I'm a digital advertising creative living in Sydney. This is a collection of my work and some stuff that interests me. If you don't like Courier you should subscribe to my RSS Feed.
After weeks and weeks of mismatched schedules, my friend Andrea and I finally made it to Cockatoo Island to see the the Bienalle just before it ended. I’m annoyed I didn’t go to the other exhibitions to see more painting, but there were a few pieces which made the trip well worth it.
This piece captured everything that fascinated me in Europe; display of glass coffins, Madame Tussauds and of course dead politicians. The first glass coffin I walked up to was Kim Il Sung and then I saw Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, and Vladimir Lenin. Without reading a blurb I instantly recoginised each leader from the fantastic wax modelling and could assume it was a meeting of the great Communist minds. I saw Andrea standing next to Fidel Castro and thought what is he doing here, wont he live forever? When I walked over I realised the model of Castro was not in a glass coffin, but on a makeshift hospital bed with air being pumped out his mouth as though he was breathing.
This exhibition had the perfect setting, an old lodge house which had 1960s wallpaper falling onto the floor. The slightly creepy portraits of teenage girls reminded me of Twin Peaks, especially the figure in “Goat Sluice” (left). Laura Palmer much?
We spend a long time sitting in a circular room with 9 screens playing this video. It was mesmorising and some how very relaxing. You can watch it on YouTube, but it has nowhere near the same effect:
Or rather, I used to wonder how I could work in the Google offices without knowing software engineering… and doodling was the answer. Although creative labs would probably be a better fit.
I’ve arrived in Paris and out of all the paintings in this city, by far the best I have seen up close and personal is The Picnic by Manet. It is one of those paintings which can not be done justice by modern photography.
It seems quite popular with a bunch of ad creatives, because it keeps popping up in advertising. I’ve seen it in a youghurt ad, a carpet ad and most famously David Olgviy’s first ad:
While being in Italy is something special, a lot of people only do it for the tourist attractions. I can’t understand why as you can experience most of those online (unlike having dinner at George Clooney’s favourite restaurant). Here are some Italy online hightlights:
Sistine Chapel – Why wait in line like I am probably doing right now to spend a couple of minutes in the Sistine Chapel when you can see it in high definition 3D on the Vatican website here >
Pompeii – I love volcano simulators at museums, but have never cared to much about the ruins of Pompeii. However if it’s something you’ve always wanted to see why not explore it on Google Streetview >
The Last Supper – This is not Leonardo’s best work and certainly doesn’t deserve the attention it’s given. But if you do want to see it, check it out online with the world’s highest definition ever photo. It’s a lot closer than you will ever get to the real thing, see here >
Around the time my bf and I started dating he went to Melbourne for a poker tournament. I gave him a map of the city which I coloured in with places for him to see. He loved it so much he’s kept it in his wallet ever since.
Last time we were in Melbourne he showed this map to my friend Bex Rad who was also visiting the city. She completely outdid us with her own hand drawn map, far more detailed and awesome than I could ever imagine putting time into:
I love this, I used to do similar things with all the colour print outs we got in Art History. Have been thinking a lot lately about doing some collages.
My friend Colette lives in Paris down the road from a space invader. While I was visiting her, Colette’s dad told me about the street artist Invader who has been tiling walls in the shape nerd oddities since the 90s. Not just space invaders but pacmen, claris works icons and other images associated with the mac I had as a kid.
After hearing about them I started seeing them everywhere in the city. My favourite was by far this gem, Oscar the Grouch as the trashcan icon.
My dad (and Colette’s as well I am guessing) installed this on our computer in the 90s. From memory Oscar would come out of the bin and mumble something about trash whenever you emptied the documents in it. Those were the good old days before Apple sold out. Or before Sesame St did either.
This painting reminds me of my favourite books as a child. I can’t remember what any of them were called but they all had pretty illustrations of cakes. Also one of the reasons I like going to David Jones, looking at the cakes. We got a little Dobos Torte from there last night, and it is unpleasantly dry.
Dick Frizzell is one of my all time favourite artists.
Sleeping Woman (2008) was top of my Birthday present wishlist this year, I didn’t get it however there is potential of an even better present next year…
We’re going to Tuscany for my birthday and just after this Mr Frizzell himself is doing a 2 week painting workshop there! It would be a dream come true to go, however my flights back are shortly after it starts and with the booking being Florence – London – Kuala Lumpar – Melbourne – where ever I am living, it would be a mission to change. Fingers crossed they let me attend the workshop for just the first couple of days!
Actually come to think of it his son Otis Frizzell taught me how to tag, back in my West Auckland days.
The painting on the right (Grocer with Moko, 1992) was the inspiration for my 6th form painting boards. We had to start with Jim Dyne and thank goodness my teacher recommended this as a segway into a painting style I actually like. I’ve had a love affair with his work since then (minus the Colin McCahon inspired recipes series).
When we heard from a friend he was releasing a range of wines we fly back to Auckland and got 6 bottles from the airport, we drank one (the bottle is now used as a vase), but the rest have been reserved for a special occasion amoungst other far more expensive and better tasting, but not nearly as stylish wines (and a bottle or two of CC):
Will hopefully find out soon if I can attend the workshop, and then just have to save up a million dollars to fund it – or maybe I can sell the paintings I do on trademe to cover costs? Haha
I was meaning to go to the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition at Bondi beach this weekend, however it clashed with my life goal of being the only kiwi to live in Sydney without ever going to Bondi.
I did find some other great outdoor sculptures while I was indoors this weekend.
Giant pencils by Joanna Pohjalainen, in Pedvāle Lativa (a country I have always wanted to visit)…
…and giant penises at South Korea’s “Penis Park“. An engaged woman drowned before her wedding and brought a curse on the local fishermen, so they erected phallus sculptures to keep her horny spirit happy and the fish returned to the sea.
As a house warming gift James got me a book called The Classic Era of American Comics which I used to have on permanent loan from the public library when I was in 7th form. There is a really cool comic in it which was the muse for my painting class. The book was an awesome present, but what he gave me for our anniversary was even better:
(The comic from the book painted by the guy who also did this > and the photo doesn’t really do it justice it’s huge!).
My gift for him was a whale watching cruise in Port Stephens, there were Humpbacks, dolphins and we got to feed giant pelicans as well as going to this place where you stand in a pool with sharks and sting rays and feed them shrimps. It was a good weekend and it’s been a good year.
Going to have lunch with our account manager at Google today, and it’s Halloween tomorrow so I think there might be a few trekie outfits around the office. I am going as a tiger. Kind of a cop out as I already have a tiger hat and I seem to use it for all dressup parties. Tomorrow night though I will be accompanied with a trainer in sequined vest and whip! I love it.
Also here is a Halloween idea from Mac (makeup not computer):
I saw this ad and thought that’s really nice art direction for an ad about Rothko, who sucked at painting. Which reminded me of a conversation the boyfriend and I had during Mad Men about the Rothko piece in Cooper’s office and how we dislike that kind of “art”.
So it was amusing to scroll down and find out and find out the art director on this ad was the boyfriend’s best friend. Nice work Mr Tucker.
Flinders lane is probably one of my favourite places in the world. I first went there when I was about 17 and it’s always first on my list when I get to Melbourne. The coffee there is terrible, but probably the best you will find in Australia, but the turkish sandwiches and graffiti are fantastic! I like the paste up (pictured above) so much, as until recently my trips to Melbourne have usually been to escape from boys.
I was delighted (and yet sadly nostalgic) to see guest blogger Lucy Feagins blogging about Flinders lane on Design Sponge >
This photo of the President when he was about my age are delightfully eye opening! I am interested to see where he goes politically, and I am skeptical of his Nobel Peace Prize, but I love the person Barack Obama is. He’s come along way from the icecream shop and the badass 80s.
These pretty handmade (although I’m sure the plates aren’t) dinnerplates are swell! Perhaps you would feel a bit bad eating of them though and you don’t want to become someone who collects plates – not at this age anyway.
