One of my favourite illustrators is spanish artist (now east-london based) – Cristina Guitian. Her work is a huge inspiration to me! – I’ve been following her work for months now, thus jumped at the chance to attend her privet view exhibition last week in Dalston. It was a cute little exhibit of her latest series of work “Portraits of my Life as a Bird”. She usually does big murals and installations, but it was really nice to see her pieces hanging framed on a wall, and admire all the huge amount of little details in her drawings. I wish I could buy a print, but she doesn’t seem to sell any!!

How amazing!! I’ve always wanted to paint a wall… One of my many ambitions in life! (It IS going to happen!)

Amazing photos by Mike found here.

On buying tickets and attending this amazing event we were instructed to “Tell No One”, but I can’t possibly not share!!… I will set the scene of my first Secret Cinema experience.

We attended the event with no knowledge of what to expect, except to dress up and bring chalk and a blanket!! When we arrived at the instructed location, in a slight state of confusion we joined a chaotic que of people dressed in hats, fur coats, etc, all being questioned by police men shouting GERMAN and shining torches, performing identity checks on every individual attending. An angel was being projected high on the side of the building and many odd characters roamed the street around us, including a distressed girl crying, a couple kissing and other German speaking youths. We had been transported to Postdamer Platz in the heart of Berlin! Eventually we entered the building to encounter more bizzare characters and climb a dead escalator, which was surrounded by old TV sets blaring German news and static at us. This was instantly followed by walking through a surreal maze of rooms packed with people, including a candlelit bar and walls covered in chalk (Ooh that’s what the chalk was for!) After a drink of two we climbed further up even more steps, that opened out into a huge old theatre!.. Walls pealing! Acrobats and circus acts swinging around! An ‘angel’ perched on some ceiling scaffolding – watching over us!

Drinks were served by a waiter to our seats whilst we happily cuddled under our blanket in this massive crumbling theatre, and watched a show of music, acrobats, juggling, fire breathers, knife throwers, and the German 80’s film “Wings of Desire”, whilst a trapeze artist was swinging over us.

If you ever get the chance to go to Secret Cinema, do it! The experience is worth every penny, and leaves you with a great story to tell afterward.

Last Friday we finished up work with drinks, food and a trip to the V&A – we work right near South Kensington so it’s a nice little walk over to the museum. The exhibition Decode: Digital Design Sensations was definitely the best interactive exhibition I’ve ever been to – every piece was engaging and encouraged solo and group participation from the users… a room of digital play and experimentation. The exhibition showcased the latest developments in digital and interactive design, and quite a few pieces were built using flash. My favourite installation was a projection of a tree blowing in the wind which reacted according to the weather outside the museum building – you could even kick around the leaves on the floor! But they were all very innovative and enjoyable! I reccomend you all to check the exhibition out if you are in London – It’s on until 11th of April! Credit to my buddy Steve who took most of the photos – check out his travel photography on Flickr, his pics are awesome! The night continued with drinks, drinks and more drinks!

Have you been to any good exhibitions recently??

I’m lucky enough to live near the fantastic Westonbirt Arboretum . I hadn’t been for years until the last couple of months – I’m not usually a fan of the cold seasons but there isn’t a better place to go and realise how beautiful they really can be! The perfect place to walk and talk with my favourite people :) as well as to celebrate the changing on the seasons!

The arboretum holds 600 acres trees and woodland to explore, with 3000 varieties of rare trees. Its the perfect place to go when you forget how powerful nature can be, roaming under huge amazing trees you’ve never seen before, each with such presence and history about it! In autumn the trees display rainbows of vivid colours, and in Winter an ‘Enchanted Christmas’ event is held in the evenings, where the trees are lit up beautifully. Definitely worth a visit even any time of year!

I hope everyone had a fabulous christmas and new year! I had a lovely time and was lucky enough to get some really nice pressies including a new tripod for my SLR, a new diana mini and external flash to go with my diana +, some nike/adidas running gear and two gorgeous veggie cooking books, so i’m really excited about cooking up some feasts to share with you. In other news i’m moving to London in two weeks… sooo excited!!

Recently I’ve been out and about loads, exploring London and seeing some beyond amazing live gigs!! Shpongle, one of my all time favourite psychedelic artists had a ONE OFF weekend of performances at Camden’s Roundhouse which I managed to snap up tickets for back in May time! If you haven’t heard of Shpongle, give them a try. I am a HUGE fan of psy-trance and psychedelic ambient music, and Shpongle mix up the two a little but have a hugely unique sound like I’ve never heard before. I’ve been listening to them for 3 1/2 years now and can’t get enough – they never fail to transport me to another world beyond reality! I was lucky enough to see their set at Glade festival 2006 but the live gig was EPIC! Loads of mad performances and costumes, it was like listening to electronic sounding music but watching a live band…. Magic! The night continued to be amazing as we trekked to the after party located in the tunnels of a random car park, consisting of all night dancing to more of my favourite artists (Younger Brother, Juno Reactor, Eat Static, and many more!)

I also managed to snap tickets up for Fever Ray’s ONLY UK gig the hmv forum in Kentish Town, London… You must have all heard of Fever Ray by now but if you havn’t GO AND DO IT! Again their weird and unique sound just hits so many buttons for me… overall a captivating night starting with a supporting cello performance by Múm’s Hildur Gudnadottir followed by a spot on performance by Fever Ray. Amazing drumming, with the eerie, cold, and powerful vocals of Karin Dreijer Andersson with some great costumes that really reminded me of Where the Wild Things Are! I just had to post Anika Mottershaw’s photos above as my camera battery died, and hers do capture the atmosphere perfectly.

I’ve also had the pleasure of seeing Bat for Lashes for the first time too. I’ve been listening to her for 3 years and just think she is amazing!

Have you been to any amazing gigs lately??

I thought i’d share some of my Autumn adventures… so to give you some background on this visit, since leaving Uni I have decided to take on the challenge of getting super fit as this is something I never considered myself as or thought I could be! I’ve been training hard 5/6 days a week, and taken up running. In May 2010 I will be doing the Three Peaks Challenge in order to raise money for Help for Heroes! This challenge consists of climbing the three highest peaks of the UK within 24 hours – Snowdon in Wales, Ben Nevis in Scotland and Scafel in England! This is super hard and will include climbing one mountain in the dark!! If you have a couple of quid to spare, please please sponsor me so I can reach my £450 target!

So to get a tiny feel for the challenge, my lovely parents decided we’d go and climb Snowdon in Wales! The trip ended up being a right mission as we are at the other end of the country, thus had to get a B&B for the night before! Unfortunately on the way to the bottom of the mountain, the car got damaged and broke down!! We had to sit in a hotel all day waiting to get rescued by the RAC while the gorgeous weather and surroundings teased us! If I hadn’t been in such an amazingly beautiful place I don’t know how I would have stayed so positive :) If you ever get a chance to go, please do – it is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to!