Whats in a name

I think I have finally grown into my name, I have noticed that very few people use their name in the title of their blog but I faced my demons and came out of the "boring dull name" closest to put it up in blog lights. I have always felt short changed in the name stakes my sisters got the pretty names Julia, Lucy. I not only got Alison but my second name is Jane no respite from dullsville their. My mother called my bluff recently and demanded to know what I would rather have been called and apart from Myrtle Buddle (yes she lived in my Grans village of Pidley!) I struggled to think of another name other than Hepzibah so I have finally embraced the name. I have noticed a lot of Alison's cheat and go for an abbreviation Ally Allie too much like Allyway for my taste. I teach an Alison its such an old fashioned dull name I am amazed people still use it, although the coolest band in the world (Pixies) wrote me a fabulous song
Naming my girls was a trial I wanted something girly but having taught so many students most names had been ruined by their personalities. I thought Daisy was unique but so did most mothers in the south east of England at a Birthday party she was one of 3 Daisy's. I was convinced Kitty was a boy so we chose Kit, so when out popped a girl we went for Kitty she has hated it for 11 years and kept threatening to switch to Isabel her middle name but since moving to secondary school she has decided she loves it. with Hello Kitty, pressies are always easy.
Leyla was very nearly Fatma but I worked very hard to steer him away from that, the English pronunciation of Fatma is not a nice sound. I had toyed with Saphire so I would have animal, vegetable, mineral! but it was not a Muslim name so never made the running. Sadly I will have no more children, 3 is hard enough work so its onto the pets......

RCA

I finally got to the RCA show on the last day. It was a very mixed bag some departments are very strong, others seem lacking in focus or direction. (Textiles was the worst) The best shows were Photography, Ceramics and Jewellery. Two of my favourites are here with a link, sadly some of the best talent has no cyber representation at all, and you wonder how a Post graduate college can allow students to leave with such a poor concept of marketing.

1. Nutre Arayavanish the most innovate and beautiful jewellery.http://www.nutrejeweller.com/2007.html

2. Kate Hince fantastic, dramatic printing http://www.supagrafics.com/katehince/

You are so rude!

I love it when people are rude maybe because am so often myself
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6042276 is where I found the plates
so much to say so little time

Heaven is a pair of warm legs

So far on EBay I have sold 78 and still going strong. My favourite part of selling is the addresses some as far as Spain, The Scottish Isles, Ireland and the best one a house boat. My wardrobe is leaner, the camisoles culled as have those bits of jewellery I never wear. I have sold enough to buy the girls a laptop and have enough leftover for some new skirts. Black skirts appear to be my new addiction I love collecting different styles, fabrics, lengths. However as temperatures have dipped into single figures, (you see my theory is correct it is now Wimbledon which backs on to Glastonbury and the rain just pours in biblical amounts in some places.) I cannot wear trousers in the rain I hate wet fabric flapping round my ankles so the skirts are on, I also hate being cold hence my love of body's over pretty bra and pants and my new love footless tights. Two years ago I stumbled into a shop on the Kings road that sold a fabulous range of tights, most more expensive than the outfit I was wearing but they were soo nice I bought 2 pairs, bottle green knee length and aubergine, theywere so lovely they did not cut off the blood supply to my foot like most One sizes do, so last year I phoned up and ordered a black pair, can I find them? no, black tights in a draw full of black tights not good. So online to http://www.mytights.co.uk/ only to hit a 3 week waiting list for my beloved Falke cotton touch so luckily http://www.uktights.com/ came to the rescue I am now snug as a bug wrapped in deliciously soft Kunert cotton leggings no silly one sizes here proper fitted tights, perfect

Mary Bogdan

Go to http://www.marybogdan.com/ to see a huge range of this artists work which I really enjoyed looking at yesterday.

020 Odense

020 Odense, originally uploaded by Jacob Tekiela.

Love the perpendiculars, this is a site worth a long perusal very crisp clean collages with just a hint of Robert Motherwell

Hoss Intropia

I know I am late on this band wagon but I went to this shop recently and the whole concept is just beautiful leading to some serious lifestyle envy, the web site is a work of art, the catalogue a tad contrived to say the least but still worth a look. www.hossintropia.com

Other peoples sketch books

I love looking at the pages of other peoples sketchbooks this one is lovely and leads to an interesting blog http://susannassketchbook.typepad.com/photos/through_the_garden/index.html

Vera Wang I love you

Check out the 2008 Resort Collections on http://www.nymag.com/ my favourite by a mile was by Vera Wang the woman is a fashion genius

Poor Daisy

Poor Daisy having spent all year working towards her Duke of Edinburgh Award gets food poisoning on the second night of her final evaluation. I got a phone call at 3am to fetch her from the camp site and bring her home. Driving in the early hours was rather lovely, bunnies grazing by the road side, owls swooping in the forest but it was a very very sad Daisy I collected because this means she wont have passed. All that bloody driving for nothing.
I then spent most of Sunday tired after watching Leyla perform in her end of year revue at Turkish school she was lovely and sang some lovely Turkish folk songs but the fun day was a washout. I have spent today catching up with reading blogs and cutting and pasting ideas from flickr as you can see there is some serious talent laying undiscovered out there.

longislandnote

longislandnote, originally uploaded by land and cinders.

A flickr account worth a long look, some really beautiful installations and mixed media work

Lazy Stripes

Lazy Stripes, originally uploaded by Thomas Wurst.

All the rubbish in my life will be cleared by Monday no more marking hooray... so here are some stripes to cheer me up.
Currently watching the Killers live at Glastonbury brilliant.

Lets hear it for the boys

These are my favourite male photographers

1. Bert Teunissen very beautiful interiors rich saturated colours his recent exhibition at the photographers gallery was wonderful http://www.bertteunissen.com/

2. Robert Besanko technically the best printer he became obsessed with kodak lith paper and having lith printed myself I can see why. His compositions and texture are a slice of perfection Not a prolific photographer his work can be seen at http://www.joseflebovicgallery.com/Catalogue/Archive/Cat-110-2004/Pages/pg02.html

3. John Blakemore I was introduced to Blakemore by Peter Cattrell and he has been an inspiration his book on tulips called the stilled gaze is beautiful and more work can be seen at http://www.lensculture.com/blakemore.html

4. Aaron Rose a unique perspective on New York and a unique talent for viewpoint you need to buy the book to see more its worth it.

Lets hear it for the girls

My daughter has morphed into Dora the Explorer, she is doing her Duke of Edinburgh Award which seems to require copious amounts of camping and hiking. Rather annoyingly I seem to have to drive her 100 miles into the countryside so she can hike 20 miles, why can't she just walk there ? A bit of a carbon footprint issue here.

I am still unhappy with her from Friday when she borrowed my phone and then forgot to phone my workplace to tell them I was ill. On planet Daisy this was not an issue I was stuck at home doubled up because my body appears to be able to produce enough prostaglandin hormone to kick start a ward of overdue mothers. I managed to pop two of my girls in 55Min's this lasts over 4 hours so I lost a day then spent Saturday mooching and did not go to the RCA exhibition but absolutely will next weekend

So whats good? I finally ordered a new scanner, printer, digital SLR and a Lumix so finally I can Archive all my B&W photography from 6 years ago when I had time to spend in a darkroom then came the Leyla monster and all changed I have embraced the digital format and the tumbleweed blows across the darkroom. Looking back at this blog I do not feature enough photographers so over the next 2 days I will feature my favourites

today it's the girls

1. Fay Godwin I was taught to print by Peter Cattrell he printed for her, her B&W is good but I love her colour more http://www.faygodwin.com/

2. Sarah Moon her work is exquisite and ethereal buy the book Coincidences to see more

3. Francesca Woodman powerful and tragic a lot of her photos are at www.heenan.net/woodman

4. Julia Fullerton Batten although mostly commercial her use of colour and shape is an inspiration http://www.juliafullerton-batten.com/

Paper work

The work above is by Jennifer Durrant painted and collaged in Italy she works in a studio in the Umbrian mountains, I love her work and so does my sister, I did try to copy a piece for her for Christmas but by the time I had finished tweaking it it looked nothing like what I had intended, my inner self will out.
Her recent work is very beautiful but she is difficult to research as very little is recorded on the web.
Today is a sad day for me I must write up my student assessments so no work for me other than the tap tap tap..of my keyboard

Kettles Yard

Kettles Yard in Cambridge is the most beautiful house anywhere. The permanent displays are a joy to look at and currently on display both in the house and gallery are the ceramics of Edmund de Waal, he has a lovely web site http://www.edmunddewaal.com/

ATC - Leah

ATC - Leah, originally uploaded by Abstractions Art.

A site full of raw assemblages, really inspiring.

Memories old, Memories new

Some tiny nuggets of joy have appeared, my A level moderation appears to have passed without a hitch and wonder of wonders Emin has a new job starting on Monday. His last pay check was back in February we have managed since then by cutting out all luxuries, but now he has passed his exams and changed his career for the third time in the 10 years Ive known him. Flush with money we can now spend Christmas in Prague, New year in Brussels via Cologne. My eldest two prefer to spend Christmas with their dad he has a huge family of brothers sisters cousins nieces nephews it is wonderful for them. Emin of course does not celebrate Christmas but enjoys travelling around Europe celebrating his birthday instead his favourite place is Berlin mine Stockholm last year we bravely drove to Copenhagen then on to Goteborg finally New Year in Hamburg. If you are ever in Copenhagen go to the Tivoli gardens it is just wonderful in the winter the first photo's is taken there the second 2 photos were taken at a lake a couple of hours outside of Goteborg an experience my memory has stored for life. Next stop Prague

Natural form collage

natural collage, originally uploaded by ali.son62.

Its me. I have finally started to sort out my flickr page most of my collages are on, though iIsuspect they would be clearer images scanned but that can wait what is hard to see is a sense of scale as it does vary. to follow next week will be my paintings have a look..

Painting - Perspectrum 3

Painting - Perspectrum 3, originally uploaded by Bruners.

I was introduced to Paddy Hamilton by the Dearada blog I had a sense of deja vu as I have been working on a similar project. I am obsessed with horizons and perpendiculars and yet the origins of our work appear so different Hamilton has his bleak but beautiful landscapes in Dungeness I focus on architectural fragments yet the outcome seems so similar, bizarre.

MOROCOLAGE

MOROCOLAGE, originally uploaded by osuzu & izumi.

Wow and I thought my collages were heavily layered

censorship report

censorship report, originally uploaded by +all new images currently blocked in China-.

This man is a genius powerful collages mixed with amazing abstract photographs

Illustration

This image is stunning on so many levels. Primarily because it is as old as me 1962, yet it looks as fresh as any of today’s illustration, it is by Charley Harper and more of his work can be found at www.treadwaygallery.com/HarperExhibit

One of the best parts about being a mother are the children’s books because some of the illustrations are amazing Daisy’s favourite stories were quite traditional including Thomas the Tank Engine and Percy the park Keeper. Kitty also loved any book illustrated by Nick Butterworth as well as Kipper the dog stories, but my favourites are the work of Eric Carle such beautiful inventive collages and Charlie and Lola series by Lauren Child check out the web site for some fun http://www.charlieandlola.com/

Journals

Not a cheap week I went shopping to take back something and ended up buying a very grown up looking jumper from Jigsaw, 2 pairs of linen trousers and a beautiful black silk tunic from H&M so that’s me updated for a couple of months.I also splashed out on a couple of journals one for notes (I write my blog longhand then type it up, it means I can jot down notes as and when the mood takes me) The second book is the new scrap book, I am really bad at starting a fresh journal many people say you should overlap one as it is ending but for some reason my journals become thematic. I currently have one for fashion and jewellery, one for pattern and colour, one for photographic still life and my favourite which is 3 books sewn together, is a journey of craft ideas from which most of the images are taken above