Andrew Scott Ross

Rocks and Rocks and Rocks is a mix of drawings and ephemeral sculptures, based on the institutionalization of human imagination used in forming culture and its institutions. This work is an attempt to reanimate the past to show different perspectives on antiquity and the flexibility of historical outcomes.

Nothing much to report today, I'm afraid. I'm still very busy at work and thinking about the paintings that I'm desperate to find the time to start on... sigh... I don't know when that will be. To make matters worse, I can't stop thinking about the box chocolate, peanuts, and raisins sitting by my desk. I. Will. Not. Eat. All. Of. Those.

Mary Temple

I am completely inspired by Mary Temple's work, particularly the Paper Rooms series. Just to clarify, the shadows are painted. Aren't they beautiful?

I have been given the afternoon off work so I can go and enjoy the inauguration festivities. I can't wait! Have fun everyone!

Noriko Ambe

Sorry I wasn't around much last week. I have been so so busy at work and, to my despair, haven't had any time to post. Anyway, I'm back with a real corker - these magical paper pieces by Noriko Ambe.

I also have lots of work in the pipeline, and I'm desperate to start painting again. The trouble is, the only space I have at the moment is in my bedroom, and we all know that bedroom + oil paint = a big fat mess, and everytime I get up to start working, it puts me off. Soon we will be moving into our own place, and I am going to insist upon a second bedroom to use as a studio. We'll see if that makes a difference to the amount of work I produce. Hm...

P.S. - Thank you for the places to see in NYC suggestions. Please keep 'em coming.

New York - Philadelphia - Washington DC

Brooklyn Rooftops Skyline Shadow Box by Pepper Sprouts


I AM GOING TO NEW YORK!!! Steph has to go home to NY to take some kind of bar related exam (don't ask me!) and we decided that I would go too. I am so excited! We're going to spend a day or two with her family and then drive to Philadelphia and then Washington DC to visit some beloved friends. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me some tips of places to go and things to see in NYC. I'm not interested in big art galleries and things... I want to see the real city - the cute shops, cafes, and backstreets. OH, and cupcake places. I'm eagerly awaiting your recommendations.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Between Two Women

I am a member of a film rental service which posts films to my house for me to watch and then post back. It's a pretty rubbish service as I hardly ever receive the titles at the top of my priority list and frequently receive films which I don't remember putting on there. I watched one of these lucky (or not so lucky)-dip films last night, set in the late 1950's called Between Two Women, which is definitely the worst film I've ever seen, with the worst music, worst acting, worst story and everything else. It did, however, have the most fabulous wallpaper in every single scene. The layers and layers of delicious patterns and colours have sparked in me a love for all things 1950's.

Stuart Mugridge

Plane - The Birmingham Series of books explores various notions of the space of a book. Using a simple aeroplane motif suspended between the pages of the book representing the flight of imagination, Plane describes the creative space present in a book.

Volume - The Birmingham Series of books explores various notions of the space of a book.

Between its covers and title pages Volume contains a pocket with a fold-out net or plan. The net is a scaled-down representation of the three-dimensional space between the pages. It is the physical space, or volume, that the book inhabits.

Enter a Cloud -Enter a Cloud is inspired by a poem of the same name by the late St Ives-based poet WS Graham. In his poem Graham uses the passage of the cloud across a clear blue West Penwith sky to describe a moment in time and a sense of place.

In my version of Enter a Cloud the cloud motif moves incrementally across the double-page spread from left to right above a horizon line.

On the title page the 'horizon line' is seen to be a scale of minutes, and so for each page turned the cloud moves in time as well as space to represent the chronological space of the book.

Corner- This bookwork uses the simple folio fold as an environment for sculptural investigation. Through the four cards (so far) in the set the fold becomes a space to cower in or to watch from as well as a corner to peek around and an edge to climb.

I remember seeing Stuart's work at the British Library during my MA. I fell in love with the simplicity of the work, and the self-referential methods he uses to deal with book structures. I couldn't help posting the descriptions of his recent work, which are taken directly from his website.

This really takes the biscuit!

I came across the amazing Creature Mag today -

Creaturemag is an artist run ONLINE arts and culture magazine released sporadically... Creature encourages free thought/speech and enjoys receiving “stuff” that both inspires and displays an inventive application of the artists creativity. We are a magazine of folk sensibilities, we aim to develop and sustain a talented community of creative people... Basically we want to see talent, of the raw kind, primal and instinctive, where creation is a necessity. We want to be pleasured by something you took pleasure in creating, for in the simplest of terms it is self gratification that drives each of us to create. So succumb to the urge and discover the creature within... we don't bite, unless you are food!

I got a bargain!

Rob Ryan does magic. Armed with a pair of scissors and an imagination informed by legends, he has transformed a stack of paper into a fable about a lonesome young man looking for meaning in his life. He wanders through page after page of intricately fashioned paper cut-outs, searching for his soulmate in a landscape of leaves, flowers and fountains in this beautifully designed art book.

Hello everyone, i hope you all had a lovely Christmas and new year. I had a nice peaceful time and I'm back at work now, reluctantly.

I had a browse around the charity shops over the holidays and bought every book I fancied. At the last minute, when I thought I had gone through all of them with a fine toothed comb, I found, tucked away in a corner, Rob Ryan's book This is for You for £1.50! I am thrilled because I love Rob Ryan's work and recently saw a show of his in Brighton where I was so sad to have to leave without any of the lovely items there were to buy. I was also the lucky Christmas recipient of lots of beautiful zines which Stephanie bought for me from Etsy - more about those later.

I was also given some money from my parents which I am using to go with Steph to visit her family and some friends in New York and Washington DC in March. I am a lucky girl!

Take a look at Rob Ryan's Etsy shop here, blog here, and website here.

Jen May

I am completely and utterly head-over-heels in love with Jen May's drawing, sculptures, books and videos. Please, if there's a God, let me magically turn into Jen next year... just kidding, but her work is well and truly gorgeous, I'm sure you'll agree.

I think my new year's resolution this year will be to do a page of a sketchbook a day. That one is doomed to fail before it's even begun, but the intention was rather good. I think I might also try to do two or three in-depth posts a week, rather than a straggly one every day. We'll see about that one too...

This will probably be my last post for a week or so, although I will try to check back in. I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas. xxx

Something Colourful for a Grey Day

Cartonlandia (acrylic, collage, and mixed media on cardboard) by Ana Serano

Ana Serrano is a first generation Mexican American born in Los Angeles in 1983. Inspired by both of the cultural contexts in her life, she creates work utilizing a variety of mediums including drawing, collage, sculpture, and motion. Her work bears reference to those in low socio-economic positions, with particular interest in their customs and beliefs, as well as the architecture, fashion, and informal economies, present within this segment of society. A current theme explored in her work is the socio-cultural aspects of drug trafficking, and the branding and acceptance of the drug lord lifestyle. She recently graduated from Art Center College of Design with honors, and currently resides in Los Angeles.

Take a look at Ana's blog for lots more paper based colourful-ness.

Yulia Brodskaya

I’m constantly experimenting and evolving, always pushing my style in new
directions: my greatest passion is to explore the ways of combining illustration
and typography.

- quoted from website.

I hope that I will be able to keep posting occasionally over the Christmas period, but probably not as much as usual. I'll definitely be back tomorrow though... until then, I hope everyone is having fun (I'm at work, hm...).

Jonathan Callan

Jonathan Callan’s fascination with materiality has manifested itself in dismembered books, texts, maps and photographs often choosing to work with objects and
images that in themselves are considered to have little or no inherent physicality.
He painstakingly amplifies the physical aspects of photographic emulsion, printed texts, printed colour plates and maps.

Callan takes that which is readable and comprehensible and turns it into something that appears to defy its form. The book becomes an object not to be read, but experienced - sometimes exploded into thousands of pieces and at other times twisted or pumped full of silicone.

The Dog Eared Touch

I have long been fascinated by the marks left in books after they have been read and re-read - the scraps of paper left behind, finger prints, and folded corners. It is interesting that loving a book can ultimately destroy it. As a child I would shake old books to see what would come out of them, and I have made a number of small works investigating this too. So I find Selina Swayne's work The Dog Eared Touch really beautiful.

My work focuses on the details of design and putting a message in context, particularly in book design and taking typography into 3D. I am interested in what it means to be a graphic designer in the twenty-first century, where the boundaries of the discipline lie and how to cross them.