IF: pattern 1

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The current challenge on the Illustration Friday website is “pattern”.
You can brush my hair / Undress me everywhere
” I thought if only we could take this play pattern and three dimensionalize it, we would have something very special. “
— — Ruth Handler

In 1945, Elliot Handler and Harold “Matt” Matson founded a small toy company. They called their new venture “Mattel” by combining part of their names and began manufacturing dollhouse furniture. They added to their toy line and soon had a top seller with the “Uke-a-doodle”, a toy ukulele.

Elliot’s wife Ruth noticed their daughter Barbara preferred playing with her infant dolls by giving them adult roles. Ruth presented the idea of an adult doll for girls, instead of those in the form of babies. On a European trip, Ruth bought a German Bild Lilli doll, not knowing that it was not intended for children but sold as a gag gift for adults. Ruth reworked the design of the German fashion doll, named it for her daughter and, in 1959, the Barbie doll made its debut.

It was an instant hit.

Ruth became president of Mattel in 1967. She and her husband resigned from their positions at Mattel in 1975 under allegations of stock manipulation and fraudulent reporting to the SEC. Ruth passed away from complications from colon cancer in 2002.

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Monday Artday: sailor

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The challenge this week at the Monday Artday illustration blog is “sailor”.
a gathering of angels appeared above my head/they sang to me this song of hope and this is what they said
There’s a port, on a western bay
And it serves a hundred ships a day
Lonely sailors, pass the time away
And talk about their homes

And there’s a girl in this harbor town
And she works layin’ whiskey down
They say “Brandy, fetch another round”
She serves them whiskey and wine

The sailors say “Brandy, you’re a fine girl
What a good wife you would be
Yeah your eyes could steal a sailor from the sea”

Brandy wears a braided chain
Made of finest silver from the North of Spain
A locket that bears the name
Of the man that Brandy loves

He came on a summer’s day
Bringin’ gifts from far away
But he made it clear he couldn’t stay
No harbor was his home

The sailor said ” Brandy, you’re a fine girl
What a good wife you would be
But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea”

Yeah, Brandy used to watch his eyes
When he told his sailor stories
She could feel the ocean foam rise
She saw its ragin’ glory
But he had always told the truth, lord, he was an honest man
And Brandy does her best to understand

At night when the bars close down
Brandy walks through a silent town
And loves a man who’s not around
She still can hear him say

She hears him say ” Brandy, you’re a fine girl
What a good wife you would be
But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea”

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from my sketchbook: jeffrey dampier

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'cause when I win the lottery, the righteous will shake their heads and say that God is good but surely works in mysterious ways
Jeffrey Dampier Jr. won a $20-million Illinois Lotto jackpot in 1996. He bought houses and cars for his siblings and parents. In 2001, he bought a half-million dollar home near Tampa, Florida. He also purchased a townhouse for his parents close by. Several family members followed Jeffrey to the Florida Gulf Coast because he liked to be surrounded by family. He arranged for monthly family dinners at area restaurants. He opened a gourmet popcorn store and named it for his grand-daughter and his mother and brother helped run it. For Christmas, Jeffrey treated 38 members of his family to a seven-day Caribbean cruise. He was the family member everyone could count on for business advice, auto repair, even babysitting.

In July 2005, Victoria Jackson called her brother-in-law Jeffrey from her apartment and told him she was having car trouble. Jeffrey told her he’d be right over. When he arrived he was greeted by Victoria and her boyfriend Nathaniel Jackson (no relation to Victoria). And they greeted him with a gun. Victoria and Nathaniel forced Jeffrey into his van and bound his hands and feet. Even though Jeffrey had been extremely generous with his lottery winnings, Victoria and Nathaniel wanted more. Nathaniel handed the gun to his girlfriend and said, “Shoot him or I’ll shoot you.” Victoria squeezed the trigger, firing once in the back of Jeffrey’s head. After robbing him of several thousand dollars, they abandoned the van with Jeffrey’s body at an intersection and fled on foot. They were apprehended by police two days later. Although he had spent a large portion of the stolen money, Nathaniel was picked up with an amount of blood-stained bills.

At the trial, it was revealed that Jeffrey had made sexual advances towards Victoria years earlier. It was also alleged that Jeffrey had controlling grasp on Victoria’s life. Nathaniel was doubly jealous of Jeffrey’s good fortune and his relationship with his girlfriend. After two hours of deliberation, Victoria was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for the charges of carjacking, kidnapping and first-degree murder. In a separate trial, Nathaniel received the same sentence.

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