mad meg

September 7, 2005 8:50 AM

Mad Meg does all of her work with a black ball point pen on notebook paper.
posted by crunchland (37 comments total)

Some of her work's quite dark and a little disturbing, but hey, guess she's called Mad Meg for a reason! 'Slightly Irrational Meg' just isn't as catchy..

Great find.
posted by Nugget at 9:00 AM on September 7, 2005

bzzt.

Il est trops tard.
posted by nervousfritz at 9:01 AM on September 7, 2005

Wow, that is impressive. Great sense of light in some of them, and a really interesting variety of styles. Great post, thanks.
posted by biscotti at 9:02 AM on September 7, 2005

I am aching for higher resolution to look these over. I would buy the book if she (?) had one.

Thanks for the bright spot in the day!
posted by fluffycreature at 9:02 AM on September 7, 2005

Great find.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:03 AM on September 7, 2005

Some people are much, much more talented than I am.
posted by Ynoxas at 9:04 AM on September 7, 2005

I would buy the book if she (?) had one.

Hell, I'd buy prints and frame them. Definitely Escher-esque, but taking it one step further...
posted by thanotopsis at 9:06 AM on September 7, 2005

Some people are much, much more talented than I am.

much, much more obsessive.

But really, look at the planning that would have had to go into some of these, it's not like you can erase a line, it's all pre-meditated, and so intricate. Amazing.
posted by splatta at 9:08 AM on September 7, 2005

Neat! Some of that work looks painstakingly detailed, I certainly don't envy her workflow. The use of text can be very interesting, in certain sections where it's small type she groups it as visual containers and other times it's just drawings paired with what seems to be lengthy ramblings.

That's one thing I could never do in my sketchbook, melt random stream of conciousness text in conjunction with the art itself. I see it alot, and am always puzzled by it. I really love typographical experimentation, but some of this seems like a lot of work for relatively confusing results.

This specific image really reminded me of this project. Lot of variety here!
posted by prostyle at 9:11 AM on September 7, 2005

Wow. 'Mad' is right. But some great gems in there. Thanks, crunchland.
posted by soyjoy at 9:12 AM on September 7, 2005

Great post, crunchland!
posted by jonson at 9:24 AM on September 7, 2005

I would buy the book if she (?) had one.
Hell, I'd buy prints and frame them.

I'd like both of these for my living room, actually.
posted by whatnot at 9:50 AM on September 7, 2005

Great link. It's been posted before, but she changed her server. I can't remember the name of the other one to search, though.
posted by OmieWise at 9:54 AM on September 7, 2005

Killer stuff.
posted by papakwanz at 9:54 AM on September 7, 2005

You consistently post excellent things, crunchland. My sincere thanks.
posted by sciurus at 9:57 AM on September 7, 2005

Thanks, crunchland.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:59 AM on September 7, 2005

Omiewise, peacay and I both posted it at MetaChat, maybe you're thinking of that? Great site - I love the desktop images.
posted by iconomy at 10:00 AM on September 7, 2005

I thought it was here also, but maybe that was it. I get so confused sometimes...
posted by OmieWise at 10:06 AM on September 7, 2005

The previous URL was www.cannibalologue.net and it's not in the Metafilter archives.

The origins of the Mad Meg moniker are very very charming:
‘Dulle Griet’ (Mad Meg). Griet was a disapproving name given to any bad-tempered, shrewish woman, about which there are many Flemish proverbs: ‘She could plunder in front of hell and return unscathed’, ‘One woman makes a din, two women a lot of trouble, three an annual market, four a quarrel, five an army, and against six the Devil himself has no weapon’. Bruegel’s Griet and her companions are preparing to storm the mouth of Hell itself. The painter is thus making fun of noising, aggressive women.
posted by funambulist at 10:12 AM on September 7, 2005

Wow.
posted by eyeballkid at 10:16 AM on September 7, 2005

Ah, sorry, my mistake, carry on, as I said before, great link.
posted by OmieWise at 10:28 AM on September 7, 2005

really great work
posted by geeky at 10:30 AM on September 7, 2005

Ok -- can anyone find any place to buy prints?

My 5 years of French from High School are failing me, and the forums appear less than helpful on this front (at least translated through Google).
posted by thanotopsis at 10:30 AM on September 7, 2005

I adore this set called Les Patriarches.
posted by jfwlucy at 10:45 AM on September 7, 2005

Wonderful, wonderful link, crunchland. Thank you!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:47 AM on September 7, 2005

Nice. Thanks Crunchy.
posted by klangklangston at 11:00 AM on September 7, 2005

Wow, this is amzing stuff; I wish I could read it. There's a cool embedded qt here as well.
posted by nTeleKy at 12:27 PM on September 7, 2005

Wow. I love people working with these kinds of constraints.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 12:31 PM on September 7, 2005

These are great, thanks.
posted by verisimilitude at 1:16 PM on September 7, 2005

Awesome stuff, thanks.
posted by blendor at 1:25 PM on September 7, 2005

biro is an underated artist's utensil. pity all these pics are crap.
posted by brautigan at 1:40 PM on September 7, 2005

Yeah, I'm wishing for higher resolution pics.
posted by Specklet at 2:32 PM on September 7, 2005

wow... very talented.
she's definitely Escher's succescher... abwaha!

I wish I had the patience to create such detailed visual art.
oh right, and the talent.
posted by blastrid at 2:48 PM on September 7, 2005

mad cool. ballpoint can be very subtle, and this work proves it.

p.s. without the sickness it'd be total shite, just like "your" art.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 4:37 PM on September 7, 2005

This is terrific stuff. Thanks, crunchland.
posted by LeeJay at 5:30 PM on September 7, 2005

What I love most about fine-point-penmanship is the compositional growth fills out and back in with cascading attention…kind of like talking to yourself, trying to keep the conversation interesting. I really wish I knew what she was saying. Wow!
posted by indigoskynet at 6:51 PM on September 7, 2005

This is amazingly amazing.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 6:31 AM on September 8, 2005