April + Hien

Life's too Short for the Wrong Job!

2011-03-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

These advertisements are for a campaign designed for a German job site: Jobsintown.de. If I'm not mistaken these ads go all the way back to early 2006, or even before! The point of the ads is pretty transparent, but that's what makes the impact so powerful. It has to be one of the most well-planned and executed campaigns that I've ever seen. They all look so real you sort of expect them to get moving any second. Well, life is, after all, too short for the wrong job! ;) Don't you stay in the limbo land just for the money!

H.N.

Graphics*

2011-03-07T12:59:00.000-08:00

*collected from various websites/blogs

H.N.

Little Parcels of Love

2011-03-06T00:51:00.000-08:00

I don't want to turn this into a foodie blog, but when food is one of the big passions of my life it's hard not to do so.. As you may already know, I've been exercising a lot more than usual and fish and other seafood provide a unique combination of nutrients important to runners. Seafood is an excellent source of protein, zinc, copper, and other minerals. But omega-3 fats are what really count here, as they lower the risk of heart attack, vascular disease and stroke. Being a MD, April would be able to tell you a lot more of these facts, and more accurate too, but she's been really busy with work so you'll have to make do with me ;) !

Basically you need to eat seafood about twice a week, and this cold-water seafood dish is perfect: Salmon lettuce parcels - it's protein-packed and light on the stomach and so quick and easy to prepare.

You need: (to serve 4)
4 salmon fillets
2 tbsp olive oil, more to brush fish
Juice of 2 limes
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp cumin
1tsp cayenne pepper
1 head butter lettuce
1 head radicchio
1 tomato, diced
some tzatziki
and some chopped spring onions

And this is how to make it:
+ In a baking dish mix oil, lime juice and spices. Add fillets and coat them evenly. Marinate for 10 minutes, then grill until they begin to turn opaque on top. Fish should be firm and flake easily.
+ Form the parcels by gently separating the lettuces, line one leaf of round lettuce with radicchio for each serving.
+ Flake salmon into each parcel, top with tomato and spring onion. Drizzle with tzatziki and they're ready!

Bon Appétit!

H.N.

Lego Movies

2011-03-05T06:36:00.000-08:00

Inception

My apologies for being absent lately - I've been under a rock, often find myself too exhausted in the evenings to do anything other than having my dinner and slumping into bed :(

These were meant for the Oscar, well it's better late than never. A great collection of Lego creations by Alex Eylar - you can find more of his works here. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

American Beauty

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Pulp Fiction

Die Hard

Back to the Future

Indiana Jones

Star Wars

The Exorcist

The Godfather

2001: A Space Odyssey

H.N.

Michael: Creating a Wild Rollercoaster of a Vivid Dream

2011-02-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

Demise of the Blissful One
About the artist:

Michael Vincent Manalo is a digital-mixed-media artist born in Philippines to American father and Spanish mother. Having grown up in an international family with fascinating background, his artworks dramatically recreate every day life stories by illustrating his very own interpretations of emotions. Michael’s pieces have been used as album covers, book covers; exhibited in some major galleries and museums in America, Italy and Philippines.

Light my Fire

Tales from the Door of Dreams

Michael creates his art through merging scenes in his mind with scenes that have been captured by hand to create the living space that his subconscious tries to convey – a living space of surrealism, the weird, and the paranormal. They are the extension of distant memories and nostalgia. Refused to be bound by the traditional painting process, Michael chose photo-manipulations, which as a result has given him unlimited possibilities to ‘recreate visceral levels contained within the vast assemblage of his spirit’.

Artist Statement:

The Storyteller

A Second Chance

Life has always been a fascination to me: from those inevitable school fights during the elementary years to those wild days of puberty; from the lonesome people in the parks to the 8-inched mohawked people in concerts; from feeling someone else's warmth to dealing with the blackness within. There are always a lot of emotions in my works - pain, happiness, love and warmth, glory, success, failures, torture, jealousy, excitement, rage, pride. All these converged and met at a common point in time and space and created who I am, what I want to explore and what I hope to achieve.

A vast amount of images come to my mind every day as a result of the radical emotions that fill me in each heartbeat, which I try to recreate as soon as I could by combining photographs and techniques in illustration to illustrate the concepts of the mind. By forging those images I literally create pictures wherein the emotion delves, grows and inhabits. They hopefully then allow viewers to withdraw from the cruelty of reality and dig into a wild rollercoaster of a vivid dream.

Tales from the Hidden Attic

The Earth Room

H.N.

My Beloved

2011-02-20T02:26:00.000-08:00

..APRIL! My best friend, my rock, and the co-author of this blog.

I can't believe I never painted her before. So here, my first painting of the most beautiful bride ever. Also, my first vector art, faithfully followed Electra's tutorial on the subject. (I'm nowhere as good as she is, really :(.. April is much more gorgeous than depicted!!!)

Darling I hope you'll like it ;)

On a different note, I'll run the Race for Life 5km in Cambridge on 3rd of July. Join me! Cheer for me! And donate for Cancer Research UK online here! It's very secure, every pound counts and your money will be put forward to funding Cancer Research UK’s life-saving work into preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer. I'm going to start my training today. There's no quitting now as I already invested some major money in running shoes, socks, outfits, etc. We've got to run but we've got to LOOK GOOD while running too, yes? ;) I'll keep you all posted on my so-called training!

H.N.

Tried and Tasted!

2011-02-19T12:49:00.000-08:00

I've just had my Saturday (vegetarian) grill - the recipe is brilliant: easy, time-saving, and super delicious. Try and you'll love it. Need not to mention how good colourful fruits and vegetables are for your being and digestion :)

Here it is: Basque grilled vegetable skewers with Lime chimichurri sauce!

You will need...
(serves 4)

3 peppers, sliced
2-3 Portobello mushrooms (my favourite!), quartered
2 courgettes or aubergines (or one each), sliced and halved
1 red onion, quartered.

All of them should be marinated in: salt and pepper, 1/2 tbsp chilli powder and 1 tbsp dried orange rind.

For the Basque-style green sauce:
6 garlic gloves
3 dried bay leaves
3 limes
1 green chilli, 1 red chilli
some parsley, oregano, basil and olive oil

Squeeze the limes and the rest goes into a blender until the paste is smooth. Its fragrant will make you fall in love instantly - guaranteed.

In the mean time, grilled the vegetables, cook some brown rice. Drizzle the sauce over when everything's done and voila, your meal is ready!

H.N.

All the Glittering

2011-02-13T03:37:00.000-08:00

*excerpt from Tony Tanner's Introduction of The Great Gatsby

The greatest intensity of feeling comes not from possession but from intimation of imminent or actual loss. Fairer through fading, writes Emily Dickinson: glittering because going, Fitzgerald implies ('It was a mood of intense appreciation, a sense that, for once, he was magnificently attuned to life and that everything about him was radiating a brightness and a glamour he might never know again'), glittering because the radiance is about to dim. And when it has dimmed and the world seems definitely deglamourised, then emotionally the only future that matters really is the past.

H.N.

Katie: Making Make-up into Art

2011-02-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

Full face Sunset
To be honest, it utterly and completely baffled me when I saw Katie’s masterpieces! It’s not because I hardly ever do any make-up myself (I’d like to think I’m quite confident with my brushes, and I think the canvas and the face would be pretty similar to work on, no? :P), but because of this undeniable fact: Katie’s talent is out of this world. She does magic with her cosmetics and her face the canvas. I browsed her gallery with such envy, why, I never can get my right hand and my left hand and my face and my, I don’t know, mascara to co-operate! Ooh, you’ll love this post, especially the girls ;) Enjoy!!!

Tree Lips
Hello! I’m Katie. I do artistic make-up for fun, but my real profession is actually a Graphic Designer! I went to school for it and I’ve just recently graduated. I’m just starting up my own freelancing company, 89 Design, I’m currently working on my website and business cards. I’m also working part time at a little print shop in my town. I got into graphic design because I loved photography and I loved incorporating my own photography into my work. What I’d love to do in the future is do fashion photography, doing my own make-up and also designing the editorials as well. Why hire a photographer, make-up artist and graphic designer separately when you’ve got all of that in one lovely little package?

What I do, is make make-up into actual art. Instead of doing a few pretty colours and calling it a day, I like to make scenes. I have done a few where it’s just colours when I’m doodling, but for the most part I like to make it a landscape.

City Eyes

Outer Space

When I first start a piece, I have to think of an idea. Some ideas I think are going to look amazing, turn out to be complete crap. So I have to sit down and plan it out. Sometimes I use reference pictures, but for the most part it’s just in my mind. I pull out everything I need and sit at my “make-up station” aka my bathroom. I have a high magnification mirror with lights on the side so that I can see every detail. I put down a base colour first. Or if it’s a gradient, I do that. Then I’ll put the images on top. For the small details, I use pins (carefully). It usually takes about an hour for the really complicated stuff. Sometimes it can only take about 20 minutes! That’s if I don’t screw anything up. The one that took the longest would probably be my full face sunset. It was really difficult trying to get the details on the side of my face when I can only turn my head so far in the mirror. It would have been a thousand times easier if I had done it on someone else, but I didn’t have anyone at the time.
I usually try to go for a fantasy theme. Make it look magical!

Winter Eyes

Halloween Eyes

My dream project would probably be for me to do my work on someone else. I kind of suck at doing it on other people, mainly because they’re too twitchy. When you’re doing make-up on yourself, it’s easy, but when you’re doing it on someone else and they see that you’re bringing a very sharp pin to their face, they’re not happy!

There are quite a few artists that inspire me, but from an early age, these are the ones that have stuck with me: Ansel Adams, Jerry Uelsmann and my mother.

The best advice I was ever giver was “Don’t sit on your ass and think “Oh I can’t do it”, just keep trying and eventually you’ll master it.”

Here is a tutorial I did for beginners, which shows how I did it and what I used.

H.N.

Johanna: A Story-teller

2011-02-03T05:43:00.000-08:00

First thing first, HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR :) It's our New Year's Day today back home and there's this tradition called 'khai bút đầu xuân', which literally means 'picking up your pen [to write a poem, a sentence, etc.] at the beginning of spring'. Which is what I'm doing right this moment! :)

To begin an exciting, and hopefully adventurous year, I'd like to introduce - to all of you invisible peeps - Johanna, who I admire for her talent and wonderful illustration style. (First day of the new year seriously can't get any better than this..)

Tree of Possibilities

Q: Please introduce yourself and what you do. A: Hi, my name is Johanna Bessière. I’m an animator and an illustrator. I’ve worked in the film industry for a couple of years, and I’m currently developping a few personal children books projects.

Q: A quick description of your artwork.A: I don’t know if I’ve got a proper « style ». I find it very hard to stick with one ! (and boring, too). Usually I do illustrations in various style and techniques, going from quite simple and stylised to realistic, as well as character and background design for animation, and pure animation drawings. I also enjoy life drawings and travel books.

Q: What is your process of producing a piece?A: For an illustration I usually start with a very sketchy thumbnail, then when I’ve got a basic idea of what the composition is going to be, I draw the line-art. Most of the time I do this in blue and then clean it in black, ink or pencil. Then I either paint it with acrylics or inks, or colour it digitally.

Q: How long does one take on average? Which of your masterpieces took the longest to produce?A: It really depends on the complexity of the piece and the technique I chose for it. It can go from a few hours for a simple digital or ink illustration (or less than an hour for a sketch), to a few days for a complex acrylic painting with lots of details. As an example, « The tree of possibilities » took me a long time, much longer than I expected ! All the little doors are full of details, and each one is cut by hand to show another painting behind. It took me two weeks of working everyday on it (though not full-time, thankfully) to finish it! That’s far too much!

Q: But it's brilliant! In your works, what theme do you pursue?A: I like to make drawings with symbols, subtext and several layers of interpretation, triggering the viewer’s imagination. I draw to tell stories. I can be inspired by a text, a book, an idea, or just a feeling and then I want to put a picture on it. Drawing is always showing a part of yourself, of what you believe in, of the way you see the world. This is why it’s so scary to show your art! But I believe that by accepting to be true to this and to be vulnerable somehow, your art improves, gets a deeper resonance. That’s what I’m trying to go toward in my most recent works, like « The tree… », « Wild one » and « Forest ».
Coming from the animation world, I’m also passionate about movement and characters’ emotions.

Wild One

Forest

Q: What do you like and dislike about your works?A: Hahaha, that’s a tricky question. I’m never completely satisfied with my work, I’m ultra-perfectionist. I think one of my qualities is that my drawings and characters are full of life and movement. As for the rest, I’ve got so many things to improve and to learn about! I still feel like a beginner.

Q: What is your dream project?A: To be able to convey themes and subjects that are dear to me in my work and to combine all the different aspects I love about art in my professional life, going from illustration to comics and animation. Changes and diversity make life more fun! I’d love to create workshop with kids too.

Aboriginal Art Inspiration

Inspirations

Q: Name three artists who inspire you.A: Three only is difficult ! As I was just talking about the different aspects I like in art, let’s get an inspiration for each one of them : one of the most amazing comics artists, for me, is Cyril Pedrosa. I love his lines, and he is such a talented story-teller ! (check out « Three shadows »!) For children illustration and writing, Gabrielle Vincent, the creator of Ernest and Celestine. There is so much humanity and tenderness in her work. And for animation, Hayao Miyazaki (of Studio Ghibli, who produced Spirited Away, etc.), whose talent is absolute in every way to me, and whose themes touch me deeply.

Q: What's the best piece of advice you've been given?A: I was given a lot of other great pieces of advice for different situations. One that was particularly helpful was to create a whole story in my head about the character and background I’m drawing, even if it’s not going to be told. Is there a book under one foot of the table because it was wobbly, what in the room reflects the hobbies of the one living in it, etc. It helped me to enjoy drawing backgrounds, when they had been « not fun » to me before, and put a lot more life and subtext into my illustrations.

Thank you Johanna.

H.N.

Loud & Close

2011-01-31T13:12:00.000-08:00

Got this book today - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - autographed by Jonathan Safran Foer (also the author of Eating Animals). It made me smile the whole train journey home :D Isn't it beautiful?

My apologies for being absent lately, but commuting to London every day is no mean feat. I promise I'll post something awesome soon ;) A great week to all of you!

H.N.

Eating Animals*

2011-01-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

*title of the latest book by Jonathan Safran Foer

‘When we eat factory-farmed meat we live, literally, on tortured flesh. Increasingly, that tortured flesh is becoming our own’.

As I told a friend of mine the other day, I’m considering vegetarianism for the 3rd? 4th? maybe the 5th time? And this time I’m quite determined to stick with it. This is not merely the result of reading Foer’s book, but of recent events and serious considerations.

Facts I learnt from Eating Animals that you all should know:

1. ‘Free-range’, ‘organic’, and the similar words producers throw at you don’t mean squat. It should provide no more peace of mind than ‘all natural’, ‘fresh’, or ‘magical’. They literally mean the animals get ‘access to the outdoors’, which is nothing. ‘Imagine a shed containing thirty thousand chickens, with a small door at one end that opens to a five-by-five dirt patch – and the door is closed all but occasionally’. Yes, that’s ‘free-range’ and ‘organic’ for you.

2. 99% meat we eat comes from caged animals, which come from Frankenstein-like genetic stock, which suffer their whole life, and die a painful inhumane death.

3. They all are fed antibiotics as their daily diet. They have a lot of diseases. Factory-farm-related diseases pose a serious danger to humans. So next time antibiotics don’t work for you, you know why. And swine flu? And bird flu anyone?

4. Vegetarian diets are appropriate for any individuals during all stages of the life cycle, meet and exceed requirements for protein and have a long list of health benefits.

I’m not saying we all have to turn vegetarians, but if we eat meat, we should do so with our eyes open, and not try to ‘forget’ where it came from. ‘Eating Animals’ forms a valid story-based argument toward making informed decisions about what we consume, and taking responsibilities for our choices.

Let me quote Foer because he puts forth the argument so eloquently:

The global implications of the growth of the factory farm, especially given the problems of food-borne illness, antimicrobial resistance, and potential pandemics, are genuinely terrifying. India’s and China’s poultry industries have grown somewhere between 5 and 13 percent annually since the 1980s. If India and China started to eat poultry in the same quantities as Americans (27 to 28 birds annually), they ALONE would consume as many chickens as the entire world does today. If the world followed America’s lead, it would consume over 165 billion chickens annually (even if the world population didn’t increase). And then what? Two hundred billion? Five hundred? Will the cages stack higher or grow smaller or both? On what date will we accept the loss of antibiotics as a tool to prevent human suffering? How many days of the week will our grandchildren be ill? Where does it end?

H.N.

Guilty Pleasures

2011-01-24T11:12:00.000-08:00

Comfort food was much needed after a hectic weekend! So I had:

Scampi and Oven-roasted Chunky Chips with Thyme, Chilli Sauce and Steamed Broccoli

and Lemon + Raspberry Sorbet

Bon appetit!

Electra: An Eye for Detail

2011-01-23T05:29:00.000-08:00

Cassie

My name is Electra Sinclair. I am a sixteen year old high school student from New Zealand.

My vector artwork is mostly colourful and detailed portraits. I choose to work mostly with images of celebrities or people I like because this helps to keep me interested and motivated in my work. I usually decide to begin a new vector when I feel particularly inspired by a person or thing, or when I see a reference image that appeals to me. Most vectors take me about 6 to 8 hours (on and off) to complete, depending on the level of detail, but if I feel particularly inspired or excited about what I’m working on it can take much less than that. I feel my style is different from other vector artists because of the overlapping shapes and layers I use, as opposed to the more traditional non-overlapping layers. I prefer to work this way because I feel it gives me more freedom in the colours I choose, as well as giving my pieces a distinctive and more painterly look. I enjoy creating art that appears to be realistic, but can also be easily identified as a vector art piece; something that has been created by me.

Adrien Brody

Contrast

While I don’t intentionally choose specific subjects for my vectors, I am attracted to images that challenge my vectoring skills. This is why I often work with images of eyes; the complexity challenges me to add more detail to my work and have the patience to add this detail, I believe this helps me with every vector I do. I am always learning new things about vector and the way I choose to do things is always expanding.

If I were to choose my favourite aspect of my own artwork I would have to say that I enjoy the most colourful pieces best (not to say I don’t like the black and white ones also). I dislike the mistakes in my artwork, because they seem incredibly obvious to me, however I try to use these to improve my new art, rather than going back to rework old vectors.

Gaga

Nicholas Hoult

It's hard to believe that Electra is only 16, as her artworks have an air of maturity and elegance that only acquires with lots of experiences. The girl indeed has the whole future ahead of her, and I truly truly believe she'll turn out to be one of the most amazing illustrators/graphic designers/painters. Please visit her stunning gallery and show your support! ;)

Electra, thank you also for your vector tutorial - I have a lot to learn from you and my fellow artists. Readers, have a look, give it a go. I know I shall the next time I have a few hours to spare.

H.N.

Typographic Portraits

2011-01-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

Redemption Song

This post features 10 of the most awesome typographic portraits. Enjoy!

Mahatma Gandhi in Type

H.N.

Steve K.: To the Future!!!*

2011-01-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

*by Steve K.

This has, so far, brought at least two massive smiles to my face: once when I first received Steve's email a couple of weeks ago, and today posting it :) Thanks Steve, you are an amazing illustrator and I adore every single artwork you've done - they are all freaking STUNNING. I'm sure our readers will share my sentiment. Keep up the great work!

Please visit Steve's gallery and/or drop him a line to show your support!!!

Hai guys, I'm Steve K ~ sometimes known informally around the internet as "Stevepants".

I live in Victoria, Australia and am hoping to be an illustrator/animator. My artist statement is: "Hoping to present bright colours and use either line-less or burly lines; I wish to compliment quickly-generated, expressive and video-game inspired characters; with a strong will to try anything adorable to fill the world with 'awesome'".

I've studied Illustration for 2 years and am now hoping to get into the world of animation to boost my confidence and skills as an artist.

I love flat colour, and I love using bold outlines (if I'm using outlines at all!) and I've made best friends with Adobe Photoshop and his younger sister, Adobe Illustrator :) which are the programs I go to, to create my artwork. However sometimes I call their distant cousin, Paint, if I want to add some nostalgic touches from an old friend.

I've found it takes me a rough 15-minute sketch to plan my pieces, and on average 1-3 hours depending on how extensive the piece is. However, the larger pieces like my Pokémon fan-art with all 151 characters on them, can take a few days, on and off, depending on how badly I want it done.

The reason I do so much fan-art is because it's what I know. I have a bunch of ideas of my own, but as people aren't as interested in them right away, I'll stray until people can stand original pieces from me.

My Kanto'uch This piece, featuring all the original Pokémon - as well as the glitch Pokémon, known as "Missingno" - was purely because I love drawing creatures ~ and I wanted to produce something a little more extensive than my usual single character images. I hope it brings happy to your life. <3

I dream for these pictures to help me get into a career where I can be an animator/illustrator/video-game designer or all of the above.

TO THE FUTURE, AWAAAAY! Yes, TO THE FUTURE WHOOP WHOOP ;)

-Steve K (Stevepants)

I should be ashamed of myself really... but I love Pokémon. Yup, still do!

H.N.

Introducing Pervasion*

2011-01-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

*by Pui-Ching Ho

Pui-Ching Ho is in my top 5 favourite friends (if not top 3!) ;), plus I adore him as a composer and a musician; believe me that says a lot. We’ve been friends a long way back, when we both were undergrads – naïve, full of hopes and oh so optimistic. We often hung out, went to gigs, meals, talked about anything and nothing, and listened to music together. Until this day I can’t listen to Damien Rice or Mew or Porcupine Tree and the likes without thinking of him. And missing him, as of the year before last Pui-Ching moved back to Hong Kong to develop his music career. Have I not mentioned? Pui-Ching is brrrrrrrrrrrrrrilliant! I could sit in the dark for hours just listen to his voice and his guitar and he would sing to me his pieces and they were stunningly beautiful. So of course, he’s been thriving in Hong Kong – his popularity is unbelievable. He’s been performing, appeared on TV, interviewed by radio stations, the whole lot! I’m so proud of you, Pui-Ching. Please find below his latest MV called Pervasion. I vividly remember the first time I heard this song and how it struck me as a triumph of both melody and lyric. I hope you all will enjoy it too, and SPREAD THE WORD!!!

Pervasion is a song I wrote when I was in London and Cambridge. It is now released through my own label White Dimension. As Wong Kar Wai said in In The Mood for Love, feelings come when we are unawared of it. They pervade. But in this modern world we all have been so busy with work and are afraid to disturb each other. Chances slip through our fingers being unnoticed. It is not until we freeze our space and time that we realize we have missed out way too much.

This is one of the 12 songs from my to-be-released concept album Shimmer of Dawn. If you like this song, please do spread the words for me and share it with friends! And please visit our Facebook and Myspace too!

H.N.

Perfect Presents

2011-01-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

Today I’m happy. I have been happy, of course, but not THIS happy in a while :) The reason is not only that I received the most unexpected and beautiful and thoughtful presents today, as photographed; but also – more importantly - the love I felt from the people around me, that they truly care, and genuinely love me for who I am.

The books on the right are from Hung Tran, the guy with the most remarkable taste in arts. Thank you; you know how much I love books and reading.

The loveliest-looking book on your left is from my dearest April. I can’t even begin to express my love for her. She went through all the troubles to collect my art/architecture works (which were scattered literally EVERYWHERE!), and made them into the most beautiful volume. Keep in mind, this girl is so busy with work she can’t even afford time to sleep and eat and rest properly :( And she spent her precious spare minutes to do this for me. Seriously, it moves me deeply. Darling, I love you.

The message printed on the back cover was even more beautiful than the book itself, if that’s even possible. April wrote:

This past year has come with great challenges for both of us. Just like your artworks, some aspects of our lives have been perfect, while others are unfinished. […] Our unfinished works are the next chapters of our lives – they represent potentials and possibilities.

- which is so true. The rest of the message is too personal to post here, but needless to say, I got very teary ;)

Life offers us so many potentials and possibilities, for instance, my next journey/chapter will be working in London, for a few months at least. Our office in Cambridge has recently been relocated to London, and although it’s going to be so much hassle to commute back and forth every day, it’s a too good opportunity to miss. I love the team I’m working with, the project I’m designing, that I decided to follow it through. Mind you, I shan’t have much time left to sleep, eat, and rest ;) let alone blog or anything else. So forgive me if I can’t write every day, I’ll try my best and keep you all posted as often as the time allows.

Again, I love you all. And I’m most thankful for your love.

H.N.

The End..

2011-01-13T14:20:00.000-08:00

..of a beautiful novel that I want to share with all of you.

H.N.

Simone Held's take on Surrealism

2011-01-12T12:05:00.000-08:00

One thing not a lot of people know about me is that my favourite painters are Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Salvador Dali, who are – respectively – often associated with: bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw portraits; surrealism and depiction of people, plants and animals in unusual juxtapositions; striking and bizarre images in surrealist work. To sum up all those descriptions in one word? Weird! In a very very creative way.

My liking of surrealism was probably the reason why I had some immediate emotional responses to Simone Held’s works. They are simple, yet stunning, atmospheric, and suggestive. The lighting, in particular, is so well done it gives Simone’s pieces a sense of drama. Add Simone's website to your favourites!

My name is Simone Held and I'm from Germany. Originally, I haven't been professionally involved with art at all: I'm a teacher. I teach English and German to students aged 10-19 and I still like it although it can be a hell of a job sometimes. Art is a good possibility to get rid of all the negative thoughts and vibes... Sadly I can only spend time on my art during the holidays or at the weekends because there's not much time left.

My focus is on photo-manipulation with surreal themes. I sometimes do landscape manipulations too but no matter how "realistic" my works may seem, there's always some surrealism in them as well.

A Boy and His Best Friend

Angel

Darunter

I often start with a photograph (manipulators call them "stock images") that somehow "affected" me and with a finished concept in mind. I prefer this method as you always know what you're going to do with them. To work the other way round, i.e. starting with a concept, its problem is that you never find stock images that match the concept you've got in mind. You, for most of the times, end up being unsatisfied with the final artwork.

There are no real "themes" that I pursue. I always do what comes to me... I am often asked if there are deeper meanings behind any of my artworks. Sometimes there are, sometimes there are not. Sometimes I just want to convey a certain feeling or mood rather than concept or a message. My dream project would be to do some cover work for a CD or a book that is very successful so that I can say that I was in charge of the artwork ;).

By the Ceiling

God's Residence

Elton Fernandes is a big inspiration. He's brilliant in concept and skills. Michael Vincent Manolo, my dear friend, is a big source of inspiration too, and I get plenty of inspiration from photographers too.

My best piece of advice...? Perhaps "never give up". For a beginner it's really frustrating because there are so many things that you have to improve, you really don't know where to start and sometimes you just like to throw the towel in and start, "this is it! I'll never get past the beginner's stage anyway!" But it's worth it to go on and improve.

H.N.

Paper-rigging Tutorial

2011-01-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

This tutorial is really useful and easy to follow if you want to have some fun making paper children. Grown out of anime/manga culture, paper children first became popular in Japan and Korea. It involves humans interacting with smaller, childlike paper cut-outs to create interesting photo opportunities. Have a look below and you'll understand what I mean :) (or go back to the JYJ cut-outs I did a while ago, it's a type of paper children).

(save to view at full size)

Anyway, thanks to pettyartist, paper-rigging should be much easier from now on! "I made this tutorial after getting a lot of questions about how I make paperchildren. I had already done a how-to-make video tutorial, so I thought a tutorial about rigging would be a good compliment to it. I'm glad to see that it's been very useful to a lot of people", the artist commented. An animation major and senior in college, pettyartist has a gallery worth checking out.

H.N.

Simanion: Let the Work Sing to You!

2011-01-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

Sugar High

Back to the artist series, I seriously think that there are so many talented yet understated artists out there who deserve a lot more recognition. That’s one of the reasons why our blog started featuring their works and statements – our way to show some support and spread the words, hopefully a little bit wider and further. One of these days we can proudly say ‘hey, you know that really famous photographer/3D artist/pixel artist/graphic designer/doll-maker/watercolour-painter? We discovered them first, here, at our blog! (well, sort of)’.

Simon, a 22-year-old student from Sydney is definitely one of them. When I first wrote him, guess what he replied me? These lovely words: ‘Thank you very much. I'd love to be on your blog! I checked it out and it's evident that you put a lot of effort and love into your posts, and treat the content with respect - it would be an honour’ – they made me smile for days. Needless to say again Simon, the honour and pleasure are all ours! Now enjoy his awesome artwork:

The Windmilllion Time Bubble

Hey, my name is Simon - artist alias: Simanion - and I'm a 22 year old student from Sydney. I guess I'm a blend of artist, illustrator and designer, depending on how I feel on the day. I'm currently midway through a Masters in Graphic Design, where I've held a particular interest in illustrative typography. Most of my artworks have been created as personal projects and not related to my studies with Graphic Design, but now through typography I've managed to find a way to combine my personal work with my degree.

My illustration work is usually quite stylized, and yeah I guess you could say there's a cartoon-like element in there. You could describe many as psychedelic, surreal, whimsical, organic and expressive, but always with a prominent element of control. They're often detailed and precise, or a combination of those qualities with shades of chaos. I like to use humour and absurdity as well. Pieces range between full blown colour works, black and white and selective colour schemes. Having said all that, they're pretty eclectic. I try to create completely different works each time and really challenge my imagination, but there'll always be a personal style that emerges through.

I almost always work by hand. I'm not good starting out drawing in Photoshop or Illustrator, it's not intuitive for me. Artworks are started without a real plan, and are pretty much just flukes! Experiments that somehow went right. That said, most of my illustrations are drawings - even when they're watercolour paintings, I feel like I'm drawing with paint or exploring textures within a drawing.

Sometimes I'll lightly outline something in pencil, which I will then detail with watercolour or trace more accurately with pen. That's the most planning I do, when I have a specific image I want to get down - or if there are certain stylistic restrictions for example with typography works. But other than that, all my black and white pen works were drawn straight on blank paper without any planning, and often I'll look at a drawing from different angles, turning the paper around and deciding I like the shape better upsidedown. So something that starts as a whale could evolve into a funky bottle and then into an abstract mountain and then a bizarre bird creature (I'm always turning things into birds..), and so what you end up with is a conglomeration of ideas that if done carefully can be completely unique and unexpected but also organic and informed by the process itself.

Moon - Process

It Was The Moon That Stole My Slumber (finished)

I've grown to love typography in all its forms, and it's definitely gained a lot of mainstream attention in recent years. I still need to do a lot more typography work; I've got heaps to learn. But as for what I've done so far, I generally start by hand, on paper, whether it ends up digital or not. To get a completely hand drawn type piece perfect, it takes a lot more time than if it's done digitally. Once you make a mark, that's it - there's no Ctrl Z, and spacing has to be perfect. Most of my type stuff is a blend of traditional and digital procedures, and it moves from being a drawing/construction to an arrangement or composition.

B-Sides type doodles

B-Sides & Rarities (finished)

There are some recurring implicit themes: escapism, imagination, the surreal, the absurd, sleep/insomnia. It seems a lot of my work can be seen as being related to sleep, either through depicting dreamlike images or the feelings associated with insomnia. This is probably because I often start a work late at night, and will go for hours and hours. I don't have any great desire to depict the real world. Even if I was painting an ordinary bowl of fruit, it would end up with some sort of twist - like I'd switch the colours around, or put eyes in the fruit. Themes or concepts often come to me while I'm creating the piece. It sounds silly, but often I'll have no idea what it is I'm drawing and there'll be a point where I'll need to stop and look at what I've done to try to figure out what it means/wants to say/wants to be. There's a lot of staring in silence involved. Once that's figured out, I'll spend the time necessary to illustrate it. So the execution is quite controlled and meticulous, but the themes and ideas themselves are pretty fluid and spontaneous.

I guess I like that there's always the attempt to be original, and I try not to ever repeat myself or get creatively complacent. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I don't rush my work or put something out there if I'm not entirely satisfied with it. I like that my work seems to be imbued with a sense of personality through style, even when it's abstract.

Let There Be Jellyfish

The Food Chain

I often wish I could let go a bit and not be so obsessive about every line being exactly as I want it to be. I'd definitely get more art done. My artwork can look contrived and feel claustrophobic and too contained sometimes. There's little room for human error, which can be beautiful and warm - I can't draw in a naive style well. At the same time I'm not good with realism, and humans are the worst! So my actual skills are very mediocre. I'd like to be able to do non-stylised portraits or landscapes well. I also work almost exclusively on a small scale which I have to break out of - I'd love to be able to do giant paintings the size of a walls, or paint the side of a building.

Honestly, my dream project would be to publish a book of illustrations, possibly in a narrative style like Shaun Tan's "The Arrival" (which is incredible inspiration). Or something large scale like I mentioned - painting a building, or making a huge surreal sculpture and plonking it in the middle of the city.

An art teacher told me I had to let my work sing to me, meaning not to force something in a particular direction but let it inform its own creation. I thought that was great, and now that's what I do every time :)

The artists who inspire me are: Yoko D'holbachie - Japanese pop surrealist who creates wonderful monsters. Her colours are fantastic. Shaun Tan - Chinese/Australian illustrator who blends nostalgic real world imagery with magical and surreal creatures. Really beautiful. And last but not least, Studio Ghibli - not an artist, strictly speaking, but I'm heavily influenced by the attention to detail and imagination in films such as "Howl's Moving Castle" and "Spirited Away".

Thank you Simon.

H.N.

A Slice of..

2011-01-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

..Architecture of Masking Tape, White Cardboard, and Leaning Walls ;) Don't say I don't work hard!

If you think the model looks awful, it's the execution - my fault and mine only! Not the idea nor the concept of the building!

H.N.

Late Night Stories*

2011-01-07T13:58:00.000-08:00

*by Hung Tran

Hung Tran is one of those people who are very dear to me :) We happen to share pretty similar taste in music, arts, films, and things (although it'd be bad of me not to mention that his taste is so much better than mine). He created this beautiful mix which I loved from the first listen, hence me asking his permission to share with all of you. Have a great weekend!

Two weeks ago I read (and finished) Haruki Murakami's After Dark and found myself falling totally in love with its nocturnal/ surreal/ cinematic atmosphere. Inevitably came the idea of recreating that atmosphere using music; or put it this way: if one day David Lynch knocked on my door and asked me (which would never happen, I know) to choose some music to go with his film adaptation of After Dark, these are the songs I'd give him.

The mix was also made in a way that closely resembles the novel, alternating between bizarreness and calm (with a somewhat peaceful ending).

[CLICK HERE TO LISTEN]

Photo by Hikaru Inoue

A pretty spot-on review for those who want to find out more about After Dark.

Oso Polar: The Story of an Art-Maker

2011-01-06T11:10:00.000-08:00

Deeeeeeeeeeeeer

I’ve been making lots of conceptual and sketchy design models for this new project and believe me, making models is REALLY difficult, a lot more than it looks! Struggling for one whole day and I may just get a 5-storey building at a scale of 1:200 done if I’m lucky enough. So imagine my jaw-drops when I saw Oso’s dolls and toys and tiny adorable things ;) While mine are pathetically stuck together with pieces of masking tapes, Oso’s are magically...errr...DONE! I don’t know how they were made, but they were made beautifully, without UHU glue dripped all over. Ugh! Jealous! ;) Anyway, enjoy and see if they’re going to bring back some of your childhood memories..

Hello, I’m Oso Polar, I make dolls and creatures and other stuff. Currently I’m studying Economics at university and this distracts me from the arts very much, so I hope one day doll-making will be my main job.

I started making dolls about 3 years ago and since then I’ve been trying to define my own techniques and using them to define myself. My greatest inspiration is the wild life, I tried to make some girl and boy dolls but soon I realised that animals played a more important role in my works. Animals are cute and I like the way they don’t need to speak to express their emotions.

Clover Love

Giraffe Double II

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeps

I haven’t yet decided what kind of toys I should make for life… I wish I could create something that allow children to play with them, I don’t like static sculptures, because the fun is in playing with the toy, moving its parts, making stories and taking pictures. But on the other hand I wish my works could become real art objects one day.

My favourite artist is Red Nose Studio, I also like works done by some other contemporary doll-makers, but it’s more like I love two toys produced by this artist and one toy produced by that, and Red Nose is magnificent in everything he does!

I’m still trying to improve my skills and when I gain more experience I hope I’ll be able to make more and better toys! Anyway, in the mean time, anyone interested in adopting a toy please e-mail me at maya.kirill@mail.ru ;) I’d love to hear from you!

Sheepy Sheep

White Deer White Winter

H.N.

Never Let Me Go

2011-01-04T12:10:00.000-08:00

Today I finally got a chance to watch Never Let Me Go, a film based on the acclaimed novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. And boy did it stun me!!!

Before reading this, you must be aware that the film is sharply divisive between love and hate. Those who love it say it’s emotionally devastating, those who don’t find emotion is the thing that lacked. Personally, I was speechless and had goose bumps all over by the end of the movie – for it was far beyond my expectations.

Narrated by Kathy H, the movie started with her remembering the old days at Hailsham, a boarding school created for a special purpose (which you’ll know once you watch the film – pfft don’t let me spoil it for you). Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth were close friends with both of the girls had affection for Tommy. The plot went on to tell the story of their lives as adults, and how awkward they all were trying to fit into society. With thoughtful restraints, beautiful dialogues, exquisite cinematography, and the perfect cast of Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield; the film led me into a strange, almost sci-fi, Huxley-esque world of medical inventions, genius twists, unspeakable sorrow, and saddening sense of imprisonment. The characters’ acceptance of their life purposes somehow reminds me of another Ishiguro’s, The Remains of the Day – both are bittersweet romances and wasted opportunities. Except that for Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy; they never really had a choice in matters of love, or anything else in fact; their fate determined by the society.

Despite the big twist and its revelation, Romanek (the director) constructed his narrative so expertly that there was no flash of horror – everyone was very British about it: calm, accepting, and melancholy! It was so tasteful, chilling, and gripping that made me wonder about life, death, and our purposes. Adam Kimmel filmed the action in sympathetic muted tones, his camerawork epitomised by series of still lifes – a ball left behind in a field, a fading doll forgotten on a shelf, a rotting boat abandoned on a beach – that quietly comment on the larger events unfolding later on.

Romanek rightly realised that Never Let Me Go would be most affecting when understated under restraints, which is why ‘the moral question at the heart of the story is unspoken...but loudly heard’.

The film is, of course, highly recommended. And for your information, the title came from a song on an American cassette tape called Songs After Dark by fictional singer Judy Bridgewater. Kathy purchased the tape during a swap meet-type event at Hailsham. Hearing it as a mother's plea to her baby, Kathy on many occasions danced while holding her pillow and singing the chorus: "Baby, never let me go." On one occasion, she noticed Madame (the curator of the school gallery) watching her and crying. At this time Kathy didn't understand the significance of the event. Many years later, she asked Madame about her tears years ago. Madame replied that the image she had seen was of a little girl facing the new world that was emerging, an efficient but cruel world, and asking the old world not to let her go...

Wasn’t each and every one of us once that little girl?

H.N.

Hien - You Go Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-01-04T05:50:00.000-08:00

Hien is starting something new today - something big, something (just a tad) nerve-racking, something fun, something wonderful. As she begins that new project, I thought she should know how proud we all are of everything she has accomplished. She's one of the best architects and artists I know - and she's an even better friend.

Hien - have fun darling!!!!!! Don't ever forget how very talented you are.

And we love you!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

A. W.

A False Sense of New Beginning

2011-01-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

Hi! It's April - remember me? No? I used to write on this blog :-). Still no? :-(.

I am very sorry for the long absence. In my defense, I have been really busy and really sick. I traveled a lot during December, mostly for work. And I was so ill that I was actually in the hospital - as a patient, that is.

You know what I love most about New Year? It's the sense of new beginning. Just yesterday, N. and I were speaking of our plans and dreams for 2011. Every year on this day, we take a few extra moments in the morning, snuggle up to each other, and discuss the incoming year. We would talk about the last year as if it were long gone, while we giddily map out the future with a clean slate.

Yes, of course, it's a false sense of new beginning. Jan 1st comes with the same laundry, bills, sickness and problems of 2010. We all know that nothing had much changed between Dec 31st and the magic Jan 1st. In fact, tomorrow on Monday Jan 3rd, when we all return to work, we will be repeating even more of the same old routine.

What is not false, however, is the renewed sense of hope and determination. There is something magical about turning over a new leaf, hanging up a new calendar, and writing a new page of your life. There is something wonderful about making resolutions, even if you know you might drop half of them by the time February rolls around. And there is something comforting in the realization that despite all your troubles last year, you have arrived at a new journey - older from a few more scars, but also wiser from a few more experiences. And there is something encouraging about knowing that by the same token, you will probably arrive at the same point next year too.

For me personally, 2010 is a tough act to follow. In 2010, N. and I managed to change jobs, start new projects, and even paint our living room wall. In 2010, we got married, travelled to Europe, met up with Hien and T, and developed friendships that will last a life time. And did I mention that in 2010, we GOT MARRIED? I am not entirely sure how 2011 could possibly top that. But I sure as hell am going to give it a good honest try - no matter how false the sense of new beginning :-).

Happy New Year to you all. What promises does 2011 hold for you?

A. W.

Photograms: Daniel's light and life drawings

2011-01-02T02:45:00.000-08:00

Dragonfly

Daniel (a.k.a. bangia) is an expert on photogram, which wikipedia explains as: 'A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white; those exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey.' Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I received a post from him on this particular topic - please welcome our first guest-blogger of the year 2011!!! *cheers and claps*

Through my photographs I am investigating the nature of photography, explored though experimentation with varied the photographic processes as a means to come to grips with their seemingly magical nature. I am drawn to experiment with materials and techniques for producing images and have sought to use a variety of photographic methods such as pinhole cameras, daguerreotypes, digital image making and photograms. These differing processes have provided a means of exploring the ideas of theorists and generating concepts for artworks. While the methods vary they share the common elements of a recording surface, a subject, and the action of light.

Four Flowers

Little Robot

To some degree my way of working has a trial and error methodology that helps my thinking processes, for it pushes me to question assumptions about photography. For example, to what degree is there any contact between the subject and the image produced? How do different production methods give the image maker greater or lesser degrees of control over the end result? In creating images in response to my readings on the trace, I am struck by four things. Firstly, it is the nature of the touch, the contact between what is depicted and the image that is implicit in writings about photographs as traces. Secondly, it is how this touch has been equated by some to give photographs a metaphysical dimension, a capacity to transmit the aura of their subject. Thirdly, it is the idea that the trace depends on contingency, and although the camera is a mechanism for control, the image gains veracity though the removal of agency. Finally, it is the idea that the trace connects the photograph to “reality” and gives it claims to veracity beyond other images.

Drifting In The Light

Flame Tree: This is a pinhole photograph combined with a photogram.
The photogram is a flame tree flower and the photograph
has been taken of the tree the flower came from.
It is kind of like a combination of a photograph and fingerprint, two forms of trace.

It’s not Where I Left It: a photogram of an old hp sauce bottle
that turned up in the alleyway down the back of my house.
Photograms look like ghosts I think.

I consider the most direct examples of the photograph as a trace are to be seen in photograms, the most simple form of light drawing. These images are produced by placing objects on photosensitive paper which is then exposed to light. The image is then fixed. Photograms were produced by pioneers of photography such as Fox Talbot who used it to make images of lacework, and Anna Atkins who produced was is regarded as the first published photobook with a series of images of algae. The process does away with the lens to render the image and creates an impression of the thing, more like the footprint. As footprint in sand is a negative, preserving an inverted impression in the same sense that the photogram shows an absence, rather than the subject. The photogram records the action of blocking light from reaching the photographic paper. What attested to is the absence of the thing it depicts, not the thing itself. They record an obstruction, recording the parts of the paper that the light cannot reach because the contact between the paper and the object. This is the action that leaves the impression and creates the image. In making the image the object is in contact with the paper and a trace is left. But what the photogram shows is not the object but its action in resisting the flow of light against the recording medium. It is recording an event, showing that an object, for a time, was in contact with the paper and protected it from the blackening effect of the light.

It Curves Away from the Light:
I found this dried out twig out the front of my house, it looks like a sparkler.

Sleep: The tintypes I have been making come out yellow on black.
Watching the image appear as you process it is fascinating.
I love the errors that come from the coating process too.
Sometimes the best things come from mistakes.

by Daniel

edited and posted by H.N.

Resolutions

2010-12-31T05:32:00.000-08:00

2010 has been an eventful year with: my completion of Part II (finally!), making a lot of new friends and acquaintances from different paths of life – all of whom are awesome in their own ways, the beginning of our blog, trips to glamorous places, great gigs, having done a reasonable amount of artwork, and other projects.

For 2011, my New Year’s resolutions are: to do MORE artwork and be MORE adventurous with the techniques (try different media puh-leze!!!), participate in at least 5 competitions throughout the year, make more friends ;) (or at least as many as this year), maintain the high standards (*wink wink*) of our blog and write regularly, make MORE efforts to go see my friends (like, the one in New York for instance, ugh!), and MORE gigs wouldn’t hurt anyone!

What are your resolutions?

H.N.

Anna Rogala: You Can Do More!

2010-12-30T12:30:00.000-08:00

Wenecja

What is a better way to end a fantastic year than looking at some fantastic artwork? Known as Yelou on deviantArt, Anna is an otherworldly talented painter who specialises in watercolour and whose gallery is simply exquisite. She is also one of those kind souls who answer my fanmails ;) I literally jumped up and down for a good half an hour when I heard from her. Let’s meet Anna Rogala:

>+ Please introduce yourself and what you do (your real job/profession and how it is related to the arts you make)
My name is Anna Rogala; my profession is graphic design, which I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 2003 to 2008. Now I create graphics such as posters, books, catalogues; and paint, draw, as well as looking for new jobs related to arts.

>+ A quick description of your artwork
My artwork is generally based on portraits, which I try to do with every technique I know. I love to paint and draw people - they are the most interesting, various, unpredictable, and beautiful things to depict.

>+ How is watercolour different from other types of traditional art?
Watercolour is for sure more difficult - if you make a mistake, it's really difficult to change it, sometimes even impossible. That's why you have to know what you want just from the beginning. Watercolours are delicate, full of light, give lots of possibilities to play with their thin layers and with letting them mix on a paper. Watercolour works are always unique - it would be much more difficult to copy them than acrylic works for example.

Two Me

>+ What is your process of producing a piece? How do you draw with such precision (in watercolour, no less! which is one of the most difficult medium to have control over. And you do it with such ease that makes people envy)?

;) Working with watercolour, I usually draw a very light sketch in pencil, just to compose the portrait or scenery, anyway everything must already be in its place and faces must be exactly like models' faces - in good proportions and as similar as possible. Then I put a lot of water on the whole paper and add some colours in different places (thinking of course about final look of the work). This is a kind of base - relations of dark-bright and warm-cold
colours. I tilt the paper and move it to let colours mix, and then wait until this first layer dries. When it is, I start working on little parts of the work, putting more (transparent) layers where necessary. Sometimes I use masking fluid (when I need to leave brighter spaces), and tissues (not to let colours diffuse too much). Every time I use few kinds of brushes - thin ones to draw details and thick ones are for putting a lot of water at the beginning.

>+ If possible, could you send us pictures of your work in progress (like a step-by-step kind of thing)
Yes sure! (as posted below)

Palermo

Hermanos

Glasses

Turquoise

>+ In your works, what theme do you pursue?

Portraits, people in different poses, people of different characters, faces and expressions. I also like towns and sceneries - they are great themes for watercolour. I plan to do some kind of abstract acrylic paintings with sceneries and iconic Italian views.

Karmelowa

Piratka

Monte Pulciano

Amsterdam

>+ What do you like and dislike about your works?

I like to start doing them, I don't like finishing - as I never know if it's time for finish or no. If I don't finish, there will be always something to add. And this is the easiest way to destroy the work... Sometimes, when I look at my "step-by-step" photos I can see that the best moment was just before I put the last corrections...

>+ What is your dream project?
I love series; I'd like to do a series with Spanish women, which I've already begun. There are also books for children - I have some ideas and would like to realise them.

>+ Name three artists who inspire you
I don't know to be honest. The fact that I like El Greco, Carpeaux or Mucha is still not the reason they inspire me - they are more like historic figures who I look up to, but not necessarily find inspirations from. In contemporary art maybe 5% of the works really inspires me. But there are things I simply see and pass by (in shop, at gallery, in newspaper, and from the Internet), which authors I don’t know, they tend to give me whatever I need to start working on a new piece.

>+ What's the best piece of advice you've been given?
Something like "You can do more; try to look for new solutions, new styles, new techniques. Go ahead and don't stop". I think it’s really inspiring.

>+ Thank you Anna. Good luck and keep us posted on the children books - we would love to be one of the first to review them.

H.N.

All New

2010-12-28T11:52:00.000-08:00

OK, so this should explain my absence lately: I’ve re-designed my website. Not that the old one wasn’t good enough, I thought a new year, a new layout – hey why not? ;) Go check it out at www.hiennguyen.co.uk, hope you’ll like it.

Lucky me I had the right partner to do this hard work with, and I meant ‘right’ in every sense of the word. T.’s been there all along, it’s not like his support is a new thing, but his endurance for all my nagging whilst we were doing this site makes it hit me at an oblique angle.

It bolts down to this: the necessities of the day to day pull us along, against our will or otherwise. The alarm wakes us, we have to down enough caffeine to be awake and alert, and we need to look presentable to the world, all the while checking the clock on the wall. If it’s one of those perfectly easy mornings, we fulfil these obligations with time to spare.

But some mornings one of us wakes up with a massive headache, there’s nothing in the fridge for breakfast, not because we forgot our food shopping but the fridge was broken and the replacement has not yet arrived. Sometimes there’s no caffeine and we are forced to face all this when being all grumpy. And then one of us would start working on her (or his) website ;) and nag the other into helping her (or him!). And you would actually get on with it giving her your full attention and all the time you could afford. This is life. This is ‘partnership’. The majority of it is even more mundane than what I just described, interspersed with moments of joy and pain that acts as markers on the road. It’s a challenge. But when you have the ‘right’ partner, you develop a rhythm, a way of balancing each other’s weaknesses, so that even on the catastrophic mornings you can pull it off. You still sometimes take the hits from life, but you divide the pain, and at the end of the day, you commiserate together.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is THANK YOU ♥

And hey, HAPPY NEW 2011! ;) New year, new website, new job, new life for me. What’s new for you? Let us know.

H.N.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-24T07:30:00.000-08:00

Our dearest,

To mark our 100th post and of course, the festive season of 2010, we want to thank you all for being so supportive throughout - you are simply the best! Hopefully we'll be able to bring you more exciting news/stories/artwork this coming year 2011 at newyorkcambridge.blogspot.com.

Special thanks to:
April - for being the perfect blog partner.
Bella, Thu Vu, Kim, Alejandro, Akutou, and Aleksander for the amazing featured posts.

May your Christmas be bright, warm and cheerful, and your New Year begin on a prosperous note!

H.N.

From Danish Hearts*

2010-12-22T06:02:00.000-08:00

*translated from DR with the help of Google Translate ;D

Christmas is upon us and it means that the music shops are full of Christmas albums. One of the more interesting this year is Nicholas Nørlund’s project ‘From Danish Hearts’, where he collected a handful of young Danish bands and artists and gave them the task of interpreting a well-known Christmas song. The Kissaway Trail has also been invited to participate and they set themselves a challenge of covering one the most loved and hated Christmas songs of all time: Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’.

A bit of background information: The Kissaway Trail is a five-piece indie rock band from Odense, Denmark. They follow a number of other Danish alternative bands to make names of themselves, such as Mew, The Raveonettes and Carpark North. Three members of The Kissaway Trail (Søren, Thomas and Rune) originally recorded together under the names of 'Hostmom' and 'Isles'. Isles self-released an album called ‘We have decided not to die’ in 2005. Since then, an additional guitarist, Daniel, and drummer Hasse joined the band, while Thomas started to sing alongside Søren making the distinctive two lead-vocal sound that they have today.

"It is a very difficult number to do", says Soren Corneliussen from The Kissaway Trail. "For us it's the ultimate Christmas track."

But how long will it take to get George Michael’s out of everyone’s head and put The Kissaway Trail’s imprint on a song that everyone from four to ninety knows? "Well, it took Thomas (Fagerlund) two hours to make the draft as we went into the studio and worked on with. We wanted the number to sound like The Kissaway Trail, and it seems we have succeeded quite well."

And now that you have finished, and even think you have got away with it, are there any plans to send the interpretation to the original author, none other than George Michael? "Naaah, I don’t think so. He can find it on Youtube easily enough" says The Kissaway Trail.

Other bands and artists From Danish Hearts are:
Figurines – All I Want For Christmas Is You
Fallulah – Carol Of The Bells
Teitur – Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
The Blue Van – Merry Christmas Everybody
Coco – The Christmas Song
Peter Sommer – Fra Døren (Hansemand)
Sonja Richter – What Are You Doing New Years Eve
Kirsten & Marie – Little Drummer Boy
Jacob Bellens – You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
The Fireflies – Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)
Nørlund/Giana Factory – En Helt Fantastisk Jul

Now it’s time to check out this breathtakingly beautiful interpretation of Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’:

Last Christmas

Happy Christmas and A Wondrous New Year to all of you invisible peeps from April and Hien at newyorkcambridge.blogspot.com !!!

And also, Happy Birthday to two of my most beloved people, T. and M. It's party time! ♥

H.N.

Aleksander: My Work is My Life

2010-12-21T07:35:00.000-08:00

Shoker

This is going to be one of the most intensively-illustrated posts ever on this blog, because I want to introduce to you all THE MOST BRILLIANT 3D/2D artist from Kiev, Ukraine: Aleksander Kuskov.

I consider myself a fan of computer graphics and everything related to it. My work is my life and my hobby.

Let me briefly tell you about one of my favorite works - Shoker. I was inspired by unknown horizons of steam-punk style, especially its unbelievable transformations from one form to another. Composition is rather simple, I placed objects on suitable perspective for reading form and geometry. Objects separated in depth for better effect of perspective. As of lighting: the main task is to show objects clearly with all their complexity and variety. There was this idea to control the lighting by using only lamps, but I changed my mind, because the whole picture was a bit too gloomy and dark, and I could not see all the details. The arrangement of the objects was enjoyable and experimental, which process took me 3 weeks. The program used for modeling is Maya. I used mental ray for rendering. A LOT of layers was rendered not only for this piece of work, but also for future setups and compositions. This image’s original resolution was 7000/10000 pixel. Average render time was 117 hours.
I have the habit of fine-tuning all my works, with great attention to details. Generally I like to challenge myself with the most interesting, difficult and exciting projects. My dream is to work on large and labor-intensive projects in the cinema industry.

Shoker step-by-step:

Shoker - The Masterpiece!

I have a lot of respect for Aleksander, so I chose to post the email he wrote me (of course with his permission), instead of editing it into the usual interview format. He is a truly truly great artist – so talented yet humble and friendly. After a couple of emails back and forth (me brave enough to send him one of my architectural sketches and him kind enough to give me a pat on my shoulder and say it is pretty good), we decided to collaborate – yays! It’s going to be a long-term thing, as we’ll have to fit it in our hectic schedules. Initial concept: a futuristic city, lots of machineries, post-nuclear war type of thing. I can’t wait to start. And you, watch this space! ;)

If you want to get to know this amazing guy, go to his website or drop him a couple of lines at natikks@gmail.com. I’m sure he would love all your support.

More 3D works:

And 2D drawings: (done by hands! and pencils! I can't get my head around this!!!)

H.N.

P.S.: Click on the images and view them at their original sizes. They will blow your mind!

Cambridge Snow

2010-12-20T03:33:00.000-08:00

winter fashion shoot ;)

H.N.

My Architecture

2010-12-19T02:30:00.000-08:00

me on Urban Project Bureau website

me on Blueprint Magazine website

me on University of Brighton website

and their Meet Our Students section
and of course link to my website :)

H.N.

Akutou: Asking for Advices. Eh?

2010-12-18T02:38:00.000-08:00

Hamburgirl

This guy is too cool for words. I seriously pulled all my hair trying to come up with an appropriate title for this post that appropriately suits his awesomeness. And couldn’t find any! (Well, this one was the best I could do, playing on the fact that he shouldn’t have been the one asking for advices, because he’s already TOO COOL!) See how many ‘cool’ words I’ve been using in this super short paragraph? Once you’ve seen his works, I’m sure you’ll sympathise with my speechlessness... And he’s so much fun to talk to. And his website is to-die-for. But enough of me, OK, you ready? Here we go:

Q: Introduce yourself and what you do.
A: I'm AKUTOU, I'm a French graphic designer. I create pictures on my computer, sometimes because I want to, sometimes because people ask me to. I mostly work with bands / labels, clothing brands or even blogs.

Q: A quick description of your artwork?
A: My works are usually vectors done with Illustrator. They're generally colourful and there is always some kind of humour in them. There are a lot of references or direct homage to games or movies I love. When I make a piece for fun, I pick a subject that is fun to me. It'll make me work on my technique and I'll have a good time doing it.

Q: In your drawings, what theme do you pursue?
A: Taking a look back at my last artworks, lots of girls in there and video games related stuff. I guess I'm a ‘pervert’ and I play too much video game. I don’t pursue anything though, or if I am, I am not fully aware of what it is. I just want to have a good time and make something that looks ok.

Bang Bang

Q: Why that particular style of graphic?
A: I did not really pick it. That's just me and a computer. I could try to do something completely different I guess, but that wouldn’t be me anymore. At least right now, I really feel like doing this stuff. I don’t want to get serious, I don’t want to change the world or become pretentious with my art. I make "fun" or "cool" pictures. If people think they're cool, then I'm satisfied.

Q: What do you like and dislike about your works?
A: I'm not thinking too much about it. Maybe I should? Something I like about my work is that I'm comfortable enough to experiment things, you know, using different techniques. If you only have one technique, maybe you'll get stuck sometimes or get bored of what you do. But me, I can adapt. I take a look at my options and I do what I feel like doing. About what I dislike, I can’t work when I'm given too many directions. I need some freedom otherwise it kills the fun and the creation is poor. When you make a picture, and you're working for people, you’ve got to please them. And sometimes pleasing them means going the opposite direction of the one you'd normally take.

Q: What is your dream project?
A: Well, it's simple. As long as I'm working with people I like on a project that speaks to me and that allows me to make something good and have fun in the process, then it's a dream project to me. I have a blast though when I create something that ends up being a real product. By "real" I mean a tee shirt or an EP cover, something that exists physically. It's really rewarding for me to see the virtual pictures I made up on my screen get alive somehow in the real world, almost magical!

Q: Name three artists you would like to be compared to.
A: I don’t want to be a clone of someone I like. I want to be me. Sure there are plenty of artists out there which amaze me, some I don’t even know their name. I don’t look up to a person in particular, right now I look up to myself and all I see is a very lazy artist who should kick his own ass and produce more and better stuff! I'll punch myself in the face tonight to remind it.

Q: What's the best piece of advice you've been given?
A: Why don’t you give me some?

Federal Agent Jack Bauer (Akutou's first graphic I saw - and OMG was I impressed!!!)

Q: Professionally, what's your plan from where you are at the moment?
A: I wish to finish all the things I started, to work on bigger projects, to meet new clients... maybe join a studio at some point. I'm not a person who has a plan. It's ok so far, hopefully there's a lot to do for me in the future and I get to work on new stuff continuously.

Q: What wouldn't you do without?
A: My friends (online and offline), my computer, my precious mp3 collection, my video games that I play too much, all the pizzas I eat, my iPhone that I haven’t yet bought, people I've never met but who has liked a picture I did when they saw it, my awesome childhood, Japanese pranks, typing cute girls name in Google and lots of other things... but I'll stop there.

See? Coolness overloaded? I told you so. I would highly recommend you to go to his website and spend some quality time exploring it. For God’s sake this guy even has an online radio station! Now I’ll go and sit in a corner and sulk off in quiet jealousy ;)

Fiesta de go! Cover art

Nerdette (Collab with Souloff)

Oh Deer Indeed

H.N.

Food is Fashionable: Karl Lagerfeld's Special Salad*

2010-12-17T16:25:00.000-08:00

*found on thegloss.com and thought it was too good to be missed! Hence the re-blog.

Karl Lagerfeld has a salad named after him! It is made entirely out of oxygen and diet coke. No, not really. It’s made with crab. In addition to which it contains Extra Virgin olive oil from Sicily, black pepper, bread crusts, sea salt, and lemon juice. I am fairly sure that bread crusts weren’t in the Karl Lagerfeld diet book (all I remember taking away from that book is that eating is for people who want to be fat) but it sounds like a delicious salad. And something that Karl actually eats when he’s at La Gioia in Saint Tropez. You can order it at Cafe de Flore in Paris. Or you can just hide a hamburger under a Chanel logo.

OMG, I can't help but wonder how expensive it would be?!

H.N.

Christmas in a Glass

2010-12-16T01:59:00.000-08:00

mulled wine

• 2 clementines

• peel of 1 lemon

• peel of 1 lime

• 250g caster sugar

• 6 whole cloves

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 3 fresh bay leaves

• 1 whole nutmeg

• 1 whole vanilla pod, halved

• 2 star anise

• 2 bottles of Chianti, or other Italian red wine

This is dead easy to make and tastes like Christmas in a glass. It’s a lovely celebration of those traditional festive spices like cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. If you’ve got your own favourite spices, then feel free to add those to the pot too. Let everything cook away and warm up gently so the flavours have time to mingle with the wine.

Peel large sections of peel from your clementines, lemon and lime. Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Throw in your halved vanilla pod and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar. Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you’ve got a beautiful thick syrup.

When your syrup is ready turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and both bottles of wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it’s warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve them to your guests.

H.N.

Blackmago: Life is a big project!

2010-12-15T06:24:00.000-08:00

Blackmago (DeviantART’s ID)‘s works are ‘amazing’, ‘cute’, ‘admirable’, ‘charming’, ‘wonderful’, ‘lovely’, and ‘awesome’. They are just a few among hundreds of comments he receives every day. Let’s meet the guy (who is, by the way, just as lovely as his works):

Q: Please introduce yourself and what you do.
A: My name is Alejandro Velasquez, I am Peruvian and am currently residing in Equator. I enjoy illustrating using both traditional and digital media (painting in gouache and working on pixel art). As of now, I am an assistant working for a game's development.

Q: How on Earth have you mastered the two very different techniques – gouache and pixel – I am amazed! A quick description of your artwork please, especially your pixel pieces. (You’re the first pixel artist I know so I am super curious!)
A: Basically, I will always use a specially selected colour palette. This is how I try to keep it all under the same atmosphere. My pixel works are mostly based on friendly characters inspired on Peruvian or Japanese culture, sometimes even elements from my own life.
Green is a must in my pixel works; you will always find nature thematic as well.

Kappa Planet

Q: How is pixel art different from other more traditional types? What is your process of producing a piece?
A: it is different because here you can easily depict small things while keeping its sharpness. It is addictive, a challenge in its own way, not unlike many other medium. Sometimes I think of pixels as Lego blocks. Firstly, when producing a piece, I sketch the character on paper. Once I define the desired shape, I start doodling on "Paint" program using a single base colour. After laying down the black line art, I add the colours and detail. If animation is required, I use "Animationshop3" program.

Q: In your works, what theme do you pursue?
A: Nature, whimsical stuff, green colours, anything that can be friendly and cute.

Bringael Kappa Bottle

Q: What do you like and dislike about your works?
A: As any other artist I have to like my own works in order to show them to others...even if I still think I am " under training", I like to push the limits all the time , even if my style is minimalistic in some way. There are many things I can do better, it's just a matter of time and practice.

Q: What is your dream project?
A: I think I used to have this dream when I was a child... Now I AM living my dream... to be an artist and live of it. Life is a big project presented in several layers.

Opito's Spring Garden

Q: Name three artists you would like to be compared to.
A: I would like to be known for having a personal and original style; I would prefer that, instead of being compared.

Q: What's the best piece of advice you've been given?
A: To never think there is a limit... as long as we are alive, we can change anything we can, as long as we let others do the same.

Q: Professionally, what's your plan from where you are at the moment?
A: I am working now as an pixel artist in Equator, I will stay here until March next year, one of the parts of this project is a game made entirely in pixel art. Once the project ends, I still have other proposals for other kind of projects (related to pixel art or illustration). At the same time I supervise my new collection of nativity ornaments for Italy and Germany, as for today it's something I am doing online.

Q: What wouldn't you do without?
A: I wouldn't have done it ...without the people who are all the time encouraging me, my mother, God and my beloved friends.

Thank you Blackmago. Please write us again when your pixel game is done – we can’t wait to see/play it!!! :) Now you readers, go to Blackmago’s website and swoon! There are some of the cutest things you can ever find on the Internet, like these:

Sonata Quatro

The Place I'll Return One Day

H.N.

Sketch&Design

2010-12-14T08:25:00.000-08:00

Sketch

Design

{work in progress for my friend's website}

How are you doing invisible peeps? I hope you liked our interview with Vinyl Disco. Please come back tomorrow for another Q&A session with my favourite pixel artist ;)

H.N.

P.S.:

Through the Lens of Vinyl Disco

2010-12-13T11:50:00.000-08:00

Warrior

Under the name of Vinyl Disco on deviantART, Kim Akrigg is an amazing photographer from Vancouver BC whose works are worth checking out. Similarly to Bella’s pieces, Kim’s are fantastically dreamlike. And although they are strong in ideas and concepts, the femininity and subtlety shine through. This is what she writes on her website: She picked up a camera in 2007 and hasn't been able to put it down since. She aims to find the unusual in the usual, searches out the beautiful in the everyday, and wants to make you look at things in a different way.

I was really impressed I sent her some questions, and she was so kind to answer them for us. Please visit Kim at her blog and her website for more awesome photographs – be supportive and leave your comments too ;)

Q: Please introduce yourself and what you do.
A: I'm Kim, and I'm a photographer. I work in a hair salon sometimes too, but I'd rather not.

Q: A quick description of your artwork.
A: I find that I think in pictures more than I think in words, and my photos represent that. I like to be able to create things that don't necessarily exist.

Q: What is your process of producing a piece?
A: It varies; sometimes I'm inspired by a place, the way someone looks or a piece of clothing. Once I have an idea I try to figure out all the other details such as make up, lighting, location, who I want the model to be. Then I shoot and then edit.

Q: In your works, what theme do you pursue?
A: Fantasy, things that are a little odd or different, finding beauty where you didn't think it was, things that don't exist, childhood memories, dreams

Q: What do you like and dislike about your works?
A: I like how I can express what I think through photos, I dislike most of my work after a little while because I believe it could be better!

Q: What is your dream project?
A: I'd overall rather be able to only take photos and have that as a career than achieve just one project...but that said I'd love to shoot for Vogue one day.

Q: Name three artists you would like to be compared to.
A: I think everyone wants to find their own style and voice rather than just be compared to someone else, but my favourite photographers are Tim Walker, Bruno Dayan, Lara Jade, and Paolo Reversi.

Q: What's the best piece of advice you've been given?
A: Do something you love and the rest will follow.

Q: Professionally, what's your plan from where you are at the moment?
A: Build my book up more, work on getting more photos published, and figure out how to obtain an American working Visa!

Q: What wouldn't you do without?
A: Aside from food/water/etc., I think the things we take most for granted are the ones we usually couldn't live without.

Bones

Shadow and Light

Oh Deer

H.N.

Studying Must Be Worth It!

2010-12-11T01:21:00.000-08:00

‘How much did your architectural education cost? No idea? Well, consider yourself lucky.’

I read this article on Building Design Online and got really curious, I decided to calculate exactly how much my architectural education has cost, well, so far. (God helps me, 7 years and it’s not ever done yet???)

Let’s see:

3 years of Undergrad, £8 700 each = £26 100

Plus living expenses, say £10 000 a year = £30 000

2 years of Postgrad, £12 000 each but thanks to International Scholarship I had to pay ONLY a mere £12 000 for both years!!!!

Again, living expenses = £20 000

Don’t forget the loveliest £1 500 or so I had to depart with for my Part I exam. Hmm.

This amounts to a staggering £89 600 altogether. Let’s call it £90 000!

Seriously WHY DID I BOTHER?????????? I’d have been much better off with £90 000 in my bank account! ;D

H.N.

The New Establishment*

2010-12-10T03:20:00.000-08:00

*this is the abridged version of an article on Blueprint.

‘I hate how no one ever talks about how bad British architecture really is. I hate the bastards who make these buildings. So here I am, taking the piss out of them.’ This is the strap line for Bad British Architecture (BBA), a website written under the pseudonym Ghost of Nairn that strives to point out all that is wrong with new buildings in the UK. Rowan Moore recently mentioned the site in an article for The Observer as an antidote to the pro-British cheerleading that emerges from the excessively cosy architecture establishment.

BBA, though, is not so far from the establishment itself: it is written by Kieran Long, ex-editor of the Architects Journal and Architectural Review, and current architecture critic for the London Evening Standard. Like Gavin Stamp’s Pilotti column for Private Eye, although considerably less well written and researched, BBA is an outlet for reactionary bile that doesn’t make its way into Long’s contribution to mainstream outlets.

Blogs don’t necessarily mean outlets for rage. It is, fundamentally, a mean of communication.

Moore’s distinction between the voices of establishment and the opinions of the blogosphere is understandable and widespread. Bloggers are widely seen as lone, independent hobbyists. Andrew Marr recently caused a stir by characterizing bloggers as ’socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother’s basements… They are very angry people.’ (seriously?!)

Long’s Bad British Architecture, though highly critical of modern buildings, focuses upon work by large commercial architects or faceless developers that have no critical standing. Largely based on upon renderings, photographs or passing observations, it hardly amounts to a useful form of criticism. One can see the beginnings of a critical approach to architecture online: recent articles by Murphy on Zaha Hadid’s aquatic centre for the London Olympics, or Hall on the legacy of Alvar Aalto give some indication of the direction it could take, but still they remain isolated examples, and take a deeply personal view rather than a critical position. As traditional publishing media and institutions become less influential, one wonders where architects can go to find informed, intelligent criticism of their work.

Personally, I think BBA is a great blog, giving architecture the so-much-needed ‘fun’ factor. Hands up if you DON’T want to rate buildings as ‘Normal Bad’, ‘Funny Bad’, or ‘GBH’ (short for ‘Grievous Bodily Harm’)! Why so serious?

It’s no longer possible to consider architectural blogging to be purely the realm of lone speculation. They are means of establishing networks of dialogue and debate, they are increasingly by architects, students and academics, and institutions will increasingly use them as a way to curate and disseminate ideas. As blogs become a more important part of the establishment, a more realistic and rigorous approach to architectural criticism online is urgently needed.

H.N.

The Pursuit of Happiness

2010-12-08T05:01:00.000-08:00

As the world unravelling in front of us,

it's not your fault those hands are freezing.

But wherever we go, we'll be together.

H.N.

The Desirables

2010-12-06T12:41:00.000-08:00

*from asos.com

Darling by name, and quite simply darling by nature - this delightful cardi will go the distance this season and is just perfect for nailing the 60s Lady Like trend that's so hot right now. Wear it by day to jazz up your jeans or team with retro accessories for a touch of old school evening glamour.

Darling Embellished Peter Pan Collar Cardigan, £55

There's statement jewellery and then there's this attention-grabbing gem by Peter Lang. Ticking this season's love for all things Gothic, add some bling to your wardrobe with the nicest sort of knuckle-duster. Guaranteed to bedazzle.

Peter Lang Swarovski Crystal Skull Statement Ring, £155

Granted, you mightn't be able to climb Everest in these hiker boots, but you will be at the pinnacle of style and the envy of all your friends. They've got everything going for them: the oh-so now shade of tan, the perfect heel height, the sturdy cleated sole and utility detailing. Wear with your entire daytime wardrobe and earn instant fashion stripes.

Miss KG Siren Lace Up Heeled Ankle Boot, £100

If I'm absolutely honest, I want everything in this picture... but if we can't buy the lifestyle, at least we can invest in our very own studded crop top. Perfect for Christmas Parties.

ASOS Premium Oversized Stone Crop Top, £60

Love, love, LOVE this beautiful wool cape by Reiss. Granted it's one of the more expensive outerwear options out there, but certainly one of the most luxurious, too, with it's double breasted button fastening, contrast trim and super-huge collar (perfect for cocooning yourself in on wintry mornings). The inky-blue hue is also to die for, giving this cape the edge in the sophistication stakes. Ama-zing.

Reiss Indigo Bound Edge Cape Coat, £275

Now where's my credit card? And what are you waiting for?

H.N.

Dior Illustrated

2010-12-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

Renowned illustrator René Gruau is responsible for the some of the most iconic fashion images of the 40s and 50s. Throughout his illustrious career, he worked with prestigious design houses including Balmain, Balenciaga, Lanvin and Givenchy, his most memorable partnership being with Christian Dior. The Dior Illustrated exhibition which currently opens at at Somerset House (UK) showcases groundbreaking artworks by Gruau including original illustrations for Christian Dior Parfums, vintage perfume bottles, sketches and magazines; as well as a selection of Dior Haute Couture dresses personally chosen by John Galliano among which a special dress designed by Galliano himself, in homage to Gruau.

René Gruau’s bold lines and fluid style were perfectly in tune with the spirit of Dior, capturing the energy, elegance and audacity of the brand. His illustrations also tell of a special understanding Gruau had of Christian Dior himself, born of a close friendship between the two men. Gruau influenced the graphic style of a whole generation of fashion illustrators and the exhibition features specially commissioned pieces from five UK based illustrators, whose works draws inspiration from the rich collaboration between Gruau and the House of Dior.

*from http://www.somersethouse.org.uk

I drooled over these illustrations – aren’t they the loveliest things? Go now when you have the chance, and please share your pictures/experience.

Exhibition opens until 9 Jan 2011
Daily 10.00-18.00, Thurs 21.00
Embankment Galleries
£6, conc £5, under 12s free

Some more of Gruau's works:

and the exhibition:

H.N.

Amigurumi

2010-12-05T02:00:00.000-08:00

..are small stuffed toys made by knitting or crocheting a body and then stuffing to create a three dimensional shape. These can be animals, people or inanimate objects. Facial features and details are often embroidered onto the finished amigurumi.

They are just too cute for words - maybe I've got to learn how to make some:

H.N.

24 Marathon

2010-12-04T00:09:00.000-08:00

For the non-fans, “24” is an American TV series with Federal Agent Jack Bauer the main character. There are a total of 8 seasons, each has 24 episodes covering 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration. Well, true that it was the finale of the series last year, but if you thought “24” was OVER, you couldn’t have been any wrong-er.

CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit – The Unit of all Units in America) have just recruited 100 of the most die-hard “24” fans to celebrate the DVD release of "24" The Complete Series by participating a "24" Marathon Fanfest in Hollywood, California.

Started at 20:00 the day before yesterday (2 December 2010), participants have been watching back-to-back Jack (continuous episodes of “24” starting with season one), until there is only one fan remaining. The winning fan will potentially set a new world record for longest TV viewing (currently just over 3 days) and receive $10,000 in cold, hard cash. But for your information, it probably isn’t as easy as it sounds. Rumour is that, after just one day, there are only over 50 people left out of the 100.

How long could you last? How much 24 can you handle at once? My personal record stands at about 12 or 13 hours – more than half of season 7 in one sitting. Mind you, we resumed the second half after only a few hours of sleeping, so we actually watched the whole of it in just over one day. But that’s nothing compared to the marathon taking place right now in Hollywood: 150 hours of “24” and they will have to experience the pleasure of hearing Jack Bauer say “Dammit!” and “Wheeeeeere!?!?!?!” an estimated 5 million times.

Now, preparing for a “24” marathon takes a lot of mental toughness. Seasons vary wildly in quality. The few proud marathoners who actually survive the first four seasons — roughly 72 hours of TV-watching — will then have to suffer through the orgy of Beloved Character Deaths at the start of season 5, which in their sleep-deprived state might cause suicidal depression. Don’t even TRY to imagine how they’ll be when they get to season 8 (remember what happened to Renee Walker??? and the grand finale of good-byes?). Well, invisible peeps please tell us, how long could you last in a “24” marathon? Do you have a personal record that you’re proud of?

In the mean time, watch the marathoners in action:

H.N.

WTF Posters

2010-12-03T03:14:00.000-08:00

*re-blog from creativeoverflow.net

WTF is a term used throughout the world when something just doesn’t make sense. These posters depict the situations accurately and accordingly. These posters were designed by Minga and I’m sure everyone will find these posters as funny as I did. Check them out below.

and this is for my darling A., because I love her and she needs some Christmas-themed cupcakes to cheer her up ;) (found them here)

H.N.

Another step-by-step

2010-12-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

The final product:

And the process:

H.N.

Nothing is Beautiful and True

2010-12-01T12:33:00.000-08:00

An extract from one of my all-time favourite books - Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close:

The next morning I told Mom I couldn’t go to school again. She asked what was wrong. I told her, “The same thing that’s always wrong.” “You’re sick?” “I’m sad.” “About Dad?” “About everything.” She sat down on the bed next to me, even though I knew she was in a hurry. “What’s everything?” I started counting on my fingers: “The meat and dairy products in our refrigerator, fistfights, car accidents, Larry—” “Who’s Larry?” “The homeless guy in front of the Museum of Natural History who always says ‘I promise it’s for food’ after he asks for money.” She turned around and I zipped her dress while I kept counting. “How you don’t know who Larry is, even though you probably see him all the time, how Buckminster just sleeps and eating and goes to the bathroom and has no raison d’etre, the short ugly guy with no neck who takes tickets at the IMAX theater, how the sun is going to explode one day, how every birthday I always get at least one thing I already have, poor people who get fat because they eat junk food because it’s cheaper…” That was when I ran out of fingers, but my list was just getting started, and I wanted it to be long, because I knew she wouldn’t leave while I was still going. “…domesticated animals, how I have a domesticated animal, nightmares, Microsoft Windows, old people who sit around all day because no one remembers to spend time with them and they’re embarrassed to ask people to spend time with them, secrets, dial phones, how Chinese waitresses smile even when there’s nothing funny or happy, and also how Chinese people own Mexican restaurants, but Mexican people never own Chinese restaurants, mirrors, tape decks, my unpopularity at school, Grandma’s coupons, storage facilities, people who don’t know what the Internet is, bad handwriting, beautiful songs, how there won’t be humans in fifty years—” “Who said there won’t be humans in fifty years?” I asked her, “Are you an optimist or a pessimist?” She looked at her watch and said, “I’m optimistic.” “Then I have some bad news for you, because humans are going to destroy each other as soon as it becomes easy enough to, which will be very soon.” “Why do beautiful songs make you sad?” “Because they aren’t true.” “Never?” “Nothing is beautiful and true.”

H.N.

Carnations..

2010-12-01T03:08:00.000-08:00

..for you A., and a new month!

H.N.

Digital drawing: Step by Step

2010-11-30T00:22:00.000-08:00

I spent my whole weekend working on another drawing, only this time I was smart enough to record the process step by step - in a rather desperate attempt to prove that I never use Photoshop or any other softwares to cheat ;).

The WHO: Park Yoo-chun of JYJ
The WHY: For this campaign
The HOW:
♥ I first use a big-sized brush and 4-5 shades of grey to sketch the main facial proportions and features. Don't worry much about the details, the most important thing is to get the proportions right. Hence I often spend most of my drawing time struggling with this step.

♥ Then a medium brush to shade the forehead, hair, around the eyes, and the rest of the face. Try to get a 3-dimensional feel to your work. Test background colours against the tone of the skin.

♥ Finally 1-5pixels brush to detail the eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc., hair, and around the lips.

♥ Fill in the background, sign and stamp! DONE! Easy yes? ;)

Give it a go, you'll like it - digital drawing/sketching is my way to de-stress and get away from it all. And it's not as hard as it looks. Fun fun fun!!!

H.N.

Food post #4 (with Recipe for a quick Kedgeree)

2010-11-29T02:14:00.000-08:00

Quick Kedgeree with Poached Eggs

recipe:

rice: cooked

fresh/smoked haddock/cod fillets

a knob of butter

1/2 onion or 1 shallot

1 tsp curry paste/powder

1/2-1 red chilli: finely chopped

small handful of parsley/coriander: chopped

1/2 lemon: juiced

2-4 eggs

+ Put the fish fillets in a large frying pan with just enough water to cover. Bring to simmering point, then simmer until tender. Or microwave for 2-3mins. Drain, skin, flake and discard any bones.
+ Melt the butter in a saucepan. Fry onion/shallot, add curry paste/powder and chilli, cook for 1-2mins.
+ Add the cooked rice and fish. Season well and stir for 5mins. Add lemon juice and chopped parsley/coriander.
+ Poach eggs, half or quarter, and arrange on top of the kedgeree to serve. Voilà!!!
H.N.

Spread the Sound of JYJ Project

2010-11-28T02:42:00.000-08:00

I'm, or rather my work is, on sharingyoochun.net today. They've been campaigning to support JYJ (a brilliant Korean trio) and spread their music around the world. The plan is for everyone to donate, SYCTeam will then use the money to buy albums and distribute them to media (online websites, radios, magazines, etc.).

Read more about this campaign here.

I decided that I would have to contribute to this worthy cause, no matter how skint I was! ;) Hence, this! I promised them I would make a JYJ graphic for every round they accomplished as a reward to all who participated. In less than a week they've already got half way through Round 2. At this rate I'll have to produce one drawing every day!!! God knows what I've got myself into, but honestly, JYJ is worth all the time and hassles :)

So if you know anyone working at a radio station, for a magazine, as a DJ, etc., please let me know and I'll forward the information to SYCTeam, or get in touch with them directly - they are the nicest team ever! As they mentioned, 'media from any countries will do', but they'll target the US and Europe markets first :)

For SYC readers who are kind enough to click on the link and visit our blog, here are all the posts that are JYJ-or-DBSK-related we've got so far:
Fandom*
A Visit from JYJ
Last Piece of the Puzzle

Enjoy, good luck to SYCTeam and thank you all for being awesome!

credit: sharingyoochun.net

H.N.

More illustrations

2010-11-27T03:30:00.000-08:00

Anyone wants to resume our little tales? - last one was The Boy and the Flying Penguin. Here are the illustrations to help you along ;) Have a great weekend!

H.N.

Golden sky

2010-11-27T03:26:00.000-08:00

The post title says it all :)
This picture was taken on a glorious afternoon not so long ago. Now it's all frost and snow and freezing cold in the UK.. I wish I could hibernate and when I open my eyes it'll be summer again!!!

H.N.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

Originally a Fall Harvest feast, Thanksgiving is one of the most important holidays in the United States. Right at this moment, my little sister and my parents in law are driving down to New York city to celebrate with us. Around 2 PM today, N. and I will gather around the table with our family to share a traditional Thanksgiving meal. While I await their arrival, allow me to share with you my first Thanksgiving memory.

In 2002, I had just arrived in the US. Those of you who knew me back then would remember that I had a pretty bumpy start in America. I had moved in with a host family whom I couldn't stay with for long (another story for another time). In October 2002, I was a 17-year-old girl in a brand new country with nowhere to live. I remember going to my Chemistry teacher in high school and expressed that I couldn't take the quiz that day because I was quite literally homeless. Just when it seemed everything in my life was falling apart, I met N. and his family. Skipping a great deal of details :-), I spent my first Thanksgiving with them. I remember N.'s father getting up very early that morning, scrubbing a giant turkey that weighed at least 20 pounds. He put the entire bird on the grill and fussed over it for hours. Occasionally, he would let me check and paste the bird, as he meticulously explained the details of the gravy recipe that had stayed in his family forever. I remember N.'s grandmother in the kitchen baking the most delicious pecan pie in the world, while sharing stories from N.'s childhood. I remember N.'s mom making a long list of Thanksgiving side dishes - there literally were so many items in the traditional meal that we would never remember them all without a list. I remember N. setting up extra tables for all the food. I remember N.'s sister coming home, bringing with her a giant load of laundry and amazing stories of the college experience. I remember us all gathering around the Thanksgiving table, eating and talking until we almost bursted - either from the food or from the easy laughter in the room.

And I remember feeling very thankful. I was thankful that I had found a place to live, got an A on the afore-mentioned Chemistry quiz, and settled into my new life. I was even more thankful that in a world filled with bumpy starts, one could still travel half way around the world and find a universal joy in the love of a family.

I have loved Thanksgiving ever since. The rest of the year may come with obstacles and roadblocks - but in my personal experience, life would often have straightened out by the time Thanksgiving comes along. Or at least, we would have found a way to make sense of it all and move forward. Because as we gather around the Thanksgiving table amidst our family's conversations and laughters, regardless of the circumstances, we would always feel immensely grateful to each other.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! And a big thank you to you all for reading our blog :-).

A. W.

The Bridges of Madison County

2010-11-24T01:54:00.000-08:00

Last night I picked up this book for my bed-time reading, and didn’t put it down until 2 hours later when I had finished. Towards the last 50 or so pages quiet tears streamed down my face. Not the openly sobs and the teary mess of Krauss’s The History of Love and Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, nor the agony and heartbreak and pain I had for months after Murakami’s South of the Border, but the really quiet tears I wasn’t even myself aware of.

The story was simple. The language was simple. Yet it was magic, and music, and beauty, and songs that make you feel like, ‘in the indifferent spaces of your heart, you may even find room to dance again’.

Lifted directly from the back cover of the book, this will give you glimpses of why readers all over the world have been so moved by a small, unknown first novel that they made it a publishing phenomenon:

The story of Robert Kincaid, a photographer searching for the covered bridges of Madison County, and Francesca Johnson, a farm wife waiting for the fulfilment of a girlhood dream, shows us what it is to love and be loved so intensely that life is never the same again.

As I lay awake, I thought of the four days Robert and Francesca had, and the twenty-two years it took until they finally, in a way, found each other. I didn’t, and still don’t, feel sorry for them. True as Robert wrote to Francesca: ‘Instead I am grateful for having at least found you. We could have flashed by one another like two pieces of cosmic dust’.

‘God or the universe or whatever one chooses to label the great systems of balance and order does not recognise Earth-time. To the universe, four days is no different than four billion light years. I try to keep that in mind.

But, I am, after all, a man. And all the philosophic rationalisations I can conjure up do not keep me from wanting you, every day, every moment, the merciless wail of time, of time I can never spend with you, deep within my head.’

I’ll leave you at that. I’m just glad I picked it up.

H.N.

Autumn in New York

2010-11-23T17:38:00.000-08:00

My apologies for the long absence. I have been working a lot of hours. I have been out of town on the weekends - I will tell you all about that soon. And I have been ill. It started with a viral sinus infection, extending to a secondary bacterial infection, and now it seems I have got bronchitis as well. I am still running a fever on and off, so if I say something really crazy, please know that it's not me. My husband has called my recent illness "forced relaxation." After all, I didn't come into work for an entire day on Saturday, and only for a little bit on Sunday. That's definitely a divergence from my regular schedule. Today, even my boss attempted to send me home to sleep. (I do have the best boss ever, as in EVER). In truth, I do love my work. Without boring you to death, I will just say that I use very cool imaging modalities to document and calculate the physical dynamics of single HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) virion release. And despite the day-to-day frustration, it's just about the most awesome thing in the whole wide world.

So how are you invisi-peeps? If you are out there reading, take pity on me and my fever and leave a comment to let me know how you are doing! I am definitely not above using my sickness for your attention :-) - but I do miss you all.

In any case, back in this post, Hien asked me about Autumn in New York. Before I go on with my fever-talk, I will leave you with a few images I just took from Central Park. (Yes, the leaves are NOW turning colors). These are completely untouched - I haven't learned the Photoshop Elements software I just downloaded yet - maybe one of you could teach me that :-). I am new to this whole photography thing.

Autumn in New York comes with the most beautiful colors.

From the largest trees that proudly display the golden hue of Fall,

to the smallest branches that are desperately holding on to the youthful green of Summer.

Here and there, you can even spot red and blue,

but the fountain retains a silver shade of forever amidst seasonal changes.

All that beauty of nature is nestled in a city where sky scrapers are a part of our landscape,

where couples walk through Central Park hands in hands,

and where we sing songs about Autumn in New York.

A. W.

Last Piece of the Puzzle

2010-11-22T09:07:00.000-08:00

I finally finished this(these) piece(s). When I was sketching out ideas, I seriously doubted that I could pull it off, for it to be the most detailed work I have ever done. It took me every spare second of the last 2.5 weeks, plus I'm physically and emotionally drained, but it is totally worth the effort. I hope you guys like it as much as I do - here it is:

H.N.x

A Visit from JYJ

2010-11-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

JYJ introduces themselves

then sit on my chair and play around with my laptop

but they get bored really soon and decide to go and look out of the window

it's dark and depressing outside, what else to do? watch The Mentalist on TV?

nah, Jaejoong would rather work out ;)

Junsu is so good at English he'll have a look at my books

and Yoochun is sitting on a tree

k-i-s-s-i-n-g

ME!

let's take a final snapshot with friends and fans from around the globe!!!

aren't they the cutest things ;) ?

H.N.

Food post #4 (with Recipes for Risotto and Pad Thai)

2010-11-18T14:12:00.000-08:00

Food! Glorious food!!!

butternut squash risotto with porcini, wild mushrooms and sage

recipe:
1xbutternut squash
150g unsalted butter
1xshallot (diced)
250g risotto rice
veggie stock (~500ml)
150g mixed wild mushrooms (+porcini)
5-10xsage leaves
grated parmesan (season to taste)

+ Chop, sweat the squash in butter til soft then add around 250ml stock and cook til all the liquid has gone. Blend or smash with a spoon, season with salt to taste.

+ Sweat the shallot til tender, add risotto rice and sweat for a further minute or two. Slowly add the stock (around 100ml at a time) and stir til all stock is gone (approx. 20mins). The rice should be cooked with a bit of bite (al dente). Reduce heat and stir in the puree. Add parmesan to taste.

+ Saute the mushrooms for about 2mins til cooked, add sage leaves and season.

pad thai tofu

recipe:

plain tofu

egg noodles or flat rice noodles

2xeggs, lightly beaten

2xred chillies, deseeded and chopped

6xspring onions, sliced

1xgarlic clove, peeled and crushed

50g bean sprouts

30ml smooth peanut butter

30ml dark soy sauce

30ml lime juice

15ml sugar

some chopped coriander and chopped fresh mint

+ Cut tofu into cubes, deep fry, and drain well.

+ Cook the noodles and scramble the eggs (or cook into an omellette and then cut into thin strips - but I'm often too lazy for this).

+ Stir fry garlic, chillies, spring onions, and bean sprouts for about 1 min.

+ Heat the peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, sugar and 4xtbsp water, stir til smooth.

+ Add the noodle to the wok with tofu and sauce. Toss over heat til noodles are well-coated with the sauce. Add the egg strips and herbs, and serve.

H.N.

Fandom*

2010-11-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

*the state or attitude of being a fan

Right, a little bit of background information first – I started being a fangirl when I was about 13,14 years old, my obsession at the time was Take That (OMG! I know!). Then similarly to other teenage girls around the world, I went through my phases: Bon Jovi, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Iron Maiden (!?!???! although it didn’t last very long), and recently Mew, Muse, Springsteen, etc. you name it. (I even go as far as the Far East for my eye candies, let me introduce you to DBSK – google them if you haven’t heard of them before.) Ask my best friend from secondary school and she’ll fondly tell you all the memories we had together fangirling. We had a notebook with stickers, photos, lyrics and our very own thoughts written about our so-called ‘idols’ and we wrote and wrote and wrote and each got to keep that little thing for a couple of days like a treasure. We often sat imagining what we would have done if we had been their girlfriends/sisters/friends (well, girlfriends mostly to be honest). You may think it’s a bit creepy, however personally I feel nothing but deeply touched by those memories. It’s normal. It’s what makes fangirling well, fangirling, unless one gets too delusional and brings fangirling to a whole new level of public humility :) Manic fangirls who goes jumpy and screams their lungs out? Hello? (The exception is when one gets to see Mew IN PERSON! ;))

So that’s the first good thing being a fangirl – you bond with people. Not only people who are already your best friends, but also people you have never met! True stories: I am now friend with a lovely Taiwanese girl and a gorgeous Italian girl whom I met at two different Mew’s gigs (hi Vivian! and hi Sabina!), I am now like a sister to a American girl who lives all the way across the pond in Texas (hi Jett!) and a girl from Philippines (hi Ketch!) just because we happened to be in the same fan group, and there are many many more of you out there with whom I swap pictures, MVs, songs, stories, ups and downs every day. Thank you for being such an important part of my life :)

Secondly, being a fangirl means you are never out of things/topics to talk about! Seriously, when dinner conversations bore you to death, try talking about some random dudes you fancy who you have never even met but whose birthdays, favourite colours, pet names, ____, ____, and ____ [please insert creepy stalker-style facts] you already know by heart. It’s such good fun seeing their reactions: either they would enthusiastically join you, which is great (hurray another fan for the club!!!); or your high-pitched voice and pink-flushed cheeks would freak them out – meaning the end to boring conversations (hurray all the same!!!).

Thirdly, having someone to look up to brightens up your life significantly. It’s like meditation. You have to clean the house? Great, put up some of your favourite music and mundane daily chores immediately turn into something magical, maybe try imagining that you’re on stage performing with the band too? Singing along at the top of your lungs doesn’t hurt either. And when you face depressions and dark times? Watch this:

Now what was that you were upset about? :)

And it’s not so embarrassing now to admit that you’re a fangirl/fanboy huh?

H.N.

Amusements #5: A Matter of Taste

2010-11-16T12:42:00.000-08:00

Would you like a fruit bag? A LITERAL fruit bag? I know I would - both fashionable and edible, what not to like?

And some stunning pieces of fashion(?) photography, the sheer contrasts of the models, their movements and the surroundings are brilliant!

H.N.

The Boy and the Flying Penguin

2010-11-11T02:56:00.000-08:00

The ball has disappeared into the magical life buoy! The magical life buoy that belongs to the boy with the magical life buoy, that connects to the cheese tunnel dug out by the mouse who has the castle, who in turn lives in the house that belonged to the girl in the wind. Phew, I almost lost my breath after saying this – it’s getting harder and harder to keep track who where what. Anyway the boy was playing on the beach and accidentally threw the ball towards the life buoy, which behaved as badly as a black hole and sucked the ball right in while the boy was looking helplessly. Boom! Ah there, it bounces off someone’s hat at the other end! Let me introduce to you the boy and the flying penguin, who is only slightly weirder than other weird penguins because he flies and others don’t, and he wears orange boots and others don’t, and he laughs and others don’t, and when he laughs the laughs turn into pink bubbles and bursts after a couple of seconds, and he thinks the boy looks really funny with his big red hat, which is why he keeps following the boy and laughs pink bubbles.

Back to the story, the ball bounces off the boy’s hat and he pokes it with a stick and it bursts and he puts a light bulb inside it and hangs it on his hat so now he doesn’t have to carry a torch with him anymore because it’s bright and nice wherever he goes and he is rather pleased with his invention. The penguin finds it hilarious but what does he know, he’s a weird flying penguin whose laughs turn into pink bubbles. And the boy keeps walking with not only a penguin following him, but also a tiny bit of darkness – they tend to get attracted to the light. With any luck the boy will bump into the girl in the wind and maybe he will be able to make her laugh too, she always look so sad that girl...

H.N.

Amusements #4

2010-11-11T02:52:00.000-08:00

H.N.

The Boy with the Magical Life Buoy

2010-11-10T04:38:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the mouse that has a castle that used to live in the wall of the house that had belonged to the girl in the wind? Well you must do because I have just told you the story yesterday, which actually has been not a day but it equals to nineteen and a half mouse years. In that amount of time the mouse already ate most of his castle and all I managed was to have some meals and read two stories in a book and draw three sketches and sleep, which I think is not fair because I wasn’t as efficient. Anyway the mouse ate through and through his castle and made a cheese tunnel and he was extremely excited about the unknowns at the other end. By a mere chance, the other end of the tunnel was an inflatable life buoy that belongs to a kid, who is the boy with the magical life buoy. It is magical because when you put it down on the sand, it deforms time and space of the universe and makes something similar to a black hole that allows you to go to another space at another time simply by jumping in it. You could go back to the year of 1997, or visit Einstein and kiss him on the cheek, or dance at Woodstock 1969 which was a music festival, or go forward and see if they would ever invent a time machine except that you’ve already got one and you really should not tell them that you’ve got one because it would upset them a lot I imagine, or go to your favourite people’s houses and watch as they write/compose/create the most amazing things in the world, or visit my mum (hi mum!) because you would like her a lot, everybody likes my mum it’s a fact.

But unfortunately the boy can’t do anything of that. Performing similarly to a black hole, he’d never know where and when he might end up if he jumped into the hoop, so he stays where he is - he likes the sea. And we don’t know yet whether the pink mouse would go all the way through the tunnel – he may stay there to wait for the girl in the wind who he believes one day would eventually come back to find him. For now, the boy is playing ball on the beach, the inflatable life buoy is on the sand, and there is a sand castle too which the boy built. Hey, they both build castles; maybe they can build one together!

H.N.

The Mouse who has a Castle

2010-11-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

At the house where the little girl in the wind used to live there’s a mouse living all alone in his cave, which is not really a cave because it’s inside the brick wall, but nevertheless he calls it so. He is more special than other mice for being bright pink while others are of a dirty grey colour, that makes him stand out among them, and they are jealous, and they don’t want to talk to him, which unfortunately upsets the pink mouse a lot – he is one of those easy-going, friendly, talkative mice. He wants to meet his friends and talk about things he likes, like morning dew and orange sunsets and tea stains and boxes neatly stacked on each other and sitting on two chairs and books on the floor and cheese and cheese and more cheese and endless supply of cheese and knocking on hollow walls and music from afar and mild headaches and throat closing up and being emotional and things in tubes and flashing lights; and things he dislikes, like ~~neon colours~~ and ~~muffled sounds~~ and ~~people saying goodbye~~ and ~~headaches~~ and ~~people saying sorry~~ and ~~clothes hidden in wardrobes~~ and ~~magazines~~ and ~~how people always draw speech bubbles~~ and ~~how they can’t erase the speech bubbles to take back what they said and unhurt others~~.

The little girl often felt sorry for him and gave him a lot of cheese, A LOT more than he could eat. Obviously she can’t give him cheese now because she doesn’t live there anymore, and that also saddens him. One day he found himself being chased away by other mice, and he thought, ‘OK, I’m not going to want to hang out with them anymore, I’ll just go home and eat all the cheese by myself’, which was impossible – the girl gave him A LOT of cheese, he decided not to eat them but to use them as bricks to build a cheese castle instead, one with forts and moats and lots and lots of windows. And from then on he lives happily ever after in his cheese castle. Maybe one day he’ll eat his way out and you’ll be able to see him. Just remember he’s bright pink, so you’ll know straightaway if he’s the right mouse.

H.N.