FIG. 23.

Drawing on the District Line

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

I watched this new video by the fabulous Yeah Yeah Yeahs this morning, then I heard the news about Michael Jackson.

Friday favourites :)

Friday favourites :), originally uploaded by Feltbug.

1. oneangelsketch, 2. SWEET TEETH!, 3. sheet 01, 4. Loan Sheet, 5. Washing, 6. A Mere Suggestion of a Bed, 7. bed., 8. Empty Bed, 9. Tooth Ache?, 10. the heart, 11. chicklove, 12. Nob, 13. Tooth wings, 14. wings, attitude and music, 15. woolen wings, 16. Pixie (SPT/HNT 25.6.09 and 275/365), 17. LUCIFER, 18. Knife Winged Wheel, 19. if you are without wings, 20. PAPILLON, 21. Soldier's goodbye & Bobbie the cat, ca. 1939-ca. 1945 / by Sam Hood, 22. Untitled, 23. Untitled, 24. wishing for, 25. though evelyn knew the circus was her home sometimes late at night she would consider leaving, 26. notes taken during college, art class i hope - if not i really should've been paying more attention, 27. te extraño cada segundo que no te tengo cerca, 28. IMG_0473, 29. I Think I'm Over The Hardest Part, 30. slime mold

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Here is a selection of photographs and artwork by some of my lovely friends on flickr. Click on the image to go to flickr where you can find the featured artists or use the links above to go to the individual artist's flickr. Thankyou to all the artists for sharing their pictures.

Allotment

Trail of tears

I received a lovely package from my friend, Marc containing some very special beans and a lovely Louise Bourgeois postcard. The beans are from The Real Seed Catalogue, No. 99046 'Cherokee Trail of Tears'

This bean was originally from the native North American Cherokee people. In 1838 they were driven out of their homelands in the state of Georgia by the US government to make room for more European settlers , a forced march known as the 'Trail of Tears'. This bean is one of their heirlooms they managed to keep with them and has been passed on from generation to generation ever since.

After we parted

I went underground ...

I heard opera as I travelled down the escalator and so I retraced my steps in order to record the sound and when I got onto the overcrowded tube train I heard women talking about the very thing we had just been speaking about.

I think the movies work best if you play them simultaneously.

Georgia Russell

Etudes sur l'hystérie 2009

Cut and painted book in bell jar 29.5 x 12.5 inches

"Georgia Russell slashes, cuts and dissects printed matter, which she then manipulates and re-constructs into extravagant, ornamental, sculptural paper-works. The decorative qualities and inherent potential of her found ephemera are fully exploited as she transforms books, music scores, prints, newspapers, maps or photographs – sometimes with flamboyant colour and wild cutting, or with discreet play on the subject or title of her printed matter. Her works hover between object and image."

Georgia Russell is exhibiting at England & Co, 216, Westbourne Grove, London W11 until 27th June.

Saul Fletcher

Untitled#210 (Birdcage), 2009

black & white Polaroid 13.3 x 10.8 cms

"In his photographs Saul Fletcher visualizes human existence in all its temporal dimensions and physical fragility. The scenes he depicts achieve a concentrated intimacy: In order to take in every detail, the viewer is compelled to get as close as possible to the work. His careful still lifes draw attention to details; the discarded moments of the everyday become the focus, and in this way are imbued with new or altered meaning.”Extract from catalogue for the 4th Berlin Biennial (2006)

Saul Fletcher is showing photographs and installations at Alison Jaques Gallery, 16-18 Berners Street, London W1 until 27th June.

Robin

This robin likes to come and join me and look for worms when I am digging the flowerbeds on the allotment. Today I uncovered a multitude of insects when I was clearing the dead flowers. It was a feast for this little bird.

Yellow

Compost

Decay

Rose

Foxgloves

Waiting to be planted

Where the wild things are

Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday, originally uploaded by Feltbug.

1. Orbital..., 2. white flowers in white snow, 3. white, 4. white motion, 5. new white collage, 6. white, 7. 09-06-06 White Stripes, 8. Custom White Felt Wool Beads #2, 9. tiny white donkey, 10. winter white: beautiful use, 11. wiltons/black and white liquors, 12. White on white, 13. birds & trees, 14. White Smock hanging out, 15. surgery heart white, 16. Body Black/White, 17. southeast :: hallway, 18. White, 19. Black and White Felted Cocktail Dress, 20. five white things on a pink sheet, 21. "The White Hotel", 22. delicious white buttons., 23. The black cat is trying to figure out the truth white cat, 24. White..., 25. white, 26. Allt vitt - All white, 27. White Papercut., 28. White Hair, 29. practically tooo white, 30. white

Here is a selection of photographs and artwork by some of my lovely friends on flickr. Click on the image to go to flickr where you can find the featured artists or use the links above to go to the individual artist's flickr. Thankyou to all the artists for sharing their pictures.

The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes

The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes, by Phyllis Krasilovsky, illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Published 1962.

Undisclosed

undone

unmade

unfolded

unlaundered

unwashed

Things I noticed today, ordinarily some things I would rather not share but somehow I saw something else here, a rhythm, a theme, an absence of colour. And it all fitted in with recent posts of objects and the illusion of order in the home and studio. There is a new group on flickr, The Persistent Thread - that has also got me thinking ...

The Social Lives of Objects

Assemblage by Hilary Jack

Hilary Jack, Lisa Penny and Dallas Seitz are artistic plunderers of the roadside skip, the charity shop and of the more eccentric reaches of eBay. They recycle the detritus of our urban existences: broken umbrellas, last month's magazines, false teeth, detached stilettos, mangy fox stoles, mantelpiece ceramic ornaments no longer treasured. Their raw materials bear the marks of backstreet histories. Through an aesthetic of fragmentation, of disorientation and unpredictable re-assemblage, they arrive at sculptural images that come on like dream mementos of fictional autobiographies, or icons of obscure personal mythologies. It's a sculptural tradition with a long history - dada, surrealism - the mundane made marvellous, bad taste transformed into something else. Robert Clark The Guardian

Currently showing at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester until 19 July. You can read more about Hilary Jack on her website and her blog.

11.35am

There is a new group on flickr called desk thursday. I like this group. It has motivated me to tidy my desk. After all that tidying, it must be time for coffee and a look at this lovely book from my local library, Being Human, published by Thames & Hudson. Enigmatic photographs of people by unknown photographers.

PJ Harvey

I was watching something about Island Records the other night and this came on - I remember being mesmerized by this performance at the time when PJ Harvey was on the Jools Holland show. I cannot believe it was in 1995, 14 years ago. It is still wonderful, one of my favourite performances of all time.

Clouds

Clouds, originally uploaded by Feltbug.

1. the big picture..., 2. clouds-machine, 3. black clouds at lock 93, 4. Untitled, 5. clouds in my coffee, 6. Untitled, 7. e7CKvbE-1Sg, 8. PinholeDay07, 9. silver-lined cloud detail, 10. Rainy cloud necklace, 11. blue cloud, 12. little fluffy clouds (d2d 5/3), 13. Head in the clouds too, 14. clouds, 15. Sky Dancer, 16. wally clouds, 17. obscured by clouds_1, 18. clouds in my bedroom, 19. Nube atrapamoras. Blackberrycatcher cloud, 20. doily drawing :: clouds, 21. rain cloud, 22. C365, day 207 - Rainclouds, 23. wandering cloud, 24. rainbow cloud, 25. cloud with a silver lining and rain drops, 26. in clouds, 27. big black cloud, 28. Clouds, 29. Life in a Cloud - Gathering, 30. Clouds

Here is a selection of photographs and artwork by some of my lovely friends on flickr. Click on the image to go to flickr where you can find the featured artists or use the links above to go to the individual artist's flickr. Thankyou to all the artists for sharing their pictures.

Station Parade

Tourists and Cyclists

Ali Forbes

Hold Fast Bar Tape,

bicycle handlebar tape, printed cotton tape, adhesive back.

Steer Head Skull Brooch (from Interactive Jewellery Kit)

7x7cm, steel and enamel paint

Ali Forbes, Jeweller and Object Maker

"Living in Alabama, working as a bicycle messenger and my father’s Meccano and Airfix model kits, the nostalgic aesthetic of the Southern States of America combined with my practical interest in bicycles, mechanical objects, industrial materials and processes, form the basis of this collection of interactive jewellery kits and bicycle-related products."

Suzi Tibbetts

A Moment in Time from the Audio Book Series 2009

Suzi Tibbetts is an applied artist creating object interventions, audio related works and spatial installations. Suzi's work plays with content, form, functionality and material, where material stands to mean as much about what is heard as what is seen. Her work is concept driven, currently based on the theme of sound encountered in our everyday lives. Through her pieces Suzi hopes to show the difference between listening and hearing, and celebrate the small sounds surrounding us that are so often overlooked. Alongside this, Suzi is exploring silence, and a need for audio escapism within our society. She works reflectively, often on several pieces at once, developing each one gradually through experimentation and evaluation.

Giulia Resteghini

Display case with work by Giulia Resteghini at the Royal College of Art student show.

Aliki Stroumpouli

Tights and goggles necklace.
tights, goggles, silver, photo-etched bronze, eyelashes

Aliki Stroumpouli is an artist whose extraordinary work encompasses jewellery, sculpture, photography, and product design. Inspired by the surreal, she is currently exploring the agonising and extremely intense experience of being exposed and naked to the unknown gaze. Intrigued by the violation of intimate space and the insatiable appetite of the eye, she creates work that ranges from jewellery and installations to everyday objects. Have a look at Aliki's blog for more of her beautiful work.

Nick Mobbs

Folding Mattress, 2009 photo-etching 24x34cm

I loved these prints by Nick Mobbs from the end of year show at the Royal College of Art.

This latest work is from a series called Dens and Lairs in which Nick investigates the idea of children creating structures which may offer protection but can also harbour imagined horrors.

Lots more to see on his website.

Flora Parrott

Work by Flora Parrott. From her split image series. These are photographs that I took at her end of year show at the Royal College of Art, to see more of Flora's work, go to her website which is beautifully designed.

Helene Uffren

Underground 2009 glass. wood, metal, photography.

Helene Uffren is one of the students exhibiting at the Royal College of Art this week, she makes very beautiful work that suggests a world of alchemy and illusion. The pieces were all about looking and seeing.

"Visual experiences mediated by different optical devices are at the center of my research. I focus on surface depth, distortion and illusion, to create extra dimensions through cropped vision. I want the viewer to become part of the work, pulled in and transported by the act of viewing.
The brain sees through the eyes, editing and creating individual realities. My optical devices act as portals to parallel realities and question the way we see. The essential ideas behind my current work revolve around the hyper-visual, hyper-real and over exposed world we live in …"
"What we usually call reality is a montage" Nicolas Bourriaud

Royal College of Art

I went to see the end of year show at the Royal College of Art. Featuring work by students from the Fine Art departments of Painting, Photography, Printmaking and Applied Art. The show continues until Sunday 7 June.

Gerard Quenum

Gérard Quenum was born in the coastal town of Porto Novo, the official capital of the Republic of Benin, in 1971. Quenum’s work is composed of recycled objects whose diverse histories contribute much to the overall significance of the pieces themselves. But what gives his art its unique twist is his signature use of discarded dolls added to the mix of objets trouvés – that elevates the pieces into witty and whimsical ‘portraits’ of individuals or types observed in his local environment. These ‘portraits’ serve as a lens through which we see (or imagine we see) Africa itself. It is important to understand the pre-existent story with which these dolls – none of which are indigenous African dolls – are invested.

Gerard Quenum is showing work at The October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1 until 27 June.