Rebecca Taylor

Rebecca Taylor uses classic flowery summer patterns & pastel colours to complete this stunning 2009 Spring collection. I have looked at this collection for my current project as I have began to explore the fashion side of hippie's & festival goers & I noticed that in this collection she has included a festival type style. All of the models wore delicate hippie headbands which is something that I am just beginning to explore as it's a trademark of the typical hippie style. Overall the Rebecca Taylor's collection is beautifully breathtaking & has a real 'pretty girl' theme to it. I have taken this collection to be a real inspiration to me with my further progress in this brief, as it is full of the type of floral & tribal patterns I am looking to create.  

Kiyoshi Kuroda

I have just discovered the work of Kiyoshi Kuroda which I have found to be incredibly inspiring & visually exciting. His work has a real enchanted & fairytale like charm to it, making it appear very inviting & mysterious. His photographs seem to float in the air, almost seeming like they are about to take off & fly away! There is a lot of flight involved with butterflies & bugs, which is like what I have been looking at for my current brief. I would like to experiment more with the idea of flight & would hope to produce something with a theme as magical as this.

There are much more images on his website! http://www.kiyoshikuroda.jp/

Rihanna (feat. Clavin Harris) - We Found Love.

The effects of drugs.....

I was recommended to look at this video by a friend when explaining my current project on 'freedom'. This video shows the effects that drugs & alcohol can have on a person in different ways & how it can effect mood swings & feelings, which could end up altering your life forever. While at first the high may seem all fun & games, it can then lead to the lows, the come down & the outright craziness. The aggression in this video seems very realistic & I think it's represented really well with the explosions, as I can imagine it may seem something like an explosion in your head when experiencing drugs. From looking at this video for some research I will take with me the idea of aggression, explosions, wide bloodshot eyes & the brightly colourful pills. The colour scheme in this video of the pills really appeals to me & is very similar to the colours that I have been looking at, as the hippies in the late 60s & early 70s wore clothes these colours to express themselves. 

Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know

Album artwork - Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know - Single.

I absolutely love this song by Australian alternative singer/ songwriter  Gotye (real name Wally De Backer). I was really thrilled to see that the song had an equally brilliant music video which was directed by Natasha Pincus & took 23hrs to shoot! I was particularly interested in the abstract artwork of shapes on the background wall, which disguise's Gotye & Kimbra with body art. Emma Hack is the body artist who created this illusion & I discovered that she is a woman of many artistic talents creating strikingly beautiful designs. Her website features many exciting patterns of wallpaper & displays her amazing exhibitions. I am keen to get hold of her first art book 'Wallpaper Collection' & think that incorporating body art into wallpaper designs is something very original & interesting. 

Here is some more of Emma Hack's work:

Take a look at Emma Hack's website to view more of her work!

 http://emmahackartist.com/ming.php

The Basketball Diaries

I saw the film the Basket Ball Diaries at about the ages of 17 & I can honestly say I was put of drugs for life!

 It is very dark, deep & disturbing true story of how a young boy (Jim Carroll) dips into drugs at the tender age of 13 starting on the small stuff in school, but ending up totally & tragically dependent on them. He has a bright future ahead of him being especially good at basketball & literature, however his addiction to drugs destroys these dreams when he gets kicked out of school & ends up homeless, squatting with other drug addicts & prostitutes. He has no job, no money, no home, no possessions & no future. The only thing he does cling onto is his notebook. As his drug addiction spirals out of control he still manages to frequently record thoughts & feelings in this notebook, in which he unknowingly created The Basketball Diaries. It includes diary extracts from the age of 13 to 16, documenting Jim's addiction to heroin,  his high school basket ball passion & how he ended up prostituting himself in order to fund the 'drug money'. The book was published in 1978 & later made into a film in 1995 starring Leonardo Dicaprio. Towards the end of the film he returns to his mothers house to try & get some money from her but his mother, afraid & protective of her crack addict son, calls the police & slowly his heroin addiction eases off in prison. He later went on to preform readings from his literature, created a punk band in 1978 & later returned to writing in the 1980s. 

"I was just gonna sniff a bag but one guy says if you're gonna sniff you might as well pop it and another guys says if you gonna pop it you might as well mainline." - Jim Carroll, on heroin, The Basketball Diaries.

"First, it's a Saturday night thing when you feel cool like a gangster or a rockstar- just something to kill the boredom, you know? They call it a chippie, a small habit. It feels so good, you start doing it on Tuesdays... then Thursdays... then it's got you. Every wise ass punk on the block says it won't happen to them, but it does. " - Jim Carroll, The Basketball Diaries.

I find Jim Carroll to be a extraordinary human being, taking a very honest approach to showing people the reality of drug addictions. I find it very inspiring that he managed to kick the habit & concentrated on his raw natural talent of writing, creating a solid foundation for himself which promised a bright future. If you haven't seen The Basketball Diaries I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested of the affects of drugs & also the creative side of what they can give you.

The reason for my posting on The Basketball Diaries is because I feel it links into my research on people becoming free of drug addictions. I also learnt a lot from the film on drug addiction itself & how easy it is for people to fall into drugs & to get to a point where it seems almost unimaginable to become clean. 

Paul Villinski

I have just discovered the wonderfully imaginative artist Paul Villinski! I found him when browsing on the internet for some inspiration on butterfly's, when I cam across his art project for 'Birds & Butterfly's'. Villinski collected unwanted squashed beer cans from New York streets & carefully cut them to create these beautiful displays of butterfly's. I feel I have made a connection with this artist, especially with the work that I am currently undergoing on 'freedom'. He also produced work including feathers from wings of birds & looks a lot into aircraft & flying, which I feel is the ultimate element of 'freedom'. His work has a very open & free energy to it as there is so much movement in his arrangements of the butterfly's & so much freedom in them also. On his website he states that the butterfly's represent 'rebirth in all cultures', I admire how Villinski has looked deeper into the art of butterfly's not just seeing them as 'pretty little creatures' but bursts of life & energy fluttering around & coming to life in his work. I have found his work incredibly inspiring & would like to look deeper into finding an artful way of representing butterfly's & birds for the incredible flying machines that they really are.

More of Paul Villinski's work is displayed below with a link to his website at the bottom:

http://www.paulvillinski.com/index.html

Bryan Lewis Saunders - Drugs

"    ...today we live in a narcissistic and obsessive culture, totally overflowing with drugs.  And as an artist I am the filter...   "

In continuing with my current project on the subject of 'freedom' I am still looking into the becoming free from drug & alcohol addiction side of it. I found the extraordinary artist Bryan Lewis Saunders when browsing on the internet for information on drug addicts & the affects of drugs. In 2000 he started on project in which he would take a different drug everyday & produce a self portrait everyday to document the experience. The drugs had a crazy effect on his creative mind causing him to trip out & create really wacky artwork, completely detaching his mind from his body. While I think this is an insane & very dangerous thing to do I also find it very intriguing to see the results of what drugs can do to your mind & creative side. There were some major side affects to this as after just a few weeks of the experiment Saunders became lethargic & suffered mild brain damage. In 2003 he also began to record himself by sleeping with a tape recorder to document his dreams & sleep talking, which ended up being released as books & audio tapes & although I have not heard or read any of them I can imagine them to be quite insightful of the state of mind you get to when your not in control of your thoughts & feelings when asleep. 

90mg Abilify

15mg Buspar  (snorted)

Butane Honey Oil

1/2 gram Cocaine

Computer Duster (2 squirts)

2 Bottles of Cough Syrup

G13 Marijuana

Morphine IV (dosage unknown)

4mg Risperdo

Psilocybin Mushrooms (2 caps onset)

 

Ativan / Haloperidol (dosage unknown in hospital)

John Lennon.

"If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal."

- John Lennon.

Do drugs make you more creative?

Interesting....

When looking further into my research on becoming free from drug & alcohol addiction I came across the issue of drugs making people more creative? This is a very common way of people getting into using drugs especially artists, writers  or singers as they claim it can make them produce amazing work. I found this video however to be quite interesting as it answers no to the question, claiming that people can produce work better when they are sober & the drug use is more of an experience of getting a better understanding of the world rather then something that is the core of the creative work. I think this is an issue that can be argued & argued but I believe that if you are a creative person it is something that you are born with & therefore don't need to take anything to trigger this. While perhaps drug or alcohol use could inspire or increase a creative streak it also cause's serious damage to the persons mind & body, therefore destroying them & their creative flair forever.

What does freedom mean to you.....

For a starting point in my research I decided to ask people what the word 'freedom' means to them on a personal level & what kind of things do they like to do to feel free.

Here are the opinions I have received:

"Freedom is braking away from something & feeling at peace. For example if someone is an alcoholic & becomes clean or when a bird brakes free from a cage."

"I like to go running to feel free & take in the fresh air".

"Releasing an animal into the wild".

"I like to go surfing to feel free".

"To me freedom means to be happy & carefree, having nothing to pull you down & no attachments. I see animals as free spirits as they can wonder the world whenever they choose".

"I like to listen to music or take a long walk to feel free. As doing artistic things like painting makes me feel free".

"Something that has controlled somebody''s life in a negative way, has been released & they are free from that specific thing i.e drugs, alcohol abuse, or even a shopping addiction".

"Health wise like somebody is free from the pain, I see stuff like that as freedom. Also grief. When you no longer grieve from a lost love one - I see that as freedom from the grief".

"I can think of two: 

1. Walking in the countryside or in a really nice park with lots of trees & not too many people on a nice day, when its not too hot but when the sun is out.

2. When I have the house to myself for like a whole weekend & I can just wash the pots or iron with my favourite music on & sing along to it".

I think I have received some brilliant feedback from people to get me going in a good direction for this project. I have been especially touched by the comments on becoming free from addictions like drugs as I never thought of going so deep into the subject matter in a depressive way. I am currently halfway through reading an autobiography which has included a major battle with heavy drug use, which I think could have actually triggered the subject of freedom in my mind without my realising. I also recently watched the film 'The Kings Speech' which can also be seen as some one who battles with a speech & nerves problem for a long time who works on this problem & eventually becomes free from it. I think this is a good direction to go down & could lead me to generate some interesting ideas to work with. 

I shall now consider these responses & try to channel them into something visual that I can put into my sketchbook. I would also maybe like to experiment with some photography, as its something that I like & could later edit on photoshop which I will be using in this brief. 

Freedom

When looking through my sketchbook for my current brief 'personal passions' I came to the realisation that I was working on quite a few different passions. After having a think & trying to analyse the situation I selected the main things that I felt most passionate about. The selected passions were; aztec, hippie's, music, staining, animals & feathers. Obviously I couldn't include all of these passions in just one project so I decided to find a way of linking these things together that would enable me to explore a little into each of these ideas . I came up with the idea of 'freedom'.

When I think of hippie's one of the things that comes to mind is how free they are. They don't follow any rules & their way of life is very chilled & happy & free. I also feel that the action of staining things is quite a free motion as you aren't always intending to do it & it just kind of happens, therefore you aren't sticking to any particular guide line & are just letting the stain develop freely. The way that light feathers float  around further reminds me of freedom & the fact that they were once attached to an animal but then broke free and became loose also reminds me of this. I also see animals as free beings who explore the world with innocent eyes hunting & learning & just simply living. And finally I thought of how I feel when I listen to music & this also related to feeling free, with it sometimes being the only action that I can do which will make me unwind & forget any worries taking me to a happy & free state of mind. 

With this new subject in mind I will now begin to research into 'freedom'. I am planning on asking people to define freedom & what it means to them. It will be interesting to get people's ideas & opinions on this as I think everyone will have a different feeling towards it. I am planning to take some photo's of feathers & animals in natural habitats & perhaps some flowers. I am now very excited to continue with this brief as I think i've developed a strong connection in my work & understanding of a path to follow. 

VW Camper Vans

Continuing with my project for 'personal passions' I have looked at the hippie style German Volkswagen camper vans. The Volkswagen camper van type 2 was invented in the 1950s by the Dutch Volkswagen importer Ben Pon. I have always loved these camper vans from a very young age as I think they are really unique & could imagine they would be fun to live in for a while. They are often decorated in a very artistic way & this is something that I am very interested in, as bright funky patterns are scattered across the Volkswagen to make them like no other camper van around. 

I have collected some images of Google of typical camper vans & managed to find a calendar from my work to scan in the pictures of more classic Volkswagen vans...

Deanna Halsall

Hung Drawn Quartered.

I recently stumbled across the work of Deanna Halsall whilst browsing on the website http://pinterest.com/ which is an online inboard. I was instantly attracted to the image above because I thought it had a kind of hippie vibe which is what I have been looking at for my current brief on 'personal passions'. I googled her work and found that she has a brilliant website http://deannahalsall.co.uk/work which displays lots of her work & interesting information about her. I found her other work to be just as captivating as the first image I saw. She uses magnificent, vibrant & bold colours in her work which really draws you in & brings the pictures to life. She is very inventive with shape, colour & scale using line and shapes to create forms, also her work is quite cartoon like which makes you seem playful & fun. I also feel that there is quite a lot of movement in her work with all the swirls and shapes, making it feel really rhythmic & expressive. 

Here are some more of her images which I found on her website:

Patterns.

His / Berlin.

Hers / Berlin. 

Love / Logo.

She's Like a Rainbow. 

I really love Deanna's use of bold yet washed down colours in this image. She created it with watercolour & I particularly like how she has let the water colour run down the page to create the women's hair. Even though the women looks upset with her eyes closed in the painting I still feel its a happy painting because of the vibrant colours used & the title of the image. She created 'She's Like a Rainbow' when she was inspired by the Rolling Stone's song 'She's Like a Rainbow' & states on her website that she has recently been enjoying using different medium to create art, especially watercolour.