Day of the Dead exhibition

Work by Hannah Dymond

The Mexican Day of the Dead is celebrated on the 1st and 2nd November, and over the years, it has become more well-known in this country. One of my dreams is to go to Mexico and experience it at first hand. Until that happens, I am more than happy to enjoy the work produced by artists in this country who are inspired by these celebrations.

Last Thursday, I went to the opening night of a Day of the Dead exhibition here in Bristol. Mr Kitsch's paintings are part of the exhibition, and the whole thing looks amazing.

On Saturday, they were doing face painting, and guess who got his face done?

Mr Kitsch with his work

Although it's a small gallery, the exhibition is rather marvellous, so if you're anywhere near College Greeen in Bristol this week, and you like looking at skulls, do go and have a look!

Work by Lou Gray

Skull design by Sam Bevington

Day of the Dead exhibition, The Showroom, College Green, Bristol. Open daily 11.30 - 6.30 until 6th November.

The Art of Cactus County

Last night Mr Kitsch (otherwise known as Gary Smith) launched his new exhibition at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. It was a great evening, with live music, tequila, lots of friends showing their support, and of course, his amazing art. The exhibition is on for the whole of October, in The Green Room, just off the main cafe bar of the Tobacco Factory, and as you can see, looks wonderful on the deep red walls!

I'm very proud of what Gary's achieved with his painting, in a relatively short period. He has only been painting for a couple of years with no formal training, but has developed a bold, naive style inspired by the Mexican folk art of the Day of the Dead. Into that, he has woven stories of a fictional place called Cactus County, where science and rationalism are celebrated, rather than religion. You can find out more at http://www.flickr.com/people/cactuscounty/

It was great to see it up on the walls, to be appreciated by so many other people. Let's just hope he gets lots of buyers!

My lovely man with his lovely art!

Catching up on Summer

Time for a bit of a catch-up. I haven't been posting much on this blog, as I've been having so much fun with my other blog - Curious Objects. I'd love you to take a look, if you haven't already. It's all about the strange and silly stuff I find myself collecting.

Michele's charming menagerie at the Vintage & Handmade Textile Fair

I'm afraid I had to control my collecting instincts when I popped in to the Vintage and Handmade Textile Fair on Saturday. I'm trying to stop spending, and although I sighed over many a piece of vintage fabric, I didn't allow myself to buy. Much to my chagrin, Mr Kitsch was the one to spend money, as he bought some buttons because he liked the card they were on. (Should that really be allowed? It's okay for him to follow one pace behind me at vintage fairs, but to go around buying stuff? Hrrumph.)

It was a textile-y weekend, as we went to the American Museum on Friday. The folk art and textile collections there were as marvellous as ever, and their temporary exhibition this year is 'Marilyn - Hollywood Icon', which is full of outfits that were actually worn by Marilyn Monroe in films. There were jewellery and other small possessions too (but no photography allowed). It was interesting, but the displays were rather lifeless, somehow. It think it would have helped if the mannequins had been Marilyn-shaped  - some of the dresses hung rather sadly on the standard-sized dummies. It just seemed to underline the fact that all the glamour came from her. The dress from 'Niagara' was very plain, but in the photo it looks fantastic on her.

Hooked rug at the American Museum

I spent ages looking at the quilts in the museum (but didn't get any good photos). Every time I look at those old quilts all sewn by hand, I am stunned by the amount of work in them. I'd love to try my hand at a quilt one day, but it would have to be a very simple one!

Beadwork is another craft I'd like to have a proper go at. There are some great examples of native American beadwork in the museum. And lots of great folk art and artefacts.

Although the photos look like we were indoors all the time, we spent plenty of time enjoying the grounds in the sunshine. I think it's jolly nice of the weather to make up for my missing so much of the summer. These hot days have felt like some recompense for all the summer days I felt were passing me by!

Woman 1968

I've been buying quite a few vintage women's magazines lately. I love the old adverts and fashions. This 'Woman' magazine from 1968 is one of my recent purchases, and I love that stripey mini dress on the cover, and the way they've picked out the colours in the side headings.

As I leafed through, I came across an offer for a little girl's dress, 'cut-out and ready to sew'. After a looking at it for a while, it gradually dawned on me that it was a bit familiar. In fact it was remarkably similar to a photo of myself I'd come across recently, when I was putting some old photos away.

I'm the one on the right.

It all fitted. The photo of me is from our summer holiday in Wales in 1968, just a few months after the magazine came out. I could tell it was a dress that my Mum had sewn for me, because of that crazy pink ruffle. I've no idea why she added that. Knowing her, it was probably to add a bit more colour. Maybe we were disappointed with the fabric, because the colourway was called 'Rainbow Pink', but is actually predominantly green. I can well imagine the 6 year-old me, being grumpy about a dress 'not being pink enough'. I look a little grumpy in the photo. My hair is wet, because we'd just had a day on the beach (possibly Barmouth?), and the picture makes me think of the feeling of getting dressed on the beach, still damp and sandy, with clothes sticking, and my mum trying to sort us all out.

Here are a couple more pages from the magazine, to take you back to 1968...

Oh yeah, I bet she knitted those jumpers for the whole family. And has a pet deer.

Blogging about stuff

This week I am a guest editor on 'four for the day' blog. This will give me a chance to share some of my random collections. It's a simple idea that works very nicely - four things every day.

I've started off with four elephants. I don't exactly collect elephants, I just happen to have a few. By coincidence, I discovered Peter Blake's collection of elephants, in his exhibition at the Holbourne Museum last week.

I took this photo, after checking with an attendant that I could. I was just getting started, when another attendant came in and told me photography was NOT allowed. So I have just three photos of random objects, and none of the really good stuff. The exhibition has closed now, but I'm very glad we managed to get to see it. (My thanks to Jane of Things to Make and Do, for reminding me about this exhibition, and also for discovering 'four for the day'.)

I've been focussing a lot recently on my various collections of kitsch and curious objects. Partly I suppose, because I haven't been able to get out and about much, and partly because I've been going through stuff to try to bring some order to it all and get rid of the things I don't really love any more. It's reminded me of what I love about kitsch and weird stuff, and also of some of the great stuff I own!

With that in mind, I've resurrected an old blog of mine - Curious Objects. This is where I share the weirder items from my collections, or that I've seen on my travels. I hope to add something every weekday. It's a chance to focus on the object, with less chat. I hope you take a look and let me know if you like it.

In Progress

This is a crochet throw I've been working on for a little while now. I'm not quite sure how much bigger to make it, but there's definitely some way to go before it's finished. I'm enjoying the candy-bright colours, and I was able to work on it, even when I was lying on my back!

I haven't really made anything else to speak of lately. I've been in a sort of creative limbo for quite a while now, feeling frustrated about all the things I can't do during my recovery, but not really pursuing the things I can do.

I had a bit of a setback when my slipped disc got worse again a few weeks ago. A second operation was ruled out for now, thank goodness, but I have to be careful for a while. This has meant no car-booting and very little vintage-hunting at all (although Ebay is my boon companion). I couldn't even get to the Vintage Jumble a couple of weeks ago, which was bitterly disappointing!

But I'm able to do a bit more compootering, and so I want to catch up with stocking my Etsy shop, and blogging. Getting there slowly.
I'm a work in progress at the moment.

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Mind How You Go

I have a few photos to share with you of some stuff I picked up at a car boot sale and photographed before 'You Know What' happened. This was when I was trying to be gung-ho about keeping active, and decided to 'fight the pain'. How wrong can you be? I should have taken the advice of this cute card of the Squirrel family, which says 'Mind How You Go'!

However, today I'm still feeling very well, and have ventured outside for a short walk round the block. I know! How brave am I? It was a very short walk - just a few hundred yards on our housing estate, but nice to start making progress.

I was so chuffed to find some vintage cards - they are my current obsession.

Thanks again for all the good wishes. For those of you who were slightly freaked out by my medical details yesterday, here is a picture of a kitten... and a puppy and a chimp in a nappy. God, I love weird postcards like this!