New Pendants

I made new pendants based on designs and doodles drawn by Matt. The calligraphic rats were inspired by The Universal Penman, an amazing book of engravings compiled in the 1740s. The Mayan Rat was actually a memorial to Lord Fatt Kidd (a grumpy old hairless rat we had)> Matt was studying Mayan glyphs at the time. According to my notes it reads "It ends, the white flower wind." These will be available in my Etsy store in July.

Rat Artiste NFAC entry

The NFAC Art Contest theme for March is "abstract." This is a reworking of a drawing originally done by Matt. Apologies to Picasso. This is posted on eBay here.

Another Tattoo from Matt's Art

Matt Kaplin 7/23/57-11/27/10

We mourn the loss of half of the Illustrated Rat team. A large chunk of my soul has been taken away.

Halloween 2010

I had to color in an old drawing for this one. these were my friend June's ratties who had to come to live with us a few years ago.

Birthday 2010

Angel Rat Tattoo

Zatoichi tattoos

These are two tattoos, based on the pen & ink drawing of Zatoishi (The Blind Swordsman).

July 4th, 2010

Father's Day 2010

Embroidery from Matt's design

This was commissioned and embroidered (not by us) to commemorate the wedding of Lydia, who founded Eadie's House, a rat rescue in Tucson, AZ.

Mother's Day 2010

Embroidery design

Leavin' on a Jet Plane...

One door closes and another one opens. We will be leaving New York and the apartment Matt grew up in and the one we have been living in for the last 20 years to start a new chapter of our lives in Kingston, Jamaica. It's a long story. Tomorrow is not only Easter but World Rat Day. I will celebrate with some old images. I hope to get The Illustrated Rat back in gear very soon.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Some Calligrahic experiments

Inspired by Bickham's book "The Universal Penman."

Christmas 2000

While packing and sorting I found this card Matt did in 2000. We'd both totally forgotten about it. There are a lot of bad memories associated with that time, but the card is wonderful.

Happy Holidays for all my friends and visitors!

New Holiday Card Design

Check out the Illustrated Rat Holiday Store for rattie cards & stickers!

http://www.illustratedrat.macwebsitebuilder.com/holiday_store.html

Rat Angel, woodcut style