good taste or bad taste?

today was a "key ideas" event at school.
i misinterpreted the brief, instead of bringing in found images i brought ones i'd made. and felt silly for it.
this was my image supposedly representing bad taste:

and for good taste:

i was wracking my brains trying to come up with something, as i thought we had to come up with finished work that was going to be displayed gallery fashion. so in i came with mounted work, the latter of the two images in a frame!
i really loved the idea that the items that surround you as a child; those things in the house, help develop your own ideas of taste later on, or show you how not to decorate your house in my case.
i remember carpet patterns for example in the rented house we were living in in tooting, the mis-matched furniture, and, though i have no idea why; peacock feathers assembled fan-style on the wall.
so now, when i see peacock feathers, somewhere in my sub-conscious i remember those feathers on that wall in that rented house, with 3 floors on pretoria road, tooting.
i didn't grow up with the interior of the house being a major concern. we weren't a family that redecorated every few years or went to look at paint swatches in focus, so my ideas of what a house should have looked like came from american movies like "home alone" or "miracle on 34th street" in which houses had grandiose winding staircases and open-plan kitchen/diners with breakfast bars and a fridge/freezer with an ice-cube thing. then later ikea made simple scandinavian-esque, modern living affordable. and suddenly oak bunk-beds from argos felt so dated and i wanted a flat like the one in "ghost", natural light and bare brick, a simple leather sofa, stainless steel lamp and a sheep-skin rug. (i don't know if that's what it looked like but you get the idea, it sounds more austin powers)
now... we all want the studio apartment don't we? as a wannabe designer i'm sure everyone secretly wants that kind of an upgrade. the big black desk with the mac and the huge window overlooking some crummy place, you the designer in your own designer nook, habitat? psshh, yeh right.
anyways.. i don't really know what i'm getting at.
i've a lot of work to do.

urban orienteering part 1. (13.10.10)

Shoreditch is too cool for me. When ever I find myself there I'm immediately bombarded with all things hip and trendy, in fact I feel like I'm being hit over the head with a brown leather brogue.

I got lost, and so to not look so lost I drew things; anything, and that's what you're seeing now.

I wasn't so much trying to draw every little detail as that's beyond me, but wanted to capture the essence, a distinctive shape, an interesting sky line or the lampposts; sharp and angular and ornate, winding their way off into the distance like quiet pillars that come alive as it darkens but remain obsolete during the day as hoards of quiff sporting trend-setters weave their way down the artfully grotty street, each piece of gum and crumpled paper looking as if it were placed carefully in it's little pocket.

I love the immediacy of drawing and the outcome can vary depending on several different factors, the tools you're using; the texture of the paper; your own temperament; the light etc, so you're never too certain as to how it might turn out. Those fluid lines that then turn into angry, jagged scratches can be happy mistakes.

I also collected various pieces of "evidence" during my disorientated ramblings like lost papers, tape, cardboard, leaves and some burst balloons that just looked so sombre in a colourful, punctured way; impaled to their white message board.

So now I'm working on how to pull all these pieces together.

I'll keep you posted.

the next chapter, or so ive been told.

My summer consisted of very little, infact i think i was lying horizontal for most of it.
But uni has finally started and all of a sudden i actually have something to do, infact ive been so busy my mind is all white walls and the hummmmm of electrical appliances, the odd slamming door and vintage nikes on paint splattered steps.
I'm enjoying it though, i cant say that im not, all these ideas ideas ideas flitting and flying around and eager to be caught and moulded and tweaked and tampered.
So yeah, its good.

Ruth