cut and paste

A quick look at what I'm working on:

2012-01-14T10:12:00.000+10:30

Queen Street Grocer.

2012-01-13T10:38:00.000+10:30

A have a few new works in the beautiful Queen Street Grocer for sale!

Making, making.

2011-10-10T14:26:00.002+10:30

Freakshow.

2011-09-30T12:17:00.002+09:30

I've been working with old timey formal portraits and family snap shots lately, taking their faces and morphing them into something part beautiful and part creepy. Today I discovered Philippe Jusforgues' incredible photomontages that work with a similar idea. Jusforgues manipulates old photos, either creating a subtle change, or making the subject looks like they have undergone a scientific experiment gone wrong. Here are a few of my fav's:

Delight.

2011-09-23T20:05:00.004+09:30

Yes.

Beautiful and bizarre.

2011-09-16T14:28:00.006+09:30

Along with Lazenby, Julien Pacaud is a collage artist I'm loving big time at the moment. His bizarre view of the world is evident in his work; he uses 50's and 60's type imagery with landscape photography to create surreal new narratives.

Lazenby.

2011-09-16T14:18:00.007+09:30

Mark Lazenby sees collage as a way to make something beautiful from something mundane and unimportant: "There is so much truth and beauty in things we disregard, I seek to rescue and elevate these fragments." His work is brilliant, layers upon layers of colour and shape and text. Take a wander through his site here.

Roses.

2011-09-15T12:20:00.001+09:30

Lady succulent.

2011-09-15T09:09:00.006+09:30

Framed photomontage using vintage and new magazine paper.
For sale in Push Pin, 8 Compton street, Adelaide.

Cross bones style.

2011-08-31T09:21:00.003+09:30

Phantom limbs.

2011-08-30T19:27:00.000+09:30

Float.

2011-08-25T11:28:00.000+09:30

Daydream.

2011-08-24T14:25:00.001+09:30

Framed photomontage using brown paper, vintage magazine print, and glossy print.
For sale in Push Pin, 8 Compton street, Adelaide.

Limelight magazine.

2011-08-21T00:52:00.011+09:30

Sydney based writer Leta Keens bought one of my pieces from the Queen Street Grocer exhibition, and wrote abot it for the ABC's Limelight magazine! She tells me it is sitting pride of place in her dining room. You can read her take on this years SALA Festival here.

Embroidery on print.

2011-08-15T11:39:00.012+09:30

This is my new favourite artist dude, Maurizio Anzeri. I fell in love with his embroidered photographs at the Saatchi exhibition, mm hmm the combination of the antique images and contemporary colour and pattern is so beautiful! (...and I got a kick out of the similarity between his work and my boy with the red roses.)

Anzeri creates his work by sewing directly onto found photographs from the 1940s and 50s. The result is dream like, the sewn thread almost appear like the thoughts and feelings of the subjects. Anzeri is also largely influenced by Darwin's evolutionary theories, and the contrasting media suggest the connection between history and the future. I can't stop trawling through his images this morning, there is something so striking about the contrast between the old photos and the tribal patterns of the embroidery. See more from Maurizio here.

SALA

2011-08-04T11:47:00.002+09:30

The Boy, 2011

The brand spanking new (and darned pretty) Queen Street Grocer is hosting an exhibition opening as part of Queen Street's SALA STREET PARTY!

I will be showcasing a selection of new photomontages: using images torn from 1950's and '60s photographs to create entirely new shapes and dreamscapes.

The street will be blocked off, with exhibition openings all along the wonderful Queen Street precinct for one night only! Treats will be provided in the form of lovely organic beer and wines by O'Donohoe wines from the Riverland.

So come along on Thursday 'eve to see my new works and this exciting new addition to the Queen Street family!

"Kitto clearly has a fantastic eye, having carefully considered colour, shape, movement, contrast and tension in every piece. The result is an exhibition that radiates a powerful aesthetic.” - dB magazine review, Cut & Paste

Queen Street Grocer, 20 Elizabeth street, Adelaide
x x x x x

Collage inspiration for today.

2011-08-03T12:17:00.000+09:30

I'm in love with Lulu Wolf's work in particular today. Not only does she sport the best name around, but her work is mega inspiring. Wolf creates simple, effective collages using a very minimal colour palate. Mmm hmm, she's good.

* a lot of these images have been taken from letters of vintage. Worth a peek.

Autochromes.

2011-08-02T16:28:00.001+09:30

I'm a little bit in love with the colour palatte of early twentieth centrury autochromes. This beautiful way of bringing colour to the photograph was thought up by the Lumière brothers in 1904, much to the excitment of their fellow photophaphers who were used to the cumbersome task of painting colour onto images by hand.

The process used potato starch grains, dyed orange-red, green, and violet, to filter light coming in through the camera and effectively colour the image. The result is stunning: a beautiful hazy spectrum of simple colours and muted tones.

Read more about the process and peep a few of the photographs here.

Collage lovin'.

2011-08-02T16:25:00.025+09:30

Day dream #2.

2011-08-02T12:52:00.000+09:30

Victorian photocollage.

2011-08-01T23:39:00.014+09:30

One of my biggest inspirations is the photocollage made by aristocratic women of the early twentieth century. Sixty years before avant-garde artists embraced collage, these Victorian women were experimenting with the technique with incredible results.

The compositions they made with photographs and watercolors are whimsical and fantastical, combining human heads and animal bodies, placing people into imaginary landscapes, and morphing faces into common household objects. Such images reveal the educated minds as well as the accomplished hands of their makers.

With sharp wit and dramatic shifts of scale akin to those Alice experienced in Wonderland, these images stand the rather serious conventions of early photography on their heads.
(Source: The Met Museum's 2010 exhibition)

On repeat.

2011-08-01T20:21:00.000+09:30

Back to the future.

2011-07-20T20:35:00.001+09:30

I love this! Irina Werning is a bloody genius. A lover of old photographs, Irina has re-created scenes from her subject's past, with charming, beautiful, and often comical results. Take a peep.

The Queen.

2011-07-07T11:45:00.015+09:30

Monochrome.

2011-07-05T11:17:00.009+09:30

The Burning House.

2011-07-02T20:24:00.000+09:30

Here is a little site celebrating the bits and bobs most important to you. Okay so these are material bits and bobs, but nevertheless, it's nicely done and fulfils my snoopy needs for today. Check it out here.

Fairytales.

2011-06-08T21:00:00.000+09:30

I'm inspired by the muted, hazy colour palatte of Christian Jackson's beautiful fairytale posters today. Mm hmm, I love them.

Irving Baby!

2011-06-08T12:25:00.001+09:30

I'm Irving Baby's artist is residence for the month of June! They have a sweet spot in their shop for a new artist to display their works each month. It looks great. Pop into 33 Twin street, Adelaide, to take a gander!

Ladies in black and white #1 and #2.

2011-06-07T14:06:00.002+09:30

And I can't explain through words.

2011-06-06T15:02:00.000+09:30

Makin' gnocchi.

2011-06-06T12:20:00.000+09:30

Bits and bobs.

2011-06-06T11:20:00.005+09:30

A few photos floating my boat this week:

Untitled.

2011-06-03T10:00:00.000+09:30

Cola.

2011-06-02T13:09:00.000+09:30

Goodness.

2011-05-15T12:32:00.000+09:30

Eye candy.

2011-05-14T09:42:00.000+09:30

Fats.

2011-05-05T20:16:00.000+09:30

Ladies and Gents.

2011-05-01T19:33:00.002+09:30

* all for sale at Push Pin Boutique.

Claudia.

2011-04-12T14:44:00.001+09:30

Voyeur.

2011-03-25T13:11:00.000+10:30

Speaking of neatly arranged bits and pieces, for the last few weeks I have been pawing through frankie's new book SPACES.

Looking at people's beautiful homes and work spaces has got to be as good as - if not better than - PORN (which is The Selby is third in my Mac's bookmarks). I must have looked at every inch of every page at least a dozen times by now. Oh boy, it's beautiful.

SPACES is a collection of eclectic interiors from around the world - from a house boat in Amsterdam, to studio space in Melbourne, a vintage homewares shop in London, to a cafe in Tokyo, and a warehouse home in Sydney. Each page is full of glorious colour, with photos of the details in a house that make it a home. Accompanying the photos are short interviews with each space owner, detailing the history of the place, and their connection to it.

The book focusses on those with carefully curated style, and the unique vision and individuality of the creative people who occupy these incredible spaces. If you love having a peek into the space creative people occupy, you'll want to get your mits on this book.

Everything in its right place.

2011-03-25T12:59:00.000+10:30

You have probably come across this site - it has been bandied about a little lately - but I need to share it for those of you yet to witness the beauty that is... Things Organised Neatly.

Ugh. Although I like to have bits and bobs EVERYWHERE in my house, having things arranged in exactly the right way sends a little shiver up by spine. So looking at this site is a total drool fest. Also soothing to the nerves when I'm feeling the clutter around me is bringing on an anxiety attack.

If you like neat little rows of interesting looking objects and nic nacs then by all means, click here and drool away.

Works on the walls.

2011-03-24T13:29:00.001+10:30

My works are up on the Push Pin walls again! A few new'ins and a few old fav's (that are kicking around from the last exhibition...) Pop in and take a gander. 8 Compton street, Adelaide city. Yaya. xx

Heart break.

2011-03-08T20:21:00.000+10:30

Some kind of God.

2011-03-02T13:12:00.000+10:30

Photos from the Push Pin opening.

2010-12-16T10:15:00.000+10:30

Market day.

2010-12-11T12:06:00.002+10:30

Thanks for coming up to the Paper String Plastic artist markets! So many talented peeps selling their wares. The next one is next week, see you there! x x x

Exhibition at Push Pin.

2010-12-08T20:16:00.001+10:30

: horned humans and other wonders.

A new collection of handmade curiosities: photo montage reconstructions of faces, limbs, and objects from the natural world.

The opening is Wednesday night, December 15 at Push Pin Boutique.
8 Compton street, Adelaide 5000. 6-8pm.

**beverages provided.

Check out the Thousands plug for this show!

dB magazine review

2010-12-04T20:07:00.000+10:30

This pretty rad review of 'Cut & Paste' was printed in Adelaide's dB magazine yesterday!

Collage really is much more than just a pastime of teenage girls. Not that I want to disregard the fun I had covering my diaries and school books with images of aspiration from magazines: who I wanted to be like, be with, listen to, what I wanted to wear, own, and see. But collage, more specifically photomontage, has an important history and position in the visual arts. The love I have for this history was reawakened in me by visiting Joanna Kitto's show 'Cut & Paste' at Paper String Plastic.

Photomontage rose to prominence in the early stages of modernism. Following World War I members of the anti-war, anti-bourgeois, anarchist cultural movement Dada rejected the established standards of art with their anti-art works that often embraced elements of the everyday. Collage allowed these artists to strategically arrange different points of reference or signifiers (both image and text) cut out from newspapers often creating works which were simultaneously serious and cheeky. With the growing dominance of Surrealism through the 1920s the popularity of photomontage declined until its revival in the 1960s with the rise of Pop Art.

But Kitto's artist statement prompted me to explore an earlier era of photomontage from which her inspiration came. Sixty years before the Dadaists adopted photomontage as a means of artistic representation aristocratic Victorian women were already working with photo collage. They used watercolours and photograph cuttings to create fanciful, quirky images that featured imaginary creatures (combinations of humans, objects, and animals) in imaginary landscapes. Subverting conventions of scale and subject these works display the intelligence and wit of their makers. While these works were mainly made for private albums these women often conveyed political and social views through their 'little hobby'. This was a liberating form of expression for these confined and stifled individuals.

Rather than creating haphazard worlds Kitto has created shapes, structured forms which exist alone in empty, white space. Created from images taken from 1950s and 1960s magazines, patterns, and photographs combined with an image of a rock star or two, these works have a refined style and glamour about them. I can't help but be enchanted these amalgamations of what I love: flowers, beautiful women, dapper men, vintage photography, classic pop culture, old Hollywood and (to my delight) Nick Cave.

The shapes of the works are generally created by figures and objects emanating from a shared point, a centre from which they protrude in different directions. Often this focus is a flower or animal skull. Arms and hands feature powerfully in many of the works. The arms project from heads, flowers, and figures. They reach out as if trying to escape, expand, become their own being. Too me it often seemed that all the figures were growing from the one point and eventually would become whole and separate off in their various directions. However, some of the others seemed almost to constitute a being in their own right.

The palette is soft and subtle; the majority is grayscale with splashes of flesh tones and vintage colours. This has assisted in bringing a unity to the works, avoiding the feeling of too many elements competing. The pieces are all around A4 or A5 and untitled. No individual work stood out to me at this show - instead they worked wonderfully as a series, with repeated motifs and themes.

This is Kitto's first solo exhibition in a gallery space and is an excellent debut. She clearly has a fantastic eye, having carefully considered colour, shape, movement, contrast, and tension in every piece. The result is an exhibition that radiates a powerful aesthetic. I look forward to seeing how her work progresses in the future.

This is only Paper Scissor String's second exhibition. This innovative new gallery space is also home to an interior design consultancy, a shop selling locally made crafty gifts and soon a café. Paper Scissor String will also be hosting artist and designer markets on December 11th and 18th - a great opportunity to pick up some unique Christmas gifts. They will also be having poetry nights in the near future. It is definitely a space to watch!

Alex Tuffin

Photos from 'Cut & Paste.'

2010-12-01T22:52:00.000+10:30

Thanks to Lara Merrington, curator extraordinaire! And of course, the amazing Kiel Hummel and the rest of Paper String Plastic team!

99a markets.

2010-11-30T20:12:00.002+10:30

Paper String Plastic is holding two markets days in December! So mark down the 11th and the 18th in ya diary, and climb those blue stairs to check it out!

I'll be selling smaller works, printed cards, and badges for 5 bucks!

Come and grab a coffee and a pastry (they now have a cafe on the premises, for all your caffeine needs!) and have a looky at some amazing art, design, photography and jewellery.
Did I mention it's only something-something days 'til Christmas?

*** 99a Hindley street Adelaide. 11am-3pm ***

'Cut & Paste' at Paper String Plastic.

2010-11-05T09:14:00.003+10:30

My first (solo) show opens this Wednesday night! Nov. 10, 6pm!

CUT & PASTE.

The lady in the moon, 2010

The space is Paper String Plastic, a new innovative art and design space in the west end. Find it by looking for the blue staircase at 99a Hindley street, Adelaide. (Opposite, um, the Wool Shed.)

The work is a collection of photo montages: images cut from magazines, patterns, and photographs from the 1950s and '60s.

The show will be up all Novemember... Come and help kick things off!

** Free entry **
Treats will be provided by the delicious Coriole wines. xx

Read my little plug on Five Thousand!

Rorschach test.

2010-11-04T15:15:00.000+10:30

I'm starting a series of photomontages based on the Rorschach psychological tests.

Shapes.

2010-11-04T14:15:00.000+10:30

Framed.

2010-11-04T11:23:00.001+10:30

Cactus.

2010-11-02T13:15:00.000+10:30

Ladies and Brett.

2010-11-01T10:21:00.003+10:30

Teapot.

2010-11-01T10:15:00.000+10:30

Lady smoker.

2010-11-01T10:11:00.000+10:30

New collages.

2010-09-29T10:05:00.000+09:30

Push Pin.

2010-09-16T14:20:00.000+09:30

I have a brand spanking new collection of collages, unique and framed, and up on the walls in the cutie pie Push Pin on Compton Street, opposite the Central Markets. I'm so happy with how they turned out. Pop in and take a peek!

Chop chop.

2010-09-12T10:59:00.009+09:30

Colours and boobs.

2010-09-11T13:23:00.000+09:30

Antlers.

2010-09-01T17:57:00.000+09:30

The frankie blog.

2010-06-05T15:25:00.001+09:30

The lovely frankie magazine features little old me on their blog today. Yay! See it by clicking here.

The Country Gentleman.

2010-05-23T19:13:00.001+09:30

The Country Gentleman was an agricultural magazine est. in 1831 in Rochester, NY. Focusing on all things farming, it became the second most read agricultural rag in the US by 1955. The covers are amazing.

Midday riders.

2010-05-22T13:27:00.000+09:30

More GOLD from the Antique Markets... I almost can't bring myself to chop them!

Mohair Maidens.

2010-05-21T15:24:00.000+09:30

Antique Market gems.

2010-05-20T14:47:00.000+09:30

Check out these babes I'm cutting and pasting right now...This guy is definitely my favourite.... I can just tell he is thoughtful... and my, is he dapper..... *swoon*

Irving Baby!

2010-02-23T16:25:00.000+10:30

My pet project is now worth your hard-earned pennies! Exciting!
Pop into the beautiful Irving Baby! (33 Twin street or 83 Hindley street, Adelaide) and take a peek at my photo collage cards.

The Jealous Curator.

2010-02-02T18:13:00.000+10:30

I just stumbled across this little site... the Jealous Curator posts artists and artwork that makes him/her green with envy. Things that leave you thinking "damn, I wish I'd thought of that." It makes for a great way to find out about new artists that will either inspire you or fill you with seething jealous rage. Or both. My favourites so far:

Winter in Brooklyn.

2010-01-18T15:45:00.001+10:30

Mast Bros.

2010-01-18T15:36:00.000+10:30

R.I.P Rowland S. Howard.

2009-12-30T23:42:00.000+10:30

A revered and respected Australian guitarist, Howard is best known for his work alongside Nick Cave in cult Melbourne bands the Birthday Party and the Boys Next Door. Howard is responsible for possibly one of the most hauntingly beautiful love songs with the latter, Shivers. He later fronted jazz + blues influced bands These Immoral Souls and Crime and the City Solution with audio-feedback stylings and reverb-drenched guitars. This year Howard released his second solo album 'Pop Crimes', featuring friend Mick Harvey: a black, romantic set of songs, heavy with violent, slashing guitars. A must-hear. The legendary Rowland S. Howard lost the battle with liver cancer during this morning's early hours. He was 50.

C is for CRUMB

2009-12-30T23:33:00.001+10:30

I recently got my hands on R. Crumb's collection of drawings of Blues, Jazz, and Country stars. Crumb himself is a member of a band called R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders. Do yourself a favour and look him up, if you have not done so already.

A Room of Her Own.

2009-12-22T17:49:00.001+10:30

The darlings of Queen Street are spreading the message that art is a friend for life.

GLORIA Strzelecki is a charming creature. She sits in the sun, playing with a silver pendant that hangs around her neck as we talk art, Woolf, and the tricky trade of working with friends. It has been a year since she opened a small business armed with nothing but a good idea, and still, she loves what she does. As word of her gallery spreads town, it is easy to see why her love is contagious.

On the seventh of the seventh ’07, the calls of Adelaide’s art folk were heard. On that day, friends Gloria Strzelecki and Elspeth Pitt swung opened the doors of A Room of Her Own; a gallery space aimed at showcasing the brightest new sparks in the art world. With a penchant for ‘total art’ (art from across the spectrum) and a message to an IKEA generation, Strzelecki and Pitt hoped to educate 20 and 30-somethings in the skill of art-appreciation. Their philosophy is that art creates a sanctuary of self-expression, and the 300 dollars you just spent on a dress would be better spent on a painting.

The creation of beautiful havens comes naturally to these women. A Room of Her Own is a visually striking space for anyone who loves kitsch aesthetics. With white walls, wooden floors, and streams of natural light, the gallery is pleasing and inviting; small, but perfectly formed. The pallid interior acts as a modest backdrop to the wash of colour spread across the walls. Old art books line a bookshelf in the corner. A window opens to a courtyard, where small city of pot plants is visible outside. Avoiding the ‘white box’ model, the gallery stocks vintage art publications and jewellery along with the best contemporary art the state has to offer.

Set in the heart of Adelaide’s trendy Queen Street precinct – home to all that is quirky and fun – A Room of Her Own is a stones’ throw away from vintage clothing, bric-a-brac, and Scandinavian furniture shops. The area forms part of a hub for those with a strong, albeit eclectic, sense of style. Named after wordsmith and member of the Bloomsbury group of artists and writers, Virginia Woolf, ‘A Room of Her Own’ is an ode to the space itself. It represents the sense of ease Strzelecki and Pitt instil in their patrons: “I think some people are still not comfortable with the idea of an art gallery. They walk in and walk out because they don’t know how to look at paintings,” Strzelecki muses. “By making it reflective of our personalities, we’re trying to change the way people perceive the space,” she smiles, “we’re trying to educate them.” A Room of Her Own is a refuge in the often intimidating world of art.

The gallery was conceived while Strzelecki was fresh from a Masters in Art History and Pitt from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. Both had positions with the Art Gallery of South Australia, but felt something was missing. It was then that they noticed a gap in the market. “A lot of our artist friends didn’t have a space to exhibit that was professional in the sense of curatorship, with young spirit. Everywhere was so stiff.” They decided to create a middle ground between art school and governmental institutions; somewhere for graduating artists without exhibiting experience. A Room of Her Own became a way of providing top level art in a relaxed environment.

Looking at art is second nature to Strzelecki, who grew up surrounded by it. Her mother worked for the Art Gallery of South Australia and during school holidays she would traipse the halls, looking at the paintings and chatting to the guides. “Mum took me to many galleries interstate and overseas. I can remember looking through her beautiful art books at home.” Today she is drawn to collage based work, and art with an edge to it. “At the same time, I love polished works that are simple and elegant.” Currently lighting her fire is the abstract expressionism of the Colour Field artists who were active in New York between the ‘50s and the ‘70s. “Their work is so gentle and elegant in the way it’s put together.”

After a year in the curating game, Strzelecki and Pitt have learnt countless lessons about running a small business. Before they began, they had no business skills, only a passion for their plan. They didn’t know what to expect, or the toll it would take on their social lives and personal time. Both women are always ‘at work’, working two jobs around their time in the gallery. And while they have no trouble booking artists (they have a full diary well into next year) funding is still a problem. “We’d really like an alcohol sponsor,” Strzelecki laments, “we want to create a space where people can have fun – but we don’t have the finances for that at the moment.” This is, however, a minor pitfall and there are countless moments where the women feel more than peachy about their work. A ‘warm and fuzzy’ moment occurs when an artist brings in their finished work - Strzelecki and Pitt hang it on their creamy white walls, and stand back to admire it. They invite their friends, their friends’ friends, and their friends’ friends’ friends to do the same. Before too long, the painting has a new home, and a new set of eyes fixed upon it. It is in that moment that all of their hard work and seven-day-weeks are worth it. “That moment is truly awesome,” Strzelecki beams.

A Room of Her Own is a breath of fresh air - and word of the space is spreading. “Our room is getting busier. People are staying for longer and understanding what we’re about. We’ve starting to see a lot more people who work in the arts industry coming in too,” Strzelecki pauses to stifle a chuckle, “We are a force to be reckoned with!”

A Room of Her Own has closed up shop - for now - since I wrote this article, but stay tuned for the wonderful things the girls have their eyes on next...

Story teller, melody maker.

2009-12-22T11:42:00.001+10:30

Cookie Baker spins a yarn about her new album, her Special Secret Spells and her runaway boyfriend.

At four years old, Cookie Baker sat on the porch of her family home in the Yorke Peninsula, and recorded her first song. The words went something like this: “My runaway boyfriend, he’s gone. That’s why we call him, runaway boyfriend.” Pause. Repeat. At four, she pushed record on her parents 70s cassette recorder and sang about a lost love, a broken heart, and a very terrible boyfriend. Cut to today, and Cookie sits in the front bar of her favourite pub, scotch in one hand, microphone in the other, telling a Disney-esque story of forbidden love. She puts down her scotch and hops behind a piano to let the melody fill in the gaps. The modest four-track My Runaway Boyfriend was a sign of things to come; Cookie Baker is quite the raconteur.

Cookie Baker, aka Adelaidian Holly Ball, loves being a solo artist. A self-confessed control freak, she says that an admiration of self-proficiency in others and a trust in her own creative capability has led her towards ‘going it alone’. “I’m pretty succinct in my own ideas and I trust myself as a person,” she says, “I like knowing that I can just pick myself up and fly interstate, play a show and then say, ‘I feel like going home now!’” Cookie is what they call a modern day troubadour.

An inherently social creature, Cookie Baker is not always a one woman band. On stage, she can be joined by up to seven musicians. These seven are collectively called the Special Secret Spells or “a bunch of mates who happen to be very talented.” Cookie B surrounds herself with an eclectic group of instruments ranging from the melodica and harmonium, to the cello and bowed psaltery – a medieval monk instrument that sounds like a squeaky violin. The result is ‘faux folk pop cabaret,’ a label Cookie picked up from a recent review. The cabaret side of things developed during a quartet of shows at Tin Cat Café for this year’s Fringe Festival. It was during these performances Cookie realised just how much she loves telling stories, and how much people love hearing them. “When you’re a song writer you don’t understand how unnatural the process seems to the next person, but, as wanky as it sounds, the songs I write are just the natural progression of my ideas.” She describes lyrics rolling into her head like words across a 90s computer screen saver. She sometimes sings tunes into her mobile phone when her guitar isn’t within reach, though she admits that she only remembers she can do that when she’s pissed.

Cookie’s debut release Gala Day is a selection of fictitious and life-inspired stories put to music. The album has been long time coming and as Cookie says, laughing, “I’ve been pregnant with this baby for far too long.” It is well worth the wait and Gala Day is a veritable festival of layered, orchestral, and sweet pop sounds. When asked to describe the title she says, “It’s an aesthetic thing; the two words just look gorgeous together.” But, like a lot of her lyrical content, a hidden relevance revealed itself later on. Gala Day represents Cookie’s glass-half-full attitude, and reflects her way for colouring the down times. “All this stuff that’s not so fantastic happens through these songs but the record itself is quite uplifting and hopeful I think, even though the lyrics themselves are not particularly nice.” With a smile she says, “It’s my little bi-polar album.”

The creative process is almost a form of self discovery for Cookie. “There is definitely a buzz about creating, but what I’ve found is that when aspects of the songs reveal themselves to mean something, I learn something about myself. Sometimes I even think, ‘those words look nice together but I’m writing really superficial bullshit!’ It’s often later on that I realise what they mean. The older I’m getting the more practical I am becoming. I think I was more new-age when I was younger and now I’m more earthy and grounded in my beliefs. A lot of the buzz is what you are about to learn about what comes out of your creative process. Actually making something is incredible, but seeing what comes out of it after you’ve created is even more so.”

For Cookie Baker, the recording was about holding down the ideas in her head. “Gala Day documents so much that has been going on in my life. Some of the songs are ones I wrote when I was 16, some I wrote last year. I want to hold it in my hand and go, ‘that’s my project and I did it and I’m proud of it.’” Cookie sometimes worries about being instinctual rather than classically trained. “I’ve had conversations with other musicians about this,” she tells me, “What makes it okay to play in a public place? No one said that it’s okay. I think that’s why there are so many awful performers out there. They don’t know they’re bad! But then, I don’t know (laughs)” Considering her habit of loud conversation and frequent laughter, you don’t get the impression that Cookie is particularly self deprecating. She is just happy to be playing the music she wants to hear. “I read interviews where bands say they want to be the next Beatles and I think ‘No, no, no! Try and sound like something you’ve never heard before!” To Cookie, worrying about being loved by everyone is missing the point. “If you’re creating music that you want to hear because you can’t hear it anywhere else - then you’re going to be fine.”

G is for GOREY

2009-11-30T12:39:00.001+10:30

I discovered a new illustrator today, whilst perusin' my favourite neighborhood bookshop, Spoonbill and Sugartown. His name is Edward Gorey and he is American children's story writer whose tales and drawings are a little creepy, a little spooky, and very funny.

... and here he is, hard at work.

Cut and paste.

2009-11-26T06:49:00.001+10:30

I heart photograph.

2009-11-25T07:54:00.000+10:30

Aj Fosik.

2009-11-25T07:22:00.000+10:30

These wooden masks by Aj Fosik are amazing. I would like one.

Mole and Thomas.

2009-11-21T13:44:00.000+10:30

One of the best things I clapped eyes on tonight at Moma was artists Mole and Thomas' collective portraiture. In 1918, they rallied some 30, 000 troops to form images of Americana such as the Liberty Bell, The Statue of Liberty, and President Wilson. Their greatest feat is a giant representation of a U.S. shield. The photo I saw was so large, I could see each individual face. Incredible.

Equipment.

2009-11-20T12:08:00.000+10:30

"Do you sense how all the parts of a good picture are involved with each other, not just placed side by side? Art is a creation for the eye and can only be hinted at with words."

The incredible Irving Penn.

2009-11-19T13:00:00.001+10:30

Fabric on repeat.

2009-11-16T16:01:00.001+10:30

Z is for ZOMBIES

2009-11-09T09:54:00.000+10:30

I have this in my head most days.

Americana.

2009-11-03T16:55:00.000+10:30

Strangers.

2009-11-03T14:04:00.000+10:30

I hope my obsession with old photos of other people and their families isn't too creepy. It's probably borderline.

Today I bought a tattered old picture of an elderly couple, standing hand in hand in their backyard in possibly the 1940s. It's dog-eared and yellowing and I love it. The old dears are now wedged into my photo section of my purse... Just no one ask if they're my relatives...

Halloween.

2009-10-31T05:20:00.000+10:30

Ralph Lauren embracing the Halloween spirit...

New loves.

2009-10-28T06:09:00.000+10:30

The high line.

2009-10-24T16:31:00.000+10:30

Ebony and ivory.

2009-10-24T15:43:00.000+10:30

Richard Avedon.
Ingmar Bergman.