My mother entered, pale with rage. 'We'd just sat down at table,' she said, 'when that thing, sitting in your place, got up and shouted: "So I smell a bit strong, what? Well I don't eat cakes." Whereupon it tore off its face and ate it, and with one great bound, disappeared through the window.'… Continue reading On Leonora Carrington
On The Violent Lesbian: Part 3
Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the… Continue reading On The Violent Lesbian: Part 3
On Photoshop
Rosie Dahlstrom: Collages from 'Delphyne' series, digital collages, 2018 On Monday 29th October 2018 I, finally, got my head around Photoshop. It was a momentous day. Every day since then, I have been on a computer messing about with Photoshop. Mastering the tech skills has been on my to-do list since art school first time… Continue reading On Photoshop
On the Violent Lesbian: Part 2
“Don’t ever fight with Lisbeth Salander. Her attitude towards the rest of the world is that if someone threatens her with a gun, she’ll get a bigger gun.” Stieg Larsson, The Girl that Played with Fire (2006) So, in the Violent Lesbian world: if Villanelle from Killing Eve represents the contemporary fictional psycho-killer and Aileen… Continue reading On the Violent Lesbian: Part 2
On ‘Mandy’
Still from 'Beyond The Black Rainbow' (dir. Panos Cosmatos, 2010) I've been feeling I've been far too intense and convoluted in these posts, and they are getting so long that no one's going wade through them to the end, so I'm going to bring it back to basics with a lovely chat about some interesting… Continue reading On ‘Mandy’
On Alternative Practices
"As I taught [at California College of the Arts], many students were coming to the end of their studies and were moving toward things that weren't art. But they weren't saying 'fuck the art world'. It was the content of their work that led them into other field, to, say, becoming a doctor, as one… Continue reading On Alternative Practices
On the Violent Lesbian: Part 1
I'm going to write some short pieces tying together some thoughts I've had on the image of The Violent Lesbian as she pops up in our collective consciousness of the world. She's a character I have thought a lot about over the years, as I think the transgressive and conservative ways in which she is… Continue reading On the Violent Lesbian: Part 1
On Money
'Money! Money's the curse of man, none greater. That's what wrecks cities, banishes men from home, tempts and deludes the most well-meaning soul, pointing out the way to infamy and shame. Well, they shall pay for their success.' Sophocles, Antigone 441 BC As a young arty type from Glasgow, I'm not used to money. My family… Continue reading On Money
On the Future of Art
'The artist is the antenna of the race.' Ezra Pound This week I finally, at last, started my MA Fine Art. I've been trying, over the course of this crazy week, to pull together strands of conversation, sights, places, experiences to find the common themes that will help me make sense of one of the… Continue reading On the Future of Art
On Changing, Dreaming and Making
'Mrs Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences, a characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature. Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively that dual life- the outward existence that conforms, the inward life which questions.' Kate Chopin, The… Continue reading On Changing, Dreaming and Making
Sertraline Dreams 