Studio malarchy

I have been messing about with light, patterns and a lovely model called Sarah. This is what I came up with but now I am not sure where to go next! I wasn't going to post these images but I am stuck. Jasper has taught me some brilliant re-touching tips so they look pretty crisp now but I have been looking at them too long....bleurrrgh. Work into them? Use them in collage? take soem more adventurous shots (get a good photographer?!), Combine the clothes in the shot more? I loved being in the studio. I love playing with composition. Love bright colour... Anyone out there who has objective opinions and can give me some inspiration?! (Click on image to enlarge)

Finished...!

At last I have completely finished my dissertation bar getting it spiral bound and handed in. Party time tonight at Roots Garden! Gathering my images together today, I found my new style reference (left)! Jane Asher, wearing Celia Birtwell, photographed by Brian Duffy, in 1967. Smasher!

Check out the photo below of some serious hippy body painting too. Jane said to me this morning that somebody(?) once said that the only way to do a performance, is naked...

A present in the post...

A little present arrived in the post for me before the weekend. Thank you Cat xxx you know me so well...it must be from the 60s. My place is definitely in the kitchen until the novelty wears off!

After a weekend of hell with the old dissertation the trip to V&A with Lol, Leah and Andrea was a very welcomed relief.
Nearly done it though going to hand the evil thing in on wednesday I think. Nice feeling to get it out of the way. Just manicly trying to get a load of stuff prepared for friday to get some photos on the go. It's going to be a long old week but hopfully some good results a the end.
Lauren and I went on a little shopping trip this morning and boy did we get some finds! Will post a pic tomoro but for now it's off to noddy noddy land

A Good Day

Have just got back from London...Very tired but had a very inspiring weekend. I Went to V&A yesterday as I mentioned in an earlier blog. The talk was amazing and I met Mary Quant and Barbara Hulanicki. They were so lovely and it made me feel very jealous of how un-cut-throat the fashion industry was then, compared to today's industry. Lots of fun, creativity, parties and genuine friendships. LOVE it! I also got a few AMAZING quotes to slip into my dissertation. Particularly from Paul Gorman who has written a book called 'The Look' which documents the cultural changes of the 60s and the impact on music, fashion, art, lifestyle etc. I didn't actually use it for my dissertation but it would have been perfect research material. He often works in Brighton on 60s inspired projects so I got his email address which could lead to some fun stuff. Today i met up with Andrea who i worked for in New York to go to the V&A again and then catch up over dinner. We were plotting how we can get Anna and I over to New York with as little money as possible involved. She suggested doing a course of some sort...maybe a part time course in Set design, styling, visual merchandising etc which would earn us a student visa but we've got to find out about costs. Also that would mean going over in September...scary! Why not though-might as well get my teeth stuck into something straight away!

Also our website is finished apart form a problem we are having centralising the pages when it opens in your web browser but hey ho. I've come to the decision that maybe it will just NEVER be completely finished...or to put it more optimistcally....ever-evolving! Anyway check it out...

I'm off to some friends' house to watch a funny film. Night x

I've entered a competition Vote for me by clicking on the picture above go on.... show some love.
It's for Don't Panic in celebration of Michel Gondry's new film the science of sleep, he is one my most loved director/animators, can't wait to go see the flm
Cheers
XXXX

Strive for the best, and better...

Wherever you are, climb up higher. The view gets better, the higher you go.

Just after I did this doodle, I saw a Stussy t-shirt with a picture of a girl up in a tree house. The words on the tree trunk read 'never coming down'. Coincidence. They only had one left and it would probably have fitted me as a glove...shame, would have rocked it with pride.

(It's all about tree houses eh Stu?! x)

I want to finish my dissertation. I've had enough of it. In fact I despise it. I want to be holidaying in the sunshine getting a tan, not being blown over the streets of brighton like a little old lady. I want to win loadsa money and have time to get my nails done with fancy patterns. I want to have a team of folk to help me get my mamoth projects done. I really need to be making so much every day, I've been in uni untill 7pm nearly every night since term started and there are still not enough hours in the day! Maybe that's what I really want, 12 more hours a day. Tommorow I'm making a totaliser for my friend Sarah with my mate Leah, that should be fun. I'm also in the middle of making a giant rossette and a range of oversized drawing impliments, so really I'm having tons of fun, but it would be cool if I was like a fly or a spider with plenty more arms than I really have and then I could make 3 thing at once... Anyway enough dreamingback to the making.

Lolli Heaven!

I am off to a Costume Society Study Day: Reconstructing 60s Fashion at the V&A this Saturday with my sister Annie. Speakers include:

Mary Quant
Paul Gorman
Felicity Green
Barbara Hulanicki (Biba!)
Marit Allen
Marion Foale & Sally Tuffin
Paul Reeves
Justin de Villeneuve
Sylvia Ayton

They will talk within the themes: Design and Education, Journalism and Photography, Boutiques and Shops & Music and "The Scene". You'd think I'd be so fed up of the 1960s malarchy after writing a whole dissertation on it but I can't get enough! It will be nice to sit in an auditorium and hear some of my heroines speak about the creative explosion that was the 1960s, now that i have FINISHED MY DISSERTATION!!!!! WHHHHOOOOOO! Massive party and old skool & Newcastle reunion on Friday night too. Very happy to be me!

If you haven't seen the exhibition yet-check it out it's pretty cool. Also the second part of the Indica Gallery reconstructed at the Riflemaker Gallery on Beak Street in Soho. Michael English and Hapshash etc. Psychedelic gig posters and other design from the psychedelic era.

Good night my little flower children xx

Named and Famed!

If only our boys had thought of that one. We'd be rich by now...charrrr. Thanks for the article Hugo. You'd better get plotting some skullduggery to fill up our bank accounts instead.

My little love seat

I have a little love seat that I bought in the Hamptons, New York, for $45 (that's about £22!) It is original late 60s/early 70s and fully hand emboidered. The problem is...it is still in the Hamptons being looked after by two little old ladies. How do I get it back...?

This week I feel like I have actually achieved doing some stuff! Work that is. It feels good athough really I think I'm just trying to avoid the old dissertation. I'm on 4,700 words so almost there but I've still got to do the conclusion and some other bits and bobs. I've devised a new plan, by a good structured list system. For once it's starting to work. I'm also getting used to the idea that I have to sacrifice some stuff to get other stuff done. I'm not very good at this, but I'm learning very quicly. Anyway it's only really 12 weeks untill I'm finished and that's nothing. Lauren and I are always banging on about what we're going to do when where done. I'm so excited about it all, so many possibilites, watch this space! Any ideas welcome....

Oh and I really wish this blog thing had a spell check, so I apologise for all my mistakes from here onwards!

Oh...my pretty things.

Below are some of my favourite things. I treasure the little things in life that inspire me. Markets, car boot sales, junk shops- love 'em. Always a treasure to be found. I collect kitsch jewellery (particulary brooches) and hair slides and combs. I love hearts, bows, clouds, rainbows, ice-creams and paint palettes. I Love plastic, irredescent, glittery things. I also collect original psychedelic books, posters, mags, pots and random objects.

Yesterday I made slides of some of my favourite possesions/patterns and did a photoshoot, projecting them on to a lovely model called Sarah who is perfect in them. It was soooo much fun and three of the images have a real 60s/70s quality to them. Result. I am pleased and will continue to keep producing in this manner. To see them, you will have to come to my degree show in Brighton on 1st -7th June or our show in the Truman Brewery 7th-12th June. We have the lovely Bridge gallery and will be putting on a PHAT party somewhere near on the opening night, with the help of the wonderful James Suckling. It is ages away...but that is my life at the moment. Plan, plan, plan. Forward thinking, work, work, work. I love it.

p.s anyone that finds me a plastic colourful, paint palette brooch gets a seriously cool present and maybe a medal, trophy and rosette. Get hunting people. My birthday is in November and that is my next planning session. Only joking.


A few from the collection. I have outgrown my jewellery box.


A kids clock puzzle I found at Columbia Road Flower market before Christmas. If you haven't been to Columbia Road-GO! It's one of the best things to do in London.


A poetry book from '67. Stumbled across it randomly on ebay after looking for it for 3 years! The image is a wraparound book cover that I scanned and joined up on photoshop.


A page from a Dracula annual from around 1970 I have never been able to find any info on it. Bought it for 1 nugget in the Sunday market. You should see the rest of it! Even Dracula was brainwashed by the orgies of the Sexual Revolution!


A couple of paint palettes... I also have a 60s table in the shape of a palette...


That is it. Maybe you are bored. Maybe you want to be sick. Maybe you have just developed a passion you didn't know existed....

I didn't realise how bad it was...

I have just finished watching Al Gore's documentary film on Climate change...scary stuff. It is all explained in a way that makes you understand the impact that global warming has had, and will continue to have on our environment if nothing is done. Very hard to know how we, as small insignificant people, compared to gigantic countires such as America and China, can do anything that will make a pin dot of difference. For someone who was often seen as a boring man before his possible term in power, Al Gore certainly has more sense than Bush could make from a child's first maths book. A powerful country needs a clever person, with a genuine concern for human nature, rather than greed and destructivness. After all America is the country that needs to cut their emissions etc the most out of any country in the world. San Francisco and Pensylvania are doing their bit. That leaves 48.whatever the rest of California takes up, states still sitting on their (fat) arses. Don't even get me started about obesity. I'll leave that one to Gillian McKeith and Jamie Oliver and whover their equivilants are In the U.S. Also don't get me wrong there are many Americans, that I had the pleasure to spend time with this summer, who feel exactly the same as me.

On another note, whilst watching the documentary I carried on with my entry for the next 'If You Could' book. The book was thought up by two friends on my course, Alex Bec and Will Hudson. The first issue was a big success. All entries follow the theme 'if you could do anything tomorrow, what would it be?' I am afraid to say it has nothing to do with Climate change unfortunately, as I had already started it. However it does beg the question of my role as an artist and how that could lead to me doing anything that might help people...teaching is a definitely/maybe but i'm not quite sure just yet. There are definitely ways I could be more irresponsible. At least I don't own a low cost airline.

Check Als and Wills' site for more details about submitting work for the next book (last entries at end of January)

www.ifyoucould.co.uk

Ok, i'm sorry to do this but I have just faced my biggest fear. I HATE long nails they make me want to puke. My flat mate just revealed his talons to me. How could he do it to himself? He could have took my eye out with one from the other side of the room. Grim.
On a brighter, less scratchy note, things are falling in place, or at least feel like they are. Maybe all that star sign bull about jupiter and saggies having the best year for 12 years blah blah blah (read some January mags) were telling the truth. Well I won't count my chickens till they have hatched, but I'll try and keep them nice and warm....

The Magic Hour

I am completely gutted I missed the twilight photography exhibition at the V&A. the only image I got to see was on the beautiful card my Mum and Dad gave me for my birthday. Got my dates muddled and missed out on a special exhibition. Have always been a fan of that time of the evening just before dark where the light is an intense blue. It is also known as the Magic Hour. My old flatmate Harry once told me about a film that was shot only in the magic hour and for this reason it took them years to complete. It was about the Amish people but I have never managed to find out the name and track it down. If anyone has seen it or knows the name, gimme a shout, i'd love to watch it x

I feel a bit sad, bacause much to my dissapointment I have realised that my dissertaion has left me with a hatred (slightly strong word) of reality TV. This is somthing who anyone that knows me knows, I really enjoy. I'm even finding it hard to watch ol' jezza in the mornings. How and when will I ever be able to gloat at somone elses misfortune and stupidity to put themselves on the box. Ah well at least chat mag still hold some joy. Only two days to go untill this weeks edition comes out and then I can find a new way to kill some hours instead of doing the Diss'.
At least going back to school held a glimmer of happyness from Leah yes mate you know me well.... love hearts all round!!

Power cut...

As my sister Annie and I were walking down the street this evening all the house lights, street lights and pub lights etc turned off. Quite a mad sight when It is complelety dark outside. I've only really experienced that in the country! I could think of quite a few people I know in the streets surrounding me plugging away on their dissertations (although many with the battery back-up of a laptop). With a relatively new computer and a an external hard drive, a power cut is always my worst case scenario but obviously a possibility! I had saved my dissertation to my computer but when I returned to my room and all the power was back on, my hard-drive was still on. It could have theoretically wiped the whole thing. Luckily it didn't! Reminds me of being abroad when I was young with my parents and having to walk round in candle light. Me and my sister and brother would try and freak each other out, telling ghost stories and making silly sounds! Also makes me realise just how much we rely on electricity...fridges and freezers turn off, stereos, televisions, chargers, computers, printers, alarm clocks, ovens- all off. Pretty ridiculous really. Gonna be emailing my dissertation to myself every two minutes from now on...

Fanny Cradock Fanatic!

I always find it strange how I develop an obsession for something...Fanny Cradock is another one of those mysteries. I can't remember how I exactly discovered her but now I just can't get enough of her! Fanny Cradock was a very kitsch, hardened cook who became famous as the first celebrity chef. Not only was she famous for her green, piped mashed potato, blue hard-boiled eggs (dyed with food colouring) or her extreme obsession with French cuisine, but also her scary attitude. Placing herself on a pedal stool where she looked down at anyone not knowing the principles and traditions of French cookery, she soon gained a reputation. Even today, many men would quiver at the thought of beoing told off by Fanny- she had serious authority over everyone around her. Not to mention the rumours that she only fed her husband Johnny, sardine sandwiches everyday. It seems ironic as she was know for her elaborate cooking. She was in control. Full stop.

Writing about her and trying to get original footage has proven very difficult as it is so old but all my Fanny Cradock Christmas' came at once when I got in contact with a lovely food writer form Switzerland called Maki. She very kindly sent me five origianl programmes of Fanny Cradock and the recent drama of her life; Fear of Fanny (many of you might have seen it on TV recently) Her kindeness has enabled me to progress with my work so much more efficiently than I origianlly thought would be possible and for that I am soooo grateful. So if any of you out there reading this also develop a sudden obsession with Mrs Cradock, you know where to come to get some footage. I would be happy to pass one strangers kindness onto others. Least I could do. Nighty night. L xx


Maki's blog and websites:

www.makikoitoh.com
www.justhungry.com

The Power of Black and White...

I pulled out my Francesca Woodman book again today. It was a present from my Mum and Dad for Christmas and it has totally had me totally absorbed over the holidays (aside from my dissertation of course...ahem!) Being a colour junkie, it has reminded me of the power but also amazing fragility that black and white photography can possess. As you can see in the examples above, Woodmans sensitivity is spine-chillingly beautiful. Her work is very explorative of composition, light and figure. It appears to me that the there is a strong narrative of exploring both with regards to technique and also personally with reference to the female figure. The exploring, although youthful is executed in a very mature, observant way. Woodman only produced a very small collection of photos as she died very young (aged 22) but she is known as a very important photographer of the last century. She is certainly someone who has continued to inspire my work since my g.c.s.e's.

This New Year's eve my friend Ollie also took great black and white photos of the evening. His portraits are great-full of character and very witty. Although many, myself included can't help but play up to the camera, his portraits still manage to perfectly capture personality and atmosphere. Not mentioning how everyone's skin looks so peachy and smooth...! I am wondering whether they have had a cheeky little touching-up session or whether he used special film/lighting etc (you can tell I know my shit!) or MAYBE all his victims were really completely angelic! Ha!! don't think so....

You can see Ollie's work soon on his website www.olliegrove.com (currently under construction) or at the moment on his myspace

I got some mini-mouse shoes to cheer myself up. Why is it some days run smooth and others are bumpy all the way. Still a good few hours for it to get better and at least my feet will be happy!

Preparing the nest...

Now some of you might have been worried by the title for a second there...no need. I am only referring to my nest as the place that will house and nurture my next wave of hard work and creativity. After all, my work is my baby. It is the thing I have a love/hate relationship with...it can be rewarding but it can also be very frustrating. It can be magical and it can turn stale. In essence it is the rollercoaster ride that I have no doubt, I will ride for many years to come. It is only more recently that I am starting to notice patterns in my working habits. This has lead to me encouraging myself to go with them rather than pulling and pushing them in directions they will not. A struggle with one's natural patterns/cycle leaves one exhausted. Trust me, I have years of experience! After a long Christmas break where I have relaxed, enjoyed my friends' and family's company and generally re-grouped after last term, I feel the next work surge about to begin. It is rare for me not to be feeling guilty about not working but alas I have succeded. Tonight I tidied, cleaned and arranged my space, for tomorrow, I will begin the next stage in the cycle. Never, have I been one to strike a balance. it's just not me. End of story. I will go up and I will go down. If you are with me when I am up, take my hand and soar into a world of endless possibilities, colour, inspiration, magic and energy. If I am down, come and be peaceful with me. Snuggle under my warm fleecy blanket, drink camomile tea and imagine where the next magical journey may lead. After all, that doesn't sound too bad eh?!

Below, exert and image taken from a book I bought recently off ebay. It is a sixties original. The beautiful psychedelic illustrations are by Peter Max and the words are those of Swami Sivinanda.

2007 lets make it a bad boy year...

So last year is done and dusted, here is to this year and plenty of opportunities. Looking forward to it, time to move on and up. Taking a bit of time to visit the old stomping ground, got my colouring book collection buffed up, miss those deptford pound shops. Time to make some fresh work and feel happy with all my good mates around me. Untill next time x

failed : (

We tried but it just ain't happenin' tonight! If successful, computer triumphs can be so satisfying but as usual web designing and fomatting just isn't our forté! So maybe our testing post is there for all to see rather than in a black hole somewhere on the net, but hey it's an insight as to what we do at 1am on a Wednesday morning! Good night xx

Happy New Year (To the Black Hole) Or beyond?!!

New Year. New Blog...but are we clever enough to get inside the brain of computer programming to publish our blog to the correct part of our website without much prior knoweledge of this malarchy?! Happy new year to the big black hole of lost computer information (hopefully not including that of the dissertation variety in the next few weeks coming!) if this doesn't succeed and Happy New Year to those of you reading this if our mission is accomplished. Anna and I hope you had a marvelous party celebration and that your brains are not too frazzled. Peace x