Monday Musings... Matthias Jung

Apologies for the late Monday Musings post, I was pulling a 14 hour shift yesterday. I came across the surreal collages of Matthias Jung when I was trawling the internet for interesting building pics. Jung creates collages of structures in situations that couldn't exist in real life. Definitely worth a look! 

Monday Musings: Mood Indigo

Last night I went along to the Glasgow Film Festival to see Mood Indigo. Michel Gondry's recent film was released in France in 2013 but premiered at the Glasgow Film Theatre last night.

I absolutely love Gondry's music videos and of course Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind so I was very excited about Mood Indigo. The film is an adaptation of a novel by Boris Vian.

The plot is very much a boy meets girl tale but Chloe (Audrey Tatou) ends up very ill because of a waterlily growing in her lung. Husband, Colin (Romain Duris) spends his last pennies trying to cure her illness. The story is very straightforward but the visual aspects of the film are where Gondry's attention has clearly been focused. The image above shows the couple taking a trip around Paris in a mechanical cloud and is very typical of the eccentric aesthetics of the film.

I would love to say that the film was beautifully emotive from beginning to end but unfortunately it wasn't the case. The quirkiness of the props was overbearing and often hard to follow. The charm often associated with Gondry's handmade props and stop frame animation was too much and at times came across as someone spending a great deal of money trying to create a 'handmade' look. The story became lost and by the end I didn't feel enough connection to the characters to be upset at their plight.

I think I was maybe expecting too much from the film and potentially judged it quite harshly. I have a knack of doing that when I love an artist or film-maker. The film is definitely worth seeing and maybe on a second viewing I might change my mind!

What do you guys think? Has anyone seen it?

Crafty Exploits... Colour Themed Photography

I've been experimenting with some colour themed photography to try and combine images of my jewellery with something a bit different.

Here are my first two efforts. There'll be more to come when I have more time (sigh).... Ha I just don't ever have enough time to do everything I want to do!

Photography

I can't remember if I shared this with you all before but I originally studied Fine Art Photography at Glasgow School of Art. I've always liked to dip in and out of different art mediums but I did really enjoy my time focussed on photography. It's strange to think back now that digital wasn't really on anyone's mind- we had three computers with photoshop on them for the whole department. I was more interested in using medium format cameras because I like the hands on process. I processed my own film and printed in a colour darkroom, I feel really lucky to have been able to do that.

I have always been interested in how people collect items and how we use them in our homes. I completed a project that looked at how we spend lifetimes decorating homes that don't belong to us. In Glasgow we have many areas that are populated with housing provided by local councils and when people pass away there is a very short time period (a couple of weeks) for families to clear the home, leaving no trace. The following images were taken in these homes... if you would like to see more check out my photography section here.

Monday Musings: Botanical Wallpaper

(via Pinterest)

I adore eclectic homes and although my home has a touch of this style it's not as much as I would hope. My husband and I share a lot of things in common but my penchant for bold colours/patterns isn't one of them! When I see images like the one above where people have gone all out for a bold style I absolutely love it and also have a wee touch of jealousy.

Enjoy...

Monday Musings: Habitat 67

Check out this amazing complex in Montreal. At first glance it looks to me like a pile of shoe boxes. If you want to read more about the project you can check out the website here.

Enjoy the rest of your Monday!

Monday Musings: Beautiful Bookstore

I was doing a bit of research for my new collection of jewellery and I came across an image of this amazing bookstore in Aix en Provence, France. A bookstore made out of books- awesome!

My husband and I had been chatting recently about the whole idea of what place bookstores and libraries would have in a digital world. I have to admit I do have a Kindle simply for the fact that my books were either too bulky or getting trashed in my bag on the way to work. However when it comes to books that I would read over and over or art related books I definitely stick to a hard copy.

I remember when I was still at school, Borders bookshop opened in Glasgow and it was so amazing to be able to browse all of their specialist magazines and art books however that was probably part of their demise in that no-one ever bought anything!

Anyway the upshot of our chat was that if hard copies of books are still to remain of value to people they will need to come in limited editions with beautifully designed covers by contemporary designers/artists and bookshops will have to offer an experience and atmosphere that can't be rivalled by buying a digital copy from a website. I felt that even a couple of years before a lot of the bookstores in Glasgow closed down they weren't places that you wanted to spend time in, they were becoming very corporate. I think that small bookstores are attractive when they feel like a bit of an Aladdin's cave and the owner of the shop sells books because they love them.

That was a bit of a long musing so I decided to cut myself off before I had written an essay!

Inspiration: Giacomo Favilla

I love Origami and love it when artists use two different mediums in their work. So when I came across Giacomo Favilla's work I was instantly drawn to the 'One of Us' project involving models wearing different origami masks designed by Francesca Lombardi. I think most people are used to the cute side of origami but I enjoyed how disturbing some of the portraits were dependent on the style of mask worn.

Enjoy...

Monday Musings: Fingerprint Building

Okay so I know it's technically Sunday evening but I won't be anywhere near a computer tomorrow so i'm being a wee bit cheeky and posting the Monday Musings post tonight!

I use fingerprints in my work quite a lot and when I came across this building in Thailand I just had to share it with you all.

I bet it's not quite as interesting inside but i'd like to think the interior reflected the design of the exterior a little bit. Unfortunately it's not actually a real design so don't get too excited!

Inspiration: Emily Blincoe

I was browsing online and came across the work of artist/photographer Emily Blincoe. I completely fell in love with her images of items neatly organised into colour groups. I love images like this, they remind me of Wes Anderson films.

You can check out more of her work on her website.

Enjoy!

Inspiration: Button Pics

While I was in Tokyo a couple of years ago we went to some amazing galleries and managed to see a lot of contemporary artists working in Japan at the moment. I was constantly taking pictures the whole time and I came across these pictures which I thought you all might like.

This is actually stills from a stop frame animation created using buttons. That's my excuse for the pictures being a bit wonky! Unfortunately I didn't manage to find the name of the artist so if anyone knows it please comment below...

Monday Musings: Vintage Cameras

Image via Etsy shop AndreKart available here

Don't know whether it's my background in photography or my love of a bit of nostalgia but I really miss cameras that have film in them!

Please don't get me wrong I love the convenience of digital and the cost saving but I also miss the anticipation of waiting for my film to be processed. One of my favourite things is looking through my mum's biscuit tins full of family photos and finding all of the dodgy pictures, y'know the ones with plants growing out of peoples heads, overly white faces from a bright flash and tops of heads cut off. I don't know how much we'll come across images like that in the future when everyone often deletes a 'bad' pic.

I say hang onto your dodgy pictures for future generations' amusement!

Inspiration: Tokyo

 

Apologies for not posting over the past few days. I've been working on some new drawings and embroideries which i'll share with you soon!

 

In the meantime, I thought I would share some snaps from my travels to Japan. To be honest I took over 600 photographs while we were in Tokyo so count yourself lucky I've edited it down for this post...

 

 

The images below are of the large, famous fish market in the middle of Tokyo. You have to go really early to visit since it opens at 4am. We headed along for 6am on the first day of our trip since we were trying to get over jet lag. It turned out it was a national holiday so the place was deserted. Although we went back a few days later when it was busy, I definitely preferred the photographs from this trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

The image below is from the main entrance to the shopping district in Harajuku. I was completely overwhelmed at the number of people in this area on a Tuesday morning! 

 

 

Despite all of the photographs I took on my trip I don't think I ever managed to capture how light the streets were at night time with neon signs. This is an image from the main street in Ginza. Ginza is an expensive shopping district where the shop window displays were a sight in themselves. 

 

Couldn't really go to Japan and not get a photograph in of some sushi. Definitely better than the supermarket packs i'm used to here in the UK!

This image was from a viewing tower in the centre of Tokyo- you can see 360 degrees around the city.

We visited a contemporary art gallery located on the top floor of a shopping centre. Some of the artworks on display were amazing and very interactive.

This Louise Bourgeois sculpture was located outside of the shopping centre which housed a contemporary art gallery. I loved the number of artworks in the city that were quite unexpected and also weren't tampered with in any way by the public.

This image made me laugh- dogs going wild in a pram! The number of dogs I seen in prams was astonishing.

This is an image from Asakusa. We got to this part of Tokyo by boat. It was much more touristy and tacky I felt than other districts. The tour groups with coloured hats was a regular sight during the holiday.