Sunday 15 November 2009

Martha Stewart.com
New fave website, especially with Christmas coming up!

Friday 13 November 2009

Hughie O’Donoghue

Tomorrow is the last day of the Hughie O’Donoghue exhibition at the Leeds Art Galley.
As much as I appreciate and try to understand art I find it pretty rare that a piece of work can stir up as much emotion as this collection does.
The pieces are a mix of photography and vigorous paint work and although they are not subtle in size the intricacies really are. The colours are subdued and and atmospheric from a distance but in one instance, closer up, a blue was electric and intense.

The idea of using collage has exploded recently, (photoshop, cough), but this work seems to kind of take on that idea and transport it back to traditional grand paintings seen in the other rooms of the gallery.

I can't pin point what it was about these paintings that made me feel so different about them, they rung nostalgia with an edge of tragedy without any tricks or distractions and I spent a long time looking at them.


Wednesday 29 July 2009

The past fortnight has been the easiest few weeks ever! I have had very little to do, but whilst I have been looking for a job (to no avail) I have been getting back to doing some fun crafty projects.

Less staring at a computer screen.

I keep seeing pictures of homes with walls filled with pictures and old silhouette portraits. They look super good so I made some dole friendly versions:



They worked out pretty well and I completely want to fill my walls with them. Perhaps I will move onto creating silhouettes of people I know!

A while back Matt got me a super super bird cage. It looked a little lonely and empty before, as such I filled it with fairy lights and hung it on some badly painted chain from my ceiling. I am totally worried it will fall down and bring the ceiling with it, but it looks great in the dark.





Plus today I made some macaroons. They came out OK but not exactly up to scratch. Perhaps it is because I omitted the almond? I bloody hate almonds. Anyway, I made my own Lauduree style box to put them in, so if my dad is in he might get an extra birthday present.


Tuesday 28 April 2009

hi

SO tired & headachey.

Stumbled across the work of Shannon Freshwater



Super scary but intriguing portraits, they remind me of those 70's pictures of women where the colours are really enhanced, (i forget what they're called).

I can totally appreciate these images, making something so surreal look somewhat understandable, and the skill involved in both the crafting of the painting and making something so unsettling.

Wouldn't want it on my wall though!


Also helped out with interviewing people for the course today. I could totally empathize with them because of how nervy I get with such things. It was good to look at an interview with the opposite perspective though, it made me think about how to conduct myself in such situations and I guess recognizing my own strengths and weaknesses in other people's.

Friday 27 March 2009

Interiors

I am enjoying more before / after interiors at design*sponge

On the same vein I badly want this poster:
The original cover design for the book "les enfants terribles' by Jean Cocteau. Drawn by the author himself, the book is littered throughout with these fluid basic drawings which just seem to go with the book's atmosphere.

It is avaliable from the V&A shop for £15!

There are more classic covers for the same price:


10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

I am enjoying many of the articles on stevepavlina.com particularly this:

10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

"Look around you. Really look. What do you see? Are these the surroundings of a free human being? Or are you living in a cage for unconscious animals? Have you fallen in love with the color beige?"

Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House

via nytimes

I wish I had an extensive veg garden too!

Packaging lights.


I enjoy the idea of being able to transform rubbish and the old into the new, but to be honest I find that it is rarely done well or totally surpasses the point of rubbish.
But these lights by Anke Weiss are totally beautiful! Originally biscuit boxes then pin-pricked around the graphics to allow the light to get through.

Great idea, perhaps a bit strange with the lights on though!

Friday 13 March 2009

Craft project!

M (att) E (l)

Thursday 5 March 2009


New idea for personal branding images...
Jane said that there was too much of a difference between my work and the image i had set out for myself. I thought that the mountain drawing i did for one of the tape covers would lend itself well to a header image .

Also no 'yellow and black' which says DANGER instead a nice calm and collected green.

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Small Stakes interview

Interview with Jason Munn of The Small Stakes whose work I think is wonderful!

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Wowee

'Silent World' by Michael Kenna. These photographs are amazing!




They have such a dreamlike quality to them, such as the ones in the forest, then the photographs showing the towers seem to turn into nightmares. The contrast in the two tones is also really something, I can't imagine them working so effectively with colour.

Saturday 28 February 2009

Monday 16 February 2009

I have been considering further study for 2010. There is no way I could apply for it now, or afford to put myself through it. From looking at the Leeds Uni website they have a little bit of information about funding:
http://scholarships.leeds.ac.uk/viewpgResults.aspx

but this is something I would need to look into. If i went down this route I would have to get a job for a year and save up to do it.
I am also unsure was to which course I would do. I would quite like to study something with a little more academic value if I could.

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/students/index.htm

I guess it also depends upon my results so maybe it is bet planning my time out like this.
Missed the graduate careers fair at the uni, but i think they have one in summer too:
http://www.careerweb.leeds.ac.uk/students/whatweoffer06/events/fairs/companiesattending.asp



Monday 2 February 2009

business cards

come up with an idea for the business cards:
testing it out:



Monday 19 January 2009

Leeds Discovery Centre



On Friday I went to Leeds Discovery Centre. I didn't know what this involved, but my friend sorted it out and booked us in for a tour. After a good roam around town trying to find it, we finally 'discovered' it next to The royal Armouries.

You can find out more about it here.
It is basically a temperature controlled storage space for items not in Leeds's museums and galleries. There is a lot of weird stuff there. I wanted the plastic giant squid that was hanging from the ceiling!

I wish I had known about it before hand. Especially for the collections project last year. You can book time to spend drawing objects in the centre as well!

Thursday 8 January 2009

Porfolio book.

I also really like the idea of a portfolio book. Whether something to have at an exhibition when only a small number of pieces is shown or to slip into my portfolio / keep with me.
I have found a number of nicely designed books that would lend their design well to this purpose:


Portfolio/'self promotion'

I pretty much hate the idea of business cards. For some reason, to me, it seems slightly egotistic to have them never mind give them out. It is like by having them I think I am good enough to have them.

Despite this personal battle, I have noticed a few pretty good ideas for business cards. AND it is something to think about having for the final exhibition.




SpoonGraphics have written a tutorial on creating a business card ready for print.

Fubiz
did a blog post entitles "70 Amazing Business Cards" There were so many great concepts, here are some of my faves:











I love the great shapes and the peel back cards, but I know that these would be expensive to create. I also love the scratch off surface, I have long been a bit into scratch off stickers and these would be much easier to create and put onto a cheaply produced card to make it more interesting and interactive.

Wednesday 7 January 2009

The Selby

The Selby is a sort of photo blog that snoops inside the homes of the famous/trashy/talented. And while some homes are carefully contrived, it is hard to keep that up forever and so most of the images are really interesting, eclectic and revealing.




... the photos are well taken too!

Monday 5 January 2009

I am more than worried about what I am going to do when I leave the (mostly) comfortable bubble that is my degree. Especially considering the amount of friends finding it difficult to get jobs and/or being made redundant.


Creativepool has some tips on making a good portfolio.

They also have a lot of advice for interviews and interview techniques