Edwin's faithful chair

Well, I asked some of my friends if they had a favourite chair they sit on while playing their ukes and Edwin’s is a comfy and well-loved sofa with a happy-looking potted plant beside it. I didn’t draw the plant, nor did I include the cushions on the sofa, but I think I have captured the joy Edwin feels when he plays his ukulele on his sofa. I started out wanting to make a simple pen drawing on paper and colour pencils BUT it turned into this short animation and song. 

Words to the song: 

Edwin is sick and tired of giving lectures after lectures on how to effectively hide your feelings. 

“You don’t want your enemies to know your weaknesses,” the textbook says, 

“Your best weapon is pretence.” 

Edwin’s terrified at the thought of the world run by zombies playing nothing but zombie music. 

So he threw the old textbooks out of the window and said this to the whole assembly:

Sing like no one is listening 

Love like you’ve never been hurt 

Dance like no one is watching 

And live like it is heaven on earth 

Love your ukulele like it’s your best friend 

Spend time with it and let it sing 

Remember to share your songs with everybody 

And don’t forget to thank your faithful chair 

I play a baritone uke and sang. 

Now, if this is something you would like to commission me to produce for a loved one, drop me a message!

i see a bird

i see a bird

i see a bird in the tree, her feathers dazzling in the sun

i see a bird outside my door, he is trying to come in but I have lost the key

tomorrow i will make a new key, make a new key out of bone

i see a bird at breakfast....

when i finish my coffee, he is gone.

 

Practise Loving Something Small At First

I made this painting for Todd, the awesome whirligig maker who did an art swap with me.

Here is the whirligig that Todd built for me. I love it! The song in the video is an old song I wrote and recorded with Jon some years ago!

Todd's YouTube channel is here https://www.youtube.com/@ToddAndrewCole

and his Etsy Store is here https://www.etsy.com/shop/StudWalkerwhirligigs

Jon's YouTube channel is here https://www.youtube.com/@eugeneukulele

little white boat

 

a song I heard when I was a child. I am singing it in Mandarin and playing a baritone ukulele in the clawhammer style. The illustrations are made with gouache paints on an accordion booklet which I have made.

So this song was originally in Korean. The songwriter is Yinke Rong. He wrote it in 1924. It was originally titled Half Moon. In September 1924, Rong's brother-in-law passed away. His sister often looked at the half moon that appeared in the sky during the day, missing her husband. Rong wrote this song to show his sister's grief and loneliness. On the other hand, Korea was under Japanese occupation, and this song was also to show the grief due to the loss of his motherland. 

Here are the lyrics I translated into English: 

In the blue sky in the milk way 

There is a little white boat 

On the boat there is an Osmanthus tree 

And a white rabbit playing 

No oars to be seen 

Nor a sail in sight 

The boat drifts along Into the Western sky 

Crossing over the milky way 

Drifting towards the ocean of clouds 

Passing through those iridescent clouds 

Where to go from here? 

In a place far away Shines a golden light 

The morning star is a lighthouse 

Shines so bright.

shark boy

 I renamed my clothes peg SHARK BOY.

Here is a song to celebrate the essential, multi-talented Shark Boy.

renaming colours

 

I gave new names to these colours today. With these new names, I made up a song. These are the words of the accompanying song: Here's a message from the bees On a skylark morning Anything is possible When I put on my dancing shoes Bugs' eyes peering through a revolving door A brooch for mum on the tablecloth Yonder lightning flashes in the sky It's gingko summer Book a ticket to Sunnyville Poor weeping willow Let your troubles go like Erik's tumbleweed Stop taming wild hippo This is where my paintings live Mysterious objects like Juliet's eggs Put a tourniquet on my broken skull Grumbly tumbly bear

magic face cream

 You can watch the video i made with these drawings here:

if i were a mole in the ground

 some water colours I made for a ukulele cover of the traditional song If I Were A Mole In The Ground.

You can watch the video here! 

the cat came to visit

 I made a video using some paintings I made in 2021, and an improvised tune on my ukulele.

Poo can wait

 

I made this little story into a song.

Josephine's Keys

 an improvisation on the baritone ukulele.

O my stars

 I made some water colours for my cover of Michael Hurley's O My Stars.

we are all animals

I was raining. I played my ebony baritone ukulele and sang this song by Kimya Dawson. Laurie added harmonies over. I made the drawings in a cold room that smelled of disinfectant. When I looked in the mirror later, I saw an eyelash on my face.

There's Someone Outside My Door

I got inspired to write this song after reading a short story about an old lady who kept hearing voices outside her flat, often to find out that there was no one there. This started to happen after the death of her husband. One day, however, there WAS someone outside her door....

There's Someone Outside My Door by Sia Joo Hiang, 2015 

There' someone outside my door 

There's someone outside my door 

Always at night, since my baby's gone. 

I can hear his heavy footfalls 

I can hear his heavy footfalls 

There's someone outside my door. 

My neighbours, they like to whisper 

My neighbours like to whisper 

They say: There's no one outside her door. 

The police boy gave me a look 

The police boy gave me a look 

It said: It must be DEMENTIA. 

My children, they all think that I am mad 

My children all think that I am mad 

They say: It's time to call the doctor! 

I may be old, but I am not mad. 

All my teeth have fallen out, but I am not mad. 

I am telling you, there's someone outside my door! 

There's someone outside my door 

There's someone outside my door 

Right now, outside my door! 

I played concert ukulele and sang, and made the illustrations using ink with brush, and pen.

nothing

 

maggie and milly and molly and may

I was thinking about partings and loss today. While reading, I came across this poem by E. E Cummings. It describes what I feel about loss and partings. I put it to music and made the drawings. i used a plastic uke to make that beat. 

here is the poem: 

maggie and milly and molly and may 

went down to the beach(to play one day) 

and maggie discovered a shell that sang 

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,

and milly befriended a stranded star 

whose rays five languid fingers were; 

and molly was chased by a horrible thing 

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:

and may came home with a smooth round stone 

as small as a world and as large as alone. 

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) 

it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

an imaginary bird + an English ballad

 

cartoons of some of my online ukester friends

 

cloud song

a song I wrote in 2015, this version recorded in 2021.

I played baritone ukulele, sang and made the drawings. 

Little Flower! I see you in the sky! 

You have wings - a butterfly! 

And you can swim like a porpoise. 

Little Snail! I see you in the sky! 

You're like a little boat in the heavens... 

Your shell is the sail, 

your slimy trail a cirrus path to the unknown. 

Little Pony! I see you in the sky! 

You have wheels instead of legs- 

and a sad-looking window-pane face 

instead of a twinkle in the eye. 

Little Dinosaur! I see you in the sky! 

You're not T-Rex or triceratops, 

you're made up of the giant fluffy cotton candy 

in the sky. 

Little tear drops on my face! 

I don't see you in the sky. 

Where do you come from? 

Are you the tears from up above? 

From the Little Flower? 

From the Little Snail? 

From the Little Pony? 

Or from the Little Dinosaur? 

Has the giant fluffy cotton candy turned into an ocean?

Has the giant fluffy cotton candy turned into my eyes?

blood runs thicker than (2D animation)