painting

just before new year i was shopping in wilkos when i chanced upon canvases for sale at £2. Now at that price i thought i might try and do some painting, a few small tubes of acrylic paint were equally cheap. Listening to MIA at the time i had visions of colours and images flashing vibrantly through my head. Painting would be the way to capture them. I made the purchase, got home and found my little polyfiller trowel. Not having an artists pallette, i made one blue peter style from a piece of card wrapped in tin foil, put on bamboo banga by MIA really loud and set to work, whirring the trowel over the canvas. I really enjoyed the creative burst and was quite pleased with how the painting turned out. Buoyed on with the success i purchased further canvases and tried a couple more paintings using different music tracks for influence. Click the images to see full size.




and a clip of me painting

Nat Johnson live review

Early december i used my last annual leave to have a long weekend in london. I always enjoy spending time in london, there's always plenty to see and do. This time i was keen to check out the new exhibition in the turbine hall. Shibboelth is a huge crack that has been created in the actual fabric of the hall floor. It's an incredible and novel idea, the name of the piece taken from a passage in Judges where the gileadites use the word to distinguish their enemy, fellow israelites, but from the tribe of Ephraim. The inability of the Ephramites to pronounce the word correctly resulted in their execution. A brutal biblical story that leaves 45k dead. A term that since has been come to use a means of differentiating between types of people, here the crack represents the cracks and divisions that arise in society. Cracks that are set up as stumbling blocks to make life harder for those who are different. It's a powerful message, and a popular piece of work. Plenty of other interesting things to see in and around the tate modern. Sunday afternoon I had to run to catch my coach home, just arriving at the platform on time. The journey was delayed and i arrived back in sheffield later than anticipated, but just in time to get to the red house in sheffield to see nat johnson's debut gig. The lead singer of monkey swallows the universe is currently pursuing some solo work during the indefinate hiatus. Despite the songs being very new, it is clear that with a bit of nurture they will grow into songs of beauty. She has a rare talent in making music that contains that je ne sais quois which sets it way above the rest. Teletext deemed my review worthy of publishing, a rarity for a debut gig review to be published i'm sure.

my photos of london dec 07
photos of Nat's gig

MIA live review

Just before christmas i got my M.I.A. review published on teletext. It's pleasing to see this on the screen as it was my favourite gig of the year. M.I.A. has a sound that is so fresh and original, the music is almost alive. Click the image to see full size to read the full review.