“That creeping feeling’s starting, like I miss you, though we’re both of us still here.”

trying to get to sleep in uni halls is sometimes the strangest experience, currently listening to my flatmate for the past hour trying to make people punch him.. so while i wait for outside to quieten down i thought id upload these photos i took of graffiti around Leeds last year for one of the university projects i did for BA honours Textile Design (1st year). The project was to look at something we found interesting and then manipulate these images into textured weaves and knits, i really focused on the idea of skin dripping off of the skulls face and the tendons that stretched over the bone and these different layers. i experimented with not only wools, but also mixing pva glue and paint and dripping it thickly onto a shiny surface waiting for it to dry and then peeling it off and weaving it into photos, which worked really well. Unfortunately i left all my projects at Leeds uni when i finished and havent yet managed to go back there, i do miss it and the two best friends i made, quite alot if i think about it and i had such a different experience in Leeds than im having in Coventry that i almost feel scared to go back, the people i shared my first year with there have carried on going into second year while im hear repeating my first year and living a seperate life again..

'these are a few of my favourite things'

The seaside reminds me of my favourite times as a child, me and my two sisters, my mum and dad and my grandpa and nanna used to stay in a caravan once a year in hunstanton and play on the beach and go to the discos at night and eat too many sweets and loads of fish and chips. It always makes me happy looking back, because i know that even though families break apart and relationships crumble i can always hold them in my memories. For my 17th birthday (so long ago now!) me and my boyfriend went back there and for me its the happiest place to share with someone and if i ever feel sad or miss the people i cant see anymore i just look through photos like these and it can make a bad day turn around, because these spark my memories. I took them on a disposable camera as i was going through a phase (which im still in) where i thought that by taking photos on a camera where nobody can see them and delete them and where you have to save the photos for the moments you really want you get pictures you really can cherish and the excitement of getting them developed! I thought id share this because i thought it was a nice way to show where some of my inspiration comes from, the simple things nobody seems to understand any more, i know it sounds silly but i feel like the simplicity of a caravan holiday with families is lost on people of now who want everything that costs alot and dont appreciate the time they have with people that wont always be there, not the way you remember anyway, i think thats why its so nice to always look to your past and not forget where you came from, everything in life seems to go so quickly, and i like to have history that grounds me as exciting/crazy/confusing life gets

'I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans'

After showing my drawings in class the other day, I was recommended to go to the 'Herbert Gallery', a local gallery in Coventry right near the university that was an amazing day out! I didnt expect much but me and angie both went and loved all the collections that were on display! i went to look at their collections of skulls and skeletons and above are some photos of them, the structure and flaws of the bones were so interesting and I spent a long time analysing and sketching them using a variety of drawing techniques to explore the different textures and shapes/patterns i could create from them ! I spoke to a lady there who said if I email her with a date, ill be able to go in and theyll take the skulls out the cabinets and allow me to draw them in a room so i can get a more dimensional view from them ! I am really glad it was recommended to me by my lecturer to go and visit gallerys because when you start sketching skulls and bones that are infront of you and not just from a photo you can begin to work more with dimension and different angles and adding depth and little details, like the etches and flaws in the bone and also the shadows cast within certain areas. Me and Angie also looked around some of the other exhibitions there in particular an artist called 'George Shaw', his work was shown in two rooms. One was a collection of watercolours that he had painted from around his state, a collection called 'George Shaw: I woz ere', kind of like how people graffiti there name on parts where they live he was painting them so he would always be there which i thought was a beautiful idea, one painting he had done in 1997 and again in 2002 and you could see the destructuring of the garages and how what once was new now is old, an interesting concept to work with.

"All these small chances will one day, Add up to everything"

Finally uploading some work from photoshop i completed today. Every week since i started university i have been attending photoshop classes so i can learn about manipulating and editing photos to create what i want to show. Each class so far has involved small tasks that teach us new skills, for example one week we had to make a potato head which involved copying pasting and arranging fruits from different files, whilst today involved creating reflections from a bottle of wine and a boxset and how to adjust opacity and graduate colour. I find the structure of these classes worthwhile as each week we have a new task that is all about going over what we have learnt the week before and this form of repetition in the instructions we are given and the steps we follow are helping me to actually remember them. Last year at Leeds i did two projects using photoshop and illustration and although i completed the projects and recieved good grades for both i didnt retain any of the information because i never had to remember the steps and repeat them like i do in these classes.. today we got told we would be using the skills we learn after easter when we do a photoshoot for the garment we make from lasercutting, i think being told where photoshop is beginning to be used in our projects has definetely pushed me to try and note down as many instructions as possible that our teacher gives us.

Mary Katrantzou S/S12 & New Year New Start

I love Katrantzou's use prints and colours and textures within the concept of each collection, this direction she takes her garments in is the direction I wish to take mine into whatever i am designing i love the focus on prints and colours and taking an eclectic and individual approach to everything. I love working with shapes, lines and warping the perception of images we see every day to create a pattern that pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable and what holds obvious imagery to the subject that it is based upon. I want to be the future  of what katrantzou is putting on the catwalk when it is my turn and i have earnt the respect and right to to put my collection on a catwalk, i want people to view clothes as pieces of art, as blank canvases just waiting to be painted over and over again with what i envision. Our latest project has made me start to feel inspired again after a year long course at Leeds (i completed my 1st year of BA Honours textile design but dropped out after feeling it lacked creativity and tried to surpress what art is) i feel like im finally starting to remember why i loved textiles/fashion so much, i cant wait to start using all the new technology our university has to offer and learn how to laser cut to create prints as this for me was the main focus of why i wanted to attend Coventry, i feel able to take the projects in my own direction and be supported by the facilities that are available to me rather than being told to go away like in Leeds. Im focusing on skulls and animal skulls for this project and using alot of different drawing techniques like blind contour, non dominant hand and continuous line to create intresting silhouettes and details within these, im also looking at using inks and pens to black out shapes within shapes to create positivity and negativity. I showed my drawings that i had done over the christmas holidays in a group in my class and i found it daunting i dont think im a particularly talented artist but i do think that i have got better, although i always used to laugh at this expression 'practice makes perfect', although they might not be perfect there so much better than they were ! Im aware i need to become a stronger speaker and really be able to stand alone with my voice and push my ideas, and i feel like i can in time which is what this course is allowing me to do.

"If i saw something in my viewfinder that looked familiar to me, i would do something to shake it up"

Finding some inspiration in the decay of both human and animal bodies for my next project, beginning to work with different drawing materials and techniques to distort and produce indepth and interesting patterns that i can work back into and with for the next stage in this project. Ive also been looking at old vinyl covers and also the art work of albums today, to work with this connection between music and art and how one is the other. I will also be combining all the images/information I drew from the 'Attingham Park:House of Beasts' exhibition for this project.