Trails and Connections

I was thinking about how we physically occupy spaces and the paths that we take as we move around them. Wondering about how they would look if we saw them. I decided to try and recreate it using thread. For a start I tried using thread to wrap around the furniture in a dolls' house, creating criss-cross paths. I think I will do some more on this idea though.

Dog man

I know this is a bad photo, but it's not often that you see a dog carrying a plastic bag ( Is it his poo in there?) and so I had to share it with you.

T-Shirt

I've been doing some T-Shirt designs, and here's a weird little one. I hope you like it. I've been wondering about where the word T-Shirt actually comes from. And though I haven't researched it all – no not even a sneaky little wiki – I have decided that it is probably because the shape the garment resembles a 'T', with the sleeves being the bar on the top, and the torso being the central column. Who knows? (That's a rhetorical device guys, no need to respond, because probably a lot of people do know).

Lavender's Blue 

Lavender's Blue Dilly-Dilly,
Lavender's Green,
When I am King Dilly-Dilly
You shall be Queen

Finding this photograph, which I took during the summer, inspired me to find out more about the history and uses of lavender. In fact, the word has an extraordinary etymology. And to find out about lavender harvest, I watched this video.

1914 In Belgium, Ypres – Carrying Straw towards the trenches

I found this postcard at a Flea Market in France, and was amazed. I had no idea that postcards like this were made; who sent them? Also, it is just so real to hold an object from an era that you read about in books. And to see soldiers in such an informal photograph, preparing their trenches, in 1914, it's actually awful. I just can't let go of it.

Living la vida Locust

Here's a weird little cartoon I drew, with love from me to you. Enjoy!

More Crucifixes

I told you, a while back, that I took a lot of photographs of crucifixes whilst on holiday – they became a visual motif in my photographs. Well, I decided to share a couple more with you. So here we go.

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy

Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian artist who formed a part of the International Constructivist Movement, and went on to become a professor at the Bauhaus. I love the image above, which he created, and also some of the things that he had to say about photography – 'The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen.' Photography is an increasingly significant method of documentation, and perhaps Moholy-Nagy was right.

Philippe Ramette

Take a look at these photographs. And then a second look. They are very impressive, and don't even rely on photoshop! Philippe Ramette really is most clever. The French artist's works are absurd, spectacular and thought-provoking.

Images are courtesy of http://xippas.com/en/i/artiste/philippe_ramette, where you can see even more of Ramette's work. Enjoy!

Butterflies again

You probably know I'm fascinated by butterflies already. Here's a really easy way to make them, I learned it when I was about 4. You simply fold a page in half and open it out again. Next you paint on one side to make a roughly 'half butterfly' shape, and then blob or decorate with paint. Then fold the paper together and open it out agin to create a symmetrical butterfly. Here's one I made earlier.

Sweet

This video has the capacity to cheer people greatly. It is so very sweet. Enjoy.

Paralympics

I was lucky enough to visit the Olympic Park yesterday and, although I didn't visit any actual events, the atmosphere was thrilling. I hadn't really been involved at all before now, but this is definitely something to get excited about. I had to share the love somehow, so here are a couple of photographs. which I took whilst there. I wish I could have recorded the sounds for you as well; the applause, the bickering but happy families, the megaphones, the slightly incongruous brass quartet (or maybe it was a quintet, I didn't actually count). And wow there was a lot of facepaint.

Diary

I found another old diary, and here's a page of it. I thought I'd put it in because there are 'Back to School' signs all over the shops. And here's my short, sweet diary entry about it.

Consequences

I wonder if any of you have played consequences. You probably have. There is also written way of playing, but this is the illustrated version. A group of people plays, and each player is given a pen and paper. At the top of the paper they draw a head. They then fold down the paper, to conceal the head, but to leave two lines (denoting the neck) showing. They then pass their sheet of paper on to the next player, who draws the torso, and so on. When the paper is unfolded, the most hilarious drawings often appear.

Jake and Dinos Chapman used a variation on this game to create their Exquisite Corpse Series. There work takes the humour of the game in a darker direction, with results like the image below.

Bottom image courtesy of http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/chapman-chapman-exquisite-corpse-p78457

Decorative dates

I brought back these deliciously decorative dates from the souks in Morocco. I chose them because of their striking colour palette; the near black of the dates contrasted with the whites and bold orange of the sweet decorations. I thought you might like to have a look before they're all eaten.

          

              Typewriter

Morocco

Whilst in France, I found this postcard at a flea-market. I bought it because I was about to spend the next two weeks in Morocco, and the image on the postcard is that of a Moroccan Souk. Staying in a small, isolated Berber village made me feel both very far from and very near to the basic elements of human society, whilst Marrakech was a typical -exciting- bustling city. In fact it was almost overwhelming; the crowds, the smells, the orange juice and snakes. I tried some haggling in the Souks, but wasn't very good- although one man did offer to buy me for 49,000 camels.