summertime madness

with lots of pictures.

If anybody ever asks, I will tell you that the worst months of the year are December and July. And you know I’m being serious, because my birthday is in December. Both of them are the most over-rated, chaotic, stressful and exhausting months in the whole year and it doesn’t make it any better that all the stress is for things that are meant to be relaxing and fun.

I’m talking, of course, about the Summer Travels.

The two halves of my family are scattered in two countries, with me living in the third, and my partners’ family is a 4-hour trip away. There are friends in every country, some who I haven’t seen for half a year or more. All people who I want to see, and who want to see me.

Does anyone know this experience? For context, I have 7 flights this year within June and July only. I’ve been to the magical Annecy Festival (finally!!) and to hike in the beautiful mountains of Norway. During this time, I actually started a new sketchbook. I want to make some kind of video(?) of my old finished sketchbook, but I have no idea how… Or maybe I should just make some sort of a “Best Of“ post? Let me know if you’d be interested. Anyway, I’ve filled a surprisingly big amount of the new sketchbook already, so I wanted to share some of it.

However, every time I visit Estonia in the summer, I am met with familiar joys of the beautiful seaside town, cozy culture events held in rejuvinated post-soviet buildings, deep forests and big gardens full of fruits and berries. Every time I go back, I try to spend as much time at my grandma’s house as possible. The garden is like a magical maze of apple trees and red currants.

I found deep peace in digging into the weeds and clearng patches beneath raspberry bushes. It’s almost as far a job as it gets for a city person who sits infront of her computer most days. If you have a garden, or have a chance, I can really recommend weeding for a while. Not only does it take your mind completely off work-related and anxious thoughts, but it’s also very satisfying.

Another thing I love to do in my grandparents’ house is digging through the old boxes and bags in the attics. There’s an attic so old in one of the buildings, that you can see it falling apart from below, but I had to climb it anyway. I found some very creepy doll limbs, my grandpa’s 7th grade schoolbooks and this gorgeous embroidery that my great grandmother (I assume) had started:

the colors are so modern and vibrant!

I dream of restoring it one day, because if you look carefully, you will notice that there is exactly the amount of information needed there to flip the pattern and complete the other half. I wouldn’t have to invent anything! I would definitely mark the edges of the original though, just to see where the old and new meet!

I created this reconstruction of how the pattern look when symmetrical (didn’t fill in the blue BG everywhere, but you get the picture)

I also took pictures whenever I came accross some fun looking books/postcards during my trip. Most of them being from the soviet era when access to the Western world was limited, artists weren’t influenced by the polished Disney style, and in stead went full steam ahead with their own weirdness.

Starting off strong with this bootleg Mickey Mouse envelope set.

I quite like this book cover with a very limited color palette. The details are just where they need to be, and as a cherry on top, the uneven kerning between the title letters reminds you that this has been a very human process.

This one I absolutely LOOVE. It’s called “Animals From Matchboxes“ and I loved every single design inside

The instructions on the sides are especially cool, despite being very confusing, if not useless.

Next up are these illustration from a book about some monkey fairytale book. I love the shapes and color, especially on the palm trees

The geometric shape of the monkey and the different colors separating above- and underwater worlds. Superb!

This has to be one of my favourites. Why are they half worms half humans??? What’s their story? Where does the man-worm work? Where did he get his hat?

My favourite out of all of these though, would have to be this picture book that’s called “Cat Book“. I think it’s meant to be a sort of ‘I spy’ book, but the illustrations are so strange an intense that they hold your attention even without trying to find the listed items.

The rotting meat, the dripping shirt, the floating head, the bullet? I love it.

In this one, the rabbit whose size is half a tree is unquestionably my favourite

Why is there a gas mask and nails on the stool of this artist studio??? A little hint of the depressing times, perhaps

The details and the colors

Wonderful wrinkly cow, wonderflu milk bucket and once again, great colors.

Man, I wish I could have one of these on my wall as a painting. I couldn’t find much about the illustrator Edgars Folks, but the illustrations that are available online are worth looking at. So unhinged!

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You must be pretty tired of all these pictures at this point. Well, reader, I’ll just leave you with one more thing before you go.

My top 3 (plane)travel tips:

• Bring an empty water bottle through security and fill it in the airport. Most airports have clean water taps and you’ll save money on that overpriced water.

• Get a suitcase scale - it’s amazing

• Don’t join the boarding queue until the very end. Just chill nearby and go when you don’t need to wait for like 20 minutes.

That’s it! Let me know if you guys have any travel tips or if you’ve seen some weird illustrations recently.

Tsau!

-D