Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

I have this fantasy that someone gives me a quarter of a million pounds and lets me loose in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. This year, the fantasy was particularly good, as the exhibition was the best I have seen in the five years I've been coming to the show. You can grab a peek here.

The theme of the 237th exhibition is multiple images and printmaking in all its manifestations. Some artists use woodcuts and etchings as well as newer technologies such as photography and video. One of the best parts of the exhibition is discovering new, fantastic artists - this year I fell in love with these images by Alessandro Gallo.

Brick Auction - An Update

Further to my previous post about the Brick manuscript auction, Michael Redhill either knows nothing about computers or is really stupid. Here is the kafuffle.

Pimms and Strawberries

centre court
Originally uploaded by sarah4855.

Just returned from fourteen glorious, rain-free hours over two days at Wimbledon. I saw my boy, Lleyton Hewitt, beat Taylor Dent (photo above) as well as Federer, Ferrero, Clijsters, Davenport, and the new teenage sensation Andy Murray. Even 007 himself was there to cheer on his fellow Scot. And lots of strawberries and Pimms was consumed, of course.

Travels Through Olde England

since 1411
Originally uploaded by sarah4855.

One great thing about travelling through England is feeling that you are surrounded by so much history. I spent part of the weekend in Salisbury, home to the gorgeous Salisbury Cathedral, completed in 1258. The photograph below was taken from where I spent Sunday night - the Old Mill Pub in Harnham, originally a paper mill built in 1135.


I drove through the New Forest, created by William the Conqueror in 1079 as a personal hunting ground. Today it is home to herds of wild ponies, including this one, who stopped our car while acting as a toll booth. A sugar cube was all that was required.

This Match is Love-Love

andy says hello
Originally uploaded by sarah4855.

Wimbledon started on Monday and I woke up to find the above greeting on my door, courtesy of my flatmate. It is partly a dig, as Lleyton Hewitt is my boy. A better view of what Andy is saying to me:

Going Once, Going Twice...Sold!

freud action
Originally uploaded by sarah4855.

My rather obsessive hobby was more than satisfied on Saturday when I attended the viewing of the Impressionist and Modern Art and Contemporary Art auctions at Sotheby's in London.

While living in Toronto the past few years, I attended the spring and fall auction viewing at both Sotheby's and Christie's in New York and was firmly hooked by this hobby when I saw the most expensive piece of art in the world. To be able to see this Picasso in a practically empty gallery when it had not been publicly seen in decades (and after being sold may submit to the same fate) was awe-inspiring. Not to mention the gorgeous painting itself.

The pieces that I particularly liked were the Lucian Freud shown above, this small Rothko, this Gauguin still life, and this interesting Warhol/Basquiat collaboration.

Brick Auctions some Sexy Manuscripts

Beginning today, you can own a piece of literary history. Brick is auctioning fifteen original manuscript pages, created expressly for the journal, to the highest bidder on Ebay. You can have on your bedside table, a handwritten page from Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (seen above) or other manuscript selections by writers like A.L. Kennedy, Don DeLillo, Alice Munro, Michael Chabon, Pico Iyer, Marilynne Robinson....the list goes on and on. I actually bid on the Ondaatje manuscript at the Brick 25th Anniversary Party back in 2003 (where Ondaatje sawed a woman in half and Atwood led a gruesome sing-along) but it didn't reach the reserve bid.

If you want to support Brick but don't want to part with so much cash, you can buy a ten-year subscription. Still expensive, I know, but great art is worth it, right?

Book Tag

Looks like I've been memed again by Robot Johnny. This one is particularly difficult for me...here goes nothing.

Number of Books I Own
You are asking a book editor/Ph.D student this question? Absolutely impossible to ascertain. Especially as my collection is presently spread across three cities and two continents.

Last Book I Bought
Ali Smith - The Accidental

Last Book I Read
Was actually a play. Harold Pinter - The Birthday Party

Five Books That Mean A Lot to Me
Kit Pearson - The Daring Game
Michael Ondaatje - Coming Through Slaughter
Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
Virginia Woolf - Mrs. Dalloway
Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase

My Most Prized Book....My own added category
A first edition of Sylvia Plath's The Colossus, which was a gift from my parents upon the convocation of my first degree. According to abebooks, this edition is worth a pretty penny.

Frida Kahlo at the Tate

kahlo
Originally uploaded by sarah4855.

This weekend I went to the Frida Kahlo Exhibit at the Tate Modern. I didn't really know what to expect, partly because I think I am still disappointed by the atrocity that was the biopic Frida and partly because it might have been one of those exhibits that simply throws together 10 or 12 paintings and considers itself important. But to my delight, the exhibition was fantastic.

There were eleven rooms housing too many painting to count - still lifes, self-portraits, watercolours, preliminary sketches. The works are on loan from galleries and private collections all over the world - Madonna even lent two pieces to the show. I found that Kahlo's work was much more impressive and startling when viewed all together like this - particularly breathtaking was The Two Fridas. A preview of the exhibition can be viewed here.

Dash for the Exit

I think this is a brilliant idea - what a way to help you dash towards the appropriate exit on your daily commute to work. Sean Lerner spent 400 hours creating the TTC Rider Efficiency Guide, so you will know exactly where to sit on the subway for the exit you require.

You can download it for free on the site, or purchase one that will be mailed to you for $4. Or, if you are super-obsessive, you can sign up for a subscription, and have updated guides mailed to you every three months. Does TTC maintenance work actually finish within three months? Anyway...if you are a Toronto subway rider, this is the guide for you. Never be late again!

Pint-Sized Brighton

Here are all the pubs that are within a five minute stroll of my flat. This is not including all of the bars in the same vicinity, of which there are too many to count. People in Brighton like to drink....a lot. And yes, I have frequented each of these pubs...The Cricketers is my favourite due to the chamber pots hanging from the ceiling.

Click on a photo for a larger view.

Got a secret?

babar
Originally uploaded by sarah4855.

I originally came across this on the very cool website Drawn!, and it's too good to not share.

Postsecret is an online art project comprise of anonymous homemade postcards, all confessing a secret. New postcards are put up each Sunday - a good time (and place) for confession, perhaps?

The Trouble With Angels

troublewithangels
Originally uploaded by sarah4855.

I flicked on the tv yesterday morning as I was getting ready for school and what was on but one of my all-time favourite movies, which I had not seen since I was fourteen years old. The Trouble With Angels starring the wonderful Rosalind Russell and Hayley Mills was a staple film during my childhood. Like my favourite book at that age, The Daring Game it revolved around two girls playing pranks in a boarding school and the headmistress (or Mother Superior in the film's case), taking an interest not in their bad behaviour, but in their creativity and thus becoming their saving grace. Brilliant!