Papernation

Somehow summer is suddenly here and Bristol, as every year, is bursting at the seams with fantastic things to do and see.  One of those must-see things is the annual Jamaica Street Open Studios event, which runs this year from July 22nd -24th.

This amazing, beautiful building is home to more than 30 different artists covering all manner of artistic directions, from fine art, illustration, sculpture to photography, film, ceramics and jewellery making.

We’ve gone along to the Open Studios for the last couple of years, and it makes for a quirky and fascinating day out.  It’s easy enough to go see art in a gallery, but you don’t often get a chance to see artists’ actual studios and workplaces.  Throughout the Open Studios weekend, each individual studio is a mini gallery for the artist’s work, but you also get to see their tools, workspace, and all the bits and bobs that each artist chooses to surround themselves with.  For me, that’s just as intriguing as the actual work!

I’ve got a number of firm favourites in the list of resident artists – including Bjorn Rune Lie, Leah Hemming, Serena Curmi (can you tell I love illustration?).  Another amazing Jamaica Street resident is Emma Dibben, who draws beautiful pictures of food. You’ll recognise her work instantly, as she’s responsible for the Waitrose food illustrations that adorn their carrier bags and other Waitrose items.

Paper-cutting is another favourite thing for me, and Rose Vickers always impresses me.  The gorgeous piece shown below has been meticulously cut from a map – by hand! No laser cutting, just incredibly skillful cutting with a scalpel!

We’ve seen some of Teresa Murfin’s work in previous Open Studios, but we’re really keen to see some of her collaged work, like this cute as can be llama!

So…make sure you book the Open Studios event into your diary now…it’s a once a year thing and not to be missed!  As well as a sneak peak into the work and life of some of Bristol’s best artistic talents, there’s also an annual auction of mini-artworks from each of the artists – so you could come away with a bargain piece of original art!

Jamaica Street Open Studios

22nd -24th July, 2011

39 Jamaica Street
Stokes Croft
Bristol
BS2 8JP

I went to London on Saturday and decided to visit the wonderfully vibrant Borough Market which is just next door to London Bridge.  It’s well worth a visit if you ever find yourself in that part of London.  If you’re in no rush, get the tube to Waterloo and then walk along the south bank.  There’s so much to see and do, Gabriels Wharf, Shakespeare’s Globe, The Royal Festival Hall and the Hayward Gallery, Tate Modern…  The narrow streets are steeped in history and you can just imagine some of Dickens’ characters skulking in the shadows.

Welcome to the very first in what will become a regular series of interviews here at the Papernation blog. We’re delighted to be starting this series with San Diego based artist and illustrator Susie Ghahremani.  Susie’s work features an adorable assembly of birds, animals and people you just can’t help falling in love with.

In this interview, Susie discusses her background, inspiration and her typical day, and talks about her collaborations with Chronicle Books and iPop.

When, and how, did you first decide you wanted to be an illustrator  and artist?
I’ve always been creative, and I’ve always drawn/painted, but it wasn’t until the college application process that I realized there was nothing I would rather do in life. Before the college application process, I never felt challenged into making a decision that would affect the rest of my life like that!

Where did you study, and what is your art background?
I studied at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and earned my BA in Illustration. In my youth, I also formally trained at Interlochen in Michigan in drawing.

What inspires you the most?
Nature never ceases to amaze me with its complexity, sweetness, patterns and colors. I find constant inspiration from the outdoors. I also find a lot of inspiration in my own memory – moments I remember from childhood, fascinations of my youth, etc.

What is your studio space like?
It’s overflowing! I work from a studio space here in my home. Between the t-shirts, paper goods and all the other products I create and sell, and all my paint supplies, paintings and shipping materials, there’s hardly room for a person in there

What is a typical working day like for you?
My work days vary tremendously based on the project I’m working on at the moment. For example, if I’m working on an art show, I’ll spend the entire day painting and preparing for that. If I’m working on an illustration project for a magazine or publisher, I might be scanning and photoshopping a final painting throughout the day in between returning client emails and faxing contracts. If I’m shipping orders to my customers, I might be writing notes and sending emails and packing goodies into envelopes… Some days I spend the whole day just trying to catch up with email, other days working entirely in my sketchbook. Every day is different, which is part of what I love about my life as an artist Most days involve a good dose of caffeine in the morning and some combination of the activities above…I usually spend about 15 hours a day at work!

How do you approach each new project?
I like to treat each project as a problem that I can solve! It becomes a sort of game for me…understanding the limitations and parameters, and then brainstorming how to best make use of those constraints. Coming up with new ideas is one of my favorite parts of being an artist.

Which projects are you most proud of?
My Bon Voyage Travel Journal is something I’m most proud of. It’s an idea I had while on my honeymoon last year, and I spent the following months creating the artwork for it. It came together exactly as I dreamed it would, and I’m so proud of the end result. I’m also very proud of solo art shows I’ve had, such as “The Wild Life” in Los Angeles in 2008. It’s a lot of fun and work bringing so much art conceptually together in one room for an event, and installation requires so much planning that it’s a thrill when it all works out.

Are you planning any more collaborations with Chronicle and/or Ipop  in the future?
Yes! I have a pocket agenda for 2012 with Chronicle due for release later this summer, and I’m so excited about it! It’s called the Clockwork Agenda. I just released a new magnet collection with iPop as well!  I love working with both Chronicle and iPop & hope to continue growing my collection with them both!

A note to our readers:

If you’re as smitten as we are with Susie’s cute as a button creatures, check out these cute stationery items, featuring Susie’s work.

Bristol is so photogenic, I love taking photos around the city of the different buildings, art, food and anything else that takes my fancy. Here is my small selection of photos I want to share with you. And if you’ve never visited Bristol, I certainly hope it inspires you to visit!

Colston Street Buildings – I never noticed these colourful buildings until I stood outside Snap gallery and looked down at them. So pretty.

Painting by Mike Ogden in Westbury Park

Wills Memorial Building – always surprises me how grand it is whenever I walk in there.

The Downs on a sunny Sunday morning.

Redland Church, which I believe is now functioning as flats

The Harbourside – we were sitting just outside the Arnolfini for this photo.

Colourful houses on Gloucester Road – there is no shortage of colourful houses in Bristol!

Strawberry & Rhubarb Cake from the Boulangerie – I urge you to try this cake, it’s possibly the best I’ve ever tasted!

Street Art just off the Gloucester Road – if anyone knows the artist let me know in the comments!

Some of our products for the list aficiondo

1. My Future Listography 2. KTWO To Do notes 3. So as Not to Forget 4. Today – Mini Goals 5. Curious Lists

I’ve always loved making lists. My notebooks are constantly covered in bullet point lists of things that are ‘to do’ or ‘should do’ that almost never get crossed off. When I go on holiday I have to make various lists (categorised into clothes, useful things, essentials etc) so as to remember those things that I really don’t want to leave behind. I recently did a stint of 8 months travelling…you can imagine how convoluted and ridiculous the lists for that were!

My list for today. I’m proud to say I got almost all of it done!

I think the bit I like the most is the actual the list making – the contemplating what is going to go on my list. Does that sound ridiculous? It’s often the most satisfying part of the whole process. And once it’s done, it’s a great feeling to see what you’ve got written down, or as Jane O’Brien brilliantly put it (in my opinion) from an article on the BBC “[a] sense of satisfaction from having created a rigid timetable of impossible tasks” . Whether you’ll ever do even half the things on that list is no matter. (In any case, they’ll go on tomorrow’s list!)

Pages from the My Future Listography Journal.

What made me want to write this blog was the arrival of the My Future Listography Journal. I really like the simple layout of the journal, the fact that it is really just all about lists (no hiding behind the façade of a notebook!). Some of the pages are shown in the picture above. It has 1 page in a double page spread dedicated to a specific list, such as “list TV series you want to see”, “list museums you want to visit”, “list events to time travel to (past or future)” and the best of all “list the lists you want to make one day”. The accompanying illustrations are also really cute.

Apparently Picasso, Benjamin Franklin, Martha Stewart, Thomas Jefferson and Madonna are famous list makers. I would like to have seen Picasso’s lists, i’m sure his were adorned with all sorts of weird and wonderful doodles.

Do you make lists? Do you have different categories of lists, like I do? From our Facebook competition yesterday about notebooks, I can see that a lot of you are very much into your lists!

I’ve had this old letter for a while now, but the festive season made me think about it, and I thought it would be fun to share. The envelope isn’t in great condition but the letter inside is still crisp and intact. I love the insight it gives into the formality of family relationships during the 19th century.

Chapel House
11th December

My dear Parents

I take up my pen once more to announce to you that our Vacation will commence on the 18th Inst and terminate on the 19th January 1852 when I hope to see you all well.

I hope the improvements I have made during the past half year will meet your approbation and that I shall be ever grateful to you for giving me a good education.

I conclude dear parents with kind love to all and receive the same yourselves from,

Your affectionate Son

John Turnor

If, like me, you’ve seen folk online talking about postcrossing.com and the postcards they’ve sent or received, no doubt your interest has been piqued.  Just what is postcrossing.com? Where do the postcards come from or go to?  I decided that the best way to find out about postcrossing was to ask someone who’s already a postcrossing afficianado.  Millie from mslogica.com has very kindly answered a few questions about her experiences so far…

A couple of Fridays ago, with 10 minutes of the working week to go, I spied a tweet from @llamakevin on Twitter, saying that he was auctioning a weekend in his Devon cottage on eBay and the auction had just minutes to go with no bidders. A quick check in the diary showed that the weekend was free, so I put in a bid and waited…

An hour later and….the weekend was ours! And last weekend, we headed down to Devon to stay in Kevin and Vicki’s fab cottage. You may be wondering why I was so thrilled to win this holiday cottage for a cold weekend in November…it was the llamas that made it for me! Along with a fantastic cottage that was spacious (an easy sleeps 4), as well as cost (wood burning stove and underfloor heating) there are 14 gorgeous llamas, half a dozen goats, two adorable cats, two dogs and a stack of chickens…if you’re an animal lover, this was such a fun weekend!

Read the rest of this entry »

As this week’s NaNoWriMo competition, we thought we’d look at the idea of literary inspiration.  We want to hear about the best book you ever read….and what made it the best.

Tell us which book has left the deepest impression on you, impressed you the most or otherwise wowed you more than any other.  What made it so special?  Did you read it at a particular time in your life that made it stand out for you?

Add a comment to this blog post, telling us the name of the book and the reasons you love it so much.

The winner will win this rather lovely Lamy Vista fountain pen. We’ll even throw in a pack of ink cartridges too, so you can get writing straight away.

The competition closes on Friday at 5pm GMT, and the winner will be announced on Saturday morning.

UPDATE:  The winner of this competition is Karen (see entried below). Congratulations!

Thank you all for entering, it was really interesting to read your reviews and recommendations of the books you love.

Some of you will know that here at Papernation, we tweet.  And that we’ve been having some Halloween fun over the past few days.   Combine the two together, and the result is the above pic, which is one of my tweets from this afternoon….fantastically illustrated by the very marvellous @irkafirka.

I’d not come across @irkafirka before today, but what they do is genius.  They take one tweet per day from the millions of tweets that pass through twitter and turn it into an illustration. And today one of our tweets was picked.  How fantastic is that!

I see that they’ve been extra busy today and have created a second irkafirka illustration – for a tweet from the King of The Twitterati, @stephenfry, so we feel in very lofty company indeed!

Irkafirka has a website too, where you can see all their previous creations, and they even have an iphone app, so you can get a daily irkafirka delivered straight to your iphone!