The older you get, the more fabulous you can become!

I ♥ the Advanced Style blog which features, amongst others, the fabulous designer & artist Debra Rapoport. As a die-hard fan of hats and wannabe adherent of the rule that 'more is not enough', her lavish sense of style fills me with rapture. Watch out Brood because the older I get, the more exotic plummage I intend to adopt. As the ladies & gentlemen featured in Advanced Style prove, the older you get, the more fabulous you can become. Beauty is most definitely not the preserve of the young!

I was feeling glum, raddled & gloomy until I watched Debra's videos on YouTube. Allow me to share a few of my favourites with you...

Juicy fodder for nourishing your creative juices!

Thank to Ricë Freeman-Zachery's podcasts, I'm learning more about Carla Sonheim whom I mentioned in an earlier blog post. I love hearing about people's experience of the ongoing process of learning to draw, especially when I discover that it's not something they've been practising since birth! For someone like me who became infected with a love of drawing in her middle years, Carla's ability to polish up your confidence is empowering so I beg you to listen to Ricë's interview with Carla.

Whilst you're there, check out the other fascinating podcasts available at 'Notes from the Voodoo Lounge'! Artists from a variety of disciplines such as Roz Stendahl, Wendy Hale Davis, Michael DeMeng, Melanie Testa, Diana Trout, Bernie Berlin, Pamela McCarville, Richard Salley & Ricë herself talk about their artistic careers & challenges, all the time offering us nuggets of inspiration to contemplate.

Now, have you bought Carla's book yet? I also have two more books for you to check out when you're next visiting your chosen book store? Ricë's books are the perfect fodder to nourish your creative juices with - go & squeeze them out!

'Think less. Draw more.' And seek out Danny Gregory!

More blog love!! Seth Apter of 'The Altered Page' (which is an immensely enjoyable read) is conducting a Buried Treasure 2010 collaboration in which he is encouraging people to search through their archives and repost some of their favourite articles. May I in particular point you in the direction of Danny Gregory's blog. The Slow=Know post is a particular favourite of mine - indeed a printed copy of it sits inside my Moleskine pocket.

Three cheers for Seth!!! Three cheers for Danny!!! And three cheers for Moleskine for putting pockets in their journals which is a throughly well thought out idea - I do so approve of thoroughly well thought out ideas! Anyone got any spare ones I can borrow?

Talking of archives, should you ever wish to look into mine, I've added a list of topics (or 'Labels' as Blogger rather irritatingly refers to them) that I regularly talk about, to the sidebar on the right-hand side. Go down past the list of places which I visit when I'm feeling curious, past my profile and there before you is my list of 'Labels'. Grrrr - I hate labels!

Sorely missed - Beryl Bainbridge

Beryl Bainbridge (21 November 1932 - July 2, 2010)

I will never understand why this wonderful English novelist didn't win the Booker prize. There's not a single book in her oeuvre that I don't treasure. She was one of our brightest & our best.

Namaste Dame Beryl! I hope you meet Samuel Johnson & all your other boys in heaven!

Louise Bourgeois documentary now on BBC iPlayer

As promised, here is the link to the documentary about Louise Bourgeois.

Kim Miles is back in Blogland!

Spread the word - Kim is back in Blog Town! Head on over to 'taking the long way home' as quickly as can be!

Coming up...

On Thursday 17th June, at 11.30pm. BBC4 are showing a documentary profile of Louise Bourgeois in the 'Imagine...' strand. If this programme makes it on to iPlayer later on in the week, I'll add the link so that anyone from overseas can watch it too.

Dear Reader, I send you warm greetings on this chilly summer's day!

A Special Edition of the Faces: Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois: 25th December 1911 to 31st May 2010

Spiderwoman, you really started something!

May I offer you a delicious serving of eccentricity?

Courtesy of the BBC, a televisual offering can be found here: 'Behind The Scenes at the Museum'

This film is the epitome of all that beautiful BBC2 & BBC4 do best. It's one man's look at the community who oversee the running of the Freud Museum in London. It may sound dull, but I can assure you it isn't! From the developing 'atmosphere' between upstairs & downstairs to the organisation of the dating evenings - yes, you really could meet the partner of your, ahem, dreams ( joke? get it?) and the delightful Freudian slip-pers in the museum's gift shop, this is an hour full of gentle delights.

Fancy making friends with the museum's official dog? Or does finding a lost painting by Lucien Freud appeal? If so, please watch and enjoy. Because you're worth it :-)

'The Faces' Jewellery Challenge: so what would you make for...

I'm reminded of the 'Faces' jewellery challenge that I referred to earlier this month. My impetus is eluding me at present and my sketchbook of ideas for Ellen Terry ( please see this entry) is a staccato mess. Nevertheless, I have another face for you; a photograph of Virginia Woolf whom I mentioned yesterday.

Both this photograph and that of Ellen capture them before the originality & true colours of their lives had unfolded. Perhaps this is why I find it difficult to pluck out inspiration from these youthful photographs; I know what is to come and it is not yet a highly visible seed in these innocent portraits. Methinks I must bear in mind the character & experience of these extraordinary women and celebrate the beauty of maturity. Perhaps I should challenge myself with a photograph of the poet, Dame Edith Sitwell instead.

But ah me no; Dame Edith had more style in an elegant finger tip than I would ever dream of addressing. I dare not presume!

My search for a face continues...

A challenge! What would you make for...

This portrait was taken by Julia Margaret Cameron whose work I'm quite mad for at the moment. It's of Ellen Terry, one of our most revered English actresses, taken when she was a free-spirited 16 year old, already married to the painter, George Frederick Watts.

To read more about Ellen, may I recommend Michael Holroyd's excellent , 'A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families' which I enjoyed immensely last summer.




I have a fancy to display some more photographs from time to time so this may become an occasional series. Now, I wonder, what could or would I make for Ellen?

If you want to listen to something smoothly intelligent, may I recommend this programme about Richard Buckminster Fuller. What a mind! And what a story! This is the type of broadcast that BBC Radio 4 excels at. A little treat!

Apologies that the image has been cropped so drastically. I can't make the file any smaller, so please click on it to see the full stamp. Coolsville IMHO!

Some favourite 'Bucky' quotes coming up:

'Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.'

'I'm not a genius. I'm just a tremendous bundle of experience.'

'How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else.'

'Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.'

'Faith is much better than belief. Belief is when someone else does the thinking.'