Beci Orpin & her sketch diaries

Beci Orpin is a Melbourne based designer, who works non-stop (colabs have been pouring out over the past 6 months) and creates images and objects which are colourful, energetic and fun... 'childlike but sophisticated' perhaps. There is definitely a Japanese influence in her aesthetic.
Anyhoo, she has a fun blog (over here) and in a recent post, she included shots of her sketch journals. She says she is up to number 20, and as someone who keeps documentation of ideas/inspirations in a similar way, I can completely relate to the need for having these types of outlets onhand.
As a teacher at a design school, I constantly bang on about the importance of keeping an art diary/process porfolio/skecth journal, whatever you want to call it. Seeing the process behind creative output fascinates me & for any artist/designer out there, keeping these types of books really can teach you things about your own development- your skills and your opportunities. Scribble on!

Studio Visit: FraserStudios

 

FraserStudios is a multidisciplinary artists studio space in a beautiful warehouse in Chippendale and every 3 months they open their doors for an open studio day; beers, bbq and dj included. I went along to the open day yesterday, took the new toy (Cannon EOS 1100D) and snapped away at the creations spread out over the 3 levels.

Current residents in the space include:

• Team Mess
• Tammie Castles
• Charles Dennington
• John A. Douglas
• Stephanie Gallagher
• Becky Gibson
• Michaela Gleave
• Alexander Jackson Wyatt
• Monica Levy
• Ngoc Nguyen
• Adam Norton
• Stephanie Quirk
• Mark Titmarsh
• Craig Waddell

Sarah Applebaum

As I type this I have my most recently purchased nanna crochet blanket around my shoulders. It's cream, violet, lemon and fluro orange and it's f.a.b. I have a few and I am looking to expand my collection this winter, spending my nights curled up on the couch, snuggling into my blankets. Maybe build a little crochet fort or two...
U.S. artist Sarah Applebaum has made an art form of the crochet fort and she expressively plays on the colours and the geometrics of the crochet squares. She builds towers with it, she covers the surfaces of art galleries, she turns the blankets into soft and colourful armoury and headpieces. The craft revolution is well and truly rolling on and Applebaum is stitching her mark.
Have a look at her website and step into her richly colour saturated world.
www.sarahapplebaum.com/

Rain smell

Petrichor... the word for the smell after the rain.

Image from Olafur Eliasson's show Take your time at The MCA 2010.

Toward a Kyoto Renaissance

One of the Superhypermost crew was in Japan a few months back and stumbled upon the Kyoto University of Art and Designs' Graduating Show. The level of buzzing creativity was out of this world.

The Japanese are known for their concentrated attention to detail and this exhibition showed us that this national personalilty trait is bubbling up in the new generation of creatives.

From painting and sculpture, through to textile and product design, across a massive hall of large scale concept art, to rooms and rooms of ceramics and furniture, it was a whole days worth of looking, learning and appreciating.

Have a look at the university's 'education and research system' online here (of course their website is a nifty little design) and see the diversity of the offerings... absolutely incredible.

Images by Jess