[Illustration by Jen Hood]
My obsession with Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is still in full swing, and not showing any signs of abating [which is most inconvenient for my lovely co-worker
Blythe Hill who has to hear it at least 3 times a day on my
blip.fm playlist]. My twin sister, Jen, and I try as hard as we can not to be creepy twins, but try as we might, we just can't help it. I can't even imagine what it's like for identical twins if we have this much trouble not acting like clones and we're only fraternal. Anyways, she too is on a Pink Floyd kick with a focus on the song "Shine On." While I was doodling tattoo ideas stemming from the tune today at work in between saving files, she was fooling around on Illustrator to create this gem above [pun intended - if Jason or Justin Dike are reading this give me an air five]. We geeked out when we discovered we had both been inspired by the same thing without knowing it - despite the fact it happens all the time. Call us easily amused, but I take a cue from ole' Iggy Pop and call it a "lust for life." When I actually got my eyes on what she had come up with, my jaw dropped. I wasn't sure if I wanted to hit her in the face for not coming up with it myself, or squeeze the life out of her because of it's sheer brilliance and beauty!
Now I'm thinking I really want to get this as a tattoo. All my sketches are second rate now that I've seen this! I love it because it doesn't look at all like a typical tattoo design. No outlines, just color. Geometric instead of organic. It's brilliant! What do you guys think? Yay or Nay? And if Yay, then where on my personage? One wrist, one forearm, and the majority of my back are already taken, and tramp stamps are OUT. OF. THE QUESTION. And before any of you Negative Nancy's jump to Nay on the ink, just know that my backup to the diamond is getting Clint Eastwood's wrinkly mug. Sometimes it's just the lesser of two evils.
"Shine On You Crazy Diamond" will definitley be playing if and when "The Beatniks, The Bastards, and The Saints" has an opening. The lyrics embody the spirit of the series: that everyone's got the potential to shine.
"come on you stranger
you legend
you martyr
and shine
come on you raver
you seer of vision
come on you painter
you piper
you prisoner
and shine"
- Amy
Listening to: Morrissey's "Irish Blood English Heart"
lurve! so pretty!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it! Oh that Jen. How does she do it?
ReplyDeleteCan we be triplets? I watched The Wall for the first time on Wednesday and was blown away. I've always liked Pink Floyd, but I've been on a kick of them for the last few days.
ReplyDeleteErik, you can be an honorary Hood any day of the week. (I won't tell Lindsay haha!) With the three of our artistic powers combined, we could take on the world!
ReplyDeleteAnd no arguments here on The Wall. Epic x10.
I just saw the artwork when I was looking for stories about Syd Barrett. I have a diamond tatoo and so does my daughter, her's actually has "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" tatooed around the diamond. I've wanted to enhance my tatoo and when I saw your artwork (it just came up on google with Syd Barrett and "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" images) I immediately knew I wanted to do this to my diamond. I didn't even see your blog until right now, a couple days later, and was blown away to read your post.
ReplyDeleteI actually saw PF perform this live before Wish You Were Here even came out as an album and loved the song immediately. It is my anthem for over 30 years! It also got me through a very rough patch in our family and my daughter grabbed onto it to help her through it also.
I made your artwork my screen saver just last night when I showed her the artwork in preperation for a visit to our tatoo artist. Just FYI, I'm 53 years old, got my first tatoo only a short while ago and it's my only one. My daughter and I got it as a badge of a battle well fought together, or I would have NEVER gotten a tatoo at all, so that's how special Shine On is to us! I hope you smile as much as I did to read ths post as when I found your art and your blog!