first in a while

i haven't written a post in a while.
but as i sit here listening to a cover of 'everybody's talkin' and buying cheap books on ebay, i felt inspired to punch a post out.

i've just finished reading patti smith's autobiography called 'just kids'. it is such a wonderful read and so inspiring. she and mapplethorpe were just a couple of kids kicking around new york with high hopes and not much else; the starving artists you always hear about. their way of life, although dire, was just so romantic and i struggled to put the book down and return to my own conservative, modern, easy going life. i'm not sure who i'm talking to when i say this, but if you haven't read it, you really must- even if you don't harbor an interest in either patti or robert, i'm sure they'll blow your mind.

so, that's why i'm suddenly seeking out more to read, i'm inspired! both to read and to make art- my first point of call yoko and john's story 'starting over: the making of john and yoko's double fantasy', the natural progression from 'just kids, i thought. then, there's penguin's series of great loves: lots of anais nin (who's erotic literature i crave- delta of venus is a must read) new to the list is 'little bird's and the unexpurgated diaries of miss nin herself, john updike's 'the women who got away' and d.h. lawrence's 'the virgin and the gipsy'. i also stumbled upon a cheap copy of susan sontag's 'on photography' which i've been meaning to read for ages since viewing the latest doco on annie leibovitz and learning more about sontag- another beautiful love story.
soon i shall have so much to read, and a little library of books from which to pluck from on a rainy day, so excited!

i went to a do at one of my lecturer's homes in macedon last night, and what a charming home it was! the walls full of giant artworks- my favourites the two joyce tennesons- i can only ever dream of owning one of her 8x10 polaroid prints! he had his own cinema on the lower level with a room that housed his unthinkably large collection of films and documentaries, filed by director, of course. but my jaw dropped when i walked into his darkroom- such an awesome space, decked out with amazing sixties carpet and three beautiful enlargers.

finally, i am also excited about this year's folio. after contemplating a commercially orientated folio, i realised that it just wasn't going to happen, so i have remained where i am most comfortable: in the whimsy art world :)
the overall theme of this year's folio is going to be focused on nostalgia. through some research i will hopefully be able to find out a little more on the theories that surround it. i particularly want to explore memory and whether it is representational or idealised. these elements will relate to the aesthetic too, which i hope to be something borrowed from tarkovsky's dreamy, warmly toned polaroids, or the sense of freedom you get from looking at ryan mcginley's portraits, emma hardy and her seeming snippets of everyday life or tamara dean's dark, fantastical scenes ah, there are so many to draw from!
more so that anything though, my inspiration is drawn from drawers of old photographs i used to fossick through at my great grandma's over the school holidays. i loved the feeling i got from them, you know- the feeling you get when you're listening to good music? i never really cared that i didn't know most of the people in them, it was the aesthetic that grabbed me, that and the tactile experience of holding a moment captured such a long time ago; they gave me the feeling of longing for time's past- who cares that i was only ten or so! this is what i love about photographs, the things you feel from looking at them. that's the aim of the game: to make people feel something, to instill the feeling of nostalgia from my audience through a certain aesthetic.

here's to 2011 being inspired, well read and creative!