Christmas Card

My mum attends an art class which her friend runs, and one week I went along and they were design Christmas cards. I painted a robin using water colour. My mum liked it so much that we made it into Christmas cards to send to our family and friends etc. The original is now framed on the wall in the kitchen. See below.

Packhorse, Huddersfield renovation project. My Pop Up Avant Garde hair stall. Development.

The First Cut, Manchester Art Gallery

I went with a couple of friends to this exhibition in Manchester. What people can do with paper and a scalpul is incredible.

We also got to visit the Christmas Markets. German decorations and mulled wine gallor!

 Life size tree branches create the effect that your walking through a forest. I love how the leaves are opaque. A real sense of magic indoors.

 These birds were by far my favorite. Claire Brewster cut each creature out of old maps. These common garden birds are transformed into exotic beings.

Family trip to the Lake District.

We didn't see many lakes, but lots of hills! Some of my favorite photos from the trip.

Autumnal Trees.

Foggy Sun Rise.

Hobbit Land

Paralympics, London, 2012

Olympic Park, with main stadium on the left. Own photo.

 When tickets became avalible for the Paralmypics, I thought it would be amazing to see the final sprints. My brother managed to get these exact tickets which was incredible. I hadn't really though of what it would be like, so I was totally shocked about what an incredible experience it was.

The park itself is vast, and felt like a world festival, with so many different people from all around the world. Such a valuable experience.

Thomas Hetherwick - Olympic flame. Own photo.

 The Olympic torch, design by Thomas Heatherwick - a British designer- represents everyone coming together, as each 'tulip' was lit by a different country in the opening ceremony. It reminds me of my school moto 'Membra sumus corporis magni' (We are members of a great body). Heatherwick says that the cauldron represents 'everyone coming together in Peace'.

Gold medalist Jonnie Peacock. Own photo.

York Mystery Plays 2012

Scaled model of the set. 1:50. Own photo.

 Recently, I was involved with making set and props for the York Mystery Plays. The Plays have been going on for hundreds of years, and are world famous. It was amazing for me to be able to help, as they mean such an important thing to the people of York. 

The Mystery Plays are stories from the bible originally performed in the middle of the 14th century for the common folk because they could not read Latin. They would show the plays on carts which could be taken all over the city.

The plays are always performed in the Museum Gardens and this year the back drop was St Mary's Abbey. So the set designer had to integrate this into the design, which he did perfectly.

Umbrellas, representing the sea. You can see Noah's ark in the back ground.

The angels (pictured at the back right) danced and sang in the background. they were very different from any other character, due to the striking colour and full skirts.

Conceptually, the play was absolutely brilliant. So much thought and depth went into thinking about every scene.

The flooring was used in many different ways. It had 45 trap doors hidden in it. When Herod attempted to kill all the baby boys in Jerusalem, the trap doors were the local's houses, and the soldiers would knock on the floor as in on people front doors.

The Ark, which I helped build and paint.

The costumes were quite modern, from the 1930's which was refreshing instead of the normal dress people accommodate with the bible.

I really enjoyed being part of this, and have started to really appreciate set design. We have a placement year next year for my Interior Design course at University, and I would love to do something to do with set design.

The poster for the plays. Inspiration from Stanley Spencer.

Finished set on the night I went with my family to see the production. Own photo.

Alessi heart shaped spoon

Totally unnecessary, but pretty snazzy anyway!

Tube Station in Lisbon, Portugal.

Own photos.

While staying with a friend in the Algarve in mid August, we decided to take a trip to Lisbon for a few days. I had never been to Lisbon and didn't really know what to expect. I did not however expect to step out of a tube into this station, which was brand new! The vaulted body of the space is beautiful. It was tilled in white which reflected the warm orange and neon purple lighting perfectly.

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Information was projected up onto the tiled walls. This didn't work particularly well in my mind, as the white writing was difficult to identify on the reflective surface. Maybe if the lighting was not purple it would be easier. Or the colours could change due to times/new information.

Own photo.

On exciting the station we to trekked up five flights of stairs. Thank god there was a escalator! The vaults flowed up the stair well.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe, August 2012

 My brother (pictured in the last photo - not the alien!) has been involved with the Festival Fringe for some years now. He performs with a group called 'Out Of the Blue'. This is a all male a capella group from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes. This year I traveled up with my family from York to see him perform. While there I took some photos of the happenings on the Royal Mile (which is the street which is where all the acts perform for free to advertise themselves). All own photos.

Frontage at the Fringe

While in Edinburgh last week, I saw this frontage to a dress shop. The simplicity of the italics does not distract from the clothing within the shop, so it lasts as a blank canvas for the items sold within.

Oslo, July 2012

Fortunatly for me, my mothers brother lives just outside of Oslo, Norway in a small town called Asker. 
Tim, my uncle has lived in Norway for about 25 years, so I am very lucky to have been able to visit and be involved with another culture for all of my life which I find very interesting.
We aim to visit every year, but this isn't always achieved. This summer however we did manage to stay for a week Tim and his family. 
This is a selection of photos from my album.

Frogner Park, Oslo. Designed by Gustav Virgeland. Own photo.

Silva, Tim's cat. Own photo.

Opera House, Oslo. I am very fond of this building. I wrote my first university essay on it. I particularly like this photo from the compositional aspect; the monochrome colours and the mis of materials. The clouds look very angry and effective, and the reflection on the window of the Opera tops the photo off. Own photo.

Tiled flooring in Amsterdam

While in Amsterdam for a few days after I was in Prague this summer, we went into this modern cafe/restaurant for breakfast. I really should have taken more photos of the interior, as it was a very large, very spacious room with interesting paintings and decor aspects. I am especially interested in the tilling on the floor. You don't often see such bright colours on a floor, but in this big room I think it makes it a lot more interesting than say paneled oak. If there was any type of wood flooring it would make the room have a totally different feel e.g cold and disconnected, but this works perfectly, as it helps keep the room feel cool and spacious.

Architecture in Prague

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 I took these photographs while on a trip to Prague this summer. I loved how the architecture - typically Baroque or Art Noveau - was so different in comparison to the rest of Europe.

The above photo is of architecture in the Old Town, while the bottom photo is situated in the New Town.

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 The below photo is the only modern building that I saw while visiting the city. It is called the Ginger house, built in 1996 in the new-baroque style, it is one of the only building of this style, and there was much controversy when it was finished on how it would fit with running architecture within the city. But now nearly 10 years after the building was completed, it is now seen as an addition to the art work of the city.

Own photo

Tyler Shields

 Tyler Shields is quite a well known photographer for his interesting and controversial work.

Recently in the news Shields and Clint Eastwood's daughter Francesca decided to burn a $100,000 Birkin Hermes bag as a subject. Some articles said that Shields and his friends were looking for attention, while others thought it was ridiculous and just 'young rich kids' playing around.

His work is very plane in the composition, but seems to favor strong bold colours such as red. This makes all his work very powerful and modern.

Check out his website below.

 http://www.tylershields.com/

Mario Testino

 

Mario Testino is fashions most famous photographer. His talent is extremely diverse. 

The way he captures poses of famous and infamous models is widely respected throughout the world.

Jim Campbell - Expolded Views

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 This piece of interactive art was suspended in the atrium within the San Francisco Art Museum. The balls of light were linked up to a camera which filmed people outside walking past the entrance. The shapes and movement were then changed into patterns of light which were played through lights changing within the piece.

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The Cheesecake Factory, San Fran

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 This is the Cheesecake Factory in San Francisco. I think the decor is disgusting. The interior is so over the top, the patterns don't match, and there is just way too much happening within the area.

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