♥ rookie yearbook two ♥

hi guys! today i have a review of the absolutely perfect 'rookie yearbook two' (goodreads), edited by the lovely tavi gevinson (click through for her twitter, blog, instagram), today! i've been so excited to write this post and tell you guys just how much i adored this book.

the rookie yearbook is a series that showcases some of the best artwork/writing/photography/diy's/general creative genius from rookie mag, an online publication for teenage girls that's been going for just over 3 years and was initially created by tavi when she was just 15 (and OH GOD do i wish i had done something that cool when i was 15). i'm gonna put this right out there and say that i think rookie is the coolest project to have ever existed; i regularly submit really bad writing for them to turn down (one day i will write something good enough to be published! one day!) and i desperately wish that there had been something like this for me when i was in high school. it's just a positive place for girls, and my favourite thing is that they don't take that attitude of "we have all the answers, listen to what we tell you," it's more like, "let's just muddle through and figure it out together!" IT IS AWESOME. it's just a big wealth of knowledge and cool art and fun stuff and great advice, and articles can go from how to do an ice cream manicure to a complete guide to kissing.

as much as i love rookie, though, i find it really difficult to read off my computer/phone for long periods of time, so i rarely get to see as much as i want to, so having all the best bits printed in a physical publication made all my dreams come true. now i get to hold tonnes of amazing work IN MY HANDS and i can carry it around with me and i don't have to worry about wifi connection (i'm taking all my rookie yearbooks to uni with me - unlimited inspiration? yes please!!!).

visually the book is STUNNING. like each page is a collage masterpiece, and every month has a theme (starting with a cute editor's letter) which is continued into the aesthetics, and it's so clear how much time and energy went into producing this thing. i took loads and loads of photos of the artwork and of my favourite articles and stuff whilst i was reading so i'm just going to put a few here, so you can see what the pages actually look like:

there is so much cool stuff in this book, like a letter to readers from mindy kaling, super cute tarot cards, interviews with people like emma watson and molly ringwald and morrissey , stickers, amazing playlists, a guide to journalling, some of the best photography i've ever seen (and i went to art college), a guide to being less self-conscious, how to make diy stencils, really insightful articles about things like racism and being trans* and your relationship with your parents and falling in love and sex, and SO MUCH MORE. i could list every single page but obviously i'm not going to. 

my favourite article was probably 'the year i learned everything' by roxane, it was INCREDIBLE. it was a short story in diary format about a girl and her interactions with the men in her life. not only was i so invested in the characters after only 6 pages that i CRIED at the end, but it was so wonderfully written that i read it like 7 times in the same night just so i could properly absorb it. i would read anything this girl writes. i hope one day she publishes a book, or several books, because i just want to read everything she has to say.

another article that i want to briefly mention is 'nobody's perfect' by rachael; this spoke to me on such a deep level that i felt like she was talking about my own personal experiences. this article gave me some of the best advice of my life. (i'd also like to mention here that i've seen professional psychiatrists and therapists before, none of whom could help me or understand me, so that goes to show how smart and wonderful the people who write for rookie are.)

i just adored this book; i want to be surrounded in this dreamy atmosphere forever. i gave it 5 STARS on my goodreads but would've given it over a thousand if i could have. if you only ever pay attention to one thing i say, let it be this: READ ROOKIE. truly it's the best thing i've ever discovered and i want to share it with the world.

obviously, before 'rookie yearbook two' (goodreads), there was 'rookie yearbook one' (goodreads), which i read over christmas 2012 and also gave 5 stars to, and in october there will be 'rookie yearbook three' (goodreads), which i am SO EXCITED to get my hands on and read. 

okay, okay, i'm going to stop rambling now; you all get the idea. so, i hope you enjoyed this post and thank you for reading! (and go read rookie!!!) xx

art college so far

finally learnt how to work shutter speed ahhhh!

lca floor tiles.

taking photo's in the museum all day.

experiments from my photography induction. (hi chris!)

this jekyll and hyde/american psycho thing i did for 'pattern and surface'.

hard workin'. 

giving paper cut-outs names and personalities is like our favourite activity. 

second week, drawing workshops, documenting chosen sections of the floor in A1 scale.

'50 photos' project crit week.

workin' hard, picnic in the park, workin' hard again.

organising the lines from my floor piece in size order, 4 items items in 4 corners coming together for 'pattern and surface', specialism lectures in hyde park picture house. 

16/9/2013 (tying my shoelaces with paper was a highlight).

so! i've been at art college for about a month and so far i am loving it! it was really strange at first because i didn't know anyone and i didn't think i'd be up to the standard creatively or whatever, but everyone has been so nice and making friends was really easy and i think once we all settled in and figured our way around the building it's just started to be amazing. they've been having us doing loads of weird things (i mean, drawing the floor? really?) and lots of it is kind of boring and tedious (90 minute lecture on the history of art education a while ago, yaaawn) but i'm actually really proud of all the work that's come out of these bizarre tasks.
it's very full on though, i should say that. i do 9am-4pm every weekday and then when i get home i mostly do coursework until i go to bed. i haven't had time for doing stuff like reading, watching tv, etc. up until a few weeks ago i was also doing 16-hour weekends at m&s, but my contract ended on that so at least now i get weekends to catch up on work and do things that i enjoy haha! (like applying for christmas jobs, wooo! not.)
my stage 1 assessment appointment was at 11.20 today and i passed! woooooo! as of monday i will officially be a textiles, fashion, and design for performance student!
i think that's all i need to say to catch you guys up. there's also a trip to london in november which i'm really excited for, ahhh! art school is so exciting haha! it's kind of crazy but i genuinely just love it. if you're debating whether or not to do a foundation diploma just do it! it's a lot of work but so far it's turning out to be one of the most fun years of my life! x

david bowie is

first photo by me, other photo's sourced from the v&a website, exact location here. 

hello! i know this post is ridiculously late but i had forgotten all about it! i was recently reminded by the fact that the 'david bowie is' exhibition closed at the v&a (august 11th, i think) so i thought it was probably time to finally get this post up haha!
you are probably all aware that i am a big bowie fan so this exhibition was just a dream come true for me. it told the story from his teenage years all the way up to his current success (i visited at the end of march which was around the time when his first album in a decade, 'the next day', had just been released and gone to number one on the album charts), and was generally just so informative.
i'd say it is around 50% displays - costumes, photographs, drawings, etc. - and 50% video and film. you're given headphones before you enter the exhibition, which play bowie songs, but when you move near a screen the headphones pick up the audio from whatever that screen is playing, which i thought was amazing, haha! some rooms were just wall-to-wall screens (which you can kind of see in the right part of the second picture) and it had this kind of over-whelming, all-encompassing feeling, like you were being sucked back to the 70's or something. that particular room was kind of weird though, as one wall played a live show and another played music videos and the headphones kept switching audio as you walked around the room.
the exhibition was largely based on bowie's music career, displaying stage costumes, records, hand-written lyrics, album covers, etc. i got to see some of my favourite costumes of all time, which was so exciting for me; i saw the 'ashes to ashes' clown costume! i almost exploded!
there was also a section devoted to his film career, with one small cinema section where you could sit and watch clips from various films he's starred in. there were lots of props and movie posters around, including the actual crystal ball from labyrinth, which i was very excited about.
one thing that really blew me away, almost completely unrelated, is that there was an andy warhol 'marilyn' there. it was on loan from the tate and was to display bowie's childhood love of pop art and i was literally speechless when i saw it. having studied warhol for several years in high school, it was very surreal to seeing one of his prints in the flesh and it was a very big deal for me.
'david bowie is' was incredible. it's so much more than your average art exhibition; it's interactive, interesting, unique. i think anyone could enjoy it, even if you're not a fan of david bowie.
so, yes, i think that's it. sorry that this post is so late, but better late than never! xx

bradford media museum

as you all probably know, i'm an art student (which is why my blog is such a mess of themes) and spend a lot of time in museums. the media museum at bradford is one of my absolute favourites so i thought i'd share some photo's of my most recent trip!
they usually have two current featured exhibits, both of which i didn't manage to see, and their permanent exhibits, which are my favourite. the permanent exhibits take you through the worlds of television, broadcasting, animation, photography, video gaming, and lots of other exciting things. it's a really interactive museum, which i love, so there are lots of things to look through and play with. it's very colourful and exciting just to look at, which is kind of the main thing that i love about museums like this. i'm also a big fan of television and animation so i really enjoy the educational aspect.
i am awful at describing my enjoyment of artsy things so i'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. you can read more about the bradford media museum and their current exhibits here. thank you for reading! x

manchester art gallery

these are a few photo's that i took in manchester art gallery while i was there attending a university open day a few weeks ago. i got through the whole museum before seeing a little sign that indicated 'no photography' on the map - sorry! lots of other people were taking pictures though so i hope it was okay.

i unfortunately don't really have many good pictures - i spent most of my time in the art gallery getting footage for my manchester-based stop-motion - which you can watch here. i did love the gallery though! after spending years and years only visiting our lovely little leeds art gallery it was a nice change. they also had a real-life banksy, which really shocked me haha! i don't know why, i felt really star-struck around the piece. (no photo's of that either, sorry!). all of my favourite pieces in the gallery were part of a paper-art exhibit - i did a whole blog post about it, which you can read here.

thank you for reading, and i've got a lot of good posts to come in the future! xx

the first cut - paper at the cutting edge

yesterday i went to manchester to visit the manchester metropolitan university for an open day. after we had finished at mmu we decided to check out the manchester art gallery. right now they have an exhibition on called 'the first cut', which is an amazing collection of work created by artists entirely using paper. i'm a big fan of 'paper art', as i used to love things like pop-up books and origami when i was younger, so this was right up my street! everything was so delicate and beautiful, i was really blown away. the intricacy of some of the pieces was insane - i can't bear to think how long the artists must have spent labouring over their work with a craft knife. the pieces that i have shown here are my absolute faourites from the exhibit but they had a lot of other amazing work shown - such as a sculpture of a man created by carving into books, big over-sized leaves made of metal and what looked like tissue paper, maps and grenades and guns made of foreign currency, etc.

i loved this exhibit, i think it's amazing, so if you're in the manchester area then i definitely recommend checking it out. it'll be running until the 27th of january so you've got plenty of time to go see it. you can read more on the exhibit here and read more about the manchester art gallery in general here. i hope you guys like this artwork as much as i do, and i'll have a post about other things shown in the manchester art gallery sometime soon. xx

bookmark

right now i'm reading 'wicked' (i finished 'miss peregrine's home for peculiar children' - really really good!), recommended by kathy. for a while now i've wanted a wizard of oz bookmark, like this one or this one or this one, that looked like the legs of nessarose / the wicked witch of the east wearing the ruby slippers sticking out from the pages of your book like they stuck out from under dorothy's house. since i'm reading 'wicked' i thought it was an appropriate time to buy one, but i wasn't really ready to part with £15 for a bookmark, so i decided to make my own.

i'm not good with clay or wood so i couldn't carve or mould 3D legs; instead i used blank flashcards that i had left over from exam season. i cut one in half and used one half for the bookmark and the other half for the legs, which i sketched, painted and then cut out with a craft knife. i then glued the legs to the bookmark section. right now the bookmark bit is blank except for a few splodges where i removed excess paint, but i'm planning on either block-colouring it or adding some wizard of oz-based design. i haven't decided yet. 

obviously paper isn't as strong as clay or wood and the legs are flimsy (i usually keep them tucked inside the book so they don't get bent or damaged) but i think they're a good enough substitute for now. overall i really like the look and i've had good reviews from family members haha. :-) xx

sketchbook

i had a lot of problems with my scanner so they're all kind of a bit cropped, sorry. also, these were in page order but blogger decided to have a bit of an image shuffle haha. :-)

fyi: any lyrics or poetry used in these sketches either belong to queen or hank green / vlogbrothers, i didn't write any of it, i'm not that talented!

i finished my sketchbook yesterday so i thought i'd show you. most of this stuff are just doodles and a lot of it is unfinished but i think that's fine. i have a thing about never being able to get both eyes right too, if you haven't noticed haha. xx