Artist Rooms

If I ever had an option of another choice in life I would love to be an art collector who later genrusly donates their collection to the Nation. This is exactly what Anthony d'Offay did and now over 700 items from his collection are going to provide a new resource of contemporary art for the UK audience.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art decided to display their part in form of the Artist Rooms so Hirst, Katz, Woddman, Warhol, Celins and Gallagher are going to share the same flat.

image by F.Woodman, via http://www.heenan.net/woodman/

Mystery of the Uggly boots

The extent of the popularity of these awful shoes amongst Scottish women astonishes me each time when I see someone wearing them in weather like that. Especially that they are indecently expensive (prices start at 170 pounds! WHAT?!) and are usually worn on bare feet. They are also accompanied by a fashionably noisy shuffle along the pavement. They just make me cringe. No matter how charming their owner is. All I can think of is an image of sweaty, stinky feet working on catching fungus. How could one wear them in Australia's climate where they originally came from?

Last breath of winter

This was the weather last weekend - I was meeting a friend at Starbucks (yes, "at the Starbucks across from the Starbucks" as William Langley put it nicely) in Princes Street which wasnow closed for tramworks and did not want to be late. I reached the cafe with a spectacular view of the Castle just when the sun came out again, dried the melting snow and provided a beautifully springy rest of the day.

The girl behind the counter with whom I discussed the peculiarities of Scottish weather told me glumly that if I had decided to wait before coming until after the blizzard passed and had decided to be late for the meeting the snowstorm would have probably lasted the whole day.

My friend was late but not because of the weather but because she went into the wrong Starbucks - one a couple of doors away. I had some extra time to flick through my pile of Sunday newspapers.

Animal friends

I am a dog lover.

A dog's company always provides me with joy, I could play with one (or more) for hours and apart from a wombat - the dog is my favourite animal on Earth!


This sweet little girl resides at a hairdressers next door and even though we have to sometimes dodge her bobki on the pavement in front of our entrance door I love her dearly and I am not only considering using her in a photoshoot but also having a haircut at her owner's salon!

Animation Dept. 2

We are sharing the same student space and I like to use fellow animation students as my models - they are very hard working and adventurous in front of the camera. Sometimes they also have an inspiring note stuck to their work desk at the department:

Animation department

Busy, late and exhausted

I am a master in wasting time. Unfortunately not only mine but also the one of others. I try to do a thousand things at the same time and I often get tangled in the process. Or I stop to do a minute of research and this minute turns in 2 hours. Just like that.

It has been a busy week but have I achieved anything significant? 3000 words of the critical study does not really count. I did couple of photoshoots one of which went pear-shaped as taking pictures with a rangefinder I have forgotten to take off a lens cap. Luckily Simon's children were very understanding and we were able to repeat the photoshoot this weekend.

I am exhausted, sleepy and behind with everything. Though I have finally managed to do my nails with a dark purple nailvarnish. Finally as I have bought it more than 4 weeks ago and have not yet had time to use it.

P.S. I am looking forward to having a look at a new exhibition at ECA - we have spotted it walking back home from Alexandra Demenkova's talk in Stills.