Planet Ruby Starrs

I have finally hung my college show... I cant quite work out why it felt so stressful, not the actual hanging but the lead up and decisions about what to hang and how to!  I suppose its the public persona on display and it needs to feel like a reasonable representation of me as an 'artist'.  Whats ironic is, I certainly feel I have hung my best work, my beautiful colourful scarves, but do they represent me?  They are so very digital!!! I think to me personally and to anyone who has known me over the last year they will represent a journey from actively fearing digital art to an almost ultimate embracement of technology - although I must point out my scarves are mostly hand rendered and then finished digitally - however there is no disputing they needed both processes for completion to my satisfaction!!! I chose to display the scarves over my other work not only because I love them and I am amazed I produced them but also because they are finished!!! So much of my wo...

An excellent action packed flying visit to Leeds, the grandchildren are lovely as always, the little one likes sitting in boxes and the elder was thrilled with the 'dress up shoes' I passed onto her - I'll never walk in heels again!! We saw lots of friends we hadn't seen for a while, great visit to the Yorkshire sculpture Park, an inspirational quilting experience, we helped my son move house - my house is watertight and looking grand, - all finished off with a fantastic party in the barn!! I had to give up precious time to go to Leeds - never a chore but always too busy for comfort -  to sort out some family and house issues  (to my relief the new windows went in well and look great), the family were all busy and seemingly well - and its always lovely to catch up with friends and we were able to sit in a garden most evenings which was a real treat!  We went to a fabulous party at a friends barn last and were royally entertained by Holy Moly and the Crackers - brillia...

splendid day out at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with a good friend from Leeds.  We used the day of summer well, and really enjoyed being in the wonderful park.   Living oop north now means I haven't been to the Sculpture Park for ages and it was really nice to go and revisit some old favorite pieces and see some new stuff, I particular liked Ai Weiwei's Circle of animals/ Zodiac Heads - slightly amused expressions but also a little bit sinister - maybe just because it heads on sticks - but a fab installation in a perfect location and interestingly the other piece I really liked was his Iron Tree which was perfectly placed in juxtaposition with the Chapel, lovely rusting modern art with traditional architectural back drop. We wandered the park, all the old favorites were still there, the Gormley's, Hepworths and the Goldsworthys all weathering well and looking stunning in their placement against a beautiful sunny Yorkshire back drop. Complimented by new interesti...

Once home I spent most of the week considering what to put into my final show at college, its difficult to decide as my last project, while interesting to work on, didn't really pan out as planned and I'm not sure it holds up to display!!  The work is currently in college being marked I'm going to seek it out next week and see it it looks better then I remember when I've had a few days away from the intensity of trying to get it finished to hand in. Having no work deadline pressures or city breaks to plan means I have found time to sort out my 'studio' - grand name for spare room - all my fabric has been colour coded (again) and stored neatly (again) and in the spirit of using found fabric I used a lovely teal silk sari and some cream and green voile pieces to make some summer living room curtains as a change from the more formal rather dark usual suspects.  So now I have three windows and a door curtain all with completely different fabrics dressing them - it...

Home from a lovely city break in Budapest and back to reality.  Looking at my photographs I realise they just don't do the place justice, I think its difficult to capture the majesty and grandeur of the buildings with a simple point and shoot camera,  but they are nice memories of a very interesting city steeped in history and culture. view from dome across town showing mish mash of modern, fairy tale and old buildings We climbed the 149 steps up into the dome of St Stephen's Basilica.  The first bit of stairs were fine, wide solid and reassuringly light, but the second spiral was a bit creepy, it felt very temporary, made from twisted metal, with alarming gaps between the steps giving clear views up and down - I have a reasonable head for heights but was a little unsettled.  The views of the city from the balcony made it all worth while. spiral stairs up spiral stairs down We got a taste for height at this point so decided to spend our last evening ...

And so we are ready to leave the lovely 'art of home' apartment and Budapest heading for the airport. it's been a very good trip we've packed the days with art galleries, museums, rooftop bars, cakes, architecture, cakes again, Castles, Parliament Buildings, Quite a lot of culture - it's been very entertaining it's an interesting city which flaunts and celebrates its history and culture everywhere.  Its tumultuous past makes for a mixed and varied landscape both materially and emotionally, as a visitor and a tourist its been quite a history lesson, in the easiest way possible! As you walk around the streets architecture as I keep saying is fabulous but there are interesting art found everywhere and a lot of very ornate fountains I have to go now plane to catch- more photos on Next blog it's hard to upload using this tablet I'll get used to it eventually Time is Running Out

Budapest seems to be a city of huge contrasts without much demarcation.  Obviously there will be posh areas where no poor people are seen and definetely there will be less desirable areas where so called civilised people would fear to tread.....but in the main city districts every kind of life seems to sit cheek by jowl.  Within a few metres there will be a majestically completely roccoco expensive hotel ....2 metres down or into the road will be a homeless streetperson asleep on a bench outside a rather dubious potentially seedy looking bar or cheap takeaway joint.  Next door will be a grand public building for example the opera house surronded by strip bars and cheap secondhand clothes shops with the most unbelievably uninspiring window displays.  Streets change within feet and inches from lively restaurant and bar areas well lit up in to wee smelling dark and dingy oily looking pavements and then back again. The same happens up wards. Amoung the plethora of bridal...

Another action packed day... first breakfast in a lovely farmers cafe and and then more wandering though budapest down to Heros Square - more statues more grandeur!  It was busy given its a sunday and there was a wine tasting festival on. These women were dancing with wine carafes on their heads Surprisingly we gave the wine tasting a miss- we had only just had breakfast and instead walked around the park photographing yet more domed, turreted and spiralled buildings before going to the fine art gallery for a browse. Interesting exhibits, and quite alot of textiles but mainly furniture and ceramics.  I was disappointed to see that in their top 50 celebrated 'artists' there were only 3 women! Embroided and inked textile piece This afternoon we visited the House of Terror, a very interesting if harrowing experience. The museum is located in the exNazi and later communist party HQ and did not hold back on the the experiences that those walls held.  Its a st...

Another totally successful sightseeing day in Budapest except I couldn't get Hilary to lie down with the Communist statues as it was raining rather hard and she thought she would get wet but now I am going to post the picture of her being part of the battle scene in the National gallery obviously she was impaled and then fell off the picture and landed on the gallery floor it's kind of our own take on Modern Art mixed in with traditional.... That was yesterdays little escapade - today we went to Memento park where all the old statues from the Communist era are placed in memory of that different time. It was very murky and wet and it was really rather fitting weather to view these amazing pieces of art - although I did miss the sun. Fortunately the day did brighten and in the afternoon we went to explore downtown checking out the completly over the top beautiful parliament buildings and St Stephens Basillica (complete with withered hand reliquary)... more statues m...

A lovely combination of real life shabby chic and grandeur - our appartment block in budapest. Sunny day and we walked for miles (about ten we reckon over 25000 steps but we've only got little legs). This place is full of stunning architecture and statues.... quite a lot of statues of lions some of which tried to eat Hilary.  we went to the National Gallery, very good - excellent collection of paintings of every kind three floors full of artwork. there were some enormous paintings and one of which now features Hilary which I can't put on the Blog because I took it with my camera and I don't have any way of transferring camera pictures to my tablet until I get home so you will have to make do with a picture of a lion instead We spent the rest of the day wandering around the Castle area taking photographs of beautiful fairy tale buildings and stunning churches with amazing roofs and stonework details and loads more Lions.  It's fairly exhausting being a touris...

I'm in Budapest travelling with an old school friend we're just having a few days away with staying in a really nice apartment in the Jewish quarter.  its full of funky artwork and pictures and paintings on the walls it's in a classic Budapest Courtyard building.  we are on the second floor, actually it's a bit like Fort Knox I'ts got a grill with two locks on it, a door into a communal area that locks and then the door into our flat so we are definitely very safe... we've been out for a wander and a coffee in a cafe sat on the street so it's real cafe Culture it's warm not like Northumberland Cafe culture probably not like Bath cafe culture ... it is nice to feel some nice warm sunshine. I'm writing this speech to text so will be very little punctuation but it does mean there are spaces in between the words which I don't seem to be able to manage when I type it on the tablet. one of the problems I'm having now is that blogger has co...

Final project handed in... I forgot to take photos, I think I was just so relieved to see the back of it although it is with some regret as technically thats the end of the first part of my art studies and I will now graduate with a foundation degree. I have to decide what I'll do next year. I'm not interested in the third year of the textile course as it is very business centred but I am quite taken with the idea of switching to fine art and getting my honours degree that way. However before I make any decisions I'm heading east to have afew days living it up in Budapest with a friend - a wellearned treat.

I don't have to have a bibliography for my art assessment work but I find it useful to keep track of sources to remind me how many lovely books I can delve into for resources - so many I sometimes overlook them.. so this time I created a visual bibliography - my bookcase slowly getting filled with this modules reference points - there's more to add, I'm in that frantic pre hand in week when I feel nothing is quite right and I wish I'd done it all differently!  It will all work out somehow - its a module I've really enjoyed experimenting with but it's not turned out as I expected. C'est la vie!!! short blog this time and its unlikely I'll add much in the next few days, serious deadlines to meet for college and then a long weekend trip to Budapest - photos may get posted if my tablet behaves itself...