A bit of a ketchup.

Hello, I am here.
In the past few months lots of things have happened. I have moved away from Manchester and back to York, I lived back in my Mama's house for a while but then moved into my own house.
I live in the city centre now, it's very nice. My new house is Georgian and very creaky and has an excellent staircase.
From my front door I can see the city walls, the railway station and the Minster and the tops of hundreds of really old buildings.

I have also made the nasty decision to take on more hours at work, thus I now work 5 days a week in a pet shop. It's brutal, but it had to happen.
It has taken me 8 weeks to finally get my new room set up, I now have a studio. An attic studio. Very special. It still isn't fully complete, there are some things I need to get for it, but hopefully by Halloween sort of time everything will be running smoothly.

Much more exciting is that I've remembered how to draw. On Monday I tried to draw but got really frustrated and so I went go-karting and everything was okay in the end.
Today I set about drawing and I have drawn a sad and confused vampire. I will be doing more with him tomorrow.



Here are some photos of my new home and my studio. There will probably also be a picture of my new cat.



This is far as decorating our kitchen has gone. Rowan's mum gave these lovely tea towels, my favourite is the orange one, I think it is very good.



Here is Rowan's room, this is where I sleep, it has a really top fireplace but does seem to attract moths which is a little troublesome.


This here is the back wall of my studio, as far as I've got with decorating it, I have some framed things to go up too but when I hammered a nail into the wall, lots of the wall fell down. I've put off sorting that for now.

Here are more pictures of my studio, somewhat dark but equally endearing. I have a good amount of stuff, but a bad amount for moving with twice in one month.










These chimneys are what can be seen from my window, they are very old and I really enjoy them, often there are pigeons on top.




Here is my new friend, Bacon. I adopted her from the RSPCA and her name was Sophie, but that name is rubbish, so I changed it, she has been run over and is also deaf, she is quite disabled and walks funny. She also shouts an awful lot and wears a bow tie. I love her very much but as of yet, we have not bonded enough to share a spoon.

Happy Un-Birthday, Jamie!

Last week was the birthday of Jamie, who happens to be one my most favourite friends.
I feel like the worst friend ever because I failed to wish him a 'happy birthday' on his birthday and for a good few days afterwards.
This is not because I forgot, it was on my mind ALL THE TIME! I felt so guilty and horrible for all of the days until I could give him my happy returns (I'm not sure if I've used 'happy returns' in the correct context, as I do not have a clue what it means.)
I decided I would post him a blog entry of a comic strip of the reasoning behind my inability to birthday him.
Happy Belated Birthday, Jamie! I <3 you!

Summer swallowed us whole.

Today I have started to pack up my life to move to a new house in a few weeks. I'm moving back to York for Summer next week and will be returning to drag my stuff down the road to Burton House at the end of June.

My packing didn't amount to much, I don't have any boxes, so it was essentially just rearranging. I listened to a lot of Sum 41 in the process.

A few hours ago a very nice cat came into our garden, we treated her with some tuna and milk and then had a very nice time with her hanging about the house. I think it was a 'her.'
I miss having cats around the house, it felt very complete while she was here. I think there is a strong chance that after next year I will move into a home where I am allowed pets and I will get a real old cat. Nice time.


I finished my work for the newsletter poster yesterday, I can't scan it properly on my scanner, because my scanner is a loser.
I tried to patch it together and emailed it to Jo, although I think this photo works better.
My idea is that the boy is feeling very happy that it is Summer, so happy that he could float. He also happens to be flying a kite, as are some other people. Because he is so happy, he feels very light, the kite lifts him and soars up into the sky with him, out of the sky and into the night, where all the stars can be seen because it is Summer and the nights are clear.
I did it with biros, which was interesting, I've never drawn with them before, I'm unsure why I made that decision, it took forever to finish, especially the sky.
I very much appreciate being considered as somebody who could make the poster, although I'm sure Chris will come up with something shiny and more fitting and colourful and whatnot, but I don't mind, I'm just happy that the boy's kite could take him on a trip and that I had something to do for the past few days.

Next (F9) Report (F2) Stop (F8)

On Friday I sent off my Macmillan entry, today Jamie delivered his. I would like it if we could win together. We are going to collect our work together in London. We will do extraordinary things. If we don't win, we are going to have the ultimate rumpus in the Macmillan offices.

These are my favourite pages from my entry:








I like drawing cats and I like cutting things out. I'm a little bit sad that it's over.

Now I am continuing my new project. I realise the reasons I am finding it a bit tricky to relate to the story is because it is about drunken people in a nightclub. I have never been drunk and I have never been to a nightclub. (Willow does NOT count.)
It is for these reasons that the story is proving particularly difficult to illustrate.
However, I've found a way into it and I think it might all be okay, if the postman hurries up and I obtain some black tape.
Tomorrow paint will maybe be put onto cardboard and then my work will begin. Yes.

In other news, my bicycle fixing skills suck and it just makes me very angry. Unfortunately I cannot cycle to college because I cannot mend my brakes. Tomorrow I will wheel it down to the cycle shop and get a pro to take a look. I think I might need new brake cables and maybe even new pads, if they can't be re-aligned. Ultimate pain.

I'm afraid of the dark without you close to me.

I got back to Manchester this morning, it's very sunny, I like it. I also like that I went to hospital today and it was good.

I don't like that I am home alone and it is dark, this scares me a little. The walls are very thin and when I hear the boys next door talking, I keep thinking it is intruders coming to steal and stab.
I am very used to having dogs in the house and I am not allowed a dog here, so there is nothing to warn me of intrusion.

Only this:

Littlerat would make an excellent protector if she was bigger and would get out of my sleeve.

I'm currently trying to think of more ideas for the new project, it is very difficult and I am struggling somewhat.

Two lane highway, four lane truck.

New project work is taking me nowhere, I'm finding the story virtually impossible to get into, both mentally and visually and it's driving me mad. I have notes but no pictures, no ideas, no nothing.

Also, I won't be in college on Monday, so I'll probably be spending the day ever more confused.

But in other news, if somebody could make this possible, I'd love you forever.

All the animals are for me.

Today I went with Rowan to the farm, it's becoming something of a tradition around my birthday to go to the farm, we like it a lot. We saw some lambs being fed, goats on pigs, a fantastic sheep, a beautiful cow and even some deer.


This was my favourite goat, he was real friendly and he had a black tongue. I do like goats.


This is Rowan with his favourite goat, he liked this one a lot and spoiled it with much food and pettings. It is also the goat that ripped open my bag of food, thus forcing me to give it all to them as it spilled everywhere. Pesky goat.


This is the very nice big man deer. I think antlers are the best things to ever have, I wouldn't mind a pair myself, everything looks more dignified with antlers. This guy could get away with asking any lady deer out for a spot of tea and they wouldn't refuse. Even a human wouldn't turn down his offer of tea. He's beautiful.


One of my favourite features of the farm is this big old log because it looks like a big old alligator. Usually I climb on it, today I didn't, I had muddy feet and if I slipped I would have fallen and possibly hurt myself, or worse, impaled myself, or worse still, died.

I'LL EAT YOU UP!

Friday was my birthday and I had a very busy day. The first half involved a spot of Ian hunting at college, followed by the slowest bus ride ever.
Upon arriving home, I packed up my things and opened the first birthday gifts of the day.
From Nawor, I received numerous things, most notably: a latex Mr Burns mask, which was particularly strange but very much appreciated, I LOVE Mr Burns! And also a signed cd which stirred a reaction not dissimilar to Sheldon's upon receiving the napkin signed by Leonard Nimoy.
After speedy gift giving we almost missed our train back to York, very stressful, and by the time we reached York, after a particularly weird journey, I felt very sick.

I got home and was piled with cards and gifts, lots of very nice things were given to me.
I got most excited about the wolfsuit my mum made me, check this out:

It's real good, and warm, I'm wearing it right now, my kittens like it a lot too.

Because I was at home and didn't have to be at work the next day and had no work to do, I went over to my dad's house with 2 of my sisters and hung out with my brother, he's the coolest kid I know, although he was very snotty as he has a cold.

We had a nice time playing hide and seek, building block towers, playing with Thomas the Tank Engine and chasing each other.

Later on one of my best friends in the whole world, Jamie, posted me a lovely birthday treat on his blog, involving these pictures of me hanging with Wild Things.


I love them!
If you go visit Jamie's blog, you can see the wonderful drawing of Alexander close up, you can see a very naughty cat, some very ugly cats, some beautiful bears AND you can request a day of the year and he will illustrate it for you, what a treat!

I will close this post with a rather beautiful birthday treat I got in the early hours of my birthday, courtesy of my housemates, my most favourite bit is Tom from 4:02 to 4:09, classic.

Photo-cutout-photo-illustration.

My current project involves much photography, I am quite liking it.

This picture is one of my final ones for the first half of the project, my favourite one of the 8 I made.

The process I am using is still influenced by Andre da Loba and the 3D work I did for my last project, as well as some new people.


This is the work of Robert Longo, who I have started looking into recently.
Originally I was mainly interested in the contorted figures he produces but then I saw this image and it tied in with the 3D theme again.

Having looked at Longo, I began cutting out the figure and photographing it. After this, I realised I like looking at how the cut out section of the image falls and started trying to capture the movement in a photograph.

I think my interest in blurry and distorted images of movement stems from a preference of seeing an image in motion.
Still life is still life and there is nothing wrong with that, but if the subject of an image is moving or the photographer feels a movement within him/herself evoked by a subject then I think the image should demonstrate that movement.
I believe this is why I like blurred photographs, as they have more feeling in them, and this the reason for my interest in dropping the figure in my image for this brief.

Charles Peterson is a good example of what I'm trying to describe in the above paragraph, which was very hard to explain. Peterson photographed many bands during the 80s and 90s and his photographs are very real and they contain a metaphorical kinetic energy which allows the viewer to experience the moment shown in the photo for what it was, rather than as a perfectly focused, crisp shot which would not hold the same sentiment.
These are some of Peterson's photographs:







Having looked at the work of these artists, I'm now looking at Picasso for the millionth time and other people who I've yet to discover. For the second half of the project, I am expanding the falling figure images and also will be experimenting with making paper models from photographs. I think.

Cats and rats.

Today is essay writing day. I have been up for 4 hours and have still yet to pick up the brief. I hope I can finish it before tomorrow.
Tomorrow is project day. Or so I hope. But it might not be.

Christmas has been nice, I've missed York a lot, I've been doing some exploring and I've found Max, I just have to find a way to get him. I will.

I've also been having a go on my new kittens, I like those. One of them in particular is very good. For a very long time I wanted a ginger cat whom I would name Chester. We now have a ginger kitten called Chester. He is very beautiful. All of the other cats in my house and all of the other ones in our street are going to be very jealous of Chester, when he grows up, he is going to be a very pretty cat. I hope he is going to grow big. I enjoy big cats.

This is Chester doing his best moves.


On the subject of animals, MotherRat is becoming friendly, after 7 months of biting and squealing, we may become friends. I'm working on her.

"LET THE WILD RUMPUS START!"

I cannot articulate how excited I am for the release of 'Where the Wild Things Are.'
I've been putting off blogging about it, but having watched the trailer yet again, it's become too hard to resist.

It's going to be incredible, Spike Jonze directing, one of the prettiest sounding soundtracks ever, Jim Henson Company on puppet duty and Maurice Sendak's overviewing.
I aim to see it at least 4 times, I actually can't wait.

The only other thing I can say about it is that if I was fortunate enough to own a wolf-suit like Max's I would be the happiest person in the world. If I had the crown as well.....I don't know what would happen.

I want this:

Rat on cat on dog, please?

Mixtapes and Memories.

I've taken pictures of the musical gift I made for LauraKirk, it is as follows.