The Last Mermaid Show

Reminds me of a happier version of the burlesque mermaids in Middlesex. Beautiful.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/magazine/the-last-mermaid-show.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Things

I've been interning at a wonderful studio for the last month and a half // spent a couple of my weekends making decorations for Imfest 2013 - R took the pictures (thanks brah) // listening to Jarvis Cocker's Wireless Nights on the gross balmy commute home in an attempt to grapple some magic from the mundane // trying to make a start on a self initiated project that I've been mulling over since December // reading this in the hopes that indignation will kickstart aforementioned project (it hasn't yet) // watching this (and making notes - even though it's been a year since graduation too) // “the pains of loving pop culture while female.”

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First year anniversary for the CreateVoice blog this week! 

Or, around this time as it took so long to do and i remember missing the opening ceremony amidst mild coding induced hysteria. It looks great, now with bulked up content and a range of subject posts, from exhibition reviews and gallery tours to documenting workshops and events

 Have a look at it here http://createvoice.blogspot.co.uk

SibleyGrove Christmas Cards 2012

Update to the company's website with the cards I designed for them last year - more photos here. 

The Signal

I watched The Future last weekend and have been humming my brain mangled version of this song ever since whilst pottering around. It only occurred to me now to find out what the song is it is so I can hum it for reals and swoon in private.

Holiday Motel

Just found this illustration I did that was included as a selection of 'limited edition 

gum cards' in sweetie bags for sale at the Pick & Mix show last August. 

I'd like to do more stuff like this! 

Golden Girls + Clueless

Take More Risks//Take Up Space

"If there was room to get emotional and not fear being written off because of it; if I didn’t struggle to control those emotions in order to be taken seriously, and then become angry at the thought of silencing myself, and then silence that anger and so on in a continual loop; basically, if I could Take Up Space in a way in which I could still be myself, then I have a feeling that it all wouldn’t seem like Being Too Much anymore. I wouldn’t feel like I was spilling over the boundary of “appropriate behavior,” if that boundary were a little more malleable, a little less judgmental. There wouldn’t be the same urge to smash up against it or kick it down. And since I don’t see permission to alter those boundaries coming from anywhere else, maybe I just have to give it to myself."

and 

"Chris Kraus recently said in an interview that the work she loves the most is “the work that doesn’t try to make itself loveable.” I, too, love this kind of work. I find it brave and exciting and truthful and important. And I admire it because it’s hard to break those habits. To realize that the love and approval of someone else is not going to get you to a place of trusting yourself. And any worthwhile work is not going to come out of any other place. This is, for me, tied to the idea of giving permission to yourself, of deciding to Take Up Space in a way that doesn’t stifle. Trusting yourself to make your own limits." 

This makes me think that I really really need to read Heroines.

 Above text from this wonderful article http://maisonneuve.org/blog/2013/01/28/kate-zambrenos-heroines-being-too-much-and-taking-/

Internships

I've been interning on and off at two lovely design studios these past couple of months SibleyGrove and Lollipop, both very different experiences but a really nice introduction to working in a small design company. Here is the christmas card I designed in early November for SibleyGrove, which I have just found out was included in Dezeen's pick of their favourite designers christmas cards which is a wonderful surprise! 

A playful twist on the traditional christmas cards, it was designed as a Santa Claus-style beard to be cut out and worn by the participant. I have yet to get my hands on a actual card, so will take some proper pictures as and when I do

Beards Beards Beards. Gold Beards.

I have some loose ends left over from last year that I need to tie up - to photograph to update my portfolio and to actually get hold of some physical copies first to do so. I'm a bit annoyed I didn't get to do this before the end of last year.

I've done 2 placements since the beginning of November and am due to finish my current one next week I think. 
Getting that awful sinking feeling now when looking for another one. 

To distract myself I've just got a tumblr this past week and went nuts.