Withnail and I

As another fund raising event for our exhibition, on the 7th of February we held a film night at the Porter pub in Bath (thanks to Kitty for sorting that as she works there!) We played the film Withnail and I which brought in a lot of people and we raised around £100! We sold popcorn which me and Hannah made. (Hannah had to leave to go to Oxford half way through the popcorn production process and I am very sad to say that her AMAZING duck shaped popcorn maker died in the process...I am truly sorry Hannah :( So in the end, after a disastrous attempt at making it on the hob with oil, I resorted to using the microwave.) The Porter also gave us prizes to give away in a raffle, so thanks for that!! Here is the poster designed by Kitty and Tom:

 
Also I got some snaps of Kitty and Tom announcing the raffle prize winners! They are not very good photos but you can just about see the many many heads in the audience! We had a queue waiting to buy tickets for entry at one point!

We are hopfully holding another film night at the Porter on the 14th March so everyone should come along! We will hopefully showing the cult classic Labyrinth with David Bowie (which I am ashamed to say I have never seen!!)

BACON

Before Christmas we thought it would be a good idea to start fund raising for our exhibition. We discussed holding a cake sale but in the end we thought it was pretty unoriginal because EVERYONE does cake sales to raise money.
At Dartmouth Avenue (our Art campus) there is a BBQ lying around so we thought we'd make use of it and hold a bacon bap sale! We figured it was more original than a cake sale and would grab people's interest more. So we arranged it for the 14th and 15th of December which were days that the 1st and 3rd years were to be having presentation assessments.
Here is the poster that we came up with:

 I drew the pig and was slightly concerned about the cannibalistic element of a pig eating a bacon sandwich (!) but as a group we decided it was ok because it is funny.
Me and Hannah put posters up around Sion Hill and Darmouth Avenue, Sophie C, Vanessa and Josie took charge on the first day, and me, Hannah and Mike cooked and sold on the second day. It was cold but it was fun and we raised about £50 in the end!
Here are some photos from the two days:

Sell Sell Sell

Over the Christmas holidays me, my mum and my brother's girlfriend (also called Ella) held a craft sale at my family home in Sheffield. We sold original stuff that we had all made. We had on sale: knitted stuff including hats, purses and little monsters, we had cards, notebooks, necklaces, rings, brooches, canvas bags, keyrings. Since summer we had been trying to get a stall at a Sheffield market through Sheffield City Council but they were basically rubbish at getting back to us so we held it in our house instead. All the money I made from the sale of my stuff I decided to put towards the funding of my group exhibition that's taking place at the end of March 2011. We also served food and mulled wine and we put a little donations tub on the table so that people could put loose change in if they wanted to. It was a lot of fun and we are trying again to get a stall at an original craft market in Sheffield some time in March.

Here are some pictures from the evening, plus the poster we used to advertise it to friends and neighbours.

Letters

As part of an on going project which I actually started last year, I have recently sent some letters (regular letters by post, not email letters) out to some people I haven't ever met. Let me explain.
Last year I searched on facebook for people with the surname 'Garrud'. I have never met a Garrud other then my own family and I have always been told that I would probably be related to anyone with that surname. So I decided to search for them on facebook. There were quite a few results but not many. Next, I contacted them via facebook asking them if they were willing to take part in my project and therefore give me their address so that I could send them all a letter. Some were reluctant and seemed a little suspicious but I got quite a good response overall. In the end I sent out eight letters and got six in return which I was happy with. In response to the letters I created a piece of work using maps and blind drawing. I was happy with it but I felt that I could definitely get more out of the whole thing.
I have now decided to return to the idea. This time, to link in with my work on memories etc I have asked them to write down a description of what they have done that day and also a memory. It is important that it is hand written.
I know that doing this over email or facebook or whatever would be a much more efficient way of doing things but I think the whole point in the work is the act of sending and receiving letters. I love waiting for the letters to arrive (if any do) and I find the marks and stamps on them really interesting. The envelope tells as much of a story as the actual letter.
I just really hope that I get some replies!

books

These are two second hand books that I have recently bought which have handwritten messages in the front. The top book was from a charity shop in Bath which I bought specifically because it had a message in it and the second was from Amazon market place. The message in the front of this one was entirely coincidental.
Since I bought the second one I have been going into charity shops and looking for more books with messages in but I haven't managed to find any. It would take hours and hours going through every single book in a shop and as I have no way of knowing whether a book will have a message in or not, they are difficult to find! I will however, keep looking as this has really inspired me to make a piece of work.

I think I'm thinking too much.

I've been thinking a lot about memories lately and I wanted to write this down before I forgot (and just turned into another memory...?) Memories are interesting because they are so subjective. They change and morph. They are influenced by things that happen later on in your day. Is anything we remember ever an accurate account of what actually happened? And if not, how do we ever record or remember anything properly? You can't carry around a video camera where ever you go and record every single one of your actions. Or could you? It would be difficult and most probably incredibly boring to watch back! 

Also, can you implant memories? I have memories from when I was really little, maybe 3 or 4 years old. I would get into really awful tantrums and my mum would put me out in the hall. I have distinct memories of banging my head really really hard on the wooden floorboards and generally thrashing around in frustration. But do I really remember this or do I just think I remember it because I've been told about it so many times?

I have said memories far too memories in this post. I think I'm going to lie down.

Evenin'

I can't read maps. But I like them.  I am also going to work with them this year. Let's hope my sense of direction improves.

Here is a (not very good) picture of a (not very good) piece of work from last year on my (not very nice) carpet with my (not very nice) feet at the bottom. Enjoy.