SKETCHBOOK

I thought I'd share some older drawings with you. The first drawing was the incredible feeling I had after purchasing myself some moustache socks, where every day in them would inevitably be full of joy. The drawing below are lyrics to Centurion, and the bottom drawing is an original quote which sprung from a feeling I sometimes have when I see cruelty in the world.

THE OCEAN'S EDGE

Photos from when Gabby modelled for me by the waterfront last year.

LOST MOVEMENTS WAREHOUSE EVENT

'Wanted: Artists' reads a sign plastered around university. Curious, I stumble upon Lost Movements, a new organisation dedicated to the growth of local artists and musicians alike. When they announce a secret warehouse event and request that all walls are covered in art, local creatives jump at the opportunity.

SPAGHETTI OH!

A font I designed made from spaghetti. This font will be available for free download soon.

The requirement for this task for Typography 2 was to create a font. My concept was a font made from the natural shapes and curves of spaghetti. A grid was designed, the spaghetti was cooked and structured into the grid, photographed, carefully etched, converted to vector, then made into a working otf file font using Glyph.

JAC STONE AND STEPHEN SMITH LIVE @ BREW

Jac Stone and Stephen Smith live at Brew, 24th May 2012.

FABLED FASHION SHOW

In September 2011, I won tickets to FABLED fashion show. The event was held by Mirror Mirror Agencies at the Powerhouse and featured the local designers and models.

MOLESKINE

A rounded-edge maroon journal with the brand Moleskine gently embossed into the back, and my silly drawings coloured throughout.

 

FIRST PHOTOGRAM

A photogram is a picture produced with photographic materials, such as light-sensitive paper, but without a camera. My first photograms made from collected materials around South Bank. This final photogram (pictured here) was created at F22 and an exposure of 4.5 seconds.

TOOWOOMBA & MELBOURNE

Scans from my film from Toowoomba and Melbourne trips recently.

GOING VEGETARIAN

... well, for a week anyway.
Last week I decided I wanted to try going vegetarian for a week. A while back, I would spend one day a week vegetarian, which lasted a solid few months. Every conscious decision of saying 'no' to meat helps out an animal somewhere, hence this week.


Monday
Monday night is pizza night and who knew vegetarian pizza is delicious.
Snacks today included carrot and dip and wedges.


Tuesday
Vegetarian burger at university. Vegie patty is good, soggy lettuce is not.
Ate too much chocolate today...


Wednesday
Smoothie with Berries, Milk, Passionfruit, Yogurt and Honey for breakfast.
Stir fry with lots of vegetables and noodles for dinner.
Feeling OK about the amount of chocolate consumption yesterday.


Thursday
Smoothie for breakfast with Ash.
Leftover stir fry for lunch.
Pesto Fettuccine for dinner. 


Friday
Garlic bread for a snack. Garlic bread is my favourite food. I could honestly eat it for every meal.
Mumma's homemade pumpkin soup for dinner.
I also said no to free KFC today which I am now grateful for. I had heard briefly about KFC slaughtering but decided to ignore it. Today, I decided that there's no better time than this week to watch it so I spent about a half hour researching and watching videos and found my eyes welled with tears watching animals being intentionally mistreated. I made a decision today that I will never buy chicken from KFC again. 
Though I think PETA's Kentucky Fried Cruelty site and methods are quite extreme I found a lot of information on there about the injustice both in the USA, as well as here in Australia. 
"If slaughterhouses had walls, we'd all be vegetarian" - Paul McCartney.


Saturday
Loren's birthday night. Vegetarian sushi and a slice of 19 layer cake.


Sunday
Bread roll with salad and most importantly, Avocado. Nom.


...


Things I've realised this week:


Being vegetarian ≠ being healthy.
Yes Sav, chips and chocolate are vegetarian, but they are not healthy. Most of my week was healthy, but I found because 'oh I'm being vegetarian and there aren't as many options so i can have it this week' I wasn't as strict in my food choices. This was mostly for the first two days, before I realised my sly attitude and shut it down quick smart.


It's not as hard as you think.
I'm in no way undermining the effort vegetarians put into their diet. This was only a week, and because it was such a short period of time I didn't have to consider supplements and long term effects which would obviously require significant amounts of effort. All I'm trying to say is that I would encourage making a little bit of a difference and saying No to meat, if only for a few days.
Choosing the burger with 'v' instead of 'ham' written on it really isn't that hard. Meat has been connected to cancer growth in The China Study so it'd do wonders to your health, not to mention the animals that usually suffer cruelty in the process.
Plus, did you know that pigs can suffer from depression? Why not say no to meat and help whack a smile on a little piglet's snout.

MAD SCIENTIST TEA PARTY

My friend Adelaide and I attended the first of local event Mad Scientist Tea Party. Held at The Edge, attendees are invited to sip tea and listen as various Scientists take to the microphone to discuss their work as a practitioner and their findings.


We sit down at a table with actress and artist Lucy, her partner, host for the night and slam poet Scott, and artist and speaker Rebecca Cunningham. The first event had five speakers who had five minutes to 'slam' style. Each speaker was interesting and covered completely different topics. The first speaker talked about how Australia has the 5th largest supply of Marine Diversity in the world and yet only one ship and 2,000 scientists have studied it. The second about the connection of ideas conveyed between brains, and the third about her own work and why she chose Science.

As an art student, I found the fourth speaker Rebecca Cunningham's and the main speaker Svenja Kratz's speeches most appealing- both a unique collaboration between art and science. The Edge resident artist Rebecca Cunningham talked about her project in where she aims to make a portrait from the portrait of one million people, raising points on the trusting of the supplier of her use of the DNA. When Rebecca returned to her seat next to us, we quickly offered to be a part of her project. I was so intrigued with the idea of collecting so much data and her unusual application of that into her art practice. Hopefully there will be another post soon about my experience of being a participant in her project.

Please Note, this next paragraph is not suitable for the faint hearted.

After a quick intermission, it's time for main speaker and Biological Artist, Svenja Kratz. She talks about a couple of her projects. The first is started with an interest in cells and the environment in which they need to survive. She uses cells extracted from a girl suffering with cancer in the 1970s. To keep the cells functional they are kept in a controlled environment including a nutrient medium which Svenja discovers is extracted from cow fetus'. This fetal cow serum is taken from pregnant cows that have been slaughtered for meat. Though the thought is horrific enough to make you feel sick to the stomach, Svenja finds an interest in the concept of one organism living through another – though dead, these calves have supplied nutrients to cells that are still living. Her second project is the Human Skin Equivalent Model, in which she collects hair follicles from three different subjects and along with two skin graphs taken from her own skin, she joins the two and will be making pieces of jewellery from the result.

As the night closes and all that remains in my glass is an open flower bud, we start talking to Lucy. She mentions wanting to make a stop motion video and suddenly we’re talking for long after the event has finished. I tell her about my half-completed stop-motion video I started a couple of years ago, answering her many questions. I show her the Nokia Stop Motion video my friend Hunter had shown me a couple of weeks before, to which she stares at the screen in awe and asking ‘What?!’ When she shows us pictures of her fabric portraits I am equally as interested. She constructs comic-style portraits of woman from different fabrics, the result a beautiful collage of patterns and textures. I love meeting creative people and from her ‘I’m so glad I met you!’ I think she was happy to meet me also.

Walking back to the class I’ve skipped to attend the night (Worth it.), I think about what a lovely and unique night it was. Art, science, tea and good company. I think about how there’s two things I really need to do:

1) Buy a ticket to the next tea party, and

2) Finish my stop motion.

FIRST DARKROOM PRINT

A couple of months ago I used a darkroom for the first time.

I found the experience helpful as someone aspiring to be a photographer. For a couple of years now I have wanted to use a darkroom facility and a goal of mine is to own my own darkroom. The chemical process took exactly half an hour, followed by the enlarging on light sensitive paper.

Minus my collision with a wall in the dark it was one of my favourite creative experiences.

LAST YEAR'S SKETCHES

Stumbled over some drawings from last year. Semester 1 last year for Drawing for Design we had nude models come into class for us to draw. Additionally, I attended some drawing classes through the week out of class where we drew costumed models. For these first two sketches the model would move every minute and we'd have to express their movement somehow. I found the classes so useful in understanding how to see a subject as lines and shapes instead of as a whole too intimidating to draw.

Song of the day: Poison & Wine - The Civil Wars

BALL PARK MUSIC REVIEW

May 11th is the third time I've seen Ball Park Music live. They've set themselves some high expectations, their last two shows leaving me in awe. The show tonight is their last show of their 180° tour, and having seen the first show of this same tour, in the same place about a month ago, I expected a similar and almost predictable night to unfold and was pleasantly surprised.

Cub Scouts are the first ones to take the stage not long after the doors open. Lead singer Tim Nelson is quiet and smiles for most of the performance. He shows an impressive control of his vocal range, especially when the band surprises the crowd with a cover of Destiny's Child's 'Jumpin Jumpin' - A song I remember from Primary School. The song 'Hands' is dedicated to a girl at Tim's uni, and their hit 'Evie' later dedicated to his dog, who Tim claims the song was written about.

On the previous 180° show, Nantes were the other support band. However, when Yesyou enter the stage there's no complaints. This electric-pop group knows what they're doing. Usually a duo, the band of four works well together, some of them occasionally swapping instruments, and sharing vocals between the three vocalists. The crowd sings along for 'Half of It' and responds well to their other not as known tracks. For their last song they bring on a special guest and wait... We've seen him before... It's Greg from local bands Montpelier and Hey Geronimo. Greg takes the lead vocals for the final song, dancing happily and entertaining the crowd.

When it's finally time for Ball park Music to enter, the crowd is screaming in excitement. Straight into action, 'Literally Baby' is a perfect jump-start to a truly outstanding set. Sam moves in a quirky manner about the stage with an understanding of the audience and what they want to hear. The set list is flawless; Sam's quirky movements, Jen's striking harmonies, Guitarists Brock and Dean working in unison to impress, Paul playing keys to fill the sound and standing to play smooth trombone melodies and Drummer Daniel leading them with beats the crowd claps and jumps in sync to. Plainly, every song is a wild hit. No exceptions. When it comes time for the last song Sam, beer in hand, announces to the crowd they will be doing a Nickelback cover, to which there is several boo's and chuckles - a community coming together for a mutual dislike of Nickelback. Instead they play 'It's Nice to be alive,' exiting the stage with a happy crowd screaming for an encore.

Given a quick chance to recuperate, they return to stage for a huge encore. Brock and Dean have a face-off guitar challenge, Sam plays guitar, Brock and Sam end up entangled on the floor, and then the band perform Culture Vultures followed by The Kinks' 'All day and all of the night' - bringing the support bands on stage for their last song. When a Band can do justice to The Kinks, they've got it in the bag. With a crowd-surf, thank you and confetti finish, the band ends the show.

The first time someone listens to Ball Park, they may take them as rude and careless. They may listen to 'iFly' and wonder why not stick to the three word convention, they may not agree with the themes of 'Sad Rude Future Dude', or a guy stark naked on a cd cover (or as a tribute, Brock flashing his backside to the audience in their performance). But it's impossible not to love them. Their live performance is one of the best I've seen yet, their stage presence is intense, and their enthusiasm unmeasurable. And when they speak, it is easy to see how much they love what they're doing and appreciate the support - thanking everyone for selling out both shows of the same tour in the same place, stopping to thank the support bands, techs and other people who have helped them. And if that's enough, it's evident in Jen's short hair - the month of growth from the last show where her hair was cut and shaved to raise thousands of dollars for charity event World's Greatest Shave.

They care about the things that matter. And that's why we love them, literally baby.

Like Ball Park Music's Facebook page here

Listen to them online here

CHAILAX - ARABIAN NIGHT

Chailax is an event the Princess Theatre holds, where local bands perform to a relaxed crowd who sit sipping Chai and enjoying good company and music. Last night I was the photographer for the Arabian themed Chailax where bands Acoustic Alley, The Captain's Daughters, Sencabah and my mates The Esplanade played. It was the first event I've covered where I'm required to do crowd shots. I was initially nervous but by the end of the night I was happily approaching strangers asking for their photograph and taking photos in front of the stage. I used my Canon 550D with a burrowed 430EZ Speedlite, which I've decided I'm going to buying in the next few weeks! After that I'm going to save for a zoom lens for band photography in particular- I'd like a 24-105mm but they start at about $940 so I'll probably buy a cheaper one temporarily. 

See the album and like the Chailax page on facebook here

THE LUMINEERS 'THE LUMINEERS' ALBUM REVIEW

American Folk Rock band The Lumineers provided my music for today with their newest self titled album. The album, released April 4th this year is feel good and makes for easy listening.

It begins with their most popular track Hey Ho. The layers of vocals and catchy chorus lyrics makes it near impossible to listen without singing and moving side to side. The film clip for the song conveys the feeling perfectly, a group of friends eventually singing along together in a room filled with confetti, roses hanging from the ceiling, stained glassed windows and fairy lights. At 1:05 lead man Wesley Schultz stamps on a lightbulb - an incredible shot worth noting.

The album continues with my second favourite song 'Classy girls.' Impossible not to smile when the lyrics describe a hard-to-get woman in a bar replying to him saying 'Classy girls don't kiss in bars, you fool.' The next two tracks, 'Gun Song' and 'Scotland' were my least favourites. They were tracks I enjoyed listening to, but I feel they weren't as exceptional and easy to respond to as the others on the album. 'Soundtrack song' is a letter to loneliness which finishes the album. It's lyrics are bittersweet and the melody  works well between Wesley's rustic vocals, the continuous strum of the guitar and the piano.

Listen to the whole album on their website here or on myspace here

STORY BRIDGE

Last sunday night, the sixth of May I walked to the Story Bridge before sunset to get some photos. I spotted at least 7 photographers taking advantage of the beautiful canvas for photos that was the Brisbane Skyline. I stayed for over two hours- in awe of how the moon sat above the bridge, the way the lights reflected their colours into the water, and how the ferries broke those reflections. On the way back, Brisbane photographer Claude Raiola approached me, offering some tips and telling me about his work.

I'm planning on returning someday soon - I'd like to try some longer exposures with a tripod. Here is my favourite I took from the night, a panorama constructed from three separate photos:

WATERCOLOUR LIPS

Recently I was given a new watercolour set, after feeling limited by the ten generic colours I had on my original palette. I felt the world my oyster, and have been using them every few days since. I originally drew this for an album cover and although that didn't work out I'm happy with the result. I played with layering shades and highlights to give extra depth.

BIG SCARY REVIEW

I'm back in the blogging world, and I thought I'd return with my favourite picture and a review from seeing Big Scary at The Zoo on the 28th of April.



Big Scary would be close to my all time favourite band. Unlike most bands, they are able to somehow pull off not just heartfelt ballads and instrumental pieces, but also know how to rock to tracks Tuesday is Rent Day and Purple. That's probably why I love them so much- no matter what mood, they have a song to match. Tom alternated between his electric guitar and keyboard, whilst the woman half of the duo, Jo, spent her time on the right of stage on the drums. The pair performed for about an hour, their set list including numerous unreleased tracks, an electric version of Bad Friends and finished the night with their biggest hit, Gladiator. The only disappointment was that the setlist seemed short when they have so many more incredible tracks. And judging from the crowd yelling encore long after they left they stage and the venue music resumed, I wasn't the only one.