The holidays are here!!!

The Christmas spirit is dangling about all over London.......well mostly amongst the popular shopping areas like Soho/Mayfair.

Lights, lights and more lights plus giant inflatable snowmen are (personally) a better alternative to snow for putting shoppers in the mood for the holiday season.



Yunnie and I went to visit our favourite festive sight - the jolly snowmen. Conveniently located beside Liberty, the ultimate one-stop posh shopping destination.



I had never been to the top two floors, which I discovered contained absolutely anything you desired, including an empty ostrich egg shell (?!?!?!). On the top floor was a fabric department, stocked with the most beautiful fabrics I have ever seen! Really makes me wish I had a sewing machine.... and millions of dollars. When we went in, it was light outside and when we emerged it was pitch black! That gives you an idea of how long it takes to really give this shop a thorough perusal.

Above: Carnaby St
Below: Liberty at night


One last pic of the jolly snowman... I really love him!

EXPERIMENTAL ART

More fun experimenting with artistic processes! The first one really worked, but the second not so much!

XMAS MADNESS!

Regent St was turned into a giant pedestrian walkway this weekend.. the Christmas craziness is at full throttle in London! It was not easy making my way through this crowd!

PHOTOGRAPHY!!!

It was like taking a trip back to high school during the photography unit.
We were unleashed into the city to capture "colour" on black and white film... not the true stuff, but the kind that you can develop using colour processing (C41). I had always avoided that type of film, assuming the results would not be as authentic. Antique (Asahi Pentax k1000 c1960) cameras were distributed with only a standard lens - no zoom!

The photographing day was great, luckily it wasn't raining, just cold + I had a partner whose graphic work I admired, so I knew our photographs (we shared one camera) would be brilliant.

I think our footprints pretty well covered central London. Then there was the unfamiliar suspense (due to modern technology - digital cameras) of whether the film would turn out okay or not. I even had a nightmare that evening after discovering our settings were a bit off from that our film was indiscernable.

The next day we spent in the darkroom, making contact sheets and prints. Despite the lengthy procedure, I got quite a thrill out of revisiting the experience.


Above: our contact sheet.
Below: our prints!

I AM A SAFETY HAZARD

Just thought I would share my idiotic near death experience with you, incase like me, you are unaware of the dangers of electrical appliances.

After having 2 fridges in my flat for weeks and being unable to find the plug for the old fridge (located somewhere behind the counter - or so I thought), I decided to cut the power cord with scissors.

I had no idea of the risk I was taking until a flame shot out of the cord and I lost power. Scary stuff. I flipped the breaker back on, not realizing I had a live wire sticking out from behind the new fridge. I rang the electrician emergency hotline, who was very discouraging after the fellow called me crazy under his breath. Apparently even the fire department in London was amazed I didn't receive a massive shock or electrocute myself.

Anyway, thanks to my family's aid and discovering the outlet buried at the back of the inside a cupboard, I was able to remove the wire (with the breaker turned OFF). Let my stupidity be a lesson kids!!!

CHANGING SEASONS

Last week it was fall in Hyde Park

Yesterday it was a beautiful day

This morning I woke up to winter on my terrace!

ESSAYS = BLAH, CONSTRUCTION = FUN!

Projects have been pretty dismal lately.. the last was an essay comparing the MMR science hoax to Andy Warhol's Marilyn Munroe silkscreen print... doesn't make for interesting blog postings.

We had Typography this week. We were each given a font and we had to create something based on that font's personality/essence.

My font was "Gotham" which was born in 2002, so it was relatively new (and difficult to find). Gotham was inspired by signage, so I decided to build my own sign... and make it light up.
For those who know me, realize I have no technical skills as far as construction goes, but I went with it anyway.


Lots of time consuming measuring and tracing...


Exacto knives are dangerous kids!! Elastics are holding the walls in place while the glue dries.


3/4 letters built.

Spray painted.. remember to let dry fully before turning over and doing the other side.. otherwise they get sticky and paint comes off..


Def. needs another coat, sadly I ran out of paint and it was too late!

Ta da!!!

The London Project

The past 2 weeks we have been concentrating on our project based around the river Thames and working independently. I decided spending time by the river reminded me of being close to one of the great lakes, so I chose a theme of the similarities.

I really wanted to get into the hands-on art stuff. Monday was a printmaking induction, which was quite enjoyable and inspired me to experiment a bit more with the different processes I was using for each piece of my project. The tutor (teacher) has kept our printmaking (and etching) work, so hopefully it is returned shortly so I can post it!

My flat began to look like an art hurricane had torn through it ..

I had lots of ideas for pieces, most starting with sketches..

This one was about the multiculturalism and different languages which was a part of my original concept or differences + similarities (I eventually knocked off the "differences").

Then it became a digital illustration... I ended up axing this one because it was the weakest and didn't correspond with my theme.

It's really amazing the materials you can find in London! I was all over the city perusing shops and seeking specific items, all which I found!

The sequins were fun! I really liked using them, although they peeled off quite easily.


Spray painting leaves worked out quite well.. although Emeril, the cooking dude hollered "Nice flowers!" at me while I was collecting them. Lots of strange looks!


This piece generated a lot of positive feedback during our crits today. Which is funny because initially I was disappointed with how it turned out.

Not sure what happened uploading this particular piece, but the bikes are supposed to be blue and the sneakers were red!! The bikes represent the Trans Canada Trail and the sneakers the Thames National Trail. Below is what those little icons look like actual size.


The overall outcome.. hard to tell the detail in each piece, but they are all stitched on a navy strip of material. I got the idea from a tapestry, wall hanging embroidered thing with different dutch scenes from the kitchen in my granny's old house.

Just to show you the little stitches holding the art onto the tapestry. Sewing these things on was extremely time consuming. I ended up stitching my initials into the bottom.. apparently I'm not a very skilled sewer!!

walk + draw + freeze

Today our group started the 2 week London project unit. Our first day was a walk + draw along the river Thames. We considered it a nice day for the task, but as we left Uni, we realized it was bitter and cold outside.


Zoe freezing. Hannah and I learned quickly that drawing was impossible whilst walking.

Hannah's drawing was pretty good for sketching while on the move.

We wondered what was happening, so we wandered over.
Apparently it was a Sugababe! My first celeb sighting.
Hannah and I decided to be tourists...
Lucy and Hannah doing some sketches with frozen fingers.

A homeless man's dog... poor pooch.
Tate Modern museum
Inside the Tate Modern
Some strange giant spider display

My drawing of Hannah's lunch.

Some other sketches from the day.

The last drawing of the day.