goodbye moon

my old adversary... until we meet again....

This full moon had everyone acting like a bunch of loons. (myself included)
I went home the other night full of red wine and spent an hour playing Sims, slapping everyone (virtually of course) that I could find. It was great. Then I ate a box of cadbury roses.

Control

Superb.

therr-tee

In the spirit of ageing, as my 30th year draws to a close, I decided (albeit in-advisedly) to do some adult-y stuff. I changed my gothy blue-black locks to a respectable BROWN and I invested in some anti-eye-wrinkle cream nonsense. Sadly, BROWN dye looks exactly the same as black, and dyes the face almost as perminantly as it does the hair. And I'm allergic to the eye cream. When does it all get easier?

week three...

Last night we did dry point etching which involves pointy tools and drawing. I was testing out the difference between simple and more detailed drawings with my little butterflies. The preparation of the plate was very time consuming so I only made one print in this weeks class. I enjoyed it though, despite all the tools being squeaky AND despite spilling a jar of solvent on my shoe.


I was reminded of the trip Paddy and I took to the butterfly farm in Ovidstown near Straffan. It's a great place... in the first bit you get to look at all sorts of (dead-zo) butterflies in glass cases, preserved and beautiful. There are also some glass cages with live bugs, giant snails, praying mantises, stick insects and assorted spidery badness. The main attraction however is the butterfly room, a heated sanctuary full of water features, tropical foliage and LIVE butterflies buzzing about. It was wonderful but ultimately terrifying. It sounds silly but it was scary!! They swoop, and sometimes land on you, they're quite menacing really.







But anyway, I love my class. It's wonderful being creative again, and I've renewed my love of working with my hands. my teacher is amazing as well. She has a gentle and lovely way about her, and above all she wants everyone to learn at their own pace and explore their own interests. I found her bio on the interweb along with a few of her prints....

"Born in Dublin in 1959 Louise Meade studied Fine Art Printmaking in both Dun Laoghaire College of Art & Design and the National College of Art & Design. She is a member of the Black Church Print Studio where she works as a full time printmaker. Recent exhibitions include a solo show Uncharted Waters (Original Print Gallery, Dublin) and group exhibitions including Gene Pool (Lemon Street Gallery, Dublin), Print Portraits (Original Print Gallery, Dublin) and Contemporary Irish Prints (National Arts Club, NY). Louise’s work is in many public and private collections including The Office of Public Works. Louise previously held the position of Director at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios and is currently Printmaker in Residence at Airfield House, Dundrum, a residency that was initiated and funded by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council."

Daniel Libeskind

Whilst showing off my architectural knowledge to my Canuck pal Mike Kickass I came across the new Daniel Libeskind addition to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM to you and me). It's pretty sexy. I can't wait to see it in all it's glory.

My Paddy has a new blog....

and he's typing..
right...
now.

day 2

even better than the last... We got to use LOADS of colors. Currently my hands resemble a certian broadway raincoat! This time I brought gloves to protect my fingers. Unfortunately however, when latex encounters whatever wonderfulness we use to make ink go away, it GROWS. I've never seen anything like it. Within 2 minutes I had giantitus of the gloves, then the fingers started falling off. I made a zombie hand joke but no-one laughed. Tough crowd.
anyway
Here are a couple of my first installments. Bear in mind I got more ink on myself and my classmates than I actually did on the page.

Ok I survived

My first night was fun, AND I dyed my hands blue which is always a bonus. I love my class. It's going to be all about etching and printmaking. I don't have my work to put up, apparently the ink takes an eon to dry, so instead I found some nice and lovely etchings for your viewing pleasure.


(zeek and destroy)


(artwv)


(jaime ellsworth)


(thewretchedetcher)

Student Sarah

Tonight is my first night back in school. I'm mildly nervous in a ferociously petrified kind of way. I graduated University 85 years ago and my memories of the experience still smell slightly dampish. This is different though I suppose; I'm going back because I WANT to. And it's art school. And it's only part time. Plus I have a new pencil case.

Halloween

Rob Zombie is a legend. The new Halloween scared the pumpkins out of me. It was sufficiently creepy, not overly gorey or full of OTT killings, and a scary kid always freaks me out. PLUS Michael Myers is one of the best villians going. (And Sheri Moon Zombie is a babe.) I love a good horror movie.