Near where we are, there is a place called Barry Island.
Not too long ago we had our good friends Nom and Adam come to visit us and we went there for fish and chips on the beach.
It was a bit of a grey day and we ended up having fish and chips in a store called “Boofy’s”. Boofy’s was voted runner up for best fish and chippery 2007. I still cannot adjust to British food and really didn’t enjoy it.
Anyway, I was just going through my photos and found a few shots we took at Barry Island Pleasure Park. There were so many run down rides. Then there was a small section with some rides functioning.. it was just so weird.
I’m not sure I like Barry Island much.
What is it with the U.K and theme parks on the beach?

This made me laugh..

I’m trying to write out the birth story but it is a really tough process!
Also no road trip as I am bound to the hospital for gosh knows how many more weeks. I have never had so much interaction with hospitals before and can see why people really, really hate them. And that pain medication is overrated.
Anywho.. Here’s a picture of a squirrel. One of the many animals drawings I did in anticipation of little ones arrival.
Thank you to everyone for their lovely messages and emails.

So I had my Holga arrive whilst I was in hospital, but my Gene brought it in for me to play with.. Consequently a lot of what I took didn’t work out to well, as it was too dark, but the first role of film was really just a test.. I haven’t shot anything in film in so long.
I think this camera is great for outdoors, I am meant to be going on a road trip this weekend so hopefully I can take some nice shots of nice places rather than dreary Cardiff.

This is Anja in her horrible plastic crib in the hospital. We were right near the window so she could get some natural light on her skin. The photo turned out a bit dark, but it is still kind of cool.

It works ok indoors if the room is bathed in sunlight, like my kitchen is here.

The streets of Wales! It works really well outside, this was taken in the early evening.

Last week was immense.
Each time I try to sit down and write about last week, words just fail me.
Maybe it’s the heavy blood loss or maybe it’s the drugs, or perhaps a combination!
I finally had my baby girl, it was a difficult birth and a difficult week to follow as we were both very ill.
She was 10 pounds 1. She has the strongest cry and biggest appetite ever and looks like Gene.
I’m already working on a series of animal drawings for her.

First few days. She was very stressed at first, but she soon settled and I learned that she is a very deep sleeper!

Photo treatment. It was awful. Had to try and calm her so often. Surely there is a better way to treat little ones?

Nearly ready to go home. Again, proving herself a very deep sleeper. Being at home has been amazing. One thing is for sure, I hate hospitals.
Welcome to the world, Anja Reine Martin. x

Last night I finally found and ordered a Holga 35mm Compact Camera 135BC!!
My partner has an iphone, and there is a new application were people can have fancy old school effects on the photos they take. When I was looking into purchasing this application, it occurred to me that not only photos on iphone sort of crap (you couldn’t really print any of them, it’s more for putting up on the web) so surly these effects have come from some other camera that I can actually print pictures from and use..
Luckily my partner knows a bit about cameras and we looked into it and Holga seems the way to go.
What excites me so much about this camera is I will have to go back to film and waiting to see what I have shot once it has been printed out. I do love digital, and we have a more than decent camera, but something has been lost in it’s immediacy.. I think it also makes a lot of people lazy when it comes to taking pictures as they are thinking they can shoot millions and one is bound to turn out ok.. There is a quality and a texture you get from film cameras that still isn’t successfully replicated with digital. Also, the physical photograph, you have to print them to see them! I just need to find a decent photo printing place as the one I have been going to do an awful job!
I think it arrives in a few weeks, so I am just going to have to plan what I want to do with it before it gets here.
Woo hoo!

beinArt Collective’s ‘Metamorphosis’ Exhibition at CoproGallery (CA, USA), opened on the 5th of June and will be showing until the 26th of June. So if you are in the area, or will be during that time, head to Copro and have a look!
There are so many amazing artists participating in the show, I am overwhelmed with excitement to be a part of such a great exhibition and would like to thank Jon Beinart for inviting me to be apart of this. Thank you!

About the exhibition:
‘Metamorphosis’ will present the work of over 50 international artists, many who have never shown their work in California or the USA, along with a number of well known artists who have.

Participating Artists:
Ron English, Shawn Barber, Chris Mars, Chet Zar, David Stoupakis, Viktor Safonkin, David Bowers, Peter Gric, Ray Donley, Scott Musgrove, Karl Persson, Jason Jacenko, Vincent Castiglia, Saturno Butto, Heidi Taillefer, David Choquette, Fred Einaudi, Carrie Ann Baade, Laurie Lipton, Paul Rumsey, Katherine Blackwell, Jason John, Artur Golacki, Brian Viveros, Dan Quintana, Jon Jaylo, Ben Tolman, Heather Nevay, James Zar, William B Hand, Dariusz Zawadzki, Mikel Glass, Isabel Peppard, Mark Powell, Lily Mae Martin, Beau White, Larkin, Alex Garcia, Chrystal Chan, Matt Martin, Stephanie Henderson, Leslie Ditto, Christian Van Minnen, Jon Beinart, Andy B Clarkson, Jeff Christensen, Luis Lorenzana, Michael Ryan, Fred Harper, Chris Peters, Sean Chappell, Erik Alos & more.

Each artist has been chosen for their ability to express themselves imaginatively with exceptional technique and un compromised individuality. The works will cover many themes that are central to the human experience portrayed with a surreal, dreamlike and often nightmarish aesthetic.

‘Metamorphosis’ will be testimony to a huge international movement of figurative artists who have resisted current trends in the art world and remained true to their artistic vision.

CoproGallery
Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave, Unit T5,
Santa Monica, CA 90404, USA.
Ph: 310/829-2156
Link to official press release: http://beinart.org/modules/Word-Press/2010/03/10/beinart-collective-group-exhibition-at-coprogallery/

Some of my personal favorites from the exhibition are these:

Beau White’s painting titled “Milk Maid”.
More work can be seen at his myspace here.

Isabel Peppard’s beautiful sculpture.
She also made a beautiful animation called “Gloomy Valentine” that you can see here.

Matt Martin’s painting titled “She walks in Empty Spaces”.
You can see a few more of his works on the beinart site here.

Laurie Lipton’s drawing titled “Wanda Always Wanted to be a Sex Object”.
You can see more of her work on her website here.

Seated Nude 2010.

I haven’t used acrylic paints in years. And when I did use them they were for my more sort of cartoon work that I used to dedicate most of my time to.. Of late though, I haven’t been able to use oil paints. I got a bit frustrated as I am pretty grounded here for the time being and the only reason why I wasn’t painting for the good part of last year was the constant travel and moving about. (Packing up paper is easier than canvas and the tools that go with it.)
So, I decided to bite the bullet and get over my snobbery about oil paint being the only way to go and bought myself some decent acrylic paints. The above image was just a play, but I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much that I am already working on a second painting (that is really large) and take back any horrible things I have said about acrylics in the past. I don’t know what I was thinking!

Above are some images I have done in life drawing classes I have been taking on and off for the good part of this year. I missed life drawing the most when I left university so I enrolled into some day classes while I had the chance. I mostly just made studies. I didn’t really go in to make any finished pieces. Just want to keep up my hand eye co ordination, and it is really nice to have a variety of people to draw.
I do miss how my uni was a bit more challenging in terms of the people they chose to model for us. We had large people, old people, all sorts of shapes and sizes. I really do love the human body and am sad that I have since misplaced most of the studies I did during that time.
One excursion I remember at uni was the trip we took to the Melbourne Universities Anatomy Museum. Where there were human skeletons, bits and pieces of the human body in various jars. Some deformed from disease or what have you. You have to have a strong stomach for it as there is a smell. A lot of the specimens are very old. One in particular was of a female torso who was (I think) in her second trimester of pregnancy. Apparently she died in a car accident around the 1940′s and no one claimed her so they took her body and used it for science. She used to be on public display. However the laws have changed on such things since and bodies, and bits of bodies, that didn’t have permission to be used are no longer on public display. But if you book, I think you can get in. We went in to draw bits and pieces.
Anyway, the human body, dead and alive, is an amazing thing. And I like to draw it.

The Hunted
Watercolour and fine liner.
59.4 x 84.1 cm
2010

I’ve been researching Japanese masks and was really taken by the fox masks I came across and the Uba mask (Which will be in my next work) I thought I’d try something a little different this time and include some watercolour. I have been doing a lot of drawings of animals with watercolour and I guess that is the influence.

This image idea came to me rather randomly as a lot of ideas do. It stems from my interest in feminism and sexuality and reflects a lot of what I have been reading and thinking about lately. The main book is Marilyn French’s “The Women’s Room”. It has brought up a lot of things for me in terms of being a women, sexuality and the way women relate to one another and to men.

This piece came out of my thoughts on the Victorian Era medical condition known as ‘Hysteria’ and how is was treated. The Victorian Era has always ben a point of great fascination and offense to me. I think it says a lot about a society that they would point blame toward a woman’s sexual and reproductive organs as the cause of mental instability. Common medical treatments for hysteria included manual masturbation, water douches and clockwork vibrators. Charming.

Hysteria is no longer viewed as a legitimate medical condition.

On a personal level, it has recently come to light that for many years I have been misdiagnosed with a mental condition. Therefore for years I took medication that I shouldn’t have been taking (This medication had side effects that also impacted my life, such as aggression). Without going into the ins and outs of it, the condition I had actually been suffering from turns out to be something that is far simpler and easier to manage. It has been an interesting road for me inasmuch as how people have treated me, how people have used this against me, and above all how the simple explanation was overlooked in favor of a far more complex, and now that I think about it, outrageous diagnosis.

“Hysteria” will be exhibited as a part of the beinArt Collective Group Exhibition at CoproGallery, (CA, USA).
Exhibit runs; June 5 – June 26, 2010.
For more information about other participating artists and the show, you can go here.