Alice B. Spicer @alicebethune-blog - Tumblr Blog

LADIES AND GENTS, I AM HAVING A SALE! All pieces are small/medium and framed. More info will appear on my Facebook artist's page and Twitter but here's a head's up. If you like my work and/or know others that might then spread the word. #sale #framed #aliceb #artworks #togoodhomes #spreadtheword

#artworks #sale #framed #togoodhomes #spreadtheword #aliceb

I'm in this mysterious place called 'The Studio' right now warming up with a bit of collage. Didn't much fancy coming here this morning but now I've done so it's not so horrible... #you'reanartistalice #imawhat? #collage #whatthehellisthisplace

#collage #you #whatthehellisthisplace #imawhat

Today's lines. #cafedoodle #birdsinboots #birdy #edding55 #myfavoritepen

#edding55 #birdsinboots #myfavoritepen #cafedoodle #birdy

Stuff for stuff's sake-feels good, it's been a while since the craft knife last came out of pasture...

First life class in a non-model capacity for a while. The master-stroke is that somebody brought a dog. Superb.

Pac-Man Shark...

So hey kids- the science festival is on in the City Arts Centre from 5th April-I have a few geology themed prints in it (more on those later...) go up to the second floor and take a look, there are some wonderful science/art collaborations on show!

Sketching the Minotaur

Over the weekend you cancelled on the Halloween party. This was ironic as, on Monday, when your fingers wanted gloves and your snout wouldn’t stop running, you found yourself balanced one scrape away from disaster, on a table, your seasonally belated costume an old fur coat- rabbit or mink, you never bothered to ask. Something primal and Grecian, wrapped in the cause of employment, took you up there. It concerned you only mildly at the time that there was a whisper of a chance that, were the chair to unbalance (for it was, in a wonder of design, a touch too small for the base it sat upon), your projected injuries ranged from the inconsequential, to the unsightly, to the potentially life-threatening. You had been running late for this class. The car had been left cock-eyed on the arc of a junction curb, and the lady at reception had looked up to see the eyes of a panicked animal over a mouth trying to form words in a failed attempt at jovial alarm. Alarm because that morning you entered a familiar door to discover all the corridors rearranged in a manner that would have shaken Theseus, even as he unspooled his thread. Calmer once on your makeshift platform your right hand still worried at the sleeve of the pelt you now nested in, and no doubt your poker face was a few frowns from the serenity of the classical nude. Appropriately, given the time of year, your companions in this awkward still-life were dead or feigning it- the plastic jawbone containing a full quota of potentially real teeth, a defunct telephone with a rotary dial, an alarming dry mass of hooked burrs that made your skin crawl and, of course, the coat. Had you known this labyrinthine tale would pan out with so much flesh and fur, I wonder would you have so dutifully offered yourself up to it? Now something half human, half animal and mostly you pondered its downfall in this darkened room, warmed only by the breaths of an unsatisfactory heater.

Positions are adjusted, the coat is donned, doffed, unfastened and slipped becomingly off a shoulder- in a manner almost playful were this Venus not a touch out of sorts. The coat smells like charity shops and forgetfulness. It’s also a little bit on the short side. Strangely it is this half-drapery that makes you wary of playing the sacrificial offering in this diorama-half of a thing is too sly, too teasing, and you are used to giving the whole or nothing at all. But though an open fur coat offends you, the students seem used to the idea that this is not Halloween Pin-Up Hour and scratch away dutifully at their easels. Time passes. The jawbone is silent, the telephone does not ring, and you, the nude, strategize your eventual descent- could a body break their arm from 3 feet above floor-level? The right-side one - oh! Imagine the chaos, the reparations required, the loss of livelihood...the calm of being clipped, the steady slip into inertia...but the pro’s fail to convince, you are not yet far gone enough for that game, uselessness can still alarm you. As it is a steady foot down and a slight bend is enough, the fur is cast off and what remains of the beast ties its polka-dots firmly at the waist, armed now with the hopeful knowledge that perhaps getting out of the maze will be easier than going in.

Phrase for the day...

Dearest darlings I have been remiss on my tumblr activities so here is a peek at new paper-cuts. These remain, as usual, hand-cut and surreal- I hope you enjoy them. They will also be included on my website http://alicebspicer.com/ along with further new relief prints: COMING SOON!

I ain't stopping...