NGV hangs

I took some cute photos at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) last weekend while hanging out with my boyfriend. I've definitely come to value time spent relaxing and away from doing strict work-related things. I should also point out that a number of the galleries are free to view and there are very few people around as well. It's a short walk from Flinders Street Station and curated in such a way that artwork from a specific region and point in time is carefully explained within the context of the values of ancient civilizations. If you're based in Melbourne or just visiting I would recommend visiting the gallery based on the free exhibits alone, but they also sell books on art and fashion (at exorbitant prices, but at least you can find out about them in the first place). Hopefully I'll have more posts about what I did on the weekend, where I shopped, what I ate coming up soon in time for Summer!

Where is My Mind

It's hard to believe it's been over a year since I first penned these journal entries (remember that I wrote my 2014 journal entries in a 2013 diary?) and a lot has changed since then. These feelings of uncertainty towards my partner have since been resolved, or rather I was able to express them and feel so much better for it. We're back together now but that feeling of freedom and being in touch with my own body and soul was so grounding. Anyway given that I spent a lot of time composing these thoughts and creating little doodles to accompany them I thought they needed to exist online as well as tangibly. Or that maybe someone would find these photos at just the right time and deem it some sort of miracle and take comfort in these words frozen on the page. The human experience is always an embarrassing debacle but there are rare moments of exceptional beauty. Not the stuff of art films but memories which crystallize in our minds and we will hold on to for decades to come. I take comfort knowing that people have extended such kindness and warmth to me in the past, and those moment are just as powerful as being told that I am loved. In those moments words are not needed, I feel it all around me and there can be nothing more perfect or powerful.

Landscape

I had every intention of making more journal pages in a series of badass alien babes in front of breathtaking landscapes but I haven't been interested in the creative process lately. These thoughts have also been solidified by my acceptance that sometimes less really is more, and that I don't have enough hours in the day to dedicate to everything I want. That's OK, as long as I focus on what's important.

Artsy

Wearing: Tokito dress, thrifted tights, saddle shoes from Atilin, Ichi Knee onigiri earring and badges from Minna Gilligan.

I wore this outfit on the last day of perfect Autumn weather in Melbourne, before the week it rained non-stop and people complained about it more than normal. Yes I was a bit cold without a jacket but how else was I supposed to show off my cute little badges? They were made by Melbourne artist, Minna Gilligan, who I seem to write about on a monthly basis. To emphasise the art aesthetic I decided to wear horizontal stripes, red lipstick and a single earring in the shape of a Japanese food. I rarely wear this dress now since it's a bit loose on me but I love how it looks with my saddle shoes. I've also wanted to wear more makeup lately, for myself as a way of adding colour to my outfits rather than for the attention of men or approval of other women. This also echoes the sentiment on one of my badges, without necessarily being seen as confrontational. I believe that at its core fashion should be about creativity and self-expression rather than conforming to an idea of how we should lead our lives. 

Girlhood

These are the remaining photos from my visit to the Girlhood Art Exhibition with Kelly. It made sense to aesthetically catalog things and separate them based on color, rather than the order in which I took them. I had so much fun processing these photos and am starting to feel more comfortable with doing things and experiencing my city. This has largely been due to the rigors of honours forcing me to find new ways of creating blog content away from my home office. No longer do I feel content sitting for hours on end and scanning the Internet for that which I have a visual affinity for. Instead lugging my camera around in my bag and riding the train while penning notes on whatever free newsprint publication I can find has been my weekend getaway. Some of my favourite photos are of Kelly (how cool are her glasses guys!!) and chronicling her outfit in a very organic way, rather than shooting alongside her. I've had my camera for just under a year now but it's only now that I am beginning to explore it's different functions and use it as effectively as my writing. I see it merely as a different way of expressing myself.

girls! girls! girls!

Last month I went to see the Girlhood Art Exhibition at the Union Club Hotel in Fitzroy with Kelly from glitterous clitoris, possibly the greatest named blog ever, since she made two of the works on display there. I really wanted to go since it had been ages since I last saw her and I was extremely mad at my boyfriend and needed to surround myself with lots of art made by awesome girls. For anyone who cares he did apologise to me for that thing. Like the name would suggest there was lots of pink, my favourite piece being a small child-size tent (OK that sounds super creepy but it was magical, I promise!) decked out in Where The Wild Things Are sheets, pink tablecloths and paper doilies with secret messages on them. The tent floor was also covered in glitter which was an added bonus, so after we got up there was a glittery trail following behind us like a pair of snails. I preferred seeing the exhibition with someone else because as always Kelly wore an amazing outfit and I got to photograph her interacting with the other works.

What I found really interesting was the sheer amount of nature referenced by a number of different artists, whether that be portraiture in the woods, flowers or sketches of beetles. The more I research insects for my university project, the more critical I am of how they appear in art. I was unable to enjoy some of the more stylised interpretations and could only think within the parameters of a scientist, instantly dismissing that which was not anatomically correct. It's interesting to not how my brain is changing because I very much doubt I would have cared about that kind of stuff when I was studying insects for zoology. 

While it probably would have been better to attend the exhibition's opening on a Friday night, I enjoyed getting to mill around and view each piece at my own leisure. Also the mid-afternoon sun tinged each of my photos with a certain nostalgia which I then exaggerated in post-production. The various holes in the walls from the last girlhood exhibition and slightly tacky flooring (which I was totally into) had nuance all of their own. The muted noise from the punters downstairs were constant reminders of the exhibition's location above a pub, but I much prefer it over tonnes of people. There were only a couple other people on the Sunday that we went, one girl who was taking pictures on her Nikon was also wearing black Dr Martens. Kelly and I were also wearing the same shoes which was super cool. The only thing left is to pick which pet animal you need to join our witch cult. But seriously you guys, it was like being surrounded by all cool feminist blogs and instagram accounts.