The Fabulous Art and Illustration of Mike Vance: Missed Buses, Gouache Giants, Whale Teeth and a Top Hat:

So here is a sneak peek at some stuff I'm working on, (only meaning I havent finished anything or updated in awhile and am feeling gross about it,) as well as a look at my past week in Ballyvaughan and prospective plans for a night in Doolin to which I missed the bus this morning due to some misinformation and am aiming for the evening ride over.

First:

The mysteries of this image revealed at the end of the post.

This is scrimshaw; technically its just making art from the unused parts of animals fished by whalers in the 1800's. Most famously its a process that involves rubbing ink into a carved design on the polished teeth of sperm whales, but you can make jewelry, nik-naks, decoratons, combs, and lots and lots of other things I havent bothered to research.

An inmate in a prison in Maine made this one actually, and I think you can buy it. its a synthetic stand in for whale tooth.

This is cow bone and there is a lot of it everywhere you go here. I decided to teach myself scrimshaw and so far it is taking forever! Right now I'm just sanding the bone down to the desired shape... I'll keep you updated.

This is my next big project for a series I decided to call 'Pubs and Stomachs,' which will have a lot to do with one's affects on the other and the characters therein. It'll be in a lot of gouache and will take forever.

So yeah, hoping to catch the evening bus to Doolin today. The website said it'd be rolling through my area at 1130 a.m. but when I got there, the locals say it only comes by at 9 a.m. or 7 p.m. So I missed it. With any luck I wont be in Ballyvaughan tonight, but listening to some traditional music and going to instrument workshops and having a pint by a warm fire in a cozy pub near the cliffs of Moher. Speaking of the cliffs, I currently have a piece hanging up in the welcome center along with the rest of my class here. It'll be up all month so I'll try to get a picture to post on here... I'll let you know how traveling goes.

Kevin and Farley are my best friends and while I am away, I miss both of their 21st birthdays, so to signify a bunch of stuff I did this as a shared birthday gift even though it was more a gift for me, really.