I was a child in the 70's. I still like 70's music more than any other. I remember my bedroom being decorated with huge flowers - the wallpaper and curtains matched. At the time it didn't seem at all retro or vintage. It takes time for anything to look kitschy after all.

There were so many little things I had back then that are prized artifacts now. I wish I had been able to keep more of them. But, we moved a lot. Then I grew up and started moving a lot myself.

One thing I miss are the big eyed girls I used to have on my walls. I didn't get them new, even back then. I had to wander into them at yard sales and thrift stores. That's still the only way I seem to find them now. But, I hardly ever find them these days.

I used to have about half a dozen of those sloe eyed girls. I liked the ones in the jester outfits, the girls who didn't look like children but could have been teenagers. I had a few in jester clothes and at least 2 others which were ballerinas. My little sister liked them too. She took a couple of mine and wouldn't give them back. Sisters...

Anyway, these days I only have one big eyed girl print left. I don't even have her up on a wall. I keep her packed away. I guess I either don't want to lose my last one or I want to make sure she isn't left out during the next move (whenever that will happen along).

Big Eyed Bradley Dolls

If you're a child of the 70's too, do you remember Bradley Dolls? They were another type of big eyed girl but not in paintings or prints. They were actual dolls.

Margaret Keane Links and Resources

• Online Gallery of Margaret Keane

• Keane Eyes Gallery

• Margaret Keane: Mother of Big-Eye Art

• Margaret Keane - Wikipedia

• Walter Keane - Wikipedia

Big Eye Girl Art

This could also be by Ward. The artist name was removed if it is.

Big Eyed Girl Artists

• Quirky Big Eyed Girl Art | Pinterest

• Big Eyes | Pinterest

• Flickr: Big Eye Art ~ Today

• Big Eyed Art Bonanza

• Flickr: Big Eye Art - Vintage and Retro

• Big Eyed Masters

• Big Eyed Art | Facebook

• Lucy Violet Vintage - Big Eyed Girls

• Myka Jelina

• Alexandria Sandlin

• Adriana Almanza

• Margaret "Maio" Toti Thomis | Facebook

• Kristen Margiotta

• Marisol Spoon

• Tati Suarez

• Krista Huot

• Kelly Haigh

• Caia Koopman

• Belinda Joynes

• Jaz Higgins: Zazzle

• Lisa Petrucci

• Blonde Blythe

• M Medeiros Big Eyed Child Portrait Art

• Pinkytoast

• Marie Larkin

• Misty Benson

• Jasmine Becket-Griffith

• Illustrations Whimsical Art and ACEO's by pinkglitterfae on Etsy

• View Big Eyed Prints by thedreamygiraffe on Etsy

I still don't really understand ambigrams. I've tried.

Ambigrams seem to have been invented independently by a few people around the 1970s. Their first public appearance was in Scott Kim 'Inversions' (1981), followed by a walk-on part in Douglas Hofstadter's 'Metamagical Themas' (1985).

So how do you do them? Well the above is a rotational symmetry one, though you can also do them with various kinds of mirror symmetry, and even translational symmetry sometimes. This entry will concentrate on the rotational symmetry type.

Henry Segerman - Ambigrams

You won't need to beg, not likely, though I wouldn't entirely rule it out. Don't be too proud to beg if you think that would work.

The first time I saw this book I passed on it. I thought it was just another book talking about stuff I knew when I was a kid in school. The ABC's of creativity with a finger painting lesson on the side. Later, when I read a blog post from someone, I actually picked it up and flipped through the pages at the bookstore. Still, wasn't so impressed with a book which was kind of hand drawn looking versus actual type and content. So I didn't buy it that time either. I did finally get my copy of the book the third time I saw it.

Don't Exclude Yourself from your own Creativity and Art

I bought the book because it said #3 Write the book you want to read. I was feeling so burnt out and frustrated with trying to write and not getting anywhere and not being happy about anything I was doing. I was trying too hard to listen to what everyone said I should do. I forgot myself in my own creativity.

Austin Kleon's book, Steal Like an Artist, is about being creative any way you can and in some ways you hadn't thought you would try. It's about taking your creativity, dusting it off, giving it a shake and actually taking it out of the plastic packaging - even though it won't ever be as pristine and collectible again. Creativity should not be pristine or perfect, or too tidy either. Get messy. Try something adventurous. Don't be afraid to steal something and make it your own, not literally.

Of course there is still a line you do not cross. Anything you take from another artist (of whatever form or genre) has to be your inspiration, not something you duplicate and then stick your own name onto. Taking credit for something you didn't add anything to (other than cut and pasting) is not being creative.

Being creative is about your own vision, your own version and how you see things and put them together in your own way. Each of us has a different way of looking at the same thing. Like the blind men describing an elephant, we all see the whole from our own smaller, focused perception.

You could stand a hundred artists in a row and have them all look at the same city skyline or sunset or forest (etc.) and each of them would create an image of their own. No two people see the same thing, in the same way. Think of playing telephone as a kid. The more people who repeated the message the more garbled and confused it became. Art is like that. Not that it become garbled but it is all filtered through different minds, different experiences and different knowledge and skill.

Art is Everything

Don't think an artist is just someone who works with images either. That is selling short. Art is such a huge area: words, buildings... what noun can you not find an art form for, somehow and in some way?

Do you remember the big eye art from the 1970′s?

I have a few prints. Still among the packed up stuff from my last move a few years ago. (Yes, we all seem to have stuff we carry around that way). Even though I don’t have my big eyed girls up on the wall I won’t be donating or selling them. They were a feature of my childhood bedroom, one of the few things I have been able to keep all these years.

The artist of the original big eye art was Margaret Keane. But, she wasn’t the only one producing the style. My favourites come from Maio, Eden, Goji and Ward. These seem harder to find.

Big Eye Art is Becoming “Collectible” Due to the Movie about the Life of Margaret Keane

As I began looking for fresh links for the big eye girl art I discovered a movie coming out about Margaret Keane and her husband Walter, who had long taken credit for the art. Likely due to the upcoming movie there has been some new interest in big eye art and the prices on eBay have gone to less than $10 for a single (or even a set of 2 or 3 prints) to over $30 for one print. Most of the prints for sale on eBay looked rough. Big eye art was not hugely collectible, until now it seems. So the prints were not given much tender, loving care.

The New Big Eye Art

New artists have taken up the style (genre) of big eye art. Most of these have taken the sad big eye look and spun it into fantasy or horror. For me this does stray from the original art because they lose the mystery and simple sadness of the original theme. If you can see what is making her sad the art doesn’t have that allure of mystery and wanting to see deeper, to know what is behind those sad eyes.

Of course, the new art is beautiful with a lot of fantasy and creativity. Now and then I do find an artist who captures the original qualities too. I think it is more fun or just easier to sell the art which includes things people know (old horror stories, science fiction and dragons, mermaids, etc). So although there is a renewed interest in big eye art it has lost something in the transformation.