Rose Power: June 2010

Horniman museum

The first time I went to the Horniman was with my best friend and her gran; we were about 8.

We loved the torture chair!

I've recently been back a few times to draw animals; it's surprisingly quiet in the daytime in the summer. I sat for hours.

This creepy little guy is a 'merman' - they were often brought back by Victorian sailors and passed off as exotic sea creatures. Really they're just half a monkey sewed to a fish tail. Gross!

People were more gullible back then I guess.

There's a really good merman at the weird shop/museum near my house, its huge and hangs from the ceiling. Go and see it! There's an interesting man called Victor who sits there all day and you can chat to him about his creepy collection. I do that sometimes.

Polly Morgan

I've been looking at birds and animals for my Darwin project, which led me to Polly Morgan, an extremely talented taxidermist/artist.

She's my hero because...she makes art out of dead animals. Also because Mat Collishaw is her other half, she used to manage the Electricity Showrooms and she looks like this:

I'm so impressed

Darwin sketchbook: Part IV

As a child I was obsessed with fossils and wanted to be an archeologist. Now I just like drawing them.

"he boiled pigeons to remove their flesh"

I don't really know where I'm going with this but it's fine.

Darwin sketchbook: Part III

Darwin

noticed

variation

in birds

Darwin sketchbook: Part II

Victorian England

Captain Fitzroy and H.M.S Beagle

'on the ship, Darwin grew a beard'

"my face at present looks of about the same tint as a half-washed chimney sweep OMG. LOL."

maybe I added that last bit

Fuego

The Galapagos Islands

Darwin sketchbook: Part I

"as a child he liked to collect birds' eggs and wax seals on letters"

"his hat was made of beaver skin...he also liked to wear silk scarves'

"he went to Cambridge to study for the clergy"

see these big on Flickr...coming soon

In a bit of a pickle

Years ago my friend Emily and I went to the Natural History museum to look at animals.

After a while we got bored of this and Emily insisted on finding what she called the 'secret behind-the-scenes section of pickled animals in jars'. We didn't find anything of the sort, despite persistently pestering bemused staff about it. These jars simply didn't exist! Or so I thought...