Thursday, December 10, 2009

Researching the mighty unicorn

It still amazes me wpeople are capable of beleiving in. A simple Google search for unicorns will bring up a plethora of sites devoted to the mythological beast. My initial response is that there are a lot of cynical dicks out there that share my sarcastic sense of humor but after some further investigation it becomes quite apparent that many of these people, despite the real world being against them, actually believe that unicorns do or have existed and feel obligated to share these views, stories, etc. with the world via the web.
I just thought I’d share some of the amazing websites that I have come across, unicorn lady most definitely being my favorite;

The Unicorn Lady

The Unicorn Collector

Unicorns United

Crystal Links

D world

I don’t know about you but after spending all that time exploring the world of the unicorn I felt incredibly inspired. So I wrote my own little unicorn story, which I will share with you below;

In a dew kissed meadow of my mind lives a noble unicorn. The proud beast can often be seen grazing in the dim light of a new day’s birth. The faeries and wood nymphs of the surrounding forests call him Ron, but I prefer to call him Jesus. For he is my guiding light, my spirit guide.
My heart beats to the rhythm of the thunderous pounding of his hooves as he charges through my soul. In times of meditation a vision of the majestic mammal comes to me sometimes shedding a lone tear possibly contemplating a lost love, sometimes riding a bolt of lightning from the heavens to save an endangered virgin from the evil grasp of the mighty sea god Poseidon.
Jesus, I mean, Ron, he’s my fire inside, the burning within my loins. The equine inferno which inspires everything I do. His feathery mane flowing in the summer breeze of my unconscious as he gallops through the colorful fields of my emotion is a metaphor regarding the carefree desires of my inner child. My mind forcibly in the repressed state of adulthood, secretly longs to give up the current stature of responsible man in order to be free and frolic daily in the garden with my playful and curious unicorn friend, Ron.

Monday, November 16, 2009


Come to the Sleeping Giant Gallery for the final exhibit of the year featuring new works by 13 local artists. Works by : Lisa Ng, Alan Wood, Emma Kirk, Brett Klyszejko, Jacob Hughes, Mark Byk, Hugo Arias, Mark Burnham, Aaron McQueen, Leila Cools, Yunior Marino, Ben Craft and Lyall Brownlee will be exhibited for 1 week, with the opening party being November 27th at 8pm.


Introductions

I guess I’ll use this first post to introduce myself. My name is Lyall Brownlee, I spend many hours of my life locked in my small home studio under 500 watt halogen work lights, living vicariously through the unicorns and other imaginary creatures that I draw and paint. I believe this habit to be born out of some kind of social retardation, a deep desire to express myself coupled with the juxtaposition of being awkward around people and inept at conversation.
I grew up in the country spending many hours alone, entertaining myself, drawing, catching bugs and banana boarding in the garage. It is probably because of these beginnings that I became so accustomed to ‘me time’ and find it rather difficult to enjoy myself in large groups of humans.
Without alcohol that it is and as most of us may know, alcohol, although we think it does at the time, is not conducive to articulating thoughts into coherent conversation and conducting your self in a socially respectable manner.
Although I do make the effort as an adult to integrate myself into the social network I still haven’t and probably never will master the art of transparency, in many cases I end up coming across as the quiet lurker in the corner or the babbling, drunken buffoon.
So… I withdraw to the studio every chance I get where I have created my own visual language, one that comes out of private contemplation and not jumbled banter, pictorial representations, of my observations and reactions to the world. Imaginary creatures that express what I can’t. I sit in my tiny little space making my own fictional world to illustrate to others how I feel about the one in which I physically exist.