Wanda Jackson

Tomorrow night! Tim and I have tickets number one and two. Not that it really makes any difference at all, but it makes us feel special. I will wear my nice dress.

Me Me Me

Cute "Sugar Skull" and "Heart" brooches by London designer Jade Gallup, aka "Me Me Me".
Website/online shop HERE.

Happy

I just finished drawing this yesterday and it makes me happy (just in case you don't look at my flickr account and didn't see it I wanted to show you).

It hailed last night and there were lots of car alarms going off.

Bandit Shirt

Dear everyone who does not live in Wellington,
Swonderful is a lovely shop here and now they have an online shop so you can buy nice clothing from their label Papercup (such as the bandit shirts with print by Devon Smith pictured below) as well as other nice things.

(photos from HERE)

Animal Fun Time

Just saw this fantastic purse and had to tell you. I like how serious he is. HERE.

I patted the best little pup ever today. He was so cute and soft and ewok-like. I wish I could have brought him home.

Also I made a new drawing. I have to scan it in.

Miss you

Dear old friends and acquaintances, email me you postal address and I will send you letters and such things.


(Not Leo or Imogen or Maddie though, I just posted letters to you guys yesterday :)

Short hair.

I'm now halfway there with having long wild girl hair, but golly I sometimes miss how easy it was to have hair the length I had it in 2008. I liked the attitude that came along with it too...

In regards to "gigs" in New Zealand...

You can even say the above title in the accent if you would like.

The band who plays before the band who plays before the headline band starts playing at 11pm. I get really tired, and it also means that I can't go out to listen to bands on a weeknight otherwise I'll be too tired to work the next day. I would like to do something about this but I don't really know where to start. Perhaps organising events somewhere where we don't care to make as much money as possible from alcohol sales? I don't know. I just don't think it's very supportive of people who want to have bands, because it equates to there only being Friday and Saturday nights when anyone goes out to see "gigs".

Love Frankie

Frankie Magazine has a "guest curator" article on Etsy's Storque blog today, featuring work from such fantastic makers as Mel Stringer, Pin Pals, and little old me. Hurrah.

Did I also mention that Frankie are sponsoring the Auckland Art and Craft fair which is coming up in July? So exciting!

Scans from art from the very recent past (yay! Scanner)

(the paper pieces they are on are bigger than can fit on the scanner hence a like blurriness and them not being the whole images, but yeah, moths and beetles.)

Issue 2.

Is complete. I feel a bit better after that.

(28 pages, on lilac coloured paper)

I put it in my Etsy shop, but I suggest clicking this button instead:

Get a little saw.

...and some wood and nails and a hammer. Make some little planter boxes for the balcony and prop them onto bricks for drainage. Soil, seeds, and scare away the birds.

Start something. Finish it.

Auckland Art and Craft Fair Applications

If you are an artist/crafter and live in Auckland/the North Island/some other part of New Zealand, you should apply for the Auckland Art & Craft fair at Auckland Art Gallery. Its a good chance to be involved in a more professional craft fair in a great location. It's happening on the 24th of July, but applications close real soon (14th May) so be quick. More info for people who want to come to the fair later!!!

Colour and Self Indulgence.

At the moment I am interested in blocks of transparent colour. I don't know what for yet, but they seem like they will be vital for something.

I bought a scanner yesterday, so I will most likely be able to post more images on my blog/various other internet places again now. Feeling a bit more motivated than I have been (good news!), seems like gears beginning to turn again (do I always say that?) (yes).

Not to be weird and totally go back on what I said previously (although I am totally ok with that, everyone should be willing/able to change what they think or say at a moments notice depending on the information that is available to them) but I think having things (scanner, new cardigan, comic books made by nice girls) sometimes does help. I mean, I really liked the freedom of having nothing, and if I was to move countries again anytime soon, I would most definitely try to whittle my life down to one blue suitcase again, but... sometimes restricting what I have to the bare essentials means that I'm not so confident because I have to explain myself or something when people don't understand.

Oh, and... I went to this party thing on the weekend, and out of 50 guests, I was the only person who didn't eat meats. I could go on about this for hours, but I won't.

...one last thing then I'll leave the house... I kind of started this blog as a business/art sort of thing. Promotion or whatever. I still sort of use it for that, but it is nice to be able to say/post what I think/like to people who appreciate it. Oftentimes in real life I say things and no-one hears them, only later they will come to the same conclusion by themselves. Or they are to overwhelmed by looking at how small I am (really!.. I don't think I'm that small) and saying I'm cute to even take seriously what I am trying to tell them. Not complaining, just saying I like having a blog for that, especially since I haven't made much art recently, where I can put what I'm trying to say into my title poems and you will know that I made it for you if you can put the fragments together and they spell out something for you.

Transparent colour blocks, doors, broken doors, small pieces of metal and paper. Lines and scratches. WORK!!!

Jim Nutt

I first saw Jim Nutt's work when I was in Chicago and find it so interesting. Oddly contemporary looking too. The technique he uses in some of his paintings of applying acrylic paint to the back of plexiglass creates the flattest colour surface ever. Hypnotically flat.
"your so coarse (tish tish)" (etching on handmade paper, 1977) from here"Toot n' Toe" (acrylic and plexiglass, 1969) from here"Sally Slips Bye-Bye" (acrylic on Plexiglass, 1972) from here

p.s if you happen to live in Chicago, he's having his first exhibition in more than 10 years early 2011 at the MCA.

Sale

I haven't found the time to adjust the prices of everything in my shop back to full price yet, so everything is still 20% off, until I end up sitting down and changing them back. As the above sign says. Just thought you should know.

Anyway, It's been a pretty long day for me (sunny and kind of warm though, so that was good), and I'm going to make a cup of tamarillo and honey tea and read a book about animal hibernation.

mmm drinks.

"A Cup" notebooks from Bold Ideas.

SHOP HERE
BLOG HERE

Sales...

Ok so maybe the just because is that I'm having a sale so that I can buy some new t shirts, but, anyway, yeah, original art, prints, etc, all 20% off. HERE.

(pet commissions are also on sale too)

Thinking about movies... (this took me ages to write for some reason)

(image from "Stranger than Paradise", via Bonjour Girl)

So lately I've been thinking a lot about movies I like, and trying to find new ones to watch that might be interesting (how do I learn about foreign language films that are good?), as I'm running low on "popular"/easily found movies that I haven't seen yet (also, after a recent Harmony Korine enthrallment, watching his old films over again, finally getting around to watching Ken Park, I have been left hoping that I can somehow find out where I watch Trash Humpers as soon as possible).

I used to really be into films and stuff, but as I started focusing on drawing and traveling that was pushed to the side. Not forgotten, but I stopped actively seeking out new films and going to film festivals and so on. I think maybe films and real life and culture and junk can really inform and be inspiring, so in regards to my art, to restrict myself to only look at and produce static, 2 dimensional images might not be the best idea. Not that I'm going to start making movies or anything anytime soon (although there is that play I've been working on for years...) but as inspiration I needs them.

Anyway, along the lines of inspirations etc, here's a list of some of some favourite movies that you might like to watch if you haven't seen them, and if you have any suggestions for anything I might like that would be great too!

Ok, so...

Badlands
Cremaster Series (can't remember which one was my favourite. May have to have an art film/don't sleep until I find myself in a strange hypnotic zombie state weekend and re-watch)
Deliverence
Eraserhead
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Gerry
Ghost World
Groundhog Day
Let the Right One In
Logans Run
Lost in Translation
Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind
No Country for Old Men
Rear Window
Shortbus
Silent Running
Stranger than Paradise
Taxi Driver (yes, went through Di Niro phase)
The Life Aquatic
The Proposition
There Will Be Blood
THX 1138
Virgin Suicides
Wild Zero (although I haven't seen it in ages, so maybe I wouldn't like it now that I'm not a teen?)

and... ever though they are kind of silly "blockbuster" films, I really did like I am Legend and District 9. Maybe you should give them another chance?

I've left heaps of films that I like out as well, and I can never remember the names foreign language films I've seen, or of artists who I've seen their films at galleries. I really like that sort of abstract/noisy/fragmented art stuff too (well if it is good, not soooo keen on art films about loving your female body and rubbing yourself in paint and licking it off sort of way unless it's somehow amazing).

Eh... when I look at the list above it seems so plain and predictable. Hopefully at least one of these films is new to you.

from Sarah

video

H Magazine

My lovebird brooch/hand was featured in the latest issue of the Spanish publication H magazine. High res version of the magazine is here.

World Sweet World

The latest/last issue of World Sweet World magazine is now available (well it has been for a few weeks but I've only just taken some pics) and it features illustrations by me AND a great cover that Devon did. The poster is everywhere in town (as it is a Wellington-based magazine) and it is nice and yay.

(ooooh Devon has good painty skills)

In other news, had a job interview this morning. You know when you are go through something completely in your mind, research heaps, are utterly prepared and not particularly nervous because of this, then are so ridiculously fumbly and seemingly unorganised that you wonder if some sort of child-like gnome took over your body for about 12 minutes? That was me. Ahhhh. At least it's the weekend tomorrow. There's a little farmers market that sells nice baked goods and coffee and chesse and such so maybe I'll go there.

video...

Fun

About two weeks ago I got some really pretty silver necklaces from NZ designer Chasing Rabbit (also known as Bree Dentice). They are so sweet and delicate (there is even a hint of the woodgrain on the matchsticks!), now I just have to get a sewing machine so I can make lots of pretty outfits to wear them with.
(In my best dress and all of them and legs)
("Firestarter" and "Burn to Forget" necklaces)
("Tooth" Pendant)

How to do it...

Ah. I see.

Stuart Richards

So I was meandering through the various darkened laneways of the internet this afternoon and came across Stuart Richards' amazing beetle sculptures. I really like beetles, which already gives them points, but I also love the way these are so realistic, but somehow manage to contain artistic expression, like they have been thought about for a long time, and cared for.


Stuart has a website and a shop (!).

Tomorrow night...

Officially opens tomorrow night at 1000 £ Bend, 361 Little Lonsdale Street (7-11pm).

Kitty News

Arabian sand cats are my favourite wild cats.

In Porcelain....

You might remember a few months ago when I wrote about some illustrations I made for a range of porcelain jewelery for Corky Saint Clair. Well, I've been sent a few of them to sell in my shop! I've only been sent a few, so get in quick before I decide to keep them all for myself.Fawn Brooch (wearing a bow tie to match his spots)

Owl Brooch (in tuxedo)

Totally excellent too bad I live in another country...

So...
All the details:

It's a group show for Melbourne Fashion Week (with 60 other artists!!), opening officially on Friday 12th March at 1000 £ Bend at 7pm, and the work will be in vending machines around the city on the following dates...

Monday 1st March - Saturday 6th March at Craft Victoria, 31 Flinders Lane

Tuesday 8th March - Saturday 13th March, Captains of Industry, Level 1, 2 Somerset Place

Monday 15th March - Sunday 21st March, Alice Euphemia, shop 6, Cathedral Arcade, 37 Swanston street

Monday 22nd March - Sunday 31st March... at a mystery spot

Wish I could come!