face on my paint

Today I put paint all over my face.

It was well fun.

elephant shows me nice things

Today I was off school after spending all of last night nearly throwing up. But anyway, this led me to spending all day sleeping and reading Elephant magazine. It is so so so good and now I'm looking at the website to find stuff from past issues. I have found some really cool collage artists.

I've always loved collage, and create my own virtual ones on polyvore. I really think it's such an underrated art form and has that essence of "I could have done that myself". But the thing is, anybody can cut out a picture and stick it down, but there's such art in creating something beautiful from just a few images and the composition of something so visually interesting is a real skill. 

These guys I found have that skill and are true artists.

First up is the amazing Sergei Sviatchenko, who takes the belief that "most photomontage work seems overcooked and hesitant: it usually looks as if the artist is striving for reality". A point of view I agree with whole-heartedly, I really don't think we have seen any true photo-montage artists since the Dada movement with Hannah Hoch. It's refreshing to see such a minimal, simplistic approach to collage. My favourite of his pieces are from his pop-up style series "The Soft Parade, 2006" He also keeps a fashion/photography blog which is very popular and equally, perfectly minimalistic and concentrated. He's a definite new favourite of mine.

 

From 'The Soft Parade, 2006'

 From various 'Less' series

From 3D series 'lighting of the property II, 2009'

My other new favourite person is Sean Mackaoui, a photomontage artist also specialising in animation. His website is to die for, with so many brilliant interactive features. To view one of his works on a larger scale, you have to drop it through a factory style machine for it to be rollered and fed out the other side! And on entering the site, you are greeted with a swinging trapeze artist to jump on your chosen country. His work is just as playful and humorous as his website. Viewing his work in this way can get a bit tedious, but it's worth it....here's a little taster to save you the bother...

Thanks for popping by :)

my coat means good things

So for my birthday i got this beauty of a coat which i am totally in love with.

It's from topshop and they're calling it a "boyfriend coat" because it's blatantly exactly like I've just nicked it from my fancy man...

And lucky for me, i have just read an article on the guardian website by style guru Jess Cartner-Morley, otherwise known as the lady who stands knocked kneed with nice clothes on next to the measure in the guardian weekend magazine who I take every single word she says as a truth I must abide to.

So I was very pleased to hear what she said about my coat:
"Mannish coat

If a leather sleeve says Grazia, an oversized androgynous classic wool coat says Italian Vogue. This is not necessarily better: your message may be more high-end, but on the other hand you lose 80% of your audience because most people won't understand what your coat is trying to tell them. Your gamble. A simply cut wool coat is the equivalent of having a self-imposed uniform of, say, black trousers and a white shirt. It makes you look low-maintenance in a disciplined, cerebral way rather than merely scruffy."

Exactly how I want to look.

Cheers Jess, I shouldn't follow what you say, but everytime I hear you like my clothes, I am proud.

hello there

I got ridiculously drunk at the weekend and did silly things. I've spent about £35 on drink this past week because I'm allowed now. Not a good move, kids. You do silly things.

Well, now it's time to talk about a nice thing I have found. I haven't really found anything though because I've been too busy getting drunk and then recovering and being embarrased, so here is a picture of an elephant ghost.

It's actually a piece of art by Colleen Nika called "Expectations surrounding adult Halloween costumes run way too high."

I very like it because it's silly and this weekend is all about silly.

pipilottie rist

I've fallen in love with this woman's work.
I was introduced to her through my lovely new book "100 contemporary artists" which I initially got to clue myself up for art school interviews but I have found so many inspiring artists through reading it cover to cover. One of these being swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, who's work consists mainly of film projections, but in a completely unconventional way. they fill the entire room, immersing you into this dream land - a new reality. The colours are hyper-real and visceral as is are the images - close ups of vulvae juxtaposed with swimming naked bodies. The films aren't built to shock, but to put you into a different state of mind. In an interview with artbabble she described the viewer as "a blood corpuscle...enter[ing] the various veins...there are things exchanged".

I am desperate to experience this immersing melancholia she creates in her work and I am ecstatic that she is right now exhibiting her work in the Hayward gallery of the Southbank Centre. It's on until 8th January, meaning i can visit it when I go to London at the end of the month! I am so excited and don't care that it will cost me £10+

I have to go to school now. Bye non-existents.

Here is some nice stuff...

 

it's fun making posts on here - and marques toliver

Blogging on here is a lot better than blogging on tumblr, it's all my own stuff, it feels more real, like I'm actually creating something not just mindlessly "liking" and "reblogging". The word "reblog" shouldn't even exist-it makes no sense. The oxford definition of blog is 'to add new material to or regularly update a blog'...you can't re-add new material. It's really stupid and I'm doing it proper now like.

Talking of Oh Comely reminded me of my new musical obsession as well. An article in Oh Comely with an interview with him got me intrigued about him and when I actually looked him up, I was hooked. His name is Marques Toliver and he's a violinist. His mahogony sessions are just epic. It's the type of music which is good background music, but too truely hear it, it's amazing if you just turn all your lights off, turn it up and bask. That's the sign of true musicianship I think. He is so talented. He performs with just him and his violin and it's beautiful. He has a really soulful voice and that against the violin which he plays in a really raw way are unexpectedly perfect together.

Also he's really cool and very pretty.

Take a listen you people who aren't here.

mmm that's nice

bye now

my elephant's arrived

For my birthday my wonderful aunty and uncle gave me a subscription to the brilliant 'ELEPHANT' magazine. It accidently got sent to their house all the way in yorkshire so I had to wait a little while but it arrived and it is oh so perfect.

There's a really great feature on minimilist-esque art called 'simple+easy' - not the stupid empty stuff which people say has deep meaning, when it's just crap really - proper minimilst art. It's mainly graphical style which I'm normally not too keen on, but this stuff is really striking.

Just the whole layout of the whole thing and the way it's put together is exactly how a magazine should be. All the adverts in it are like articles in their own right, little pieces of artwork. And it's bound so it feels like you should treasure it, it doesn't have that throw-away nature that nearly all magazines have nowadays. However, I can tell that it's not going to be pristing by the time I'm finished with it. I has officially beaten my old favourite 'Oh Comely' in best magazine. It's like a book. I would say I can't wait for my next issue, but I've got to much to get through right now that I think it will last me til next season when the next issue's out.

Over and out non-existent strangers.