay and the stories were one step up from amateur.
SH: What gives you the inspiration for Lori Lovecraft, Retrowood, and your ReelArt series? MV: While I originally created "Linda Lovecraft" back in the 70s as an alternative to drawing super heroes, when I reinvented her as Lori Lovecraft, the ideas generated more from working on Tales From the Crypt and using all my favorite black and white movie favorites for the story ideas. Retrowood is an extension of that as it is set in a Hollywood-like environment in a faux 1930s era, but without the restrictions of doing a straight period piece. ReelArt was an attempt to learn to paint portraits from the best reference material I had available: stills of my favorite movie art.
SH: What do you do to keep your "chops" up? MV: I constantly doodle in my sketchbooks and try to do at least one life drawing workshop a week. And I try to continue working on my illustrations whenever I can.
Mike tells me he is starting a workshop on Telling Stories in the Pasadena area. Whenever he's not working for a client, he tends to either his Retrowood graphic novel or illustration projects.
And of course, my Blogger account here. I also check in with a number of blogs almost daily: Pumpkinrot, Ghoulie Girls, My Ghoul Friday, Arana Muerta, Creepy Cupcakes, Dave Lowe's Design blof and his Para Abnormal comic, Spooky Blue's site and blog, Grim Hollow Haunt, Haunt Style, House Bloodthorn, Mr. Macabre, Season of Shadows, The Gallows, Necropolis Manor, Nickols Manor, Stolloween, The Art of Darkness, The Obscure Hollow, and probably a couple others I've forgotten to mention. I'm part of the mailing list for CalHaunts NorCal and Garage of Evil. There are places I shop for art supplies, and books. There are sites I use to research for my blog posts. And honestly, I really can't maintain a prescence on all the sites I've joined, much as I'd like to. It just isn't possible. Little thing called living life, instead of watching other people live theirs.
So I'm left wondering why I joined Twitter. And to top it, I'm further cluttering the net by starting my own website at http://site.shellhawksnest.com. It's at the very basic stage right now, but I have plans to build it as more projects get done, add some how-tos, and let folks know when I have items for sale.
Source
Posts
