from bad to worse, i don't know how to mend it.

fox takes hare.

A selection of images for my Visual Communication project at Edinburgh College of Art.

will you sail away with me?

"Will You Sail Away With Me?" - Wood, Graphite

I drew this today as I had a little free time and I felt the urge to draw something to relax me from the current stress I've been under. I have had an on going story with a certain other that we both made up together and I have been intending to illustrate it for a long time now. Its' a pair of tapirs in a gondola, sailing away at sea. I am going to crop it down and possibly sand the edges rounded if I'm brave enough to do it myself this time. I guess its' almost like a visual diary into how I've been feeling about someone at the moment. Not all stories have happy endings.

Where Do My Bluebirds Fly?

"Where Do My Bluebirds Fly?" - Graphite, Japanese Plywood, Conte
ECA So Far Exhibition Project

In this brief I wanted to express my experience of being at Art School as being almost like a permanent imaginary state. I feel like I've been living in a bit of a fantasy over these last few weeks and immersed in my own thoughts and feelings.

I was inspired by a variety of sources from contemporary fashion illustrators, art nouveau artists such as Egon Schiele & Gustav Klimt, and a documentary on BBC4 about the History of British Birds: Garden Birds which looks at how birds have acclimatised to urban surroundings from the last hundred and fifty years to the modern day.

The birds in this image are meant to be metaphorical and analogous in how myself have gone through a lot of changes in my way of thinking and emotions and how I am adapting to my present circumstances. The birds have various symbolic meanings, but in a general term birds represent independence and freedom which I feel conveys my view about being a creative individual and being able to express yourself freely.

Photographs by Rosie Ellis

fuck knows... i'm a budgie.

if she has a cage to contain me, i am a songless bird.

"An Ode to Melancholy" - Graphite on Wood

After a long absence, I have returned to try and keep up some kind of regular update in my journal. I have now begun at Edinburgh College of Art and I have slowly realised it is now pretty essential to document every thought I have, no matter how small. And if I can get it down visually, well that's amazing. I've met some incredibly talented people so far and I am slowly adjusting to being a real art student and enjoying the yuppie cultured lifestyle. Yes, it is all I imagined and more. In fact talking of So Far, our latest project at ECA is organising our first public exhibition which I designed a rather mediocre poster for. But please feel free to come if you can make it! I also have some of my animals made into collaged badges for sale at the Spider & Fly gallery at 65 Bread Street in Edinburgh, which I felt very flattered that someone was interested in selling my work, now it's just finding the time...

Once again, I've been cut short of time again to update. A very busy schedule which even I've found hard to keep up with.

I had my adventure to Riga, Latvia with Aina, which I have to say was one of the most enriching travelling trips I've been on. I've never had much knowledge of Eastern Europe, but it has made me want to travel to all the Baltic countries. We also did a little travelling outside Riga, we went to the seaside town; Jurmala, the baroque Rundales Palace which had absolutely breathtaking interiors and gardens. Cinevilla, a film set outside of Riga in the countryside where Defenders of Riga was filmed. It was more like a small town rather than a film set, with a river, train tracks, fake churches and buildings but very interesting to see. We also took some photos in the farmers fields where wild flowers grow and local people come to collect them for household saunas. The art nouveau buildings of Alberta Iela in Riga were incredible, you could spend hours just looking at all the details of the sculptures.

I particularly enjoyed Latvian food also. I tried some interesting types of food and drink which included; cold fuschia beetroot soup with a boiled egg on top, Kvass (a non-alcoholic beer which tasted a little like milkshake), Rigan Balsams (my favourite alcoholic drink of the moment, absolutely addicted. A cross between Jagermeister and cough medicine to describe it closely!), Rigan Laima chocolates (courtesy of Aina's family and very delicious!).

After my return from Riga, I moved straight away into my new flat in Edinburgh. It's definitely a lot bigger and closer to town than I originally thought. It's definitely the biggest bedroom I've ever had to myself so lots of room to do some work in. It's a great location, Arthurs Seat to my left and the Meadows to the right. Clerk Street is parallel to my street and has a couple of gems, including lots of charity shops, Armstrongs Vintage Clothing and Chariot Express. I was also introduced to the Mosque Kitchen which I plan on visiting again. I feel very blessed!

I went to visit Jo and Amanda in Dunfermilne this week where I got to play around in Jo's studio, learned how to make my very own bracelet and it's not as difficult as I thought so I'm planning on buying a few jewellery making things myself. We sat and drank lots of wine, listened to lots of tunes played by Jo's lovely husband and played with her pride and joy, Pinky, a four month old kitten(!)

I went to see King Creosote at the Roxburgh Art House with Andrew, which was amazing. I was blowing bubbles and got very drunk on a very cute but lethal bottle of ale called Birds & Bees. I've kept the bottle to put a candle in. I also saw a few new bands which I'd never heard of which I plan on adding to my music collection.

Tomorrow; I'm going to Andrew's Home Talk exhibition opening in Newburgh and then in the next week following that I go to Germany and Venice for three days. I can't wait. In a way though, I can't wait to go back and study again as I'm getting a bit bored with the days inbetween and I really want to get back into my art again.