Second Nature

 

I try really hard to not talk too much about fashion in my little blog, because otherwise I would find myself writing about nothing else all day! For this reason I keep fashion related posts to a minimum, but alas, I have found an editorial too inspiring for words! This series is titled Second Nature, featuring the beautiful Sophie in stunning rural setting in Europe. The thing I find most inspiring is not the stunning wardrobe of lightweight dresses in shades of ivory and peach, but the somewhat eerie undertone to this serene photoshoot. Photographer Mick de Lint here captures something quite extra-ordinary. This will have be fantasizing about forests and creatures of the deep all week!

winter longing

 

I know its time to gear up for summer, yet I can't help but long for the cold again. Something about crisp winter air makes my heart sing, and donning woolie layers and combining patterns and colours is so lovely. I guess you can take the girl out of Europe, but not the Europe out of the girl. I suppose in the meantime I will just have to keep browsing the winter lookbooks of beautiful designers like Primoeza

watercolour ladies

They say that there is a lot of the maker visible in their work of art, and I suppose I agree. My work of late has included more sombre elements, a refined colour palette and a possibly even more emotion than usual. From a psychological and a somewhat objective standpoint I find this very interesting, and believe that my art-making path is a blessing, for it provides visual narration and documentation of my life. In my ripe old age I will look over my oeuvre of work and smile, for I will remember what each piece was about, and what I felt and thought at the time of making. With this recent rainy weather and extended periods of solitude and listening to Warpaint, I suppose its no surprise that my art has taken a dark turn. These three watercolour works were made for the Zombie exhibition at Espionage Gallery which is on for another 2 weeks. There are prints available in my etsy shop and the framed originals are still up for grabs for $75 each. 

treasure tuesday I

cropped silk paisley shirt by iheartnorwegianwood
archival FLYING FISH dreams print by treasurefrey
unique cloth doll by timor
photo from sf series by sandy kim
medium gloss white pinch bowl by pinchmeceramics
french apple letterpress print by sycamorestreetpress

a thing called geek weather

As a result of this strange, inconsistent, cold, whimsical, crazy weather I have been increasingly prevailed to stay home, drink copious amounts of ginger and lemon tea, and do nothing but paint and draw. This means I am making tremendous headway on commissions and secret projects (not to mention my art history essays.). On the downside it has given rise to anti-social/geeky behaviour on my part. But nevermind that for now! Let me show you a few exciting new things. Like my new print and my freshly made facebook art page.

feature friday VI - lorene taurerewa

These stunning watercolor paintings are from the very talented hands of contemporary New Zealand artist Lorene Taurerewa. She showed at the Helen Gory Galerie in Australia a couple of months ago and has received numerous awards for her work. She takes inspiration from her Samoan, Chinese and European ancestry and weaves these cultural intricacies into her work, She is now working and exhibiting in New York, as well as maintaining an exhibition presence in New Zealand. I really hope her work comes to Australia again, soon. Visit her website for more images.

new print in store

Yippie! I am very excited to announce the arrival of a new print to my little etsy shop. The desire to add limited edition & open edition prints has been a long time coming. This is "Chloe", a little french maiden wrapped up in all her snuggliest scarves to keep warm in the bitter winter chill. I painted her last year, and she sold very quickly. I have since received messages from people hoping for a print or remake and finally finally here she is! I hope you all like it. The first print may be up for grabs soon in a little giveaway I'm planning, so stay tuned.

frosty bright lights, afternoon delights

I have decided to really embrace the winter season and not be disgruntled by the fact that only a mere three weeks ago I was enjoying the summer sunshine with my man in Europe. So to celebrate this change of spirit I decided to feature Sally Scott's amazing

2009–2010 Autumn & Winter Collection, which has really captured my imagination about all the possibilities that winter has to offer. We may not have snow here in Adelaide, but our wind chill factor is certainly low enough to load up on the scarves and gloves! Snuggle up and keep warm dear readers, and stay tuned for updates on the upcoming restocking of my little etsy shop! xx

Urban Outfitters

Oh me, oh my! I am really having to exercise my self control right now, as upon hunting for some new Asics for my boyfriend I stumbled upon some amazing sales at Urban Outfitters and am really considering making some purchases. Judging by my Top 4 pics above, I am reliving my nautical period, or perhaps never quite recovered!

With 14 days left of my time in Europe I am beginning to take stock of my experiences and look back with wonder at all the amazing adventures I have had and the beautiful people I have had the good fortune of meeting.
x

mermaid hair

(first two images from s&s and third from ponyhunter)

Mermaid hair has been a bit of a secret obsession of mine for a long time now, and upon returning home I think I may invest in such locks for a little while. Love love
x

stars and bows

The above delicious design is by Ricott, found at nuan+.
I love the warm colours, loose fit and attention to decorative detail.

Keller

I just stumbled upon Keller, an amazing label by Brooklin based designer Kelly Clark. I really love the Spring\Summer 2010 collection lookbook and would really like to get my hands on these amazing pants patterned from these series. Unfortunately the only stockists are in America and Canada, so fingers crossed she broadens her market and hits Europe, or even Australia!

a foxy time

I just finished watching cycle 13 of americas next top model and I am superchuffed that my favourite (from the start!), Nicole Fox won. I love that she was this geeky, arty, übershy creature turned fiery goddess and I find her journey so inspiring. Not to mention her amazing painting talent. She is definitely the fashion ´flavour of the month´if not year for me.

12 days and counting

`12 days and counting until I get on a plane and fly fly fly away!
And considering my current uni workload I may have to celebrate by doing a quit artist feature celebrating the work of a certain Bruna Kazinoti.







Also, in between essays I've finished season 2 of Dexter which has been really great and have rented a DVD titled "secret diary of a call girl", following the life of Belle de Jour, London 'hooker'. (hope thats not derogatory?) Pretty fascinating. Looking forward to Disc 2.

braid me blue

Okay so just today I was brushing my hair and thinking how its getting back to its usual "long" length, and decided I'd grow it superlong for a while. Enjoy my nice long mane and then do something ridiculous with it, like dye it white and sky blue. But that is besides the point for now - I was thinking long long long! ..

then I came across this picture, froze, ogled, and reconsidered what I mean by "long hair". Holy..



Now, having explained above what I do want.. allow me to show you what I don't.
I think some things just don't need to be said.



via fffound

hey lady

I must admit I'm a little bit in love with Frida Gustavsson and her impeccable style outside of the eagle eye of fashion.
Although this wasn't a self styled shoot I felt compelled to include it as I love the energy she portrays in this photo. Its so 50s glam with the leopardprint and plastic sunnies and lipstick. Amazing.



When looking closer at her persona in her day to day life you discover a less glamorous and more subtle person






On a more musical note, I've been obsessed with two songs over the last week. One being 23 Dohlen by Deichkind, a german club/alternative band and Prescilla by the amazingly beautiful and talented Bats for Lashes. However right at this second I am listening to sweet, brooding notes of Joy Division, and Love will Tear us apart to be more specific. Speaking of which, I remember a funny situation that happened to me around 2 years ago.

I was on checkout at my current job, my local fruit and veg when this skinny boy, aged say 14 drops a pack of lollies and a piece of fruit on the counter and feigns boredom and his idea of cool. His little emo fringe hid enough of his young face to make him fit in with his friends and his jeans were tight enough to cause a high level of discomfort. But more importantly underneath his cotton cardigan he wore the classic Joy Division tshirt depicting one of my favourite works of art, the cover of Unknown Pleasures which made me wonder.. so subtly slipping into the barely-existent conversation I said something like "but you should watch out, because love WILL tear us apart.." and he just cocked his eyebrow and looked at me like I just spoke a fusion of french and mandarin to him.

This made me realize he had probably never heard a note of Joy Division or the name Ian Curtis in his short life and purchased that Tshirt in order to feel accepted and to be given the nod of approval by those of more elevated rank in the hierarchy of the House of Emo. It is sad times we live in, friends.

one foot on the catwalk, the other in the grave

I sometimes wonder at what point hoch-couture transcends to hoch-art (if there is such a thing)? I feel like with each new season grows this strange fetishistic desire to push the boundaries of fashion by creating higher, more impossible heels as well as sadistically tailored dresses and blouses and the like. Don't get me wrong, kind reader, I love my couture like any other 20 year old lass - but at what point should an artist/designer stop being celebrated, and instead incarcerated?


this is but a baby-mild example of what I am talking about. This to me is exciting and fresh, and if anything, a piece of moving installation art.

dazed & confused

Ahh? Why does Dazed & Confused always have such amazing covers? How do they do it? Every time its like BANG! Amazing! The newest features Guinevere van Seenus who I adore anyhow.

house of cards

Yesterday I caught up with my good friend Vera to do one of our sortof-routine "wednesday shoots", wherein we get together and explore and take photos of each other. its a pretty good deal, made sweeter by the fact that we get to explore our city together. That city being Adelaide. For now. Its pretty rad, loots of little nooks and crannies with unexpected street art popping up between windows and in doorways. Its pretty exciting.

You really never know what you find - it started to rain so we spontaneously hurried down an alley and was about to pass these two giant double wooden doors which were shoved open and left exposed. We went in and were amazed and very excited. It could've been a club or privately owned saloon of sorts. it came with pirate paintings, a small kitchenette, many lightglobes and fixtures, amazing old chairs, stunning green tiles all along the rool and those amazing "dessert" signs and things. we took the opportunity and ran with it, shooting away excitedly, guiding and telling each other what we wanted. it was pretty radical, and we have some shots to prove it!

I haven't yet gotten through the whole shoot as there are a few hundred photos, but I have to say this is definitely the best haul of top notch shots yet. The three I share above are all from yesterday's shoot.

Life is good. Busy, but very good. I have many illustration and painting commissions, payed shifts at the gallery and a $500 printing voucher which came with a fancy award I won last week for a painting. So its quite good in that regard. Having said that I am setting off on my epic eurotrip in about 10 weeks and I have very minimal funds. we'll see how we go though ..
cheer up sailor, there are seas to be charted and waves to be sliced..

bunny ears, baby!

I was doing my usual fashion stalking when I came across this image of the lovely Kinga Rajzak, with the bunny ears not being the only fascinating addition to this photo - but the amazing necklace! *miscellaneous dangly thing*

Its exactly along the lines of the jewellery/clothing I've been thinking about and designing, with strong geometric shapes, muted tones and an interesting juxtaposition of shapes/vessels/objects.


I also came across this new Aa addition which I really like. Speaking of American Apparel, they are really starting to rock my socks. I really this heavily textured mini-short concoction. Especially with a baggy singlet like that. I reckon it would look even better with a black bra showing - not that one would walk down the street bra-less. Then again I will say, the amount of "hello nipple" there is these days is pretty astounding. Ladies really need to take the hint - just because Kate Moss makes anything and everything look amazing without any "support" does not mean all sisters can go freestyle. thats all I'm sayin..



Kate Moss, queen of Nipples and fashion: