Kenya

This Christmas holiday I went to Kenya. 

I took lots of fotographs of course, here are some of them. I used my zoom lense a lot while going on "Foto Safaris" with the car.

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This was a lady on the side of the road close to Mombasa.

This was Salim who collected fresh coconuts in the mornings. 

My my mum is a pilot amongst other things, so one day me and her flew in a Cessna and the landscape was breathtaking.

THis was from the view of the Cessna, flying over Watamu on the coast of Kenya.

Closer to Malindi now, also from the Cessna.

Here we did a campfire by the sea, it was beautiful with the sunset.

THis is a "Tuc Tuc" which are basically three-wheeled vehicles that are taxis. I might use this fotograph for a painting as it looks interesting. I had left the shutter speed too slowly so there was too much light but I think it made an interesting effect.

These were two boys in the backstreets of Watamu. 

A crying girl by the side of the road.

Watamu.

This was really funny

I loved the graffitti on the house facades and the jumping boy infront of it made it even more intersting. Also in Watamu.

Watamu. THis is one of my favorite ones.

Watamu

My brother learned how to climb a palm tree, hard to believe.

THis is a very dramatic shot of our beach on the last day, there was a thunderstorm and the colours were really gloomy and heavy. THis is not waht is usually looked like...

I will definitely use some of these fotographs for my exhibition as a "fotography" project, separate from the studio projects I've done. 

Paris 2011

On my MUN trip to Paris I took some really nice Night time shots.
The effect was created through the use of flash and a slow shutter speed of 1/4 or 1/2.

Comparing 3 Paintings

In my current IWB assignment we had to annotate three paintings, they had to have some sort of connection.

I chose three paintings of nude women from Rembrandt, Elvira Bach and Henri Matisse. It links back to my studio work as it is linked to my theme FREEDOM. Basically what I am looking at here are the differences in the portrayal of freedom of showing a woman's nude body in the different artists' styles.

By Elvira Bach

By Rembrandt

By Henri Matisse

I still have to fotograph my book pages, which I will do on the weekend. 

Peter Beard

As part of this months's IWB studies I researched Peter Beard, a famous fotographer.
He uses, as a method to extend his art and differentiate his used media, his own blood to accentuate and decorate pages in his journals. An example above...

Autumn in Berlin 2011

I love autumn in Berlin. I consider myself an "autumn child" as I am born in autumn and I love rain and the luminous orange red yellow colour scheme.
These fotos I took in the Tiergarten, a massive Park in central Berlin.

I might use the colours and the landscapes as insipartion for a future studio project... Coincidentally the colour scheme is quite similar to my typical colour scheme that dominates most of my studio work...

In this foto of the couple walking through the Tiergarten, the morning mist and slight fog is still visible in the distance and it created a mystical romantic atmosphere.

I am quite obssessed with reflections on any kind of surface, and here once again I loved the geometric angles the reflection of the tree in the lake created.

FREEDOM??

I got very inspired last night and decided I might choose

FREEDOM

as my "theme word thing"...
My mannequin for example ties in to the word under restriction of women's freedom of appearance... Since I also have those fotos i took this summer, where my friend is throwing a chair in the air, it represents the freedom of setting the chair free out of its tied state to the ground by gravity, its static, boring existence. These I will develop into a studio project of its own, however I am also interviewing friends on their ideas and first thoughts at the word FREEDOM which is partly personal research, and partly i might build it into a separate video project.

my chair fotos are at home, therefore I experimented a POTENTIAL STENCIL PROJECT with the picture of the provocative graffitti man which I took in paris. i wont put him infront of the wall of writing, but i might make stencils of the flying chairs etc.

the quote is from the Art Biennale 2011 in Venice, i found it written on one of the walls in the Brazilian pavilion.

The Quest to Draw Naked People Which Failed

A time was arranged to meet at Campo (I was unaware). 

I call kinky dave

"Where are you?"

"Meliiiiina were reeeeeallly laaate!!!"
"oh crap ok wait for me ill meet you and we'll go there together."

i hang up. i run to piazza de spagna. 

Kinky and Gioia are frantically waving at me across the piazza.

We run down via del corso, barging into annoyed tourists, tripping on rough cobblestones, sweat gathering on our features. 

20 minutes later

We arrive at campo, nobody in sight. 

"Goddd where are theyy?"

"i dont know, somebody call them..."

............

"NOBODYS ANSWERING THEIR PHONES."

Crap.

"Now what?"

"i dont know... lets ask around..."

"what, you wanna ask where that place is where you can draw nude people?"

..... awwkward silence.....

"its our only chance..."

the Quest begins. 

first boutique

"scusi signora, lei conosce un posto o studio d'arte dove si puo disegnare degli personi nude?"

........

"scusi???" the woman turns scarlet, her eyes pop out.

kinky and me run away giggling. poor gioia.

next place. a kiosk.

same question

AWKWARD silence... "ehhh nooo mi scusi no non lo so un posto cosi..."

(the italian at this point might not be quite accurate)

we move on. 

the last flower stands are being cleaned up, they should know, they work here...

"scusi lei sa dove c'é un studio d'arte qui vicino? per disegnare dei modelli nudi?"

the man, laughs and points to his friend.

"si lui non conosce un posto cosi, nessuno lo conosce..."

the other man, very italian, mid 40s, balding grins, pensively strokes his chin 

"ehhhhhh, guarda c'é un posto d'arte qua vicino sulla via governo vecchio... maaa bohhh... se volete posso fare io il modello!"

dave's facial expression suggests panic and terror as he slowly retreats behind a lamp post.

we leave quickly.

we walk down all of via dell governo vecchio, angry, disappointed, hot and fussy. 

dave:

"guys... ok no. lets get an ice cream."

"yeahh i neeed water"

"my back hurts"

we find a gelateria. we choose. we collapse on bar stools. 

dave:

"guys? i think i might get seconds. this is comfort food."

The End.