So, I’m currently a part-time tutor on the Foundation course at Hereford College of Arts and each week I take a discourse session in which the students talk about something that interests them to the rest of the group. This week one of the students mentioned the work of Charlie Engman which I found really interesting, particularly his ‘Domestic Diorama’ series.

These look to me like tubes of meat, or chicken carcasses squeezed into uncomfortable positions until you realise they’re human bodies- I find them creepy but strangely compelling and the series makes me imagine some sort of secret murder has taken place. I think their vulnerability is emphasized by the fact that the bodies are a bit blue and goose pimply looking i.e. real people rather than the tanned honey toned limbs we’re used to seeing in modern advertising and imagery.

Visit his website to see some more of this work:

ENGMAN

A friend of mine has been working on a community garden project in Cardiff. Recently the project was featured on TV as viewers voted for the charity they believed was most worthy of the donation money, and the community gardens won! take a peek at the website and see what it’s all about.

HERE

Earlier in the year I helped my brother in designing a quick logo for the University of Bristol’s ‘The Cell’ CMM society of which my brother is secretary. It’s nice to see it on a shirt.

Today I mostly liked this!!

I’ve been doing a short screen printing evening class over the past few weeks at Hereford college of Arts (where I completed my foundation year). It finished last week but I wanted to put some of the most interesting experiments to come out of the 5 week course online. It was really good to take some of my granny square cut outs to the next level and hopefully if I sign up for the next course starting in September I can develop this idea further. It would be lovely to develop a range of decorative items made out of the fabric I’ve printed by hand, so watch this space!

While in Paris we stumbled across a small shop in Montmatre which specialized in restoring old perfume atomizers. I couldn’t resist taking some photos of their window display. My absolute favorites are the cat bottles. unfortunately I don’t know the address of this shop, but I can tell you it was called ‘Belle du Jour’ and it was on a road leading to the main steps of Sacre Coeur.

Sacre Coeur itself was absolutely beautiful. Although I wouldn’t consider myself to follow any formal religion, I can always appreciate the beauty and tranquility of churches and I have a particular soft spot for stained glass and murals. Sacre Coeur didn’t disappoint, although it wasn’t possible to take photos inside the church, I did pick up a postcard showing the fresco which dominates the building as you walk though the doors. Imagine seeing this as a procession of choir boys begin to walk along the central aisle of the church accompanied by a nun singing choral songs and you can begin to understand the appeal of religious ceremony for some people.

Today I was very excited to find an old (ish) polaroid camera in my local charity shop for the princely sum of £0.95, unfortunately though something seems to be stuck inside and rather than spitting out the black protective cover from the film out then allowing you to take pictures it simply kept disgorging my precious polaroid films exposing them all. The price of these films today means that I was very sad for a while and looked mopishly at e-bay for half an hour as I wondered how long my last box of films would last me. until I spotted this website:

http://www.theimpossibleproject.com/2009

which suggests that someone else might be taking over the production of polaroid films in the near future, which makes me considerably happier, but for the moment I still have my eye on a pack of black and white 600 film from e-bay, hands off!

Inspired by Channel 4’s Indian Winter I thought I’d post some of the Indian postcards I have in my possession. The green hand on the end is actually a henna stencil, I would use it but I think it’s too nice just as something to look at, although I would love to have my hands properly painted in henna.

(Image taken from www.weheartit.com)

I can only imagine the first rule of the Southern Cavy Club is don’t talk about Cavy club. A gorgeously coloured excerpt from a poster nabbed during refurbishments at my day job in a pet shop.

(If you’re curious that is: Southern Cavy Club, 7 Russell Way, Petersfield, Hants, GU31 4LD)

Looking round Worcester Museum and Art gallery, I found some lovely examples of type on old Pharmacy packaging, I find it such a shame that packaging these days isn’t nearly so interesting or beautiful. I’m very tempted to start a collection of old bottles and packets as a reminder of how product design used to be.

Art Gallery & Museum
Foregate Street, Worcester WR1 1DT