It's the time of year when...

...everyone (it seems) is talking about halls of residence, passport-sized photos, UCAS, and of course the delights of trying to get through to Student Finance (I recommend drinking alcohol before even trying).

If you combine the two households of my lovely friend Jenny and I, six of us are going to be starting university. That's a lot of stress for two households. When I popped round Jenny's yesterday, she was outside her house beside the porch, in a crouching position. My first thought was that she was hiding, and perhaps out of politeness I should pretend I hadn't seen her. My second thought was that she was having a nervous breakdown. I adopted my "concerned-yet -calm" face. On closer inspection I discovered she was searching through her recycling bin. She was looking for her son's university enrolment letter. It heartened me to learn that someone I have for years felt a failure beside because of her organisational skills actually uses the same filing sytem as me - putting very important documents in the recycling bin. Unopened.

What's with the scooter? I'm glad you asked. I'm scooting off on "holiday" this weekend. I'm going camping with a big group of lovelies. That's right, actual camping - sleeping with merely a thin piece of fabric between me and the outside world. I don't have high hopes.

Illustration Friday - Caution - Low Flying Angel!

Sorry for the long absence...my hectic Summer holiday is still hectic. Still, at least I found time to do this today while the housework mounted up around me - it's Ecoline Inks with some colour pencil and ink.

I got a letter from University today (I start on 16th Sept...hooray!) informing me of some of the activities coming up. A debate on politics, perhaps? Art appreciation? Or a social evening? Er, no...try a UV Bubble party, XXX rated Hypnosis - and one evening just called "I Love Vodka"! Hmm, I wonder what the theme of that party is and how they came up with the name?

Wouldn't it be funny if I actually went to one of them? I wonder if I would be the oldest person there! Seriously though, the kids of today are so lucky. (Blimey, I said that in another post, I am a grumpy old woman!) When I was young all that happened at uni (I imagine) were protests and sit-ins. No wonder uni attendance is so high nowadays. Why would a kid not want to go somewhere that actually encouraged them to have a UV bubble party? Thousands of pounds worth of debt, I suppose. But still - bubbles!

Lane Smith at work. Fab.

I am so buying these books.

Summer Holidays ain't what they used to be.

Because they used to be like this - days on end at the Lido or the beach with my friends, reading loads of books and magazines, drawing, writing...all in the seemingly endless weeks until the new school year.

Now, they are like this... (my actual diary)


Take note, kids. Make the most of those Summer holidays and don't complain at all the things you can't do yet because you're a kid. Because one day, this diary, this August, this mind, will be yours. Being an adult is not all it's cracked up to be.

Illustration Friday - Idle

Just a little pencil drawing. I'd like to be idle sometimes but it rarely happens!

Belatedly...

Here are the pics from Race For Life...

Before:And after!

With me is my friend Hayley - straight after doing this we went to a 4-hour dress rehearsal for our show. It's all good fun though.

Thanks again to everyone who sponsored me. You will be receiving a minuscule gift in the near future.

Swine Flew

My first go at digital colouring.

This week

Lovely Poppies

I just noticed that my last post was my 100th one. If I'd realised before I would have made more of an effort.

Well once again life's been extremely hectic. Just taken part in a show with my dance school, which was crazy, fun, exhausting and a little bit sad for reasons I won't bore you with!


Had an hour at my studio this morning and did this with my new Ecoline inks...

I like using them - need more practice though. This woman has been filed away in my mind for a few days now. I saw her on the bus and I felt sorry for her - she looked really frail and kind of lonely. But then the bus went past a field with some patches of poppies in. Her face absolutely lit up and she said to herself, "Oh, lovely poppies!"

It was lovely to see - and it made me think, why should I have felt sorry for her and assumed she was unhappy just because she's old, when she clearly takes pleasure from the simple things in life...something we should all do I reckon.

Nightmares and studio antics

Hello! I woke up in a funny mood today because last night my mind decided to treat me to a good old-fashioned horror film style nightmare. It involved trying to escape from a large building where scary home movies of spooky children were projected in weird places. I saw a living dead type woman with concrete blocks for a head who was begging me to help her (and I did - by breathing on her gravestone and bringing her back to life, of course!) It was very strange. Loads and loads of my dreams, even the not so scary ones are set in this huge building - a complex and claustrophobic place, sometimes without any windows. Come on, location guys - find me some new sets, I don't like this building!


Anyway this morning, determined not to get involved in any of that housework malarkey, I went to my studio early. As a sort of warm-up, I made this for myself, a cuff bracelet thingy, using some nice old groovy material and buttons I had. Then I did some burnishing on the etching plate I started at BIP yesterday - hope to show you that in in a couple of weeks, as BIP is closed next week. (What will I do!?)

Thought for the day...whatever happened to earwigs? I haven't seen one for years! I think they must have been a 1970s fad like Spangles, Shaker Makers and cheesecloth.

Things I Wanted To Post Here But Couldn't

1. A drawing of the old lady I saw on the bus whose face lit up when she saw poppies in a field.

2. A photo of me finishing Race For Life.

3. My "this week" drawing.

4. A photo of me standing in the doorway of my new cottage with nice garden, granny annexe (mum installed) and studio.


Here are my excuses:-

1. I didn't have time to finish the drawing. It's still in my head though.

2. My friend hasn't sent it to me yet. Come on, Hayley!

3. I can't decide between the cat's wee and the 19 disco tops. (Now that's a sentence I never thought I'd say.)

4. I made it up. (Sigh!)

I'm etching today, hurrah! Hang the expense, that's what I say. The trick, I've realised, is not to check the bank balance first - it takes all the pleasure out of it.

Despite this recklessness, I have been trying to be more organised in my life and sort out problems as they occur rather than letting them get worse and worse until I just crumple to the floor crying. (Believe me this isn't an exaggeration). So, I've got my friendly computer expert coming round tonight to sort out the mess I made trying to install virus protection on the computer. And later in the week I've got someone coming to clear my gutters and replace a roof tile. (I book tradesmen! I care about roof tiles! I must be....an adult?! Oh no, I never thought that would happen!)

More sketches

Just sketches this time I'm afraid which I suppose is better than nothing!

These were done at the station going to London, and on the train on the way back. Romeo (my cat) I sketched the other day, but he happens to be on the same page so makes a sneaky appearance. I was disappointed that the man on the bottom of the top page got off before I could draw him. He was shaped like a skittle.

I really like to draw on the way back from London - there's more opportunity, as a lot of people are asleep or at least not alert. I like to observe business people, the sort that drink wine on the train , which the man at the bottom of the bottom page was doing. Their lives are so utterly alien to me and although I get fed up (to say the least) with not having any money, I wouldn't want their lifestyle at all. This man had a nice Hull accent and looked a bit like a more groomed Albert Einstein.

I don't know why but the sketches don't enlarge when you click and they aren't very clear so I feel a failure.

Victoria Station was closed for a few hours because it flooded yesterday - there were massive thunderstorms - so it was a bit of a nightmare getting home and I'm tired. I would like to do nothing today except read and maybe draw - but I have loads of cleaning to do - loads - before my family catch disease from the filth and have to wear fancy dress costumes to the hospital because there are no clean clothes.

Phew...

...I've been so-o-o busy lately what with rehearsals for our dance show, family stuff, and just about everything else you can think of. I'm off to London today to see a special little girl who has a birthday today!

I rustled this up this morning just in case the one I sent to Cbeebies isn't shown!

Thanks to everyone who sponsored me for Race For Life, which I did complete on Sunday (I have the sunburn and medal to prove it!) I raised £125 altogether. A photo will be on here soon when my friend emails it to me, and I promise I will send a little something to everyone kind enough to sponsor me.

When you dance, there's a magic that must be love!

When I was young I was a punk at heart - I loved Blondie, the Stranglers, the Damned, etc. My dad was a security guard at a university, and sometimes they would share out unclaimed lost property. My dad brought home a cassette player, and in it was the cassette of "Off The Wall". I played it, expecting not to like it...and instantly fell in love with it. I think I wore it away in the end! I remained loyal to punk of course - but I think Off The Wall was one of the best albums ever made and I still love every second of it.

So to the person from Sussex University whose cassette player I ended up with in around 1979 - I am sorry, but thank you - and to Michael Jackson of course - for brightening my life.

Sigh...

No printing today for several reasons (mainly financial).

I was just going to some drawing, as I have an unexpected hour to myself. But just as I got my stuff out, my neighbours started a rousing chorus of that Basshunter (or whatever it is) dance tune "All I Ever Wanted". It's getting faster and louder and I can just tell that they are jumping up and down, possibly punching the air. I bet they move onto Shania Twain soon, and when they do I shall be overwhelmingly gloomy.

It's been a crap week so far - and it's only Tuesday.

Illustration Friday - "Unfold"

Pull back a leaf, crack open a nut, and see what story unfolds...

I came across this in my garden today. (OK, OK...I came across it after I'd made it from cloth and mounted it in the nut shell!)

This Week

Under a Burnished Moon

I had two failures at printing today - I ruined a plate I've been working on for ages, and also I had taken a piece of zinc home to try drypoint on (for those who don't know, drypoint is where you scratch directly onto the metal instead of through a ground followed by biting the lines with acid). The drypoint really hurt my hands (I have trouble with my joints anyway) and then when I came to print it today, the pressure was too light and it didn't come out very well. You don't get many prints off a drypoint anyway because the burr wears away (and it's the burr that gives a lovely soft line). So I gave up on it. The print above was almost a failure too - originally I'd done the moon using chine colle, but the blue ink made it a horrible muddy colour - I was about to go home but then decided to try burnishing it instead, and I think it worked out OK.

Luckily I have much more patience with creative things than I used to when I was little. In fact I have loads more patience with creative things than with absolutely any other aspect of life. Put a slow-moving queue in front of me and I am foaming at the mouth within seconds!

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name...

And today I did - I visited my old place of work, Bags of Books in Lewes and had a spectacular lunch with my friend Karen. Very delicious it was too, and great to catch up on all the gossip.

It's the first time I've been to Lewes since I left Oxfam a couple of months back, and it was a weird experience. The "poshness" and wealth of it all used to get on my nerves a little bit when I worked there I must admit (all those precocious kids with names like Cordelia and Noah) - but after some time away it did make a refreshing change to see busy shops full of polite, sober people with money! (I know this sound bitter and horrible and I'm sorry. But we've had a few really bad customer-related experiences at work this week.)

On the way home I settled down to do some sketching at the station, very pleased with myself that I had remembered my sketchbook...only to find I had no pen or pencil. So here's a quick sketch I did of Brad watching telly last night instead.

Treats!

So Monday was my birthday and I had a lovely day! I got fab presents from my loved ones, as usual. Here I am wearing some of them (the presents that is not the loved ones!), ready to be taken out to lunch at the floating Chinese restaurant on Brighton Marina (yummy & gorgeous!).

I even got some garden furniture - and it's actually been sunny enough to use it!

Well the treats don't seem to have stopped yet - today I went to see the American Scene - Prints from Hopper to Pollock exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. It was fantastic, and so inspirational. I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone in the area. It is a fiver to get in, but if you can prove you live in Brighton or Hove with a household bill, you get in half price. (Sadly Newhaven doesn't count!) I managed to stop myself buying the accompanying book - although I haven't ruled out going back yet!

I had the gallery to myself when I arrived - until a crowd of about twenty older ladies came in. They wandered around randomly instead of following the exhibits in order. They read labels and didn't bother looking at the work. They tutted and huffed and sniffed at everything. They compared the prints (loudly) to art done by their friends and family. When one of them saw this beautiful, moving lithograph (The Prisoner by Julius Bloch), she said, "You wouldn't want that hanging in your lounge, would you?"

Erm, yes actually, annoying old lady! I don't know, the older generation eh...

Just settling down now to enjoy my other treat, which arrived today, Gowanus Dogs by Jonathan Frost. It's a children's picture book illustrated entirely in etchings. Looks beautiful. Hurrah!