The Booth Museum is a museum of natural history near where we live. It is very small but full of glass cabinets of stuffed animals and animal skeletons. We visit it often and despite its size can spend lots of time there. Its a great place to go and draw. There are also jars and drawers of oddities. My current favourite exhibits are the bats and pretend mermaid..
We went to the Brighton Art and Design degree show yesterday and saw some interesting work on the illustration and graphics course. The rest was a bit a bit disappointing as yet again it was apparent that there seems to be a lack of academic teaching on the art courses.
Despite always being involved in art neither Steve nor I have studied a degree. For some years in my mid twenties I felt almost embarrassed that I hadn’t chosen this route as so many of my peers had but as I heard more and more stories of peoples experiences of studying I became relieved that I had escaped this route. It still seems that people who have taken an art degree are disappointed at the lack of structure and actual teaching of the academic aspect of the subject- colour theory, form, life drawing. An art degree believes in the development of the individual as an individual and the emphasise is on self discipline. I think this is something that is rushed in the creative person and is an area that develops with age. At the age of eighteen or nineteen when many young people embark on further education I think a structured environment is still very valuable. Self development should come much later- I have always compared it to trying to write an autobiography in your early twenties when you have yet to figure things out. However it seems apparent from looking at the work on display yesterday that there is still a strong push to conceptualism and style over first encouraging a strong ability to see and draw things. The worry is it breeds arrogance in the arts when emphasise is on twenty year olds to have decided on a style or way of thinking.
I didn’t study for a degree in my twenties I worked in many rubbish jobs and drew and wrote and went out in my spare time. I think most of us get there eventually and my wonky route through life has cemented by belief that if you are creative and eager to learn you will do that even if you work in a newsagents or video shop!
We have wanted to go to Margate and Broadstairs for a long time and finally made it this weekend. We saw all the things we wanted to- Shell Grotto, Turner Gallery and Morellis and also got to eat fish and chips on the beach in the evening, paddle in the sea, eat a lot of ice cream, see good shops and do some excellent people watching. Best weekend ever……
We found this gem of a place to stay..
“You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book… or you take a trip… and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death. Some never awaken.”
Anais Nin.
I was told by someone along time ago that my fondness for sugar was due to my vegetarianism.. My mother told me that her favourite treat when she a girl was a cream cake dinner, which was a variety of bakery delights and a bottle of Lucozade. So I think its in the genes.
Apple Puffs, jam doughnut, fondant fancy(current favourite), sponge and custard, chocolate eclair, trifle, Angel Delight, Rocky road, chocolate crispy, tiramasu.
A meal out means missing the starter to save room for pudding.
Here is my drawing in honour of sugar, cream, custard, flour and eggs..
We went to the Wellcome Collection exhibition- Souzou an exhibition of Japanese outsider art. The artists are all residents or attendees of day centres. The images I have included in the post are some of my favourite from the exhibition.
The first artist Shota Katsube makes tiny action figures out of silver twisty ties and each one is different and full of detail. The second image is of clay figures that the artist moulds in their mouth to achieve the acquired shape. I also liked the work of Takahiro Shimoda who made different pyjamas with brilliant names: Fried Chicken Pyjamas, Salmon Roe Pyjamas and Pigeon Shaped Cookie Pyjamas. There was also the amazing maps by Norimitsu Kokubo who makes detailed and huge maps on a roll of paper that are semi fictional and also extremely imaginative.
We are never disappointed when we go to an exhibition here and the permanent collection is also a brilliant array of oddities.
My cousin Joe Presland is following the family tradition of choosing the hard path of being an artist. He is often disillusioned and baffled by the art world. A common problem for the unpretentious and talented. He has struggled with the confines of the education system and is now contemplating his future as the art world is not something he really wants to be involved in. Yet there is no disguising his amazing abilities, I hope he is snapped up one day and gets to make his way in the world doing what he is best at.. Art.
This is a new screen print produced in collaboration with my good friend Adam Sage. I drew the man and Adam designed the tattoos for him. It will be available from our website very soon with some more new prints but please email if you are interested in purchasing this now. We are hoping to produce more friends for this moustached man and I will post them when up when they are done.
We know it’s hard to take time off now we receive emails night and day and many of us are self employed so last night I made these for my daughter instead of doing our work. We are also taking days off here and there for Easter. It is still very cold out there but it also means we burn up more calories so we can eat more chocolate. Happy egging!
We have been working for several months now on designing wallpaper and furniture for a new hotel that will be opening this summer. We have been on a cold building site from the early days and have gradually watched it begin to transform.. We are getting to the exciting and stressful bit now and am looking forward to sitting on a comfortable chair and looking at it all finished with a big glass of fizzy pop.
Details and pictures soon soon..
Sometimes we don’t have any money at all. Sometimes we are waiting for an invoice to be paid or we have to use every penny to pay a bill. All our money goes back into our business to pay for wood or paint or paper.
We live in a small flat, we have holidays at our friends parents home, we don’t go out for fancy meals or the hairdressers or buy lots of clothes. We love reading and eating together and drawing. We love talking and making things and even though it is hard sometimes when everyone around seems to have at least enough money for a round of drinks we know that we have our plans, imagination and each other.
This weekend we went to our favourite ice cream parlour and art gallery along the coast and had a fine old time indeed.
My dad Steve Fricker studied as a painter when we were small children and after graduating worked as an illustrator for newspapers, magazines and books. He was well regarded in the media for his work on broadsheet newspapers but I only found out recently that his real passion still lay with painting. The illustration paid for our family growing up but in the last ten years he has focused on painting again.
He is a very modest man and has not wanted to show his work up until now but I am keen for him to gain the recognition he deserves. I think that his wry and surreal humour are apparent as well has his outstanding ability as a painter.
He is a clever and witty man who taught me to think and look at the world and always question it. He is unmaterialistic and humble and I am pleased to be showing his work on here for him.
The pub was a cheap pub chain and appealed to its aging clientele with its very modestly priced pints of bitter and its no music policy. These two combinations created an atmosphere that only the very desperate could endure. Alcoholic shoplifters, middle aged Asian men who weren’t meant to be there and underage teenagers.
We used to get served there when we were seventeen. We made friends with some boys who wore hair gel and aerosol body spray. Their clothes were unfashionable and suburban- bought from jean shops because they had a recognisable logo on them.
They thought we were weird because we didn’t have jobs and went to Art College.
Our conversations were spiky and horrible. We didn’t like each other, though most us of ending up pairing off. One of the boys lived quite far from the pub but we would make the mini cab journey to his house because his mum was always out and his gay lodger rarely made an appearance. I did see him once when I had stayed over and he was leaving for work. He didn’t fit in to the 1930s semi and I felt that feeling I always did when I saw someone else who belonged in a different place, ‘help’.
The house was always cold and the décor was unchanged since the early 1980s. There was never any food in the kitchen just lots of undefrosted dated Tupperware in the chest freezer in the garage. The boys bedroom had a fitted bedroom unit that meant that one half of the room appeared to be taken over with melamine cupboards. He didn’t really have any belongings.
Sometimes I used to go round without my friends and he used to try and get me to look at the clothing catalogues underwear section with him while he tried to get me to kiss him. We were usually interrupted by his neighbour, who would be standing on the flat roof and banging on the window to be let in for a spliff.
By Eliza Fricker. February 2013.
There is a house clearance shop round the corner from where we live and they often have table top book sales. They are really cheap and frequently have a great bargain. Next job at a home is to build more book shelves..
A while back on my blog I took a picture of my desk. I have a lot of pictures stuck up around my desk that I spend lots of time looking at. Here are a few of my favourites..
I think these are some sort of ice formation the colour and the shapes are very beautiful. I am normally inspired by buildings in my work more than natural landscapes but these hard edges and lines are more reminiscent of architecture than a nature.
Edith Sitwell is an English eccentric that my brother and I have shared a long interest in. She wrote poetry and was also a critic. Her striking appearance was often photographed or painted. My brother has called me Edith on and off for years and even addressed letters to me by this. I think it is because at times I can take on the characteristics of a fearful elderly lady.
Our dream is to live in San Francisco one day. We really really hope this happens. This photo is one of many we have to remind us to keep going even when we are chasing/juggling invoices..
