London, Day #2

Today was generally less artsy than yesterday, although the weather itself was an entirely new art form to me.

Woke up at 4:30 in the morning and was a bit furious about that, I haven't seen 4:30 in the morning in ages, but when you're this far north, it seems more like 6 in the morning. At 11 pm this evening there was still light in the sky.

So basically at that time I just lazed around for a bit and finally went down to have some breakfast.
Ate the four cheeses again and this time I think I can list them:

-English Cheddar (A bit different from American Cheddar, but still good)
-Double Gloucester with Spring Onions and Chives (So delicious)
-Red Leicester (I think it may be my favorite of the bunch, but I bought a whole second package so I can eat them as much as possible to find out)
and
-Wensleydale with Cranberries (Not my favorite, but good still, it was great with apples this morning)

After breakfasts, my hosts left to go to Sweden, so I've the whole house to myself. I decided to go into town and look around in some of the shops, pick up a couple of things. I first went to this little art store that we passed in my short introduction to Wimbledon yesterday and I bought some matryoshka tissue paper, it's very cute. Then I stopped into the book/magazine/stationary store and bought a folder for any paperwork I may need for school, and some cute notecards with a sort of watercolor poppy motif.

I then pressed on to Whittard and bought several teas, plus the "Time for Tea" tin set they sell (it is too adorable to pass up). After that I stopped at an electronics store and bought an alarm clock and some batteries. It was kind of a surreal experience. They basically have all of their stock stored away in the back, and what you do is you look through a paper catalogue or computer to find what you are looking for, and then you order it in the store, and then you wait for your order to be ready (mine took 3 minutes). Kind of odd, not something you would usually find in the states.

My first grocery trip went quite well. I went to Sainsbury's and bought some delicious looking things. It's really very nice that I will have a kitchen while I am here, because I hate the idea of being fed cafeteria-style food every day or eating out every day. For lunch I bought a sort of pasta salad that had a tomato and herb sauce, red onions and cheddar cheese (would have preferred mozzarella or parmesan to be completely honest) but it was still good. For dinner tonight I made myself some smashed potatoes, boiled peas and a chicken breast (which I bought pre-roasted at the store).

Everything is within walking distance which is nice, the tube stop is about 7-10 minutes away from my house, based on how quickly you walk, and the neighborhood seems pretty safe. The houses are very close together, so I've already met one neighbor on one side, and the other one I'm sure I will meet soon enough.

As far as art goes, Jack Smith died recently, so why not say something about him. Smith was one of the co-founders of what was called The Kitchen Sink School, a name that the press gave to them based on the styles and objects used in their works (as in everything but the...). His earlier work is sort of pseudo-realist, and very interesting indeed, and his later work is certainly more abstract.

In other art British art news, The Tate Modern has returned 10 tons of Ai Wei Wei's sunflower seeds to one of their gallery spaces.

London, Day #1

I know this is an art blog, but I promise you, even though I am tracking my days in London on my art blog, I will mostly be writing about art.

So "Day #1" is technically a combination of Thursday and Friday of this past week, as I sort of spent a bit over 24 hours getting to London, and then once I arrived here I sort of didn't sleep right away. So the next 48 hours and begin:

First art encounter: Philadelphia airport.

My study of art history has led me to love and understand the need for public art. Usually the scenario consists of a building or public space being built, and the city having a requirement of art in front of or inside of that space. Airports of the world (well at least some of the ones I have seen) have been consistent in revealing incredible works of public art by local artists of the area. As I was taking the electronic walkway to my gate, I came across two very interesting pieces of public art (well there were more, but I only remember the names of two).

The first is a series of sculptural pieces by the art team of Ralph Helmick and Stuart Schechter entitled "Impulse." The piece spans several different spaces, and is made up of many individual sculptures of birds that are suspended in a way so that they create the shape of another bird. The other part of the piece consists of wall labels as you zoom by the work of art that identify each of the individual bird sculptures in the piece. There is an image from below here, and a semi-alright video here (that for some reason halfway through cuts off from looking at the sculpture and zooms in on some women crossing the video-er.

The second piece was really interesting. It was a clock, functional, that was made using the help of some green beer bottles. The clock is made by Rick Stanley and his son, or a team referred to as Stanley Clockworks. The piece is one of a kind and quite extraordinary. You can read about it on their website here. And below are a couple of photos I took.

Once I arrived in London, I was picked up by the family whose home I am staying in while I'm here. I am living in Wimbledon, so we drove a bit of a ways to get there from Heathrow. We had a very lovely lunch which consisted of me trying four kinds of English cheese, all of which I loved very much and am looking forward to eating them all again. (Names to come).

Skip ahead a bit to dinner where I had the pleasure of dining with the artist Ian Southwood, who does incredible photo-realist paintings. His daughter, who I also met, is currently in art school, and apparently has just won a sculpture contest and her work will be displayed in front of the Wimbledon tube station!

So for a first day, it was all very artistic and interesting. Day #2 will consist of exploring more of Wimbledon, buying some groceries, and writing lots of postcards, so I don't have to worry about them for too much longer.

xoxo