New cards

I've got one thing ready for our exhibition next week. Priorities!

NYC photos

I was on a study trip to NYC last week, visiting studios, graphic designers, photographers and animators. We met some really lovely people, like Buck TV, 2x4, Dexter Sinister, Hilary Greenbaum and Jeff Mermelstein. And then also did a lot of running around and eating.

Took some photos with my fantastic Nikkormat (heirloom. Loom of heir. Loom!) and these are the scanned negatives. They came out all sepia, I'll be working with them in the lab at a later time and I'm sure they'll come out very differently then. Colour negs to come, when I've found someone to process them.

The scroll

Budget animation! Today I used one of the more popular search engines to spelunk the internet, looking for "subarashii pudding Miyavi radio webcast spoon" and "banana daigaku theme song". Unsuccessfully, if you can believe it. I feel a bit let down.

Hey, if anyone has the theme tune from banana.co.jp from the glory days before they became a serious banana university, or the classic Miyavi clip where his co-host eats pudding with a spoon, you let me know. Alright? Cool.

Today was the first day back in the studio for me, after assessment. My current brief is about metamorphosis (fantastic word) and experimentation. Mmmmmmmmight do stop-motion. Experimental stop-motion. I kinda like the mad cackle tone of it.

Another late night update

Well, I'm back in the UK with every intention to do everything much better. Everything. Sleep! Eat! Work! Play! Think! Be! Exclamation points are clear warning signs of dangerous levels of prep. But not to worry, I've already failed on most points with cautious pride. I am not better, I am the same, same as always. 

The New Year's spirit is inspiring and silly. But I missed Brighton, and I'm very happy to be back. It's a good place to start.

So I've been updating the blog, back-dating a lot of things I made during my print-making course. So if there's interest, check out the print tag and the CD-cover tag, where most of the updates were made.

Curiouserly, here's how deep and world-altering my current project is turning out:

Brief: Explain in a sequence... how to digest a thought

Okidoki, so here's the short film I finished last night, in .gif form (probably the best file extension in the world). I have every intention of making this into a proper animation with a start and an end and bits between, and lovely sounds and possibly a whacky indian tune about a typewriter towards the end (might feel differently about that come morn). Though this will have to wait until I have time to wrap my head around iMove, or somesuch film-enabling soft device.

I've had a really good week and for the first time I feel 100% content with being here and doing this. It's a fantastic opportunity and a privilege to image-make full time. I will do my very best to remember this, always.

World, have a nice weekend.

Today's thought

I'm making a short short stop motion film, look at all the fun I'm having, LOOK. Photoshopping can make a person crazy, but it's worth it.

That is all.

This is not a jinx

Ladies and Bruces, I can officially breathe again. I sat on my bed and watched Quartet quite peacefully as it suddenly dawned on me. The nose is fully operational!

It's been one hell of a cold, but it's all downhill for it now and slow, steady, marvelous ascension for me.

A damp entry

Home is a wonderful place, I don't know why I always want to leave when I'm home nor why I generally can't wait to GO HOME when I'm away. Being new is disorientating and alienating. Soon, my damp room on Ditchling Rise will feel like a home to me, but right now all I can do is snuggle up in my duvet (smells like home and beef jerky) and wish I could go home for dinner and see my family.

Well, I can't, I've really done it this time. Adventure, pft! Travel, bah! England, damp squid! (Yes squid, damp squib does not suffice.)

Now, this is third day speak. I've been in the UK for 8 days, and in my new house for 5, and in school for 3. This is how I feel about new things, they're horrible nasty home-wreckers, them new things. But they have to be. Next week, all this won't be so new and I won't be so crabby. I promise.

In other news, Brighton is a lovely place, the school seems nice (although all we've done so far is sit and listen and occasionally queue, more on the actual schoolin' later), the house is big and the housemates are very nice. It is all going very well.

Also, my hunt for decent liquorice is a slow but steady success, even found some salty ones at Tiger the other day. Old reliable Danes, you never let me down.

Will also become member of my next door neighbour cinema this week, will perk mood right up!

Good day sir.

5 days

Here's a silly side-effect of always using drawings as profile pictures: choosing a real photo for my UniCard is dreadful. I will have to take a shower and set up a photo studio downstairs if this is going to work out in any sort of reasonable way.

work work work, coffee coffee coffee

Can an office worker and a postman be friends? Well, not during office hours anyway. Ours is a friendship defying conventions. It has come to sneaky rebellious notes, tied to bicycles with rubber bands. 

I fear this is a cryptic update.

Stationary

Here is a selection of items from my desk at work. Mainly lovely stationary, but also delicious italian salad spice. Essential.

Innocent work doodles that might be roped into a bigger representative scheme. We have a 2-part assignment for first week of school consisting of 1) a life-size self portrait (coming along nicely) and 2) 5 images that "give(s) a personal sense of place". How about this autobiographical walnut: 

5 things I inexplicably like (and how that like manifests in action) 
1) stationary; arrange neatly, pretend they're pre-historic monsters locked in battles to sticky staple-y ends. 
2) summat really smartly about liking words, I forgot.
(to be continued)

Other "5 things" I've been contemplating:
- 4 words my Swedish mouth can't pronounce and 1 word my brain can't wrap its head around (and how I try to disguise this fact)
- 5 fantastic film scenes represented by one thing separating them from the ordinary (not really about me, is it?)
- 5 moments where two layers of reality meet, caught in photos through my camera-owning life


(I just re-read the second assignment and I think I'm thinking far too much about this. One of the examples is "5 snacks I like". I could really just draw my top 5 liquorice list and be done. Top 5 lists are one of my brain's top 5 most enjoyed daily things to do, this really shouldn't be this hard.)

It's a general update sort of thing

Dear Journal,

I have a giffing problem. More and more I fear my mind is slipping into a succession of loopy images. Not long now, I fear the worst.

In other, yet relating, news; I joined tumblr. And like a crow and a shiny thing, I've been busy staring at it for a bit. Big, life-changing events causing me to crawl into my cave-like room and whisper sweet nothings to shiny moments on telly and in films. I love to gif. More of that at another time, now I shall make an effort to straighten my wordy crooks.

Life things! I might very well have found a room in which to live in Brighton. Deal's almost done. It's a share with 4 others and I can hardly wait. All last week I googled myself about the streets around the house, swooshing along Beaconsfield rd to Duke of York's Picturehouse and down London rd past (seriously) The World's End to Grand Parade. I'm very ready to make this move. Come on universe, house me.

Also, give Joss Whedon whatever he wants, because I didn't just cry over a fan-made Firefly documentary on Netflix. I'm just saying. The man knows what he's doing, just let him. Thanks.

Strange letter to journal come universe over and out. See you soon.

End-of-year exhibition Grafiken 2013

Self-portrait. Woodcut/screen, 6 colour print. 1/1
The House Theory. I am a metaphorical apartment building. A grey, bordering on maltreated, almost deserted, functionalist house. There's a shindig on the top floor, decorated all in thoughts and ideas and images of feelings. Words are my building blocks, snake-like and quick-stepped trains of thoughts. Severity and silliness, truths of the day and complications, they make me.


See more pictures from the exhibition opening here! <-

General update (transparent excuse to post gif irrelevant to life stuff)

I'm exhibition ready, I printed two small squares of yellow today and I announce myself properly chuffed with my woodcut/screen bastard result. I want to finish the edition of my book (16 to go?) print some t-shirts, make some short films, write a short but clever comic to print and bind.

One week of school left, WORK IT WORK IT WORK IT.

Moss & Roy from The IT Crowd stuck in a loop of time and place.

ALSO OMG.

TOWEL DAY GIFFIN'

HAPPY TOWEL DAY! DON'T PANIC!

VERNISSAGE TIME

THE FACEBOOK EVENT 
"A vernissage (varnishing, from French) is a term used for a preview of an art exhibition, which may be private, before the formal opening.^[1] Guests may be served canapés and wine as they discuss with artists and others the works in the exhibition."

(Joint poster and banner effort by Annalotta and myself.)

CALM DOWN

There are so many things I want to do, why can't I do them all NOW? It's only half past 12, I'm only slightly supertired. And we're only talking, what? A complete revamping of the tumblr? A Creating of a proper YouTube channel? Animating a short... film, about life, the universe and, why not, everything? I want to make a board game, t-shirts, posters, animations, stickers, mugs and muffins. Well, dry spell is over, thanks Jesus! I bet you had something to do with it, 'cause that makes sense.

Oh, when the ironic Christianity comes into play, it's bedtime. 

A success story

Wiggle that creativity, wiggle it!

After weeks of feeling sick and generally useless, I've started to wiggle loose. I drew actual things today, and might even have the original for my end-of-year exhibition screen print ready. Without a doubt worth staying up all night.

Time travel

Doodled on myself and documented it with a photobooth photo, took a shower, and then relalised that I'd been taking photos in my pyjamas... my flawless photoshop work screwballed out of control and ended up MOVING AROUND.

Speaking of! Just today managed to hack into (ie remembered his password correctly, finally) my dad's old smart mobile telephoning device to install Vine. I'm making loopy videos with a man with ten toes as main viny reference. Could get ugly.

Emplyed

One Billion Flyers off of which the margin I just trimmed!