Inspiration: Anna Denise

Hooray, we're on the mend here in Firebird towers. Thank you so much for all the very kind messages. Will hopefully be up and running to enjoy the last day of our football season on Sunday (which is a very important event in this house, I'm sure you understand!)

I'm spending today catching up on my Uni work. I am so pleased you liked yesterday's Anna Prager photography - you could look at them from one point of view of distorting context and being a fabrication - I think there was something glamourous, frivilous and just plain fantastic, but still with a great degree of depth, about them. And I think there is a lot of room for taking some pleasure from the 'unreal' in this world.

Today's dose of inspiration is very different and is someone reflecting on their day to day reality, but in a very individual way. When I first saw pictures of Anna Denise's art journals I was completely blown away, her illustrated Moleskine journal pages are just beautiful....

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Aren't they wonderful? The illustrations are amazing but I also love the use of other media and things she has collected that reflect what has been going on in her life.

You can see more of Anna Denise's journals on Flickr and on her blog she gives a tutorial and shares some wonderful tips for starting your own art journal. I really want to give something like this a go in the future - it seems a wonderful way to document life and create a fantastic keepsake for the future.

(If I spotted Anna Denise's work on your blog recently, please let me know because I would love to give you a shout out. I'm afraid it has complete escaped me where I first saw these)

Do you keep a diary or journal? How do you document life's little adventures?

Inspiration: Alex Prager

While I get over this lurgy and dose myself up with cold cures, I've lined up a double dose of inspiration for you...

Alex Prager is a modern California-based photographer. Where do I need to begin about how much I love her photography? The vintage-styling, the cinematic feel, the bold use of colours...

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If I ever got to the stage where I could make some sort of 'lookbook' for Firebird, I think this is everything I'd want it to look like. It is some serious styling food for thought.

You can find Alex Prager's website here and I enjoyed this article from Foam Magazine

Are you fond of the vintage look for photos? Or do you think it is a bit of a gimmick and that photography should reflect the time it is taken in? I'd love to know what you think...

12 Months of Neon Love

Image Source

This is one of the most wonderful and original art projects I have seen for ages. 12 Months of Neon Love began on Valentines Day and is a sequence of twelve lyrics from well known songs made in neon lettering. One lyric is displayed each month for twelve months. The lyrics are being displayed on the roof of the Neon Workshops studio in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.  Apparently you can see them from the railway. The pieces of art are then to be auctioned off on eBay

I have got to go and see this. Have you seen it? It sounds just utterly beautiful. I love the thought of these romantic sentiments shining out above the Yorkshire rooftops.

You can find out loads more at the 12 Months of Neon Love blog

Shadow Catchers: Camera-Less Photography

A couple of weeks ago I went to see the Shadow Catchers exhibition at the V&A and, no exaggeration, it utterly blew me away.

The exhibition covers the work of five artists that capture images, using different methods, without using a camera. Please have a look at the website if you get a chance, I found the images so evocative. I loved the fact that they were beyond conventional photography and blurred the boundaries between realities and fantasies. It's just a beautiful collection of work.

When I was in Brighton last week (I'd popped in to a shop to ask for some advice about my temperamental Polaroid camera). I was delighted to find this 'Sunography' pack - a pack of photosensitive paper, similar in principle to the techniques used by some of the Shadow Catcher artists. I had to get it.

The principle is simple, when exposed to bright sunlight any image on the paper is capture. I place a few sheets out in sunshine to experiment:

On the washing line

In a bush

And on the roof of the Aussie's car (I found this beautiful shell on Brighton beach but that's not a British native species is it?)

And you leave your paper to expose for about fifteen minutes (depending on the strength of the sunshine)

Once your image has been exposed you rinse you photographic paper until the water runs clear (sorry I haven't a picture of this stage but a girl only has two hands).

And then you just let them air dry (sharing the washing line with a vintage jumper is optional).

I am pleased with some of the results. I like the fact you can see the faint outline of the bush in the one on the left, a very distinct clothes peg on the one for the middle and the shell came out well on the one that was on the car roof.

I have a few more sheets that I will save for another sunny day now I have a better idea how effective different things are on it but I am so pleased to have had the chance to try it out.

There you go, I'm not sure it'll end up in the V&A just yet but I rather pleased with my very own shadow catching camera-less photography.

Inspiration: Dia De Los Muertos

(because Halloween is soooo last month. There is a lovely 'about' the Day of the Dead festival here)

This animation is just wonderful...

¡Viva Calaca! Day of the Dead from Ritxi Ostáriz on Vimeo.

See more at http://www.vivacalaca.com/eng/

Here is some more Day of the Dead inspiration from Etsy:

This fantastic lamp from Crafty Chica. I really want to make something similar to this for the new house, I have already found a red lamp base in my local hospice shop.

Beautiful skulls for your muffins from Mates & Rubbish


This amazing laptop skin from Beepart



And these utterly gorgeous tiny wire skulls by Raw Bone Studio I would love to make these in to a mobile, so their shadows would dance around the room.

And my own little creation - my Day of the Dead skull is a painted Margarita bottle. Pictured here with Zoltan the Magnificent, our balcony garden gnome, who is painted on an old Limoncello bottle.

And if that's not enough skulls for you, check out the amazing 'A Skull A Day' blog, which contains artistic skulls, natural skulls and accidental skulls everyday. It's one of my favourites.

(PS. this isn't a sponsored post, just a collection of things I really like and have found on the interweb. Sorry if my Spanish is awful.)

(PPS. Yesterday I had a rather extraordinary amount of hits on my little part of the doubleudoubleudoubleu. I am absolutely made up and say a massive hi to everyone that is passing by. Thank you for taking the time! x)

(PPSS. I've kind of given up on that 30day favourite things thing. To get to the point, it was boring me, so I'm sure it was probably was boring you too. BUT I have just signed up to a lovely new challenge that involves outfits. Yippee! Watch this space... x)

(PPPSS. Sorry Texans x)

Loving: Cut outs

Inspired by the magnificent cut out artwork of Claire Brewster, I saw at the Origins Craft Fair in Spitalfields last week (please have at look at her website for the most exquisite birds cut from reclaimed materials) here are some of my other favourite cut outs to share with you this Sunday:


Beautiful and delicate cut out jewellery from the wonderfully named Hairy Growler


Fun and funky cut outs on this top (I want one for Halloween)


Amazing cut out scarf


Not yet cut out, but I love this Punk Rock Girl Paper Doll, she is very anti-kitsch


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I hope yours is! x

Inspiration: Alia Penner

All images by Alia Penner (the most amazing mixed-media artist California) from www.aliapenner.com and see much more at http://www.arthurmag.com/author/aliapenner/

The Lock of Love

The Hohenzollenbrucke in Cologne, Germany is a rail and pedestrian bridge that crosses the River Rhine, linking Koln Hauptbahnhof with Koln Messe/ Deutz. Not a location normally associated with gestures of love, but since 2008 the bridge has been the site and sight of an unusual romantic phenomenon.


Lovers, young and old, have been attaching padlocks to the bridge and casting the keys in to the river symbolising their unbreakable love.


And the number of padlocks on the bridge has grown and grown...


The tradition of Love Padlocks is thought to originate from China, where lovers would secure locks to the Great Wall of China in the hope that their love would last as long as the Wall stands.The locks are now prevalent around Eastern Europe and their popularity is increasing.

(All photos by 'Roo Paprika', September 2010)

The owners of the Hohenzollenbrucke, Deutsche Bahn, threatened to have the locks removed from the bridge, but have now relented in the face of public opposistion.

What do you think of the locks? Romantic gestures, street art or acts of vandalism?

Kibicowanie Jako Uniwersalny Język

A quick update on the opening of the exhibition in Kracow. We had the most amazing time, Michal, Dani from Football Supporters Europe and the other organisers made us so welcome, also introducing us to polish vodka and zapiekanki (polish pizza) and us all putting the football world to rights in to the small hours .

The exhibition is brilliant, football fans have a terrible reputation in Poland with most people assuming that they are all hooligans. This exhibition is part of a lot of ongoing work to dispel that myth and to work towards building some bridges with the wider community, showing that they can benefit from football, before Poland hosts the 2010 European championship. The photography featured is from all over the world, from the Aussie's photos from Fulham to children watching premier league football on a shared set in Angola to the ticker tape and flags of fans of Sapporo in Japan.

They've just launched some of the website in English, please have a look and let me know what you think (I am trying to see if there is any interest in the exhibition being bought to Britain, so the word can be spread across the continent)?


(the aussie's photo is the one entitled 'the singer, second from the left)


(buying kapiekanki in Kracow's jewish quarter)

Kracow is the most amazing and beautiful city and we also had an amazing time getting the train all the way home, more of that to follow...

'Cheerleading as a Universal Language'

As you read this we shall hopefully be well on our way to Kracow, Poland. The Aussie has got his wonderful football photography in to his first exhibition and we are off for the opening.

Someone with better command of Polish than I have will hopefully correct me but 'kibocowanie' is Polish for 'cheerleading' and the aim of this exhibition is dispel the myth that football fans are dangerous and the match environment hostile.



('The Singer' - Hammmersmith End, Craven Cottage)



(Poole Town v Budleigh Salterton -photography by Jon Hall)

The Aussie's exhibition catalogue entry is here. Very very excited!

Desconocida Unknown Ukjent

Desconocida Unknown Ukjent is an international art project by the Norwegian artist Lise Bjorne Linnert to raise awareness of the murder, trafficking and abuse of women in Ciudad Juarez, on the Mexican/ US border. Since 1993, between 500 to possibly over 1000 women are believed to have been murdered in the city or have disappeared.

In this art project, each participant embroiders the name of one of the dead or missing women of Ciudad Juarez and also embroiders the word 'unknown' to remember all the unidentified victims of similar crimes worldwide, taking the time used to embroider the name or words to remember these people. This is my contribution to the project thanks to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester.

You can find out much more at Lise Bjorne Linnert's blog.

Born to Kiln

Whilst out exploring Greenwich at the weekend, we came across this unusual piece of street art set in to a pothole on the Thames path.

I love innovative street art, I love the personalisation of place. Stuff like tagging personally leaves me cold, but stuff like this I find really exciting and inspiring.

Armed with Google, I found that it is one of a series and that the person who makes them calls themselves 'Born to Kiln'. There is an interview here on the Creative Nonconformity blog

and Born to Kiln's own Flickr feed can be found here

The Elephants on Parade

Walking around Greenwich, we stumbled across some unusual additions to the conventional sculpture in the gardens of the Royal Naval School.



(elephants at the Royal Naval School)

The Elephant Parade is a public art exhibition across the capital to raise awareness of the threats to the Asian Elephant, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to the loss of its native habitat. In the past 100 years the Asian elephant population has declined by 90% and it is estimated that the species could vanish all together in the next 30 years.

(chillis at Greenwich Market)

The Elephants are all unique decorated and located across public spaces in London until the 20th June. They really are a joy to find and will hopefully raise some more awareness for this important cause, as well as brightening smiles and spaces.

More information can be found here.

(this post can also be found at the trainee geek blog. Please stop by)