This image is the first of my requirements. It is a portrait of E.M Forster, with a quote from him 'How do I know what I think till I see what I say'. I think this is very true, and without conversations, or just talking at people who don't mind a ramble, I wouldn't know what I was thinking about things most of the time.
This image is the first of my hopes. This is Ludd Brown, my boss's dog, he is a Pug crossed with a King Charles Spaniel. I would very much like a dog, but that would be very irresponsible right now, so playing with Ludd is the closest thing.
Whilst on holiday in Sardinia this summer I borrowed my mum's book, 'Cat and Mouse' by Gunter Grass. I hadn't read any good books in a long time, and this book reminded me what it's like to really enjoy reading a story. I became slightly enthralled at Gunter Grass, a feeling that only exceeded when I realised he does his own book cover illustrations. What a genius.
John James Audubon made it his mission to draw all the birds in America. His work was published in 7 volumes in the early 1800s. For me, it is such a definitive, dedicated body of work that all other bird illustration that I like stems from here. In thinking of 10 images for this list, many of the ones I thought of were bird-related, but Aubudon's work is the real deal.
The books contained hand-coloured, LIFE SIZE prints, made from engraved plates. The amount of work gone into these is astonishing. A copy sold at Christie's in 2000 for nearly $9,000,000. I would very much like to own one of these. The Natural History Museum owns a full set, I wanted to go see them whilst Jake was still working there. Hopefully that can happen in the future.
The second in line of my ten images is another animation, I hope animations count as images.
This one is Julia Pott's graduation film for her final year at Kingston University. As with Francois, I really enjoy all of Julia's work. But this film is especially brilliant. The animation is set to recordings of interviews with people about their first crush. The way the characters are built is genius. Julia Pott has it- you are stuck in from the moment you watch it. You forget that the voices have been given to animals.
The first in my posts on 10 images that I like is this hand drawn animation by Francois Marry. As well as being a talented animator, he also writes and plays great music, under the name 'Francois and the Atlas Mountains'.
The video is for a song, 'Hold On Twice' from the album 'Brother'. I love how fluid it is, and the slow rhythm of the music with the flickering drawings. The beginning portraits are of Franz Kafka, Marguerite Yourcenar, Albert Camus, Boris Vian, Cesare Pavese, and Olivier Adam, and then the dancing man is Francois himself. He is terribly good at animating himself. Francois once told me that these animations take him about a month solid to do. He goes back to France and draws away. I'm glad for that.
This video was the first I ever heard or saw of his work, and still today I could watch it over and over. For me, Francois reminds me what you can do when you set your mind to it, what glorious things can be achieved through thinking, and how to live life well. If you can see him live, do. It's something to dance for.
This afternoon Mum and I went into Reepham to collect some mushrooms. In the Scout Field there were loads of field mushrooms and puffballs, in mushroom circles, and then we crawled through all the woodlands, and through hedgerows, and got a bit prickled.
Jake and I went to Brighton a week or so ago to see Laura Marling at Foxtrot, Stanmer House. We began at Brighton Station and ended up waiting about an hour for a bus out of town. The bus we got stopped outside the park on a sort of motorway slipside, and we wandered about trying to find a way into Stanmer Park. There was a little path through the hedges, and we walked through some woodland, in the evening light, it was beautiful.
The festival was run by Wichita Records and Melting Vinyl, and it was pretty sweet. There were three little marquees in the grounds of the country house, each with a stage. We arrived just in time to see buddy Francois play an AWSOME set. Then Anni Calvi, Sons of Noel and Adrien, and finally Laura Marling. Laura played really well, I think the best I've seen yet, with total control over her voice- you know when people begin to move their mouth in funny positions when they sing, and she controlled every word- and did some great covers and played excellent new songs. It was just her on her own, and she charmed the audience and herself, and seemed to really enjoy the whole shubang. I did too.
I passed this house whilst in inland Sardinia a few weeks ago. It looked like a film set. There was an amazing mix of hand-drawn portraits of soldiers and political figures, photographics portraits, and medals. We were in a sleepy little mountain town with bunting rustling in the afternoon wind and a few old men smoking cigars inside the airconditioned cafés. The view I had of this front room was through two massive windows just open onto the street. I could not believe my eyes.
There is an awsome David Bowie tribute album out, 'We were so turned on'. I found it after finding Warpaint's cover of Ashes to Ashes, which is amazing. Check out Vivian Girls 'John I'm Only Dancing' vid.
At Rob's house last week he, Phoebe and I wrote some poems where you each write a word and then pass it on. This was my favourite:
A tooth broke free. Loose hairs drifted down-town. The only sound was trickling drains. Two of use escaped from light work, strolling through glistening pathways. We whistled through daylight riddled melodies and clapped out sound. Biting lips showed almost as white as cold hands in snowy places. Before, when you approached, from my warmer side of course, I did not resist.
