last night, a boy i've never met told me how he'd blindly picked a spot on a map &driven two hours just to see what was there (the most interesting thing being a pink bicycle in a front yard.) i shared with him my current project, one that's been leading me through endless melbourne suburbs, leaning out my car window photographing the fronts of houses - old ones i had lived in, houses of past lovers &friends &others where i simply admired the perfectly straight hedges. curious, both with him &the idea of the unknown, i asked for his suburb &picked an intersection for him to venture to &photograph. in return he did the same.

today, with three cameras &my melways in the passenger seat, i drove to his chosen destination. funny too as he chose a winding street i drive down multiple times per week, yet had never taken notice of the street name, only how fast i could drive its slippery road. i photographed an assortment of things, but what came to mind while standing on the round-a-bout of this busy intersection was the conversation we had had the night before.

him: i hope you find something interesting at that spot
me: i'd be happy with an empty parking lot. im just really curious
him: you wanna know whats ironic about this?
me: what?
him: the most interesting thing there will be you


i leave in nineteen days.

it's a garage sale of the art variety!

minus the actual garage.

so i'm going overseas real soon &i'm selling a heap of my artwork/soul.
think of it this way - every dollar you spend is a spoonful of pasta for me to
eat for dinner! plussss you're scoring an original to put on your pretty wall
(or someone else's wall if you're having a generous day).

+cheap paintings
+even cheaper (GASP!) collage prints
if you're a tightass, link your friends to my sale!
( CLICK )

so yesterday i got accepted to study my second semester in prato, italy. i've been going to info nights about this exchange since i was sixteen, i really can't believe i'm going. i'll be fucking off at the end of august &living in an old textile mill turned apartment. travelling through italy on weekends &detouring on the way home to london to hang with my sister &hopefully bristol to see my muffins.

it's funny how things turn around. the day prior i was clearly so down about my lack of creativity. now i'll have a painting studio in 14th century building &be living in a town where few locals speak english. last night was sleepless, daydreaming about seeing the sistine chapel. fuck, i really just can't believe it.

i've been absent in a lot of ways lately. i had a wonderful birthday last month, a christmas night spent with the best friends i could ask for &a new years so trashy i don't remember djing (dj pussyface) which ended with us playing 'marco polo' in underwear at 7am. i've danced live to the gossip &more recently cried then lost my voice (repeat x 100) at kings of leon. i've spent nights in gutters &then bars where they offer foot stools. we had hungover 'graduation' bbq's &many nights of goodbye drinks to my muffins. bristol has stolen two of my most treasured parts of melbourne. i purchased the slr camera of my dreams but haven't figured out the settings yet &finally spent a boozy evening playing guitar hero.


i want more. from myself mainly (but from you a little too). i am making big elaborate plans.
ps. thank you for the body heat. &for letting me fall asleep to the cure. i think i have to back down though. again. i will stop glorifying you all in my head to avoid bitter disappointment.

brisdang:
+"ey"
+rics upstairs (hah)
+richard &shan &steak houses minus steak
+fat boys breakfast with aileen (L)
+cigarettes on the street in jamies
+"bret i have no money i feel sick"
+rain (&therefore no rides) at movieworld :(

having an empty house = bret moving in, smoking too many cigarettes, eating out (soul mama), coming home late &being noisy minus guilt, movies &giggles with the gang, dinner dates with the muffins & "home cooked meals", laguna beach marathons, afternoon beers with the brothers gang, spending grocery money on junk food &booze &missing mama bear who fractured her coccyx after two days away (&with over a month remaining). under three weeks of my first year at uni = doing more of the above very soon.

( ++++++ )

(4xA1 sheets=100x142cm charcoal reference drawing - 4.5 hours)

+
DATAROCK, mexican dinner dates with muffins (minus one), alleyway drinking, brunswick st hangouts, laughing &laughing &laughing, lily allen on myspace, secret coffee hideouts, midday uni beers, cigarettes on fire escapes, applications to uni semesters in far away destinations, brisvegas in t-minus 11 days, spinning on dance floors, being recognised for progress &(finally) seeing it in myself as well, husky voices, misunderstandings that turn into self realisations, slr's in handbags.

(lovers. slr negative scans)

i love the days when the smallest of pleasures like buying $6 english china in op shops, running for trams &watching, waiting for the sun to peak back through the clouds can make your day. this week i've smiled over spontaneous coffee dates (L), new jeans to stretch in, spud bar dates with muffins, finishing painting projects, daydreaming of holidays soon to come &movies that make the loudest trashbags shut up &think.

what has made your day lately?

i spent last night in the company of THE CURE. dancing for three hours never felt so good. i had dreamed of the day i'd hear robert smith churn out the tunes i danced every day to in my bedroom when no one was watching (or even when they were).

last week also included:
+hot chip (sweaty, giant party with randoms)
+beer drinking
+being content
+bret&i bought plane tickets to brisbane today.
i am so looking forward to that first beer on take off.

(ink on water colour paper - 20 minutes)

i stood on my desk in the painting studio
&along the top window sill in bold, black letters i tediously spelt out

THIS IS HOW LONG A BREATH LASTS.



+crushing over a boy whom i'm too nervous to speak to
+driving/screaming to mixtapes alone on deserted roads
(now a top five favourite pastime)
+awaiting hot chip & THE CURE
+planning trashy holidays to BRISBANE (september20)
+weekly trips to the cinema
+carrying my slr everywhere i go
+point blank (i'm getting better)
+sit-ups at ridiculous hours of morning
+awkward e-mails from ex loves
+feeling PROGRESS
+growing growing growing
+yet somehow moving backward too

i have this faint giddy feeling. yet i feel pathetic (because of it) at the same time too.

"i've got loads of glitter in my eye.
i learned to stick glitter with hairspray from
drag queens when i was thirteen"
- mister patrick wolf



events of the past month can only be traced &recalled via personal jokes (followed by laughing fits). memorable highlights: losing 5kg (10.10lbs) in 2 1/2 weeks, introductions &sweaty dancing to red riders, factory girl, shrek happy meal toys, a $4 zine that changed my life, cigar bars, ding dong lounge &their $9 jugs, kissing old crushes, CURE TICKETS, sleepovers &hungover lunch dates, working at the toy store, weekly rituals, muffins stalkers &perverts, running til i want to puke, feeling.fucking.free.

i am bracing myself to return to uni. i'm ready to get off my creative hiatus &stretch my boundaries again. i want to exhibit this year. i'll have free booze at my opening, i hope you'll come.

oil on canvas : 2hrs
one in a series of five

days are mushing &blending &blurring in to each other a lot lately. things are changing &moving at rapid paces, yet i can't remember the order of events or what i ate for breakfast. but regardless, in amongst my uni break laziness, things are happening.

+photo mission city day with bret (stalking muffins on their anniversary &riding on the ferris wheel)
+mexican trashy thursdays reaching its one month birthday
+WORKING at a toy store with loz from uni
+discovering the film 'love me if you dare'
+antheas drunken dress up 21st &dancing with our drunken uni mature aged students
+hangouts with aileen (L) &scoring free st jerome's toasties

i keep having off days where my procrastination &wandering mind leaves me in a depressed rut. but there is a lot i should be smiling about including my incredible gig calendar (red riders &plug-in-city this week, patrick wolf, hot chip, klaxons, bloc party, midnight juggernauts &&&&&THE CURE!). this week is a perfect reminder of why i love melbourne: art exhibition openings with free booze, dj muffin loving friends opening new indie nights at favourite venues &a music scene that kills.