Mailbox interview

http://www.mailboxartspace.com.au/blog/

Lielvarde Vöö

For my Last Supper in Estonia...

I sat next to a carpark by the harbour and ate smoked salmon and blueberries.

I remembered I had a dream the other night where I was being interviewed for art school on a slowly sinking ship. 

I can't wait to drink a gin and tonic on the plane and put myself to sleep listening to Gravity's Rainbow.  I'm looking forward to seeing the cat.

I'm in need of a studio when I get back to Melbourne so please e-mail me if you have any leads!

Vagabonding around

I'm sitting in the window of an old fashioned café in Tallinn with a coffee and a piece of cake. There is a small ferris wheel of tea cups circling just behind my head. Michael Bublé's 'Home' just played in the background and I'm finding the whole situation rather amusing.

Due to a plumbing disaster I've had to abandon my roommate Robert and relocate to a hostel for the night. I've been living somewhat basically for the last week with no fridge, internet or shower. But I have had my own space to live and work, lots of books, a handful of films and a radio. I've found this solitude very special, especially travelling in a foreign country.

I could write more but I need to buy some Vana Tallinn liqueur to stuff into my pack before tomorrow.

Estonian Tan

Views from my bed

Robert

Don't play with matches

A tribute to packing the practical coat

I had some dinner and thought how the weather forecast must have been wrong as I looked out to a glorious evening. I thought how I really must take advantage of this sunlight and go for an evening promenade. 

I donned my Gore-Tex, a now staple wardrobe item.

The moment I got out the door I noticed the grey clouds creeping in overhead. I only walked for about ten minutes, looked up to this unidentified monolith and then the rain began to fall. 

Now I'm back to my apartment drinking peppermint tea and listening to some jazz. Luckily I have suddenly become obsessed with Carl Sagan's Cosmos so I'm going to spend the evening thinking about how insignificant I am in relation to all time and space and mend the tear in my backpack. 

Scribbles

Biro makes me work differently; I draw a line that quivers across the page and then carefully shade an area. I love when the ink wells up and causes little dark blobs of blue.

I can't seem to sleep in Helsinki. I feel somehow jetlagged from moving forward two hours and culture-shocked to be in an unfamiliar country.  I'm renting an apartment for the next few days though so it is nice to have my own space for a bit and filter through the record and book collection here (half English, half Finnish). Tonight I watched Easy Rider and have started reading a book on the KLF. I suppose I should put myself back to bed as the sun will be up in a few hours. 

Long days and little nights.

The Book Of Mercy

A misty morning

I've been listening to Black Box Recorder on the train the last few days.

Today is goodbye Scotland and hello Finland. Airports make me nervous. So many different procedures and directions to follow. 

Time to blow my last £10 before the flight.

Staircase

I've been doing a lot of walking around Glasgow and I can't help looking through all the tall clear windows, open to let any hint of sunshine in. I keep imagining how I would furnish my room around a bay window. Maybe I've been looking through other people's windows for inspiration.

I think of sitting at my desk back in Melbourne looking out to the people passing by. I wonder what they can see of my room from the street; what details would they pick up on?

The other day I was walking along the edge of Kelvingrove Park and became fascinated by these sections of wide stepped staircases that I could see through some windows. It seems unusual to have a staircase through the middle of a window; I wonder where do they go? What rooms do they connect? An optical mystery as I look in from the outside.

Roddy

I found this on the ground walking around the city of Edinburgh. 

Lunch by Water of Leith

With new friend

Edinburgh

Marched eastward this evening wanting to climb Arthur's Seat but by the time I got to the base it started spitting and then it quickly started pouring. I'm realising that this is typical of Scottish weather. I gave up on the ascent, took shelter under some trees and started consuming things beginning with b - blue cheese, baguette, blackberries, (bah)gordon's gin...

Lancashire

I haven't been taking many photos of my travels

I've been seeing a lot but I find it hard to discern what I want to document photographically. I often feel like taking photos of a big city is a waste of time as it is now so easy to retrieve a million images of that city. I always ask myself, 'what will I want to look back on?' and 'why do I need to take this photo?'

Photography is a strange medium to me; I use it a lot, yet it is always for documentation or as a means to realise an idea in a different medium. I feel so overwhelmed with the amount of photographic images I see each day that my reaction is to try and produce a minimal amount of my own photographs. I still feel obliged to carry my camera with me everywhere though.

If one of my reasons for not taking many photographs is the dread of looking back on a mountain of images and being unable to find the information that I'm looking for then why do I also carry around my journal each day and fill it up with pages of illegible writing that is incredibly difficult to read back through? It seems I view the process of photographing very differently to writing. How do I view drawing?

Today I took two photographs, both at the Tate Liverpool. I realised just now that they are both of windows.

Lucy McKenzie, Side Entrance 2011

Giant Onions!

Had to step into the garden bed and pat these beauties. A grey day exploring the world of The Barbican.

Gourmet Down and Out in London