year in review – Mixy's Art Blog

September

SUZANNE VEGA – ‘MR PINKLE’ – BRIGHTON

I love Brighton but not visited for a long time. So when I saw Suzanne Vega would be playing there in September I just had to book, and we had a break by the sea for a couple of days.

14 year old me sang her little heart out along to Marlene on the Wall & Left of Centre amid all the architectural frills and froo-froo of Brighton Dome. Bliss!

Just before the trip I got a little clip on fish-eye lens contraption for my phone. When I wasn’t taking pictures distorted into circles, I was finding round things to take photos of too (seems to be the way my mind works, it latches onto a theme and won’t let it go. Often it’s completely unconscious at the time, then I notice when I look back.)

Back home I made a new friend – a visiting cat I named ‘Pinkle’, because of her very pretty pink nose and ears. Some while later Pinkle’s other humans informed us she’s a he-cat, so he’s now known as ‘Mr Pinkle‘.

Listening to: Jon Ronson’s Butterfly Effect ~ Burning Man Essentials (2016) ~ Sleepdealer

October

LISTS OF LISTS – PLANNING PLANS – 100 DAY PROJECT

October saw the end to a few projects, releasing some brain-RAM to take stock of where I was and what was to come next.

This notebook is home to the lists of lists, the home to my brain dumps. It reminds me of the Hitch hiker’s guide to the galaxy. The HHGTTG has the simple instruction on the cover Don’t panic, the cover of the guide to my universe has Begin at the beginning, Go on till you come to the end, then stop.

This was the month I completed my 100 day project I started back in June. It taught me lots of indirect lessons, way more than just practising the motor skills of drawing. I began the under-doodles in my sketchbookprojectsketchbook

Listening to Wun Two ~ Alan Watts ~ Rob Bell: What is the Bible?

November

ROYAL ALBERT HALL – CHRISTMAS AT KEW – DIGITAL COLLAGE POSTCARDS

Teenage me had another giddy moment in November, Imelda May at the Royal Albert Hall. I didn’t know her music at all before, and it’s not quite my bag, but the gig ended with her being joined by her ‘special surprise guests’: Ronnie Wood & Bob Geldof! Holy Moly!

I had the biggest crush on Bob Geldof when I was a young thing (and – relatively speaking – so was he), it’s strange to see him as a grey haired old man. There’s a part of me that remains unconvinced the last 20-30 years have really gone by, I see him circa 1980.

I spent some time revisiting art I’ve made over the years and designed a set of postcards this month which was a lot of fun and I was so pleased with how they came out I designed and ordered another set straight away. There are still a few left in my Etsy shop if you’re interested

This month I finally got the set of Daniel Smith watercolors I’d been daydreaming over since I saw them reviewed online! Yes, they are pricey, yes they are totally worth it! I’ve had a word with Santa, and I believe I’ve some more headed my way very soon! Thesecolors are vibrant and lush, and I’m using them in my Sketchbookprojectsketchbook (more on that in the near future!)

Finally I got my antlers on & the holiday buzz began with a trip to see the Christmas lights at Kew Gardens.

Listening to Henry Wu ~ The Little Book of Ikagi by Ken Mogi ~ Confusing Boogie

December

TWELVTY ENDING/NEW BEGINNING – CHRIMBLE BEGINS – SNOW-DAYS!!

Of course as I type this to you, the month is just half way through, but already we’ve had some snow (this is England, land of the bland weather, we get very excitable when it snows!)

The holidays are just around the corner, the tree is up, the pressies are wrapped, everything is feeling sparkly.

I met up with a bunch of my family in London at the weekend (there are many of us – just 12 at this little gathering) – some I hadn’t seen in more years than I like to remember, and some were so young at the time they didn’t remember. It still feels weird being one of the grown ups at a gathering like this.

I’m almost at the end of my year full of color, TWELVTY. Although it wasn’t my intention when I set out, I’m really looking forward to taking another trip around the color wheel in 2018. As I finish this year I’m honing and polishing the content for next year. It’s gonna be so much fun – if you’d like to know more you can find out here!

Listening to Tomppabeats ~ Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens – Eddie Izzard ~ Lux

What a year it’s been! I hope your 2017 has brought good things to your life, and you’re able to find some time in the coming weeks to reflect and plan ahead for what’s to come next.

In the last 12 days of the year (beginning tomorrow) I’ll be sharing the 12 months of color that have made up TWELVTY. Meanwhile…

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May

PINK FLOYD – GIACOMMETTI – KEW GARDENS

More outings – Kew Gardens to see the Rhododendrons (so much love for these flowers!) and the Tate modern to see Giacometti with friends from art school. These are sculptures I’d only seen in photographs – I get a star-struck giddiness when I see art I ‘know’ from pictures in real life. They were oddly both smaller and larger than I’d imagined.

This was also the month I went to the Pink Floyd retrospective at the V&A. This band played the soundtrack to my teenage years and on through my 20s, they still hold a special place in my heart.

Listening to: Judge John Hodgman – Tangentially Speaking – Mounika

June

FAMILY TREE – 100 DAY PROJECT – DAILY DRAWINGS

Some few years ago I began looking into my family tree. An uncle began researching years before the internet which makes it so easy, and in June we began comparing our findings.

In searching out my mum’s side of the family I found out my great grandfather was a jockey, and by the power of Google and then ebay I acquired this newspaper page from the 1880s with a photo of him.

Stranger yet, both mum and dad had family who lived within a couple of streets of each other in Bethnal Green in the 1800s. Both families moved to other parts of London long before my parents were born, I can’t help wondering if they knew each other.

my companion for the summer

This little sketchbook was my companion all through the summer.

This is the month I began my 100 day project of daily drawings and doodles inspired by the photos in my phone. I take pictures wherever I go – not just of people and places and things, but of patterns and textures and colors too. I have a lot of photos in my phone. I started out with a photo from the Pink Floyd exhibition.

Listening to – The Unruffled – Brene Brown – The Robcast

July

PURPLE-VIOLET – WISHES – SKETCHBOOK PROJECT

My year full of color is still progressing at the pace of a color a month, July moved into purple/violet. At the start of the year I’d planned to create a body of working each color/month. Sometimes my plans are bigger than I can fulfil, and by July I decided to merge two month/colors together. The blue-violet-purple project was a series of little hanging 3d textile pieces I call “Wishes”.

This is the month I took possession of my Sketchbook Project book. That’s another work in progress, which I’ll update you on soon.

Listening to Chillhop – Audio Dharma

August

PAW-PRINT PYJAMAS – YOUTUBE – DIANA PHOTO APP

August’s plans were turned upside down when my appendix exploded, leaving me in hospital for half the month.

I have immense gratitude for the NHS and for free Wifi that kept me sane through sleepless nights and boring days. I wasn’t able to do a lot, but I could distract myself with youtube and get my daily creativity hit by playing with the Diana photo app that randomly picks photos from your phone and does double exposure magic with them.

Watching: Ali Brown – Minnie Small – GTD – Batikwalla – Frannerd

I’ll be back with the next instalment of reflections tomorrowish. Meanwhile………

<a href="https://mixygecko.wufoo.com/forms/z1pfxfus0jq7ftl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fill out my Wufoo form!</a>

and I’ll send you my ebook A Year full of Color

Your email is utterly safe to me. It will be wrapped up snug and nestled with a hot water bottle until the spring arrives.