At school , we copied history from the board for hours. In Scottish history, there are only two women - Mary Queen of Scots and Flora MacDonald. Apart from them, it's all about Englishmen killing Scots over religion and power.
In St Andrews, history seeps from every corner. Sometimes, I stood outside the castle at the spot where George Wishart was burned at the stake for preaching protestant reform, and imagined the scene. His clothes were stuffed with gunpowder but he still took a long time to die.
At home, Sindy was found guilty of the crime of impersonating Barbie. We couldn't be seen owning such an imposter! We made a guillotine with meccano, filled her head with tomato sauce and set the teddies round to watch... of course, the axe wouldn't chop so we had to finish her off with a saw. We didn't like dolls anyway.
14 comments:
Alison,
Thanks for visiting "my kermit" entry (from a photo from the New York Times). I just saw your memory sketches today and love them. I don't know cindy, but had to laugh at her head full of tomatoes. I'm glad you are on Superblog so I know when you add "memories."
Shirley
http://www.paperandthreads.com
Gawd! You are funny! I've missed your memory paintings, kept peeking to see if you'd done more. Good to have you back! Thank you for your comment on my blog, the content of my fire held much less drama than yours...
I always suspected you had a dark side...
I am lucky you are back with your memory sketches.
This is so fabulous! I'm just reading along and then stumble across murder and mayhem. Poor Barbie wannabee. I would love to see all of these sketches together. What an amazing work of art they make.
Hi Alison,
As usual your memory paintings have amazed me! What fantastic work to leave for future generations! Can't wait to see more.
So nice to see a new story and sketches. Funny too!
Oh, the dark side is coming out here. Good to see some more of your quirky, informative and 'real' pictures. British history - it is so gruesome.
w.
Hi Alison,
I'm not sure how I surfed over to your blog. I'm so excited by your illustrations. I'm trying to figure out your medium. What size are the originals.
I've just started telling stories with my illustrations, so I'm very much interested to see your match of text length to image.
Also I really like the tricks you do with perspective and point of view. They push the story along.
I can't wait to see more.
How resourceful to murder the Sindy. I was so uptight about Barbie that my girl had to be satisfied with Amanda Jane.
Our New Zealand history lessons were similarly peculiar and narrow.
Alison this is an absolute hoot! Love the chopping off of the dolls head.
I well remember the Cindy/Barbie wars!
Your picture diary of your youth continues to fascinate! I particularly like the perspective you get in the drawings.
I didn't realise that you came from St Andrews. I really liked it when I visited - but it was just a bit on the breezy side though. I remember staggering around the Old Course of the Ye Olde Anciente Clubbe for people who like hitting small balls a long way on the day that they had the draw in The Open - and having to lean into the wind to stay upright!
Imagine, trying to impersonate Barbie! My grandniece came the other day and knows she's allowed to play with my anniversary edition Barbie and Midge. I was taken aback the other day when she asked me their names. I realized she'd been playing with dolls all this time but since the new Barbies don't look like the original ones...she hadn't a clue who the dolls were! Barbie and Midge...no impersonators allowed! I really love your memory sketches.
I love these! They are so much fun.
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