I came across some fantastic work by Craig Ward today. It's so inspiring, and also really interesting to be able to see the work in progress on his blog. I find other people's work processes quite fascinating, perhaps because I'm not all that confident in my own; it helps de-mystify these fantastic finished pieces a little. Sometimes I don't feel like I exist in the same universe as some of the amazing artists I guff about on here.
A lovely bit of surface pattern by the very talented Helen Dardik. I noticed this whilst catching up on my blog reading after my holiday. Helen often posts brand new ideas and patterns on her blog but this one really stood out to me. I love how it doesn't over-sentimentalise our connection to the natural world, but celebrates it in a positive way.
I don't get around to watching a lot of music videos, but this just appeared on my tv screen for a few minutes, and now I feel like Chris Martin is going to haunt my nightmares forever. Or a Chris Martin puppet, specifically. I have no issue with puppets, cute puppetty music videos, or puppets in rock star likenesses even. I once saw Beck play an entire set behind a small stage of Jim Henson Studio puppets, and that was bloody brilliant. The main problem I had with it was, aside from the general creepiness of the puppets (possibly a deliberate attempt to avoid being too cutesy, but really, who can tell?) is that it's SO bizarre, SO disturbing, (eerie, frightening, ghoulish, gruesome, hair-raising, horrible, menacing, nightmarish, ominous, shuddersome, sinister, terrifying, threatening, unpleasant, weird, etc...) that not only does it sit very uncomfortably with the song - Life in Technicolour, quite a classic Coldplay-being-amthemic, optimistic type of song - it actually completely distracts you from it. It insists that you don't listen to the song at all.
Some shops are just really nice to be in aren't they? Take Uniqlo - their clothes are, well, ok. I don't buy them often because they never seem to fit me very well. But I still love to be in there, which means even though I know their clothes aren't normally the best for me, I still find something good occasionally. Whereas most shops I I have that experience with may as well not exist to me - they're just not on my radar. A lot of shops in my price range turn into something very very depressing not unlike a jumble sale at this time of year, and Uniqlo feels even more like an oasis. A very organised, colourful oasis. I wish more of them paid this much attention to the actual experience of shopping, rather than swinging manically between TRENDY and CHEAP. And yes, they do shout.
