not much words, just pictures

all taken with Olympus OM10 onto fujifilm 400 at the Limoux fecos, a kind of riot of masks and music that runs every weekend between January and March. 

carnival

carousel

confetti

cafés

cakes and cappuccinos (of course)

☺

Emily

Last night I finally got to see the Emily Loizeau concert, remember I posted how gutted I was when it was cancelled a few months ago?
She was brilliant, charming and kooky and the concert was pretty much acoustic, in a very small theatre. Emily plays all kinds of weird and wonderful instruments, from the penny whistle to the mooing cow box. Her piano is amazing, a homemade contraption Heath Robinson would have been proud to invent.
I'm not sure how well she is known outside of France, I did once hear one of her songs on BBC 6music but I'm guessing she's not a global superstar. If not, you lot outside of France are really missing out I tell you.

No pyrotechnics, flashy light shows, celebrity guests, Gaga-esque costumes, backdrops and troupes of  lissome dancers. Nah, our lovely Emily doesn't need any of that crap. Just fantastic, inventive, quirky and beautiful music.

Little Room

The epiphany I've been waiting for has finally come. Simmering nicely on my mental stove for so long has been a need for change, and now I am ready to take the plunge. Yes folks, I've shut up shop on etsy. I realised that focussing on internet selling was not what I wanted. Then I realised also that after a year on etsy I'd made relatively few sales, 90% of which were prints. It's not for me I'm afraid. I want to continue to create original work, to push myself creatively in new directions, exploring all the different ways I can express myself. Quite honestly, worrying about etsy sales has denied me most of that. As someone very wise recently said to me, it is over-saturated and over-whelming, too competitive and can rob you of the confidence to just make work you are proud of. I know there are many happy sellers on there, I just wasn't one of them, and I really resented the amount of time it took up and the amount of time I have to spend on the internet instead of getting my hands dirty. Promoting, marketing, photographing and listing and re-listing, only to end up on page 32 within minutes. But hurrah, here's a sale! Yet by the time I've packaged and trotted off to the post office, paid my etsy and paypal fees, I've worked for about a euro an hour! Not good.


So I'm going back to what I love. Quite simply, making art. I will continue to grow and feel inspired and excited by what I am creating, instead of worrying if it will scan well or be popular, how many hearts I have or thinking the front page is the holy grail. It isn't. I was doing fine thank you etsy, before you came into my life and I will be just fine without you.


Well you're in your little room
And you're working on something good
But if it's really good
You're gonna need a bigger room
And when you're in the bigger room
You might not know what to do
You might have to think of
How you got started in your little room

So true, Jack. Thank you.

seeking the answers in café et gateau

 For someone who claims to not have a sweet tooth, I realise just how much time I spend in cafés and eating cakes.
 But I realise a couple of things. Thing number one. I love, love, love this Olympus OM10 and that zuiko lens. Thing number two. The internet can cloud your judgement, confuse you, inadvertantly cause you to make the wrong choices, even make you become someone you don't wish to be, get inspired in the wrong places. Right now I'm in a state of flux. I seem to be going down paths I have no wish to go down and I need to re-group and plan. I don't want or need to attach great importance to etsy, or dawanda or even flickr. I want to create work that I enjoy making and that I am proud of. That's the bottom line.
I realise I've been taking photos of cappuccinos and cakes. I do like these photos, but I'm tired of looking a the same old, same old. Vintage bicycles, typewriters, hands holding pretty objects, daisies, shoes; I'm guilty of all of these. On top of which, I feel as if everything I've drawn lately seems derivative. I am 2 months away from an exhibition which gives me the opportunity to create a whole new body of work. trouble is right now I'm not sure what to do.
I just want it to be new and exciting, at least for me. Perhaps I need to get out more, spend less time on the internet and more time in the real world, and seek my mojo out there. And I'll sit in the sun and have a soya latte and a pecan tresse while I think about it all.

(note the plasters on the pastry holding hand; a common occupational hazard for a cack-handed left-hooker)

seven

no not the film where G Paltrow loses her head.......have you seen this by the way?
Maria-Thérèse over at Afiori creates beautiful work, and she has asked me to reveal 7 things about me. Well, it doesn't seem so long ago I did this one, so I reckoned this time I'd share 7 photos of my life instead.

that's me on the left aged about 18 months with Nick, Richard, Julie and Kathy, my brothers and sisters.

My Mum and Dad, a few christmases ago, in a pub. My Dad was born in Burma, his mother was Burmese. Unfortunately I have not inherited his gorgeous skin tone.

that gorgeous lady with the beard is the man I live with and the father of my children. I'm buggered if I know who that old floozie with him is, harhar. Also christmas, also in a pub. Can you see a family trait emerging?

my little boy, pre-puberty, when I took him to Paris for his first ever concert. Yes, of course, it was a Radiohead one

my boy now, in a band of his own, and the apple of my eye. He swings between not washing for a week and then showering twice daily for the next week. Is that normal?

and then of course my other apples; gorgeously delicious they are too. All my children are fluent in French and everyone now assumes they are French. Me, I still get tongue-tied and struggle with the complexities of conjugasion and grammar constantly, even after 5 years. Either you are good with languages or your not. I'm not. And boy do they take the piss out of me.

and lastly, my beautiful yashica electro, known to her friends as groupe sans nom. She's a little sick at the moment and is having her shutter mended. Romy took the pic with my praktica. And I'm wearing my right now fave shirt; a real old vintage granny-chic find.


Now I'm supposed to pass it on to another seven, but I hate doing that......it's like picking netball teams at school. So if you want to do this, please do and take the pressure off me!