zumi obsession on a monday

i know I am obsessed with the zumi but it did so well today on this melancholy monday.
there is always more melancholy on flickr

school trip to Anish Kapoor

yesterday I was a trip with my art class to Anish Kapoor exhibition in London. It is the second time I have been as I visited with TJ a month ago. It was the first school trip I have been on years and it is was lots of fun, especially with lovely people from class, great conversation, coffee and fun art.

I was naughty in the visit in that the Zumi just accidentally took some photos. I have been playing with them a little. The Zumi is certainly getting a work out and I have enjoyed playing with the images and my love of the silhouette.

If you want to check out more about the interesting Anish Kapoor and his red wax the RA has some good content. What I took away from the exhibition was the notion of performance and experience within a show. I appreciated as a human you interacting with the sculptures and that it defined your experience, and I liked that it would be totally different to another human. The other aspect I loved is that the pieces well the ones with lots of gooey red wax evolved over the exhibition and were different from the first time I visited.

p.s. you can't help but like a exhibition that has a canon that explodes with red wax. Check out the live webcam video if you won't be in London soon.

commuting and workin in Bromley

so my first week of the zumi and I have taken over 600 photos, yes i have been snap happy. So I am going to share some photos that pretty much some up commuting to Bromley Kent to work.

I am loving the fun and delight the lovely little snapper is bringing me whether the images are the best or not. It is also teaching me to see the beauty in the ordinary things that are in my world.

Here are a few images with the rest of my day adventure via Flickr.







see my photo journey of a day commuting

a new friend

oh I have a new friend and it is very exciting. All the way from America(well designed in Japan, made in China and sold in the USA) it is the Zumi camera. A crazy little white camera with a bumble bee. Purchased from photojojo a great website for all photography fans. I discovered this delight on Karen Michel's blog with this photo

It is a digital version of the lomography concept. It had me at hello and within an hour of the battery being slipped in I have snapped 100 crazy distorted photos and a video on the tube. Beware I have another way to make images and it is crazy and splendidly imperfect and not so expensive with the printing. I even what photos of me with the camera, ok I know I am now scary.


UPDATE: The boy is not a fan at all of this crazy little camera but true love listens to no one.

london moments

three of the few images that turned out from the Diana F+ and the London photo adventure last Sunday. The images feel like pictures of my experience of London, my London. Not sure if they will go any further as images, but interesting all the same.

where have i been?

i have only small pathetic human excuses for not writing on my blog. I am determined to break the drought push through my procrastination to do something I enjoy. When procrastination takes over on certain aspects of my life I am always shocked how powerful it can be, how it can keep me away from fun aspects of my life.


life lately has been full of many funs things and a few lows. I have been shoving art in all the crevices of my life, the sketchbook has a life at the moment so full it will soon be impossible to close. In the evening I do some making, something even int he morning, hours on the weekend then art school and an exhibition and my life feels wonderful and brimming with it.

life in general has been:
*Beautiful autumn, see my little experiment above with my Diana F+ and slide film.
*Filling my sketchbook with tube pictures and crazy experimental variations
*Going to art school
*Drinking lots of coffee(nothing unusual about this)
*Spending a lovely weekend with Karen
*Dreaming of new world and new options for the work I want to do
*Going 'live' at my day job with my project
*Seeing Anish Kapoor, John Baldessari, Futurism, new hang of Tate Modern
*Fun photo adventure day with Paul, Jasper and Lawrence - must do this more!
*Visiting the lovely new Anthropologie store
*Drinking Starbucks Red Cups (Christmas drinks are always good and I don't care what you say - Toffee Nut Latte, Dark Cherry Mocha, Gingerbread Latte)
*Wishing for the people I love to have their dreams come true, well at least a few baby steps towards them
*Discovering my new fav sushi place

I promise I will be back real soon.
x

lovely surprises

I have had a lovely weekend full of surprises, Karen had a trip to London with work so I spent 36hours hanging out and catching up. After starting the weekend with sushi and sake and art school Saturday it felt like an amazing london weekend full of goodness.

After leaving Karen at the hotel for her trip home, someone left me some heart on the tube, picture above.

I am now busily focused on catching up my project from leaving art school early, a 3D object that can fold into my sketch book. This combined with my day job project that has 'd' day this wednesday has reduced my time for creativity, so hopefully things will calm down this week and I will do some more blogging and making.

Oh well, I am happy all the same. x

ordinarily lovely london weekend

my weekend has been and lovely, full of delightful london ordinariness. This weekend has included: a cider at the pub with friends; watching The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus(very average film but beautiful visually); yum Japanese for dinner; lunch and coffee at Borough Markets; Tate Modern with Jasper; dinner at Paul and Jaspers's; all Sunday lazing with the boy; and then dinner with Brett and TJ to top it off. It is when life is full of such simple wonderfulness that I realise the magic of feeling content. It has been washing over me a lot lately. I have no greater achievement, no new job, no perfect relationship but somehow I have personally reached a point of being satisfied. No yearning for something other that what I have, where I am or what I am doing. (Well wanting London to be geographically closer to Oz to see my peeps doesn't count).

I am actually happy and the happiness is growing. I could never have imagined such a life and my contentment at such happiness in the ordinariness. I always had plans for life to be grand, when actually my dream of a happy life comes from the opposite direction.

now words left

not proud of my homeland

it is not very often I say that I am not proud of my homeland Australia. But tonight as I write this I feel ashamed of the actions of Australians. It reminds me of how closed minded and racist Australia can be. Nobody is perfect but bad bad TV is no excuse. Between Hey Hey Its Saturday and on Danni Minouge of UK's X Factor we really should hide away for the week as the world sees a very ugly side of Australia.

i have been contemplating in my creative search if I want to explore my Australian identity, is there something I want to say about our horrible human rights issues, what can I say that is of any value? It is so important to me and so much easier to see when you are living in a foreign land not plagued by the blinders of cultural values. Being able to see values as if there were buildings to investigate, see the bricks and structure for all the beauty and ugliness, able to explore in a way that I didn't know how when I lived there. This ugliness is bringing it to the top of my conscious, to be considered again.

on a personal note can someone do something decent(that doesn't include sport) that makes me proud again, I miss the home land of my imagination my rose coloured memory. Please someone do something so I can stand tall again, even if only for a little while.

finding things that make you smile

places on the interweb that make me happy even for a moment:

tiny ballerinas

an amazing relationship

a new pet


a lovely blog from aus

apple pie

a lovely girl fashion blog

anthropolgie opening soon in London

blogs of people who inspire me to live my dream life
hazel dooney
Karen Michel
inside a black apple
andrea scher
kelly rae roberts
shutter sisters - picture hope

newly discovered artists that inspire me
mark dion
kiki smith
marlene dumas
cecily brown
nancy spero
chris olifi

to happy sundays
x

new kids on the block

yes there are new kids on the block but they are certianly more cool than the boy band of old. It is all about some friends of the splendidly imperfect girl who would like to say hello. They are still ideas at the moment but they are slowly developing. My new fav is the girl with glasses (she only wears them to look smarter, I can relate sometimes).
x

Dina F+ black and white film

here is the most decent photo from my first black and white film. A snapshot from my life in London. It is view from the front seat of the bus close to home on the 341. When the boy and I ride the bus together we always try and grab the front seat as it has additional benefits, a shelf for your coffee(note my coffee in the corner in this shot), a little extra leg room and a view.

the splendidly imperfect girl on the move

she is starting to like london, this new place has given her legs to walk and a dress from topshop. Well that was what she was telling me as she stood on my desk this evening. She was feeling generous and let me take a snapshot. She was relieved that I finally sorted out my stuff and decluttered, more space for her. I will need to be careful she may just take over.

remembering why i love making and creating

in my new routine of life I spend every second Saturday and Thursday evening at the version I can do of art school. I love it, soaking in every moment, the comments the learning the standing at an easel. I often get my moments of self doubt and when it comes to sharing what I have worked on for the day evaluating myself against others. I try to be gentle with myself and have realised I am not a fast worker, I need time to work on projects and exercises. Last night when looking at favourite blogs I stumbled across a beauty and it reinforced why I make stuff, why I create and why it keeps becoming a bigger part of my life.

check out Jenny's Blog about making something from nothing and the comfort creating stuff can give. Art school is a long way from here, not about the healing is about the nature of making images and the discipline of it. The rigour and craft in the context of the art world. But I still love it, learning things that will help me instead of struggling through in my own self taught habits. Drawing classes made all the difference, I can't even imagine where this will end up.

it is good to remember what started the journey and why ultimately I want to spend as many human hours as possible, making, learning and being around creative and artistic pursuits.

Diana F+ 2nd roll

i picked up my second roll of film today from being developed. A couple of fun shots of a farewell meal with the lovely Jane at Ping Pong. (The home of the delightful lychee and rose martini, also pictured). What I love is the how much fun we were having comes through in the Diana photos. Jane and Joe are leaving London to experience one of their dreams and live in Paris, how fab!

i love how the camera has created the opportunity for more creative adventures. On Saturday when the boy kicked me out the house to do a rehersal I caught a bus to go on a photo adventure, see shots below. I even took some B&Ws just waiting the week turn around time for development, v.exciting.

at the moment I am really enjoying how much time I am spending making, creating or pursuing something creative my fine arts course contributes lots to this and I love love learning. Studying and learnig new things regularly is so comforting to me and increases my happiness factor dramatically. Can I gush anymore....

does she have pets? New beginnings for the splendidly imperfect girl

be gentle be kind she is out for her first walk and she doesn't even know what she wears anymore. Does she have pets? Does her wardrobe need an update?

it is all new again and at the moment I am just playing and seeing what happens. It is so much fun to be drawing her again. She is far from perfect, she is living up to her name.

behold the splendidlyimperfect girl

she is on her way back, she is currently living in a new little sketchbook. More coming soon.

the perfectionism monster, thie Diana photos have arrived

excitedly this week I picked up my first photos from the Diana adventure. Even though I had agreed with myself that one good image per roll of film was my hope. In the unrealistic part of me I wanted the roll to turn out just like the amazing photographers I see online. Every image exciting and interesting, an intriguing version of my life. Amazingly the roll of film didn't turn out like a professional. My heart sank, I chastised myself. The reality is, I did get 2 images that I love, so the real me got what I wanted. It was another lesson in my riduculous high expectations of myself. Start something and be great straight away. I have got so much better with this but the monster in always just around the corner, ready to jump out. It really is sad that I do this especially when the Diana was all about having fun, not a thing to be perfect at. This camera and style of photography is all imperfectness that creates accidental magic.

Photo: Snapshot of Battersea Power Staion on the way to work from my commuter train.

i love that my creative pursuits teach me so much about myself, pulls me up when I am slipping into old behaviours that can be so limiting. I wiki'd perfectionism and here are the negative aspects:

In its pathological form, perfectionism can be very damaging. It can take the form of procrastination when it is used to postpone tasks ("I can't start my project until I know the 'right' way to do it."), and self-deprecation when it is used to excuse poor performance or to seek sympathy and affirmation from other people ("I can't believe I don't know how to reach my own goals. I must be stupid; how else could I not be able to do this?").

In the workplace, perfectionism is often marked by low productivity as individuals lose time and energy on small irrelevant details of larger projects or mundane daily activities. This can lead to depression, alienated colleagues, and a greater risk of accidents.[8] Adderholt-Elliot (1989) describes five characteristics of perfectionist students and teachers which contribute to underachievement: procrastination, fear of failure, the all-or-nothing mindset, paralysed perfectionism, and workaholism.[9] In intimate relationships, unrealistic expectations can cause significant dissatisfaction for both partners.[10] Perfectionists may sacrifice family and social activities in the quest for their goals.

Perfectionists can suffer anxiety and low self-esteem. Perfectionism is a risk factor for obsessive compulsive personality disorder, eating disorders, self harm, and clinical depression."

Photo: Catching the train on a lovely September evening.

goodbye crazy perfectionism, throw this perfectionism monster out the door. It is ugly and dark and can take me back to place I no longer want to visit. I find the timing so interesting as I have just been contemplating revisiting my splendidly imperfect girl concept, oh yes life does point us where we need to be.

beautiful photos of old Japan

the grace of the internet has delivered unto me a most beautiful photo stream on flickr with 1000's of vintage Japanese photos. This stream needs to be seen to be believed it is that of Okinawa Soba.

such an amazing collection of photos that are super inspiring with CC Creative Commons for those inspired to use them in art. There are lots of interesting comments and almost debate on flickr about the photos and the social commentary that Okinawa Soba adds. (I dare you to read his full profile. So real honest, so long and in a very lovely human way inspiring).



there is something about Japan I have always loved and I had never even seen anything as breathtaking as these photos. Not sure how or if ever they will become part of my art but I feel blessed to have discovered them, so much so I needed to share them.