art equals happy.

A housewarming gift for Amy. :: Drawing.

My dear friend Amy moved into her first real place away from her parents recently. She starts Uni (for reals) this year, and it's all super exciting because she is making her place very nice and homey. We are pretty big Harry Potter geeks, and I always love an excuse to draw anything potter related... so obviously... this happened!It's got quite a few (really geeky) references that most of you probably won't get (double points if you do!!!)- but that is meant to be a Doe (someone said it looked like a sheep- oops!) and, 'Always' is something Snape says in the last book. 
When I gave it to her, she squeeled and jumped up and down and hugged me- so I'm pretty sure she liked it... hehe.
Here are some sketches I did before I commited to the cup:Thanks to The Art Cafe, where I painted it. And Happy New House Miss AMY! kxo

Learning to be alone. :: Art Journal & Sketchbooks

Here are some pages I made when I was 19 and single and living alone in London. Coming to terms with being newly alone and trying to figure out if what I was feeling was loneliness or longing or... independence. I have grown so much since then, but these pages were the first few steps to realising that I like myself and my own company and there is a lot more in life than the search for a 'boyfriend' or whatever.It was an exciting time. I was free to do all the things I didn't have time for, or didn't think my boyfriend would like (when I was in a relationship). It made me realise a lot. I also got to explore new friendships and London. It was such a time of learning to love myself and love what I like. Looking back on it now- I am proud of how I didn't crumple in the face of heartache and illness, but instead took the good things from it and made a beautiful new life for myself.I guess, I'm a bit sentimental at the moment because I've been hanging out in old places with old friends. And, it is beyond time to share these pages. I hope you can take something from these. If you're working through a tough time, know that if you want it to- you can make it better. 
Lots of love,
Kimxo

Hard days night :: Sketchbooks.

A new mug for Dad. :: Drawing.

Jazz works in this cool little ceramic painting place during the summer, and I like to hang out there, painting mugs and things. This was just a fun thing I did for my Dad, because he needed a new one.(this quote is from a Shakesphere play!) I took these photos before it got glazed and fired, but I still think it looks beautiful. It's amazing how different the colours look before it's fired... I'll take photos next time I'm at my parents' house.I try and always put a little heart on the bottom of the mug- like a surprise. :] kimxo

Old Sketchbooks, early 2011 :: Drawings

I love going through my old sketchbooks- sometimes the bits and bobs you've overlooked the first time can look fun now or bring back memories. It's the same with Art Journals too- but I guess, with my notebooks/sketchbooks I don't take them as seriously in terms of layout, I'm always making lists, and it's the perfect place to doodle when you are waiting for a bus or lecture to start.Love, Kimxo

I was feeling done in... couldn't win. :: My Life & Art Journal.

'Had he lived to-day he would still have had machines to fight, but he could at least have seen that a machine can be a good servant – if a bad master.' (Holbrook, 1947)

I've been thinking so much about this. About our reliance on machines. On how much 'screen time' we get everyday, every hour, every week... How I would like to live my life and how I do live it. I guess, doing an essay on William Morris and Socialism and how imporant it is to do 'useful work, not useless toil' (Morris in Holbrook, 1947) will do that to you.

It's been a tough month or so at college. Let's just say that Second Year is kicking my butt.And I lost all of my unpublished photos/videos from 2012 (and some from 2011) in a harddrive failure. Luckily I still have copies of the things I posted online- but there was a lot of blog content and college work that evaporated from exsistence. Just that like. 
Scary.

It's setbacks like this that make it really hard to keep my head above water (Like- it's about 10x harder already because I have to deal with a chronic illness). All of that hard work. Gone. Poof. My body is already giving up on me rather rapidly (too many deadlines), and my brain is really struggling to keep pace. I know healthy, young, happy students who are finding it too much- I really thought I was going to crack!

But, one thing this illness has taught me: I AM STRONG.

I may spend a few days in bed, I may not go to all of the exhibitions, I may have werid routines or have to take a bus instead of walking- but I know I can always do it. Whatever it is- I can do it. Pass A-levels? Sure. Do a 2 year course in 1 year? Alright. Deal with a broken heart/abandonment? Hell yeah. Be a vendor at Renegade? Obviously. Get a degree? LETS DO THIS! 

So this is kind of half a pep-talk and half an 'I'm really sorry about the blog being empty' post. I don't know about you, but hearing someone say 'it's going to be okay' or 'it will all work out' doesn't do anything for me (kind of makes me want to yell into a pillow, haha!)- SEEING someone prove that they can win when they are against a lot of stuff- makes me realise that if they can suck it up and do it, so can I. 

I know a lot of people are doing exams right now, I know it's 'finals week' and there are projects and essays to hand in. YOU CAN DO IT PEOPLE. It's probably going to be hard, but I believe in your strength. And hopefully, you can find something that makes it fun and if it's worth doing that shouldn't be too hard.

Love you.

p.s. Loosing all those photos and videos made me really really sad- but life carries on and new photos are waiting to be taken. Sorry for the delay. <3

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Holbrook, J. (1947) On Art & Socialism. Essays & Lectures by William Morris. London : Purnell and Sons Ltd.

Art & Reality T.V. :: Camberwell BA. & Video.

Hello everyone! At college we are starting a new project in conjuction with the Graphic Design students. It's called 'Channel' and basically we are putting together a T.V. channel! It's a pretty exciting idea and I'm looking forward to getting my teeth in it a bit more.

As an excersise, we divided into 'departments' and then teamed up. I was in the Art and Reality T.V. department and we were all set a task to make a quick 1 min film 'pilot' for what kind of show we would have. Here is what we came up with...

It's just little and the text is really messy but I hope you found that a bit comical anyway. :] It was all filmed in college (which I thought you might find interesting too). 
We're reanalysing everything after seeing other people's 1min films. (See here.) Wonder where we will end up!
Here's some of the text. It was handdrawn and pieced together on photoshop. Tried to make it textured so it wasn't just sitting on top of the video but more embedded.

kimxo

Painting postcards. :: SA Sketches

From a magical couple of days where Ted and I painted in the garden...
I mostly made postcards for friends back home.
I've still got a couple of these postcards, if anyone wants one, e-mail me ($4 and I'll write you a little message!) [email protected]See more South Africa adventures here.

Settling in. :: S.A. Sketches.

After such a long plane ride, it took me a few days to recover from the strain of all the travelling. A lot of sleeping in and card playing and drawing on the couch.We went out to visit a little exhibition that Ted was in. :] Some days, my journal entries were more like diary entries. Writing, although more like short sentences to remind myself of things, rather than a dialouge/ramble.Also- I was only using one side of the sketchbook at the begining- something which my tutors keep telling me a GOOD thing- so you can easily take out pages as use them as originals, but which I find rather difficult. I'm afraid the one-side-only rule didn't last very long with this sketchbook. Win some. Lose some. haha. 
Kimxo 

The Start. :: S.A. Sketchbook

While I was there, I wanted to make a point of remembering as much as possible. Besides taking pictures and hearing stories, I also kept a journal & tried to write/draw/paste/paint in it everyday. Obviously, doing it during the day was the best (like while we were out or during tea time) but Mum, Dad and I had some down-time in the late evenings & I invariably spent that time drawing in here. It was nice to reflect & add to what I'd done during the day, and to capture snippets of conversation, or patterns that are particular to that time/place... One of the things that reminds me of my Grandpa is water colours. I use them alot in my illustrations anyway but I wanted this journal to mainly be about them. So no matter what I added; pen, pencil, paper... the watercolours would be a running theme throughout the book. If anyone is wondering how I travelled with watercolours(because they are so messy), I use a brush pen (filled with water) and a travel set, that has space to mix colours. Would you like to see photos of what my bag usually looks like?This was my first attempt at drawing Ted- for some reason, I just can't get his face right. As I share more pages, you'll see my various attempts. haha. Some things are just like that. :]