Mar 8, 2012

Heart of Darkness









The Hand Of .... err.....  "Death"

Do you know that scene in The Heart of Darkness (Apocolypse Now) where Martin Sheen's head slowly arises out of the dark waters of a Vietnamese river, his face covered in greesepaint so it won't pick up the light as he sneaks up the river bank and assassinates Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando)?
Well, apart from the fact that there is a yellow rubber ducky in this image, this post has nothing to do with that Heart of Darkness scene at all. 
Well that's what my therapist said I should tell you...... She insisted I head you off at the pass, so to speak, before you jumped to any mixed metaphors.
So, to get to the quick of things I'd like to say I am sorry exponentially. I am so sorry to have been away so long. I do have an excuse though and it's a long story, so pull up a chair, pour yourself a nice glass of orange juice, crank up the air conditioner and send me the electricity bill care of Jack's Foster's blog. (billing address at end of post).
Well you see it goes like this.







On Thursday the 22nd of December last year at approximately 5.41 in the afternoon I was riding a mountain bike home from work. It had been raining, there were puddles everywhere, and unfortunately the front wheel hit a huge crack in the road and I went over the handle bars and landed on my face hands and shoulder. 
But hold on. That's not my excuse. I am only telling you that so I get a bit of sympathy.  
 Mind you, to be perfectly honest it bl&#@dy fr&^5gen damn well hurt!
Of course it wouldn't have hurt so much if I hadn't done it  in front of 33 cars stopped at a set of traffic lights in peak hour traffic. 
And it would have hurt even less if I hadn't been wearing the pooncey pooncey bright purple helmet that I'd given to my wife the previous Christmas - a helmet that unfortunately had fitted her like a German WWI helmet might have fitted someone with microcepahly.
 Not that, I hasten to say, my wife has a small head - it's just that mine, being jammed packed full of brains, sand and salt water is abnormally large - and consequently just the right size for the XXXXX helmet I'd bought my wife.
Why am I telling you this...... hmm?
Oh yes, shoulder,sore, concrete, cry sympathy, excuse.
That's it: I am making an excuse!
So, unable to surf and laid up in my imaginary hospital bed surrounded by a bevy of beautiful, curvaceous Teddy Bears of all shapes and sizes, I have been working  on a few books. That's my real excuse (well that's what my therapist told me to say)
How cool is that?
But seriously, my therapist has also been teaching me to be more child friendly. The images here are the result of my first week of sessions. She tells me I need more work but I am not convinced.
:)
 Thank you for looking - again. They get big if you click on them. 
Which kind of freaks me out a little. :)

see you!
PS this one for If's 'Intention.'  At least I think it is.















27 comments:

  1. Welcome back. I like the outcome of the therapy session. The colors are quite fashionable and the message gently sinister, if there was such a thing. So okay, I don't know if I will believe your story because as of tonight, I have sworn to be cautious, cynical and not so trusting as I have been. So you need to come out and tell the truth or claim to tell a lie.

    Seriously, welcome back. I missed you. Thank you for your kind and comforting words.

    Tsup!

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  2. I mean the ripples in the water!

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  3. His eyes do look eerie. Eeek! Thank you. I have always wanted to bat for the other team. Wish me luck. I may have to change my avatar to something more becoming. Hehehe. Goodnight. I have to work tomorrow. Tsup!

    Oh I take the Tsup back. In keeping, with my new persona - No Tsup for you. Hahahha. Tsup Nazi. Hahahah!

    Seriously I need to get some sleep.

    I am so happy you are back!!!!

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  4. Hello, Andrew, nice to see you!!! I enjoyed reading YOUR type of a story, believing at the beginning, hesitating whether it's true around the middle and deciding that it's not that important at the end!:0) You are a good storyteller, you know that and you are using it as a weapon, this time - to ask for an excuse! But you don't need it, at least by me... I'm glad that you have worked upon new books, so that's the secret for your mystical absense...
    Don't visit too often your therapist, otherwise we might lose Andrew that we know and like!:)
    The illustration is whimsical, I like the contrast between the colours and the two worlds: the bright, innocent one and the unpredictable, dark, adults' one... Lovely play with the water!
    Bye, take care and say "hello"to the army of soothing teddy-bears!x

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  5. Enfin donc vous faite surface !!!...
    Je suis heureuse de vous retrouver après mes 6 semaines d'absence où j'aurais aimé rencontrer ma chère "Ces"! à Manila... Ce sera pour une autre fois...

    Un grand merci pour le commentaire et de gros bisous. J'espère que tout va mieux !!!

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  6. There is no hiding for you Andrew. The inner you is peeking out of the water with the creepy eyes ;) But seriously. Great excuse and it must have been a doozy of a fall for you to be unable to surf!!! Well, regardless, you have been missed. So glad that you are back among us. I'm anxious to see the new books. I never thought of a therapist as an art director ;) That doll makes me think of the show "The River"... It's Stephen King, I think, you would like it. It's creepy, and there are dolls, and spirits, and water and all sorts of creepy things.

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  7. I was about to write something seerriousss, but something popped the bubble when I read "I like your ripples" that Ces wrote. I just instantly imagined you with ripples...where?? Your forehead? Your belly? Then Jabba the Hut came to my head. With blond wavy hair, a pair of shorts, and a bright purple helmet.

    Now who could go back to being serious after that????

    (Sorry can't help it, you've been missing too long). :))

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  8. No, no. no. Seriously. Really.

    There's a slight modern contemporary feel to your image this time and I love the "silent" feel to it. Somehow I keep imagining the ripples move but no sound comes out. Brilliant work, my friend. :)

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  9. Hi Andrew!!! Nice to see and read you again, i missed you! Hope all is going good!! Great works really full of meaning, like a lot. A big hug

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  10. Yay! You're back! I have missed your posts SO much. I think this might be the first time I was smiling through a bike wreck story, though you do have my complete sympathies for the injury, especially with so many witnesses. I was smiling about the purple helmet :) You gotta be careful about therapists too. Who ever heard of a completely sane artist?! Love the image, ripples and all, and always love your stories. I hope you're all better and your books area a screaming success!!

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  11. Oh dear. To cheer you up from your accident, I put in an order for one of these cakes for you:

    http://www.cakewrecks.com/display/ShowImage?imageUrl=/storage/melissafra.ow.youfellandpeopleseenit.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1331271541919

    Except in your case, it's more like 50 people seen it.

    I'm SO glad your nasty tumble did not knock out your sense of humor and taste for the macabre. You have been sorely missed! And I see you have been happily at play. Your therapist is working wonders. She obviously did not see some of the other things you have created pre-therapy.

    Is it bad that I have never seen Apocalypse Now?

    This gentleman in the water is just the right shade of creepy. And it looks like he lost an eye in the last picture, which is a nice party trick.

    More Finnie books! Well, that's the best news I've heard all week! Welcome back!

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  12. hahahaha, ok I am laughing at Bella's cake. ;)

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  13. It´s so good to have you back! And making books is the best excuse. Much better than my own slowing down in the blog-department. All I can say is : work. (but you can read laziness) I really like your bottom image, so you can tell your therapist from me, that you shouldn´t become too child-friendly. The slightly eerie in your art, is part of what make it so special :-)

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  14. Welcome back:)The new image is amazing,maybe a little frightning but I like it:)Hope now you are well:)

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  15. Andrew welcome back!!!
    so nice to you here (with that creepy hand) and there :D
    i hope you are feeling better now ok i missed you!!!


    xxoo

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  16. *so nice to see you here (with that creepy hand) and there!

    i meant.

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  17. I'm sorry, but these images (at least the last two) are PROFOUNDLY creepy. If I lived in your neighborhood, and my children were still trick-or-treating age, I wouldn't let them go to your house. But I don,t and they're not, and you and your creepy pictures are safely halfway around the world, and I must admit that I thoroughly enjoy looking at them and reading your posts. It'd be less creepy without the duckies, but alas, anyone with his head poking up out of the water like that is creepy. It's the stillness.

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  18. I didn't know you had an accident, hope you are feeling much better now.
    I think your therapist is wrong, what can be more child friendly than rubber duckies and the hand of death all together in one image?
    The best fairy tales are always creepy :)

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  19. Welcome back Andrew.... Glad to see that the accident didn't knock the humour out of you.:)

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  20. Dear Mr. Finnie;

    SO good to have you back.

    Please be good to yourself! Exercise can be dangerous.

    LOVE a duck!

    xo
    Chrissy

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  21. Hi Andrew, this work is perfect, gorgeous, and yes, scary!
    not as scary as your story of the accident .... hey!
    I hope that now you have recovered and life standard!

    From the very beginning of the year, we passed a series of annoyances too ...
    several 'employees / domestic machines' decided to break in sequence, like a domino effect, and further, the 'grand finale', a leakage and reflux in the water network ... need not enter into details!
    Finally, our patience is still being tested ...
    you'd better pass me the phone therapist!

    ... but it is part of our show!
    a hug

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  22. Hi


    :)
    :)
    :)

    Do not spent too much on your therapist!! It is wasting money ! I know some people after the therapy : they never produced any good art anymore!!

    :)

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Hya! Thank you so much for leaving a comment. I appreciate your time and thoughts.