Frohe Weihnachten Berlin!

Me & my two housemates took a short trip to Berlin a couple of weeks before Christmas.

The city was beautiful covered in snow, and so cold. I'd love to go back and see more.
I bought two postcards, a coaster a 1950s motorbike magazine, a mug from a huge German market and 20 euros of u-bahn tickets.

Shop window art work. U-Bahn Station, Weinmeisterstrauss Fairground, Alexanderplatz

East Side Gallery, The Berlin Wall

Lighthouse Festive Fair Photos

Some pictures from our stall at the Lighthouse festive fair today. Leave a comment if you're interested in anything. Thanks!

Lighthouse Festive Flair Stall!

Come down and see our stall at the Festive Flair!

Saturday 11th December, 11am - 4pm

Lighthouse Media Centre, Chubb Buildings, Wolverhampton.

Our stall will feature the following:

• Handmade cards
• Hand knitted hot water bottles ('Hotties')
• Handmade cushions
• Handmade dolly door stops
• Prints
• Handmade jewellery

Featuring work by Megan Hopkins, Nadiah Sweilem, Denise Hopkins, Ann-Marie Rayney & Millie Popovic.

Examples of Handmade Christmas Cards

On sale at the Lighthouse Festive Flair Fair, 11th December 2010.

'Hotties' Hot water bottle covers, hand-knitted by my Mother Denise Hopkins.

Modern Houses.

My recent work from a concertina sketchbook.

Diary Date.

An illustrated living.

Living with three Illustrators really drives home how hard I should be working but also how much fun it is to make art. They are constantly thinking of new ways to communicate ideas and makes aestetically beautiful images. Sometimes the aestetics in Fine Art can take a back seat to concepts and meaning.

For the Summer, my lovely Illustrators had to keep a diary every day in the form of a sketchbook. The challenge of finding something every day to interpret as an image seemed interesting.

I'd like to start keeping a similar sketchbook diary as often as I can. I'm excited to get back to drawing and not taking myself too seriously. Hopefully this will be more personal, theraputic and fun!

Incase you were wondering, here are my housemates blogs.

Hannah Lane: http://hannahnomiddlenamelane.tumblr.com/
Marina Brayfield: www.marinaforillustration.blogspot.com
Nadiah Sweilem: http://nadiahsweilemillustrates.blogspot.com/

I'll show you how I get on...

Sketchbook sketchbook sketchbook...

A couple of pages from my sketchbook.

Got lots of new ideas from these and can't wait to get making some work.

Frieze. 15/10/10.

Yesterday I was saturated to the max with British contemporary art after spending a few hours at this years Frieze Art Fair.

I couldn't sleep so stayed up and wrote a page about how Frieze had left me feeling suprisingly positive about the prospect of being apart of the contemporary art scene.

I may share that with you another time, for now here's a few favourites from my notebook.

Damien Ortega

Thomas Locher, 'Frame, framed' 2007
(Example shown)

Erwin Wrum

Lorna Simpson, 'Cloud' 2005
(Image pinned in sections and grain effect of print relevant to my work)

Katja Strunz

Ellen Gallagher
'O.K Corral' Ink, varnish, cut out printed paper
(Different example shown)

Walid Raad 'Sweet Talk- Beruit'
(Different example shown- 'Mappings')

A few other names for future research:

• Sharon Ya'ari, 'Camels' photograph
• Cyprien Gaillard
• Ginny Bishton
• Bernhard Flichs, car photographs
• Daphne Wright, Swan made from resin & marbledust
• Donald Moffett, Oil paint like fur

Shapes from my Window.

Not sure if I like squares...

Switched on.

My parents are more in the loop than I am.
My Pops just sent me these links.

http://www.photofringe.org/?page_id=847
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-genius-of-british-art

From this I have found:

http://waitingforthebus.co.uk/ (Art created from and exhibited in bus stops around St.Leonards & Hastings)

www.flickr.com/groups/unfrastructures (A pool of photos to be exhibited in November highlighting your local 'unfrastructures'. Get submitting!)

http://projectpopularcamera.tumblr.com/ (Personal alphabets created by artists with learning disabilities in Brighton)

Drawing with Light, White Night Event. (Photography competition, go along take some pictures around Brighton at Night and upload them in Pavillion Gardens for a Nightime outdoor slideshow.)
(Enquiries: email info@photofringe.org)

http://www.oneweekinmoscow.com/ (Photographic dairy of Gabriella Rizzello and Murray Ballard's time in Russia earlier this year during the midst of winter, their book launch is tonight at Marward Studios)

One Week In Moscow.


I shall add more of Pops tips as they come in...

Finding notes.

I have just found a piece of paper that a Printmaker who had exhibited at uni last year gave me a few months ago. It has names of artists that he recommended to me. We spoke for 10 minutes and i'd never met him before.

I hope i meet him again, i'd like to chat more.

Bernd and Hilla Becher
A german artist couple best known for their photographic images of industrial buildings (Wikipedia)

Absolutely beautiful photographs. I like the variation on repetition, it enhances the shapes.

Latz & Partner, Duisburg

Peter Latz best known for his landscape design for Landschaftspark public park in Duisburg, Germany, 1991.

I love that the design of this park is to 'understand the industrial past, rather than trying to reject it'. And so the industrial structures of the past (specifically the steel and coal mill) as well as its' agricultural history, are incorporated into the modern design of the park.

I find it beautiful that industrial structures can become pieces of art in their original form.