Friday 25 December 2009

How to be an artist:

Stay loose. Learn to watch snails. Plant impossible gardens.
Invite someone dangerous to tea. Make little signs that say "Yes!"
and post them all over your house. Make friends with freedom and
uncertainty
. Look forward to dreams. Cry during movies. Swing as
high as you can on a swing set, by moonlight.
Cultivate moods.
Refuse to be responsible. Do it for love. Take lots of naps. Give
money away. Do it now. The money will follow. Believe in magic.
Laugh a lot. Celebrate every gorgeous moment. Take moonbaths.
Have wild imaginings, transformative dreams, and perfect calm.
Draw on the walls. Read everyday. Imagine yourself magic. Giggle
with children. Listen to old people. Open up. Dive in. Be free. Bless
yourself. Drive away fear. Play with everything. Entertain your inner
child. You are innocent. Build a fort with blankets. Get wet.
Hug trees. Write love letters.


--Sark

P.S. I probably wouldn't invite someone dangerous to tea

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Its cold and rainy....ugghhhhh U_U This makes me unhappy! I am sitting in bed planning some Christmas card designs to make with my GOCCO!!! Excitement.

Monday 9 November 2009

So today marks 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was three when this happened and the very first thing I ever learnt about this historic event was while watching an episode of Alvin and The Chipmunks in the 80s -how educational! Anyway, I just found a clip of them singing their Wall song(and thus making the wall fall down, probably due to their high pitched voices).

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company

Imagine!

(not my photo, but HOW COOL)


On our recent travels we visited New York for four days, overall I found it less exciting than I thought it would be. However I absolutely fell in love with Brooklyn. Its a lot more friendly and quirky than Manhattan. Anyway, while we were there, wandering the streets of Park Slope we passed a shop called "The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company". At first, we thought it was a joke, and we were wondering what it really was. But the more we peered into the darkened windows, the more we wondered if thats what it really was! Anyway, when we realised it was open we went in and it was AMAZING!

Basically, the BSSC is actually a non profit organisation that supports creative writing for kids. The store is actually a base for their workshops and inspires the kids imaginations by creating a exciting environment for them to work in. If I was a kid I would be sooo happy in there! It is designed so that the workshop is in a special superhero "vault" type thing and the walls are all filled with superhero products such as "Gravity" "Immortality" "Intelligence" and all manner of capes, gloves, tights and secret identities to buy. I wish I'd taken more photos but it was too amazing to take in! Never have I seen such attention to detail and also for a worthy cause. I have also just learned that it was founded by the amazing Dave Eggers (Mc Sweeneys, Where the Wild things are and A Heartbreaking work of staggering genius) - congratulations to you, you were already awesome and now you are triple times that.

Anyway. Here are some other photos from Brooklyn, both taken at the Prospect Park Farmers Market where we consumed lots of delicious food.



Tuesday 3 November 2009

Finito


Look how it turned out! With lots of help from Patrick (thank you) we managed to finish it in 3 days. There is one other wall but it is awaiting the final touches. In other news I am going to Bahrain on thursday, I don't know what time my flight is, where I'll be staying and apparently I am going to be waiting at some wedding of an insanely rich person.

Wednesday 28 October 2009

(Do you like it? It is very rough but hopefully fun)

Gosh! So tomorrow I am supposed to be starting to paint a mural on the walls of one of the Roundhouse Radio studios thanks to a friend. I am sort of going to play this by ear seeing as I have never painted a wall before so I'm hoping I don't make some kind of silly mistake. I think I have everything though (checklist: paint, masking tape, various brushes, pencil, what else do I need?) even if I don't it means I might have an excuse to visit the nearby new massive Cass Art store in Islington and buy exciting things like acrylic pens. I like acrylic pens I hope I end up needing one.

Anyway wish me luck because if I goes wrong I will freak out.

I'll take some pictures so you can see what it looks like! Its going to be very brightly coloured.

Tuesday 27 October 2009

mmm waffles

Is it better to live with a bullet lodged in your brain, even if it means you might drop dead any time or would you rather have the bullet taken out and live the rest of your life as a vegetable? Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? Is scrap metal worth more than landmines? Can you get drunk from eating waffles? Can a woman fit inside a refridgerator? What is the human cannonball world record? Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Micmacs a tire-larigot

Apparently his new film explains these questions and more....

Polyfilla

My sincerest apologies for abandoning this blog for so long! I have been incredibly busy jetting off to far away places (excuses excuses). At the moment I am in a horrible stage of being between jobs and trying to find a job that I actually might want to keep. Even though I don't have anything to do I seem to have a million tiny things to do. I'm also trying to have some projects on the side to keep me sane and creative.

Anyway, I have lots of tales to tell about my travels which I will hopefully regale you with soon.

In the meantime listen to this: at 34 minutes in you will hear Imogen Heap perform the most beautiful cover of Michael Jacksons "Thriller" ever. Amaazing.

.

Sunday 23 August 2009

Raindrops

Oh I do love watching Ugly Betty. It is the only TV programme that makes me feel all fuzzy inside. Today it is raining again. I have also just decided that I want my next career to be working on the Harry Potter set in the creative department. How I intend to get this job I do not know but if I had a choice that would be where I'd like to spend the next year or so. hahahaha, unlikely. Look at what beautiful things I could be making!

Thursday 20 August 2009

Buongiorno!

(Grande Finale)

Evening loyal followers (up to four, hello Sam!)

Gosh I am tired this week, I can't wait until I finish work and can finally have a holiday (even though after that its back to the world of jobless nothing). Its been raining torrentially today so I thought I'd stay in to rest and catch up with a bit of blogging etc.

On the weekend we visited the 3D2D craft fair in Edinburgh, there was a fair amount of rubbish there but some outstanding art too. Amongst the usual stalls (and some weirder....dogs painted on feathers?!) we came across some amazing printmakers. Peter Standen really caught my eye with his etchings that blended real life with magic and imagination. I fell in love with his picture of Edinburgh all mixed up with whales and volcanoes and allsorts (above). We ended up buying lots of his postcards (some of the most beautiful we saw aren't on his website sadly). I also really liked Cath Outrams still life prints and Patrick liked John Heywoods work.

I also got to see QT's "Inglourious Basterds" yesterday. Amazing fun. I haven't seen such a fun movie in ages. Imagine if that was really what happened in WWII. It was a change from the usual war films that come out (nothing wrong with them), but it was nice to have a sense of humour and spirit back.

What else? I took some photos today in an old lab that isn't used anymore, it looks like it got stuck in time by accident. That was a long post, maybe I will leave it for now. Goodnight.



Wednesday 19 August 2009

"My name is Hedwig. As I fell through the icy night sky...." (J.K.Rowling)

Anyway, I'm sure this isn't Hedwig but its too cool. Whoever spent all night making that should be PROUD.

Friday 14 August 2009

Cruising the etsy aisles

Wow, first post for August. I guess I apologise again for being busy and lazy all at the same time. I haven't really had many moments to myself (even now I should be writing in my lab book), but I just took some time out to peruse Etsy for things I want but can never have and I came across this:


This amazing creation is the work of Etsy felt artist extraordinaire Felt Finesse. Its cuuuute and I want it! Too many things I want to blog about all at the same time but I will save this for when I'm not at work and supposed to be working....!

Sunday 26 July 2009

I am a Kraken from the sea



This evening I watched Half Nelson on BBC iplayer. I like it when they have random films on. It was an extremely good film and now I feel all zoned out and contemplative, very sunday eveningish.

In other news I managed to lose my jacket this weekend, strangely somewhere in between my main front door and my flat....I'm not sure how this happened and why I cannot remember anything that happened during this period of time. Most odd and upsetting as I love that jacket. But obviously this is no matter of importance in the wider sense of losing things, it could be worse.

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Mermaid



I've been doing some little scribbles recently! There is a small (bad) photo of one of them

Its raining insanely right now, I quite like it, it is very atmospheric and makes my cup of tea even better. Sorry for lack of proper updates recently, I will be better in future.

Monday 20 July 2009

Patrick & Joel....listen up!

Dearest Patrick and Joel
I know you are both lazy ne'er-do wells but seeing as you have both got blogs now and you are both supposed to be working tirelessly to promote yourselves and bag the animation job of your dreams (which, really, you're not), I have a proposition.

Seeing as you are ladies of leisure, every week you will produce one piece of artwork (see I don't ask much) and post it on your blog. If you're game I will also join in and I will make it a bit more of a challenge! It will be fun, trust!

Plus these artworks can be used on your blog/for your shameless self promotion/to create little things to sell/to send out etc. So you see it is not useless!

Much love

Thursday 16 July 2009

She killed Sirius Black, but she has cool style


Whilst watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yesterday I noticed that Bellatrix Lestrange was wearing the coolest/most morbid necklace ever. I really want one now!

Also, I was pondering an interesting question. When Harry wins the Felix Felicis from Slughorn, he says that only one student has ever won it before him. Obviously that is Snape, but I wonder what he used his Liquid Luck for?

hmmm. I believe a canon conundrums is in order....

Tuesday 14 July 2009

HARRY POTTER!!!

Saturday 4 July 2009

Aloha blog readers (if there are any)
Apologies for huge gap in posts! I've have been rather busy because of the following:
1) A job
2) Moving house
3) Graduating!
4) Hecticness in general

But in case I am still here/alive and have had an insanely busy last three weeks. However, at the moment I am feeling a little blue due to the fallout now that the happy chaos has died down. I just had a wee cycle around and bought some cookies to make me feel better, and now Michael Jacksons Earth Song is playing to indulge this pitifulness. I'm a bit sad because my wonderful year of living with four fabulous people is over and now I feel a bit lonely without them! So I am rattling around on my ownsome at the moment pretty much. This feeling is amplified due to my parents and boyfriend also leaving this week. Anyway, I'm annoying myself by blathering on about this. It will be fine once I get used to it.

Anyway, I will post some cool photos from the last few weeks soon, I will be back soon, never fear!

Sunday 7 June 2009

Shiny Things!


(funky 50p jewellery)


(fabric from Japan)

This weekend was the Meadows festival. It was a bit cold but we spent lots of time rifling through lots of junk (my favourite thing) and listening to a hundred different types of music all mashed together. We spent ages hunting out magical shiny bits of costume jewellery in a huge pile marked "50p". Look at the pretty things I got! I'm such a magpie.

When we were in Japan, we went to a flea market type thing in Kyoto (amazing btw) and I bought these little scraps of fabric from a lovely man (who gave me one free). I think they are old pieces from obis/kimonos. I thought I could do something cool with them but I haven't worked out what yet! They are quite wee, measuring 17x10 cm, give me some ideas, I am quite stuck!

Its the final Apprentice tonight! I'm not too bothered who wins this one. Also, hurrah, I'm going to Canada this year, what shall I see? x

Thursday 4 June 2009



I like this picture. 1) because I love Cyndi Lauper 2) The T-shirt amuses me

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Several sunlit days (spot the HP quote)





Oh man, I really want Stevie Nicks' Crystal Visions CD, its mad and some of it sounds really 80's. I keep feeling like I deserve to buy myself things which is dangerous, seeing as I don't yet have a job, though it is promising that I may get a job in the Bird Lab. Hurrah! Now I just have to find somewhere to live for the rest of the summer. Since friday it has been SO SUNNY that I have not really been inside much, today the weather was much cooler. I have been spending practically my whole time lounging around on the Meadows, with the majority of the city of Edinburgh really. Muchos barbequing fun and I think I may have read more books in that time than I have all year! I finally got around to reading "Rebecca" (Daphne du Maurier) which I had nearly given up for a lost cause seeing as I had started it numerous times, got bored and had to start again each time. This time I persevered and found it to be extremely good! Am going to hunt out some of the rest of her books at some point. On monday night we (foolishly) decided to climb up Arthurs Seat to see the sunrise, which was a bit of an adventure! It turned out to be very cold when we got to the top and a huge mist came rolling up out of the darkness from nowhere which dampened the sunrise effect somewhat but it was still immense fun. This is a wee bit of a ramble. I should put some interesting things in here somewhere.

These people are trying to give Polaroids a comeback and a bit of a revamp (joyousness):

If you ever read A Series of Unfortunate Events you will know this artist well, Brett Helquist is fantastic and supercool. I got a bit obsessed with cross hatching after I discovered him.

Also I saw Burn After Reading last night, it was moderately funny and weird. Brad Pitt was the most hilarious thing in it.

Also! Here is an amusing video to make you remember your elements (sounds more boring than it is)
That is enough for now I think.

P.S. I might be getting my degree tomorrow, eeeeeeek.

Thursday 28 May 2009

The journey is the desination



I have always meant to create some sort of art "journal" type thing but I am hideously bad at sitting down and making myself do such a thing in one book. Today I revisited Dan Eldon's journals and was inspired, he was an amazing man, I'd love to do what he did. You should all look at his work because it is incredible. Even though I am 22, I still feel like I am very small and insignificant, but recently I have been noticing that there are people my age and younger than me that are all doing important things and I know that I should be too. Dan Eldon died when he was 22, so this makes me feel a little strange. (Don't know if that made much sense, but I am not very good and putting stuff into words)

Howdy!



(sorry some bad photos but it is not daytime atm)

I am making things! Now that I am no longer a STUDENT and I am FREE I get to do whatever I want until I realise I have no money and that I need a job. Its not as fun as I was hoping. Anyway, today I made loads of little things to use for brooches/stitchmarkers/charms.

Yesterday we had a fun party to say farewell to Matt, thankfully there were no incidents involving washing machines this time. Since Friday I have just been reading, sleeping, basking in sunlight, watching films, going on spontaneous theatre trips, having dinners with friends, dancing, pretending to be an animal and experimenting with some arty endeavours. Apparently it is going to be really hot tomorrow IT BETTER BE I CAN'T WAIT!

Going to do some painting now, a bientot!

Wednesday 20 May 2009

Maaoowwwwrrrrrrrr (or something)

(Wallis the wallaby pokes his head out of his surrogate pouch, an animal keeper's woolly hat, at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm, in Wraxall, near Bristol. He was found in a field after falling out of his mother's pouch and being rejected)

This was on BBC news today, it makes me feel like making a weird noise at JUST HOW CUTE IT IS! I can't stop looking at it!!!

Tuesday 19 May 2009

lol

Oh dear, the presentation I am making is pretty poor. I'm so bored of it that the whole thing is very....blah.

But anyway, quick question: Would Voldemort prefer Rich Tea or Custard Creams?
This whole discussion makes me laugh everytime I read it! I like that so many people have opinions on this and the answers are amazing (examples below)!

"I don't think Voldemort would like any biscuit with a soft centre! He seems more of a Hobnob guy to me. I can just see him sitting there with a steaming mug of Unicorn's blood, wearing his fluffy Dementor slippers!"

"Nobody in their right mind could possibly prefer Rich Tea to anything!
Voldemort is not in his right mind.
Therefore he prefers Rich Tea."

"You're all way out. It`s got to be a Jacobs cracker"

Monday 18 May 2009

Boxes galore!

I am the queen of thriftyness! I saved all the boxes I got from ordering Primers and made them pretty, look! I'm going to use them for birthday presents and such like.


(The red one is how they look originally)

Align Left

Saturday 9 May 2009

What time is it?

Man, I hope you have all seen ADVENTURE TIME cos if you havent WHY I ASK YOU WHY.

The reason that I bring adventure time up is that it is now being made into a series on Cartoon Network....Algebraic! So I hope you're excited. It was created by Pendleton Ward, who has a super cool site. I'm a bit sad because the old one had this really awesome song that was really addictive and all these random creatures that popped out and made random noises. If you're reading this Pendleton Ward (unlikely)....I WANT TO SEE THAT AGAIN. Oh and you should aaallll look up Natasha Allegri because she is aaaawesome and is working on the series too.

Ok so now I have to make sure I get Cartoon Network.

Much love from the Queen of "I haven't done any work yet today and my dissertation is due soon"

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Wednesday

I was feeling weird while I was studying so I put my new WEDNESDAY CAT BAG (courtesy of a surprise gift from Patrick~thank you!!!) on my head....now you see why I get nothing done. Though actually I did a fair amount today. My room looks so colourful in this pic.


Do you want to see my desk? It looks pretty tidy in the picture but its a lot worse at the moment, there's paper everywhere and I'm not sure whats underneath it all....

Monday 4 May 2009

Making my dissertation pretty

wasting time as usual
(My friend Emma did one of these and I copied her)

Sunday 3 May 2009

TELL ME TO GET ON WITH MY WORK!!!
Is it possible for someone to waste soooooooooooo much time. Eh, I am a lazy good for nothing.

Thursday 30 April 2009

A Little Night Music

"IT IS A STORY you tell lying down, when all the storms have rumbled off elsewhere, the fires abated, the musicians packed up, tents blown away like milkweed, the earth turns--maybe."
(Extract from Between Lives: An Artist and Her World)

(Bateau Bleue)

A quick break from dissertationing to blog!
I am pretty interested in reading Between Lives: An Artist and Her World, a memoir written by Dorothea Tanning, the oldest living Surrealist, and my top favourite artist (probably) ever. She is definately not the most famous, or even known particularly well in the Surrealist movement and often she is more just Max Ernsts wife, but I think she is awesome. Although a lot of what she does scares me, I always end up liking the feeling of being scared and lost in her frightening worlds. It feels a bit like being stuck in a dream forever. Anyway, she pretty much inspired me through most of school (her and Max Ernst= my big obsession in art class) and I think it would be cool to see what she has to say!

"As for still being here," says Tanning, 91, "I can only apologize."

(Eine Kleine Nachtmusik)

Monday 27 April 2009


Come with me on an Oxford adventure!

Material world


I really REALLY need some new clothes/shoes as everything I own is falling apart. I especially covet everything made by TamamiKo Bag on etsy. She makes everything out of really beautiful fabrics and combinations. You should also check out Sarah Sevens shop as she makes the most gorgeous dresses ever, I think need one.