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The home of exuberant amateurism.

Wednesday, 25 August 2010

Opus Gluei Challenge #62 Far Out. Spanky does outer space.

If you have been wondering where Spanky has been and why you haven't being seeing many of her projects lately it's because she's been to outer space.
Well no, I didn't realise she could go there either.
 I had just assumed she'd gone time travelling again but now I can understand why she's been gone so long.
Click on her to make her bigger.



As soon as I saw this challenge I knew I wanted to make this picture.
Why?
Well I have been listening to Imogen Heap's album Ellipse and one of the lines from the song Earth is
"swanning about the solar winds" and I thought Spanky would do that, the little daredevil.

I bought a small pack of handmade paper because this background paper was the sheet showing and I thought it would be great for a sea scene not realising it would also make an outer space scene, the swirls could be the Milky Way and solar wind ripples couldn't they?
I just added some stars in gold stickles and gold liquid pearls to make it solar. Put a biggish blob on the paper and use a cocktail stick to pull the points of the star out. Easy peasy.

The surfboard idea is from the film "Dark Star". It was made in 1974 and directed by John Carpenter.
I watched it at a very impressionable age (early teens) and thought it was great, it was also one of my uncles favourite films so I watched it more than once. It's an offbeat Sci fi film. A full description of the plot is here.
Do you remember it by any chance?
At the end of the film the astronauts realise that they can't get the bomb on board to stop it's countdown to detonate itself and they all die. But as I remember it some of them get to choose how they die (I may be remembering it wrong about them being able to choose though). 
One of them drifts off caught on the Phoenix Asteroids to die and circle the universe eternally and one of the others surfs down (he loved surfing) to an unstable planet on a piece of debris to burn up in the atmosphere.
I remember realising at the time that it doesn't matter how many people you surround yourself with in life, death is a journey you have to make on your own.
But it doesn't all have to be doom and gloom you can turn the telescope around on every situation and view it differently, and you can always rewrite the ending so it's a happily ever after ending if you need to.
(Whatever it takes to get you through life is really OK you know, regardless of  however silly or strange it may appear to others.)
Spanky proves it by Surfing the Solar Winds and coming back to tell us about it.

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

5 comments:

Karen said...

Awe Gini....lovely post, lovely thoughts! My parents can't understand the crafting thing but its what keeps me happy!

Hope Spanky took a packed lunch? XXX

Jana said...

WOW, that Spanky is quite the traveler. I never would have imagined Space travel for her. I love this piece. Her space helmet is fabulous, darling. I can see what attracted you to this paper. I love it too. I am glad that Spanky returned unharmed. OPUS GLUEI loves your creations. Thanks so much for sticking with us.

SYLVIA-ANNE said...

Hi Gini - that little Spanky does get around - how great would it be if we could all take off into space once in a while!! (My head seems to be there most of the time anyway)!! Love the glittery stars and Spanky's cool head-gear!
Love and hugs, Sylvia xxxx

Rosemary said...

Another Gini project - another big smile - I like this ratio of projects/smiles!!!

Go Spanky Go - she's the blingy star surfer!!!

Electra said...

OMG, this is so funny!! and pretty.

Funny and pretty!!

(does Spanky have a pilot's license?)