My b-b-b-beautiful neighbourhood!

I don't usually blog about non-arty things on this blog - but music is creative, no?

Anyways, this weekend it has been the Southbank Bristol Arts trail - in our neighbourhood! We wondered round last year and this year was just as good, if not better. We have lots of artists living in the area - including the dean of my art college whom we saw sitting in his front garden marking dissertations ...

Wondering round yesterday, we came across crafty musician, Rachael Dadd who lives just a few streets over from us. I bought this GORGEOUS embroidered badge from her, and found out that they would be having a 'house concert' later that evening.


After seeing lots of fab art and meeting lots of talented neighbours; we stopped off at home for a bit of dinner. Feeling satiated post dinner, we weren't sure we wanted to head out again - but it was so close, there was no excuse ... and are we mighty glad we did!

First off, Rachael on piano with about 30 people sitting on every surface of her living room (yes, I was by her feet):


Rachael was followed by her housemate, Will (got a bit too dark to take photos). Listen to their music here: Rachael & Will. Both absolutely lovely lovely ...

Then we all decamped into the back garden where there must have been at least 40 people all sat round the big washing-machine-drum fire, sitting on the wall, looking through upstairs windows, etc etc .

Rachael and Will then played together as "The Hand":


After that we had Jethro (aka Jetfly). I just looked through our photos and realised we didn't get any of him! Darn ... He was GREAT ... must say that if you ever get to see him, make sure he sings "Punk Folk Disco" ... oh yes, my favourite song of the weekend ...

Then came - through, the back gate, on stilts, Ichi. I can't even begin to describe what this man is or does ... he played anything and everything; all by himself; including right at the end, the popper on his head! Suffice to say I hadn't smiled so much in one night in a long time ... :)


Nothing could top that - or could it? Last but not least, came out, in full costume, Jaaja ... oh.my.god. Where did Rachael FIND these people? They are hitch-hiking round Europe for 6 months playing any gig they can get - if you come across them, GO SEE THEM! My cheeks are still hurting!

This is the band in full gear:


And this is their lead singer, with headgear off, standing on a chair and trying not to strangle himself on the washing line (the song was about a washing machine ...):


That must have been the best evening out I have had in a LOOOOOOOONG time ... and how nice to be able to do it in a stranger's home ...

Apart from that, Sunshine also managed to help some ladies make some pottery:



And today we managed to see a couple more great local bands, The Ambling Band, another one not to be missed:


And last but not least, we managed to see my lovely friend and coursemate, Alice, and her band Limb Bones. Ah... what talented friends I have ...

Never will I choose to become a storyboard artist

Now don't get me wrong, I think storyboards are mighty useful things, especially if you're trying to visually work out a storyline for a narrative (a graphic novel; a children's picture book; etc) BUT I definitely would not choose to be a 'storyboard artist' - someone who does it if for a living for things that are then going to be translated to screen (eg TV, ads, films etc) ...

As part of our Visual Narrative module, we've had storyboard artist Oliver Harud in doing a workshop with us. He gave us a kind of live brief - an ad he had to work on last year - and we had to make up the 12 panel storyboards for it. Fine ... but we didn't actually think up the 12 panels - we were given quite specific descriptions (for example panel 3 was "Close up of her plate of healthy food (not just salad but steam fish/chicken & veg)" and it just felt odd to be told so specifically what was needed ... creativity was REALLY limited - and a lot of us struggled. It didn't help that the ad was for a diet pill!

As you can see, the arrow thing on panels 8 & 9 were prescribed to be quite specifically as top view with the whole arrow and whole figure. I was so bored of the drawing (pretty much everyone had done the same image - just in slightly different styles), that I decided to do my own alternative version of her swimming towards the camera.


Anyways, I ended up using the workshop to try and work on developing a character and re-drawing her in different positions and environments ... and in that respect, I got a lot out of the workshop - and Oliver was a great tutor (along with Ben Newman who was also around giving advice). But I sure don't see myself doing this for the rest of my life ....

Swing it ...

Here's what I've been doing the last two days ... We had a narrative workshop with the ever awesome Ben Newman where we had to do an illustration with lots happening all on the same page (see for example Marc Boutavant). I've been thinking about swing and dancing and all the related stuff a lot lately so the obvious theme seemed to be to do a dance floor. My initial idea had also people at the bar, the dj/band, people selling tickets, etc ... but the time constraints (1 and a half days) meant I concentrated on the dancers. Its still quite unfinished - needs a setting, and more random things happening; but for the meantime, this is what you get ..

This is dedicated, in loving memory, to Frankie Manning, greatest Ambassador of Lindy Hop, who passed away peacefully in New York on Monday morning, aged 94 and 11/12ths.

With Frankie in Herrang in 2002

Frankie Manning May 26, 1914 - April 27, 2009

Gay Paree ....

So here we are, back at college for a the last push before summer holidays (and wedding!). Easter has been lots of wedding planning (and avoiding college work) and a well deserved break with friends in Paris. Sunshine and I have both been before, so it was less about being touristy, and more about relaxing and chilling with friends. We hardly took any photos, spent a lot of time chatting and sitting in parks and being laid back. We were fed really well (by a French-chef-in-training), visited some super flea-markets (didn't buy anything though), but most exciting thing was that we visited THREE really good exhibitions:

Alexander Calder at the Pompidou


It was stunning - not just his mobiles, but also all this wireform work, especially the portraits, and his circus ... mmmm ... really my kind of thing ... (details here).

Also at the Pompidou was the Kandinsky retrospective:


This was even bigger than the Calder exhibition and covered his whole life ... Can't say we liked every bit of it - he seems to have done his best work when he was at the Bauhaus School. Still, it was good to see the progression, and how he got to where he got to ... and if his best work was in his 60s, there's hope for me yet!

But my favouritest exhibition of all has to be "The Jazz Century" ("Le Siecle du Jazz") at the Musee du Quai Branly:


Oh my goodness, there couldn't have been a happier bunny on the planet! We were fated to go there (I'd seen an ad in the inflight magazine, but also one of our hosts had decided they were going to take us as they thought we might like it...). It was a century of jazz, AND the visuals that accompanied it! Record covers; gig posters; short films; animations; paintings; drawings; all manner of art that was influenced by, and influenced Jazz. Lots of stuff I recognised, but lots of stuff new too me too. I was SO hugely inspired - want to do more jazzy things in my final year. I also desperately want the exhibition catalogue/book - its one of the best reference materials out there. Just waiting for an English version to come out (the French version was, well, French; and pricey considering the Euro to Pound exchange rate). I've taken lots of notes and will be looking LOTS of things up ...

Anyways, that was our Paris trip - this next week is heads down with essays, then full steam ahead till the beginning if June!

I just wanna cuddle my toys ...

Easter holidays seem to be more about work than holidays ... The last couple of weeks have been full-on wedding organising. Mum-in-law-to-be has been here talking through preparations ... I knew there was going to be a lot to do and think about, but I hadn't quite expected this much. And with college as well, have been feeling a bit overwhelmed and wanting to cuddle soft things (like fox plushies and Sunshine!) ...

On the creative front though, I finally got my wedding invites done and sent to the printers. Its been a steep learning curve about getting artwork ready for print and dealing with printers; choosing papers; etc. Am still not happy - but I had to draw the line somewhere and get on with other stuff. Also working on a childrens' book, but have decided now that I'm not going to stress myself out and try and get it in on deadline (for a competition next week). I'd rather take my time, do it well and enter next year.

Am enjoying wedding planning, but also really looking forward to next year when I can concentrate 101% on college ...

"With this ring I will, in July, thee wed."

So we went ahead and did it ... we made our own wedding rings ...
I made Sunshine's and he made mine ...

It started with one rather expensive piece of metal ...

We measured,

We scored,

We pierced (cut),

Till we had two smaller pieces of very expensive metal (and quite a bit of gold dust!),

Sunshine had to saw mine a bit more ( I have teeny fingers),

They were formed (shaped),

And annealed (glow, baby glow!),

And pierced a bit more,

Some flux was applied,

And some tiny pieces of solder,

And the ends soldered together ,

Then it was a long process of filing,

And more filing,

And polishing, outside,

And in,

And after a quick sonicating clean,

We had our wedding rings!

All under the expert supervision of the lovely Anna ...
Who not only supervised, but sourced the metal,
provided the studio, and most importantly,
provided moral support and tea and biscuits!

We love you Anna (who also suggested, many years ago,
that I try an art foundation course, and so directly affected where I am now)!
Thank you SOOOOOO much ...

101 more days ... One wedding list item down, and about a million more to go!

Mail Me Art

We are back from our jam-packed trip to London (to do a special project, which I will blog about in a bit once I've got all the photos sorted). But in amongst it all, we managed to drop into the "Mail Me Art" exhibition for about 10 minutes. It was nice to see my work hung up and to finally meet Darren who made it all happen.

The exhibition's on till Thursday 5pm ... and if you're in London, its REALLY worth going to ... some really wonderful and lovely work on display :)

Birthday Loot!

Mmmm.... have had some good birthday loot this year ... here is my birthday book loot:


Hmmm ... in love with Oliver Jeffers at the mo' (can you tell?). Working on a children's book project for college and he is SO inspiring ...

And then I happened to win Pikaland's March Pikapackage giveaway ... and lots of goodies came in the mail today ... Thank you Amy!


I also got a nice amount of dosh from my parents to buy some new clothes! Yippeee! Now just to find time to go shopping ... Oh yes, I'm going to prop-up the economy, I am! (this from the girl who goes shopping about two times a year ...).

Sunshine and I are off to Londinium (via Oxfordshire-ium) tomorrow for a very exciting making project - will blog when we get back ;)

AND this is on from tonight - I don't think I made it into the book, but I know he received my entry and apparently ALL the entries are going to be in the Gallery show. We're going to try and make time to go see ... pop in if you're in London ... it looks FAB!

Sneak tweet peak

Sneaky peak at super secret project that has nothing to do with college ... This is about version 10 - I think I'm finally happy. Need to get this out of the way soon ... Also need to get my 2500 word essay and several college projects done ... yikes!

Doing the Polar Polka ...

I apologise for the colour quality (although you can't see it) - our scanner is acting up and seems to not be dealing with warm colours very well ...

EDIT: I took a photograph (on top) and as you can see, its SO much better colours than the scan (bottom).

"Care for each other while rowing the boat"

Thank you EVERYONE who's left birthday messages - including all those that came to me via my sister's twitter ... I am truly chuffed ... Here's a bit of sketchbook work for something I'm developing inspired by this.

Birthday tango...

It's my birthday, and I'll draw tango-ing tigers if I want to ;)

365 days of learning ...

Phew! I finally made it ... 365 photographs in 365 days ... I've learnt SOOOOO much in the process; but it feels like the more I've learnt, the more there is to know! And I definitely want to learn more ...

I'll probably take a little time off photography and concentrate on illustration for a bit - but my camera will never be too far out of reach ;)

Thank you all who have been following my escapades, especially Sunshine; my fellow co-conspirator, encourager, teacher and experimenter ...

Trotting with Mr Fox

Hmmmm... looks much better in real life than on screen ...

Beach debris

Robots

Feathers

Lightbulbs