URBIS IS CLOSING!

Right, so I was in town with my dearest father today and we decided to go to Urbis because he tells me it is closing; which I have to say I'm pretty gutted about! We first had a look at the top floor which was an exhibition based on evolution of television, and then went on to great tv shows in Manchester and the years they came out, going from old school faves of Steve Coogan on the box, to Morrisey giving us a tour around Stretford where he grew up, to recent tv shows such as Shameless...
It was pretty awesome cause they had all the exhibitions from the past 6 years on one tiny floor. (2nd floor.)Was interesting to revisit some of the exhibitions I had once seen, for example the way Manga has taken over the world, and the exhibition called play, which involved you having a go at getting involved in the exhibition; fiddling and mixing things. One of them involved a little chinese cat, and you had to press it's paw and it would churn out a ticket:
The one I liked the most is when they had these boxes a few feet from the floor, attached onto stands that you could stick your head in and have a look at these little minature worlds where you can learn, discover, grow, etc. Here's a little preview:I like the other random illustrations I saw along the way, without any implications to who the artists are:The first floor, was indeed a floor dedicated to hip-hop artists of Britain, and the start of hip-hop music in England. I'm not exactly a rap/hip-hop/r'n'b fan myself, but I though it was quite interesting anyway in how it's developed, from underground rap battles to mainstream artists such as Dizzee Rascal:And, well this photo just totally tickled me.. . heheThe way back to the car, which was parked in the Northern Quarter, we had a spot of english breakfast tea & quiche in Mr.Scruff's tea shop which was amazing! I can't believe I have never come across it before. I saw this plastered on a wall on the way back, and thought it was too wonderful to not take a photo of::D

Dialogue Box

Last Thursday a few of us from my class went to an event at the Manchester Art Gallery of which involved a box of objects. Sounds more interesting than it sounds! It basically involved us choosing a random object out the box which combined two normal objects to create something weird and unusual. The woman leading us told us we had to link the object to a painting/sculpture/object in the art gallery with a story, which created some very interesting results. It was quite amusing hearing what other people came up with, and also produced a different way of thinking. I linked this strange hand thing to a painting of a few guys running away from a robbery? Whatever we depicted it.. I thought the hand was his object to use so that he wouldn't get caught for leaving fingerprints anywhere, so like an escape object. Eventually he did get caught, but he turned out to be Houdini, so he escaped leaving just the hand behind. We went to the history section of paintings which I thought in a way was easier to link the objects, except this time we got given a random word that we had to link to the painting as well as the object we chose. Mine was an unmbrella frame with ping pong balls and my word was INSIDE. So, I chose a painting of a man towering over a man curled on the floor who appeared to be in pain, and so described that the man standing over him used the umbrella frame as a magical implement and used it to explode the other man's insides for insulting him. Of which I'm sure he will have regretted!
Overall it was quite a rewarding but random experience, of which I'm sure I will put to use in the future. It's always helpful in getting ideas on how to think differently. I'm sure you will agree!

Hai

Hay, I do believe this is my first blog! I should have really started this a couple of weeks ago, but let's see how this goes...

"There are shortcuts to happiness and dancing is one of them"- Vicki Baum; Novelist.

I think in many aspects this is true, but in more ways than one, I believe the same about art. Obviously me being an artist, I am going to think like this, but I think it is too true. There really are simple ways to happiness that many people don't see as they are blinded by complications. As an artist I do believe you see things in a different way; like the freckles on your face to the tiles on a ceiling. Every detail is unique.
Art makes me happy. So this is what I'm doing. Doing what makes me happy. The next step is seeing where that gets me.