Wednesday 6 January 2010

Today I made a .....

Christmas time is over again. This always makes me feel a little sad. I love the lights and the trees and particularly the Christmas spirit. Everyone seems that little bit nicer in December. Today however was the last day of Christmas; all the decorations have gone, the tree is in the garden and baubles packed away for a little while again. Funny how quickly this time went. Initially, after I put the tree out, it felt like my lounge was twice the size (my tree was not only six foot tall but also 6 foot wide, just a bit too big for the house!) but amazingly it now feels quite normal again after a few hours.

I'd realised that Christmas had gone when I went shopping last week and saw all the Valentines gifts out at one of the department stores. I was reminded of this again on Sunday when I saw the Easter eggs and bunnies at the check out at the country's leading grocery store. I wish I was exaggerating but I am not. Is there no time to reflect anymore? No time to just enjoy a lull; instead we are rushed to another festivity. When I was little (ooohh I sound old!) I was really looking forward to all the decorations in the shops, eagerly and patiently awaiting the right moment. We are now faced with an overkill and greed sets in too quickly; I can already imagine the monkeys telling me which egg they'd like in 4 months time. And really I cannot blame them; retailers are simply brainwashing them, they can't ignore it.



Enough sentimentalism. We did enjoy a few lovely days playing in the snow. One day back at school and yippee back home again for a couple. It still looks magical outside. Whilst the monkeys were entertaining themselves with snowballs and sledges I found some extra time to start working on the collection of cushions soon to hit the shops and I made a monster. Boy monkey didn't think he had as many cuddly toys as his sister and wanted something from mummy's shop. He was very pleased and did not let go of it for the rest of the day. Always nice to have happy customers!

Sunday 3 January 2010

Undercover

Happy New Year to all of you. It is only (or already?) the 3rd but I believe we can say this until the middle of January; I am sure there is a rule in someone's book about this.

Today was unfortunately the last day of the fabulous Undercover exhibition at Nexus Art Cafe in the Northern Quarter.


I love Nexus and wish I could spend more time there apart from the occasional meeting and I was totally impressed with this exhibition. There were some wonderful works on display; I wished however there was more information about the artists.




This dear head was one of my favourites. I have been looking for one for a while and if I could would have loved to buy this one. It was created by Laura Mullen, can't wait to see more of her work.



My absolute favourite work however was this window installation. It looked good from the outside but just stunning from the inside. It was created by Annie Harrison and it is sad that this is going to be taken down. I realise certain pieces of art can not remain forever but it is just beautiful.

I could have kept looking at this for hours. I couldn't explain why but thought it was genius; suppose my love of textiles and all things white and circular may have been an influence.

Hope these artists and Nexus will put on a similar show soon.