I went to the beach!

There was seaweed. A lot of it. And it stank to high heaven. My baby Nikon died after about ten minutes of being there  (I never ever remember to charge batteries!) so I only managed to get a few half-decent photos.

Rest in peace

Dandelion.

I took this a couple of days ago...

Do you like drinking tea?

And good blogs? Check out this bad boy http://designingontea.tumblr.com/ by Chris, who did the same Foundation course as me. Us York students are amazing. End of :) 

The saga of the sculpture.

It begins with me skipping to college one sunny Friday morning (and I never usually go in on a Friday!) to put the finishing touches to my 9ft high masterpiece made from pastel coloured plastic balls (of the kind you find in children's ball pools) together. I spent roughly three hours completing it, picking excess glue off it, generally tidying up. I then snapped a couple of pictures on my phone and headed off - happy with the knowledge that I had finished a week before the deadline.

The following Monday I went to college armed with my trusty Nikon and decided to wait until lunchtime to capture my masterpiece in all its glory as the rooms would be quieter then... big mistake. My sculpture was stood on by someone rushing through the studio! It swayed pretty dramatically and I honestly thought that it was going to fall over - but no...it steadied itself and I examined it nervously. All seemed OK so I sat back down and continued with my sketchbook work.

Two minutes later I hear a cracking noise but no-one around me seemed to notice it. I tell myself I'm being paranoid and get back to work. I hear it again and this time Bex helpfully tells me that I'm cracking up. She shuts up pretty fast as another loud ominous crack splits the air. we all turn to look at my sculpture and notice that whilst we have been gossiping it has been doing a passable Leaning Tower of Pisa impression. And as we watch it begins to slowly lean further as a gap begins to widen near its base.

We dismantle it and I try not to worry. Its just a little crack, I'll glue it up.

But oh no, as I quickly realised when I went in two days later that because one part of my sculpture was now weaker it had collapsed in upon itself. The balls had imploded. So I essentially had to rebuild my sculpture. Steve - him of infallibly good advice - said to make the base shorter and fatter and the top a little shorter. So I followed his flawless plan and glue gunned madly, giving myself quite a nasty burn in the process. And this is the end result...I wasn't happy with it. But it was OK. I was finished a day before the deadline, which meant I could go back and refine it the next day.

                                                

On the morning of the deadline I walked into college to find this...

                              

I honestly didn't know wether to laugh or cry at this point. I think it was only the fact that it looks very like a dick at this point that saved me from hysterics. Steve, him of astounding wisdom, offered this pearl of advice 'Stop standing there and get to work!!' Thanks Steve but I'd worked that one out for myself, I just didn't have a clue what to do. Due to its rebuilding and reworking the sculpture now obviously needed an internal structure - but I didn't have time to make one or rebuild it -  with the deadline three hours away! Luckily I had  my tutor Chris on hand who suggested glue gunning the top half to a wooden easel and making the bottom stretch up to meet it. He also said I should build it into a corner....for extra support. So with Bex, Anna and Zara all helping out we made a makeshift sculpture from a jigsaw of all the broken parts. I am definitely not happy with this... I was so excited and proud of the first sculpture but due to a series of accidents I think I can kiss a distinction good bye. Oh well, throughout the Foundation Year I've had fun and learnt a few important life lessons - the most important being, never listen to a man named Steve.

                                               

More from college.

The last image is of one of my favourite pieces in the Fine Art room. Kathryn cut all the countries out of a large laminated map of the world and put them in a giant fish bowl full of water. The map with the cut out countries was mounted in plexi glass and displayed behind the fish bowl. When viewed from afar it was really professional looking, and when you moved nearer it was so intriguing to look into the bowl and realise what was there. I ♥ it!! 

Lovely Legs!

Found this on Anne Berneckers site - I love this girls leggies!! Her tattoos are inspired by medieval imagery and I think they are beautiful. 

Details from College!

Its my second to last day and I am so so so excited to finish. Its been a great year but very busy and tiring with the journey there and back very day...I will be so happy not to have any more 6:30 am starts! I've been very busy this week... my sculpture BROKE and with tomorrow being the deadline I've spent today gluegunning so much I have blisters :(

Photos of my sculpture will follow but for now here's a few pictures from today! 

In a few days I'm going to go crazy.

And post a whole load of my work.

 

Taxidermy.

I'm becoming a little bit obsessed with it...however I feel slightly very guilty about taking pleasure in something which has encouraged so much pointless killing of animals. When researching it on the internet I always make a point to discover wether the artist uses animals that have died naturally - or were humanly put down because they were in pain. However, I do think that if the taxidermy is 'vintage' then it should be bought and enjoyed. If an animal has died to create this piece of art in years gone by then we should appreciate it. I have the same opinion on vintage fur...an animal died to create that coat!! I would never buy fur from a current designer, but I feel differently against vintage pieces. Anyway...enough of my chatter. These are vintage taxidermy pieces of rabbit sex organs. 

The Idiots.

This piece - entitled Ophelia - is a collaboration between Dutch artists Afke Godstelijn, Ruben Taneja and Floris Bakker. The top half of the lioness is a beautifully taxidermied piece dissolving into globules of seemingly molton gold.  The lioness appears to be peacefully sleeping - perhaps insinuating that she is dissolving into a dream? Or is it a remark on the gold trade of Africa? Either way I think that this is a beautiful piece of taxidermy and indeed work of art. 

Dead days.

Beautiful.

(PULP art book)

.

It's raining it's pouring!

I was poorly sick at home in bed, when I notice that it's tipping it down. So what do I do? Instead of snuggling up with a cup of tea I pull on my trusty wellington boots and head out into the back garden to take pictures of the frog-ridden pond. Complete with the obligatory plastic balls... 

I'm pretty happy with these photos, I've decided that my final piece for this year isn't going to follow this line - purely because what I have planned will look better exhibited - but all of these 'ball' images are going to form a little book :) 

Fuck Fashion.

Lets Smoke Menthols.

Oh Alison how I love you.

Sitting in rivers in brand-new jeans!

So recently I've been making hollow balls out of cling film and sellotape and floating them down rivers. This has resulting in what are some of my favourite ever photos that I've taken! I deliberately tinted them to look slightly off-coloured and am considering taking more photos with a disposable or even a polaroid camera - just because I want that 'untouched' look. It seems very relevant to me - I'm interfering with nature by placing these artificial objects into the water but then I'm documenting the process in the most lowtech way possible. I like creating art thats made with disposable items, I think it's a much more modern and relevant way of working.  

I think that the top one is my favourite! I am definitely having a cheeky skive from college sometime in the near future in order to take more photos like these.

A bit of recent work.

I'm not really too fond of this. I liked the idea of the body with its deformed shoulder but the physicality of it wasn't quite what I was aimed for. However, this is one of my first forages into creating a 3D piece and overall I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I'm thinking of working into it further and building the shoulder up even more.

The photographs came out quite well considering it was the  fuiji that I was using but again I'm not happy with them. Just didn't have the impact that I wanted. 

If I could purr....

I'd be purring right now. Actually, scratch that. I can purr! Its one of my lesser known talents. I found this on the ksubi website under their 'projects' section. Why have I never found this before? There is some killer stuff on there!

The King Blues

I'd forgotten how much I loved these guys. 





And these....today has been  a good music day!

I'm sorry :(

That I've been neglecting my little blog. I feel a bit like a bad parent, I don't even have a half decent excuse other than it's been a stressful couple of weeks. Then today its my day off and I've woken up at half past seven and decided that today is going to be a productive day! I don't really know if blogging counts as being productive but ah well c'est la vie!

I found this on http://www.gnarlitude.com/... amazing blog, I love it to bits. Anyway I'm not really interested in Urban Outfitters Back Lot Performances (whatever they are) I just liked the jumbled up phrase that made up the flyer/poster. Its being jotted down in a notebook as I type for future use. 

Sick.

(Image courtesy of gnarlitude.com)

I love it. What a statement. 

This may not be permanent....

But I just joined Formspring! Ask away... 

http://www.formspring.me/becqui

xxx

Hello March!!

I love this Tom Ford Eyewear advert. Glasses are Sexy. End of.

Yet more dolls....

After the fiasco that was Leeds I decided that I'd better get a shibby on with some more work before my Manchester Interview (if I get one...fingers crossed!) so I took some photos of the dolls I've made in a Hans-Bellmerish way. I would post more images but Glee is calling me, so here's my favourite one of the day!

So I had an interview...

...at Leeds Met. during which my interviewer said I couldn't draw, didn't like my photography and rejected everything that wasn't drawing or painting. We then argued over whether or not I was a feminist. I think it went quite well don't you?

I've decided who to do my essay on....

Cindy Sherman - she's most widely known for her Untitled Film Stills, in which she photographs herself portraying various female stereotypes from 50's B-list Hollywood movies. However I find her later work more interesting, such as these also Untitled images which have become known as 'Sex Pictures'. Sherman wanted to explore how women are depicted in pornography, how they are objectified and placed on screen. By replacing women with these prosthetic dummies and body parts the images are no less shocking but instead they disgust the viewer - a conflict with the idea of pornography which needs to hold a persons gaze in order to succeed. 

Pin-up tattoos and ukuleles.

These images are all from a pin-up blog I found....I'm sorry I can't remember the exact address! I have always loved pin-up tattoos - especially sailors and pirate girls, there's a lovely old man named 'Leggy' who lives a few streets down from me with boobs out pin-ups all up and down his arms and I think he looks pretty awesome. (He also drives around in a beat up pick-up truck and owns about 24 dogs - a real character). My favourite is the very top one, a beautiful lady tattooed on a lady! I love the irony of pin-up girls tattooed on women - I wish I was brave enough! 

Now for the ukuleles... I had what was possibly the best dream of my life last night. In it I learnt how to play the song 'Louie Louie' - Toots and the Maytals version - on my brothers ukulele and decided it was a wise idea to play (and sing) it at a pub in town... in my dream this didn't go down to well with my friends. I then decided to play 'I Fought the Law...' by The Clash and dance around pretty manically to cheer them up. It didn't work so they took to ingesting large qualities of illegal substances. We then all wandered along to Aspire, me carting along the ukulele - wheedled our way past the bouncers then proceeded to get kicked out. Words can't describe what an amazing dream it was. Fear and Loathing in Thirsk. 

Alison Mosshart.

I have always loved Mosshart's style I think she's the perfect blend of rock and roll edgy chic. The first picture is my favourite, I think I actually may have to copy that outfit.....