little squid

Here is a drawing that I did in class yesterday when my attention wandered. I like the squid's little beak. Honestly though, I have no real idea of what a squid looks like, so he's only a semi-squid.

Cupcakes of the Chocolate Variety

Indeed. I made these to say thanks to Hope for filling in on Monday's drive show at Radio1 when I was pissing razors and totally unwilling to sit through a three hour show in agony. To say the least, they're quite over the top when combined with buttercream icing. The cupcakes themselves could be a bit more chocolatey, as it is they're ok, but kind of boring, and they have a touch of that baking flavour which possibly comes from baking soda.


But never fear! The mountain of icing you pile on top will totally solve the problem.

Thanks Martha Stewart!

Best. Photo. Ever

I have no idea who took this, but this photo makes me so happy inside that I want to cry.

Rebekah Bogard

Rebekah Bogard makes ceramic creatures of such a sweet, sensual nature that I just want them all to come and visit for tea and cupcakes. They're seriously gorgeous, it's worth checking out her website. Like, suhreeusly. SUH-REE-US-LEE.

Anita DeSoto

My life drawing tutor at Art School, Anita DeSoto, has an exhibition opening today at Milford Galleries on Dowling Street in Dunedin. It looks like it'll be bloody gorgeous, do come (I'm about to crawl out of bed and head there myself). If you can't come, you can check some of her work out online at Milford's website.

Sex with Bowie

Was pint night at ReFuel last night as good for you as it was for me? Because it was pretty fucking good for me. Sex with Bowie freaking rocked my socks right off of my feet and shoved them into my mouth. You can listen to some stuff from off of their debut release "Corporate Karaoke Function" at last.fm for free.

We went and took some photos in Milton yesterday for band promo stuff. This one was probably my fave.



There are a few others on my flickr if you wanna see 'em. :)

Ceramics

As the one or two of you who read this blog probably know, I'm at art school this year, and am currently running through a marathon of three week modules in various disciplines offered by the school. Three weeks per subject, two days a week, essentially craziness.

But fun. Oh lordy yes.

The first module I was in was Ceramics, where we were required to look into making vessels that could be used in a japanese tea ceremony (wiki) using the wabi-sabi aesthetic of assymetrical, unfinished, imperfect objects. Perfect for rookies like us.

I got hooked on the wheel fairly quickly, and made pretty much everything using it.

Here's some stuff I made that I liked:







If you wanna see more of the stuff I did, go have a look on my flickr account.

Fake CD covers

I was bored last night and looking to kill some time and ran across this little bit of photochop fun.

You go to wikipedia and hit random search - the subject that appears is your fictional band's name.
You then run a random quotations search and the last three to five words make up your album title.
Finally, you then go to flickr and hit explore: the third image is the one you have to use in your work. Put it together however you like and voila, you've just effectively procrastinated.

Here are more of mine (the one at the top of the blog was my first attempt):

February

Holy moly! It's mid-february already!

I thought I better give a wee bit of an update as to how I've spent the past three weeks.

There were several largeish things that have happened this month, the first being Camp A Low Hum 2009, in Wainuiomata.

It was three days of hedonistic drinking times, dancing to radtastic bands, falling over laughing, and catching up with the wonderful wellingtonians that I so rarely get the chance to see (seriously, Bronwyn, Chloe, Liz, Gianna, Alex, Phil and Amanda are the bees knees and it always makes me SO happy to get to spend time with them! Albeit rarely! Also, was fabulous to get to know Lily too... my wee asian bebe!)

I mean, holy shitballs. It was grand, but over so quickly, and on such a down note too. You see, my liver no longer has to process large amounts of alcohol on a weekly basis since I dropped the scarfies-on-the-piss routine and adopted a "higher" way of living.

Over the course of Camp, I consumed a couple of boxes of Double Brown, Scrumpies, Red Wine, Gin and Tonsies, and miscellaneous beer. I also smoked like a train. By Sunday, my liver was ready for a revolt so I decided to stop drinking... until the afternoon. So my liver declared war and I spent the wee small hours of Monday morning creeping back and forth between our tent and the toilet block where I spewed from both ends until my stomach was cramping and bile was the only flavour I could remember ever occupying my mouth.

THANK GOD FOR DJ AND FRIENDS. They sorted me out in the morning and let me lie outside on the ground while they packed up all the camping crap.

SECOND amazing thing about this month was that Anni, my Finnish exchange student friend, arrived in New Zealand... and came to camp! Haha! Having never been to a music festival before and only knowing me! What a champ! She made friends pretty quickly though, and we had a stonking good time.


Third big thing this month was that I decided to go to art school. Signed myself up for a three year degree I did. Necessary? Perhaps not. Fun? Heck yeah.

The biggest shit thing about art school so far is the new degree structure meaning that instead of getting four weeks on each module in the first year, we only get THREE weeks per subject, which equates to SIX DAYS, or 39 HOURS PER SUBJECT TOTAL. From only 39 HOURS in each of the five subjects we choose, we have to decide on two to pursue for a semester, and after that BAM, you've got a major and you're off.

I WANT MORE TIME!

Ceramics is the BIZ NIZ. I didn't really like our first day because we were working using coiling and slab techniques and all my work looked SUPER clumsy and like something you'd find on an old lady stand at the local school fair. Not the sort of stuff I'm looking to make. Today we hit the potters wheel and I had a fucking blast. I managed to make two bowl type things and two mug type things in the six hours we had.

I can't wait to get onto glazing them and then making some more. ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT :(

Poos.

Happy Birthday Mumsy!

It was my Mum's birthday on the 30th, and she spent the day in Central Otago buying kilos and kilos of fruit to preserve and make into jam with her partner, Paul. They had a number of adventures, and when they returned to Dunedin, they had this waiting for them:

Mmm! Delicious dark chocolate torte with gingernut base! Super easy to make, super easy to eat! Rich and satisfying! Goes straight to your thighs! Get the recipe here! Oh how I love you Deb, you and your tasty recipes of goodness...

I also made Mum a wee friend. She seemed to like her new chum. Yay for Mum! Yay for new chum! And birthday fun!