Say hello to my new Lomography Diana F+ analogue camera! I've been wanting one for ages and thank goodness my christmas hinting has worked! Yes, it looks amaaazing (En Rose) but they also take killer photos. Theres some sort sparkle with old film cameras that digital doesn't have. You take the photo, CLICK, wind the film and waaait that long wait until the film has run out and you bring it into the ole photo shop. The suspense! And what's more, this little plastic beauty comes with different coloured gels to put into the flash so the pictures can come out different colours! I'm going to use it to take pictures of my memory objects for my memory box. There's something that brings me back to those days of using a film camera. It remind me of my first (okay, second. The first had the doomed fate of being accidentally flushed down the toilet..) little camera and how I'd run around taking pictures of any little pretty thing that took my fancy. I love that this project gives me an excuse to rediscover and 'sense' these things of my childhood.

Christmas holidaaays!

So that's it, semester one has come to an end. Well, kind of... It's really not complete to me until after our assesment which starts this day three weeks.(!!!) I have some serious work to do but luckily I've gotten off to a good start and worked a bit on my contextual notebook over the weekend. I really need to gather some more artists to look at, currently running a bit short..
Of course, the most important thing is to work on my initial idea (including working in some more 3D and digital) and develop what I'm gonna display for assement. At the moment I'm developing some ideas of how I'm going to display that whole concept of nostalgia for a space. A space existing somewhere you're not, but also existing in other forms. What I love about the direction my project's gone in lately is that I'm genuinely excited about it! Something I found was missing from my project a few weeks ago. We'll see how it goes! :)

My workspace today!

 

CCS visual notebook

 My favorite page! ^

Here are some of the pages from my CCS visual notebook. I thought I was a good idea, getting us to do this instead of an essay. Susan told us that I had to be largely visual so I was interesting, I thought, trying to find a way to express the artists we studied on a page. Although it was pretty rushed in the end, I did put alot into it - hopefully the grade shows!

Godess experiences

While rooting through some charity shops in rainy Limerick city centre last friday, i found a gem! I love trawling through charity shops, particularly through the books and magazines section. Cuz you never know what you might find. I picked up a lovely book on art and archictecture on Rome, but then I spotted a luminous acid-pink floral design on a black background. I was going to buy it for its cover but I flickered through it anyway. Bright illustrated pages, topics varying between travel, fashion, food and art .. interviews with Damien Hirst, Vivienne Westwood and pages about hotel chandeliers- it was quite the find. And how much? A euro. Yep!
 And the next day, the unlikely happened. Christmas shopping with my family in Kilkenny and once again I couldnt resist the little charity shops lined along the buterslip. Aaaand what did I find? Yus, the first 'Godess Guide' book. Three euro, a little steeper than its sequel, but I suppose it's hardback.....

Obviously in the past three days I haven't exactly read them cover to cover, but I have practically brought them everywhere I go. Just in case I get the chance for some tea, a chocolate chip biscuit and a good ole read ya know.... Plus they gave me mega inspiration for my CSS notebook which was handed up yesterday. Win win!

Space with, then without.

A piece I did today after talking to Des.
I got an old picture of my dad and I on Titahi Bay beach when we used to live there. With precision I cut out around us, and our shadows and left the remaining photo on a blank white page. I stuck us, the figures onto another white page. For me it depicts being in a space, then leaving the space, but the space still existing. People can move from one space to another, but that space still exists, albeit without its previous inhabitants. Its a cool concept that I really must plan more artwork around. Maybe I'll paint the first picture, of the beach without us, in the candy bright that remind me of the space when I'm not there.. the childish colours that tint my memory of the space. The candy coloured corruption of the true existence.

Ice-cream drippy prints!

 

Last night I was up late with the flu.. but on the bright side I got some drippy, glittery watercolour ice cream prints! I made a stencil (above) first in the general shape of an ice-cream cone. Then I made a palette of those particular acid-y colours that I've decided bring be back to my youthful days. I watered up the colours, then, using different base colours for different cones, dripped and drizzled the other colours (including gold and glitter) down the ice cream part of the cone. I did a few prints leaving out the cone part to see what I would look like with just the ice cream. Not sure what my tutors will think of the prints - but I really liked how they came out!

'Ice Cream Colours' by Yuvali, 6.

 

This is genuinely one of the most beautiful pieces of art I have seen in a while. I came across it while scanning through pinterest. It's called 'Ice Cream Colours' and is by a six year old named Yuvali. And thats the extent of my knowlegde on the the piece. Was it in an exhibition? Done at school? On a fridge in a home?

I think it appeals to me because it's fulls of that playfulness of being a child. It is of colours that remind me of sweet wrappers, Barbie cars, budgie wings and ice cream. These are the colours that bring me back to that place when I was six.

That hazy palette of years gone by...

 

I went home this weekend and dug through some old photo albums. Im thinking about those colours that remind me of being young - that over-tone that hangs upon my memories -  and edited these photos adding colour and frames.