Remember Me?

WordPress seems to have changed a lot since I last logged in. Which is annoying. Apologies for not updating this thing, but you’re probably aware that I have a facebook page which I update quite often. http://www.facebook.com/artistannikagarratt

Anyway, a friend prompted me to get blogging again, so here I am!

I have been given the ‘Liebster Award’: “For those bloggers and readers who are unfamiliar with this award, “The Liebster Award” is given to up and coming bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers. The word ” Liebster” comes from German and can mean the sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, most beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.”

The Rules are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you.
2. When you receive the award, answer the 11 questions asked by the person who nominated you and post 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Pass the award onto 6 other blogs (while making sure you notify the blogger that you nominated them!).
4. You are not allowed to nominate the blog who nominated your own blog!
5. Write up 11 new questions directed towards your nominees.
6. Paste the award picture into your blog.

So firstly a big thanks to Loreleila! You can find her at http://loreleila.wordpress.com

The following are answers to the 11 questions Loreleila asks:

1. What is your earliest memory? This is a tough one because I’m sure my brain invents memories based on things I’ve been told and pictures I’ve seen, so I will say I have a vague memory of my first day at school, being quite upset about my mum leaving me there.
2. Has there been an inspirational person in your life? If so who and why? All of my family have been inspiring in some way, but I think I am particularly impressed by my uncle who spent some years as a heroine addict but is now working as a carpenter and living in a beautiful little house in the French countryside with his girlfriend. It just makes me think, no matter how bad things get, you can turn your life around!
3. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? I would really like to live somewhere that has nice hot summers, but most countries that have nice hot summers also have draw backs, usually political stuff, and I would really prefer to live in a country that has good education and healthcare provided to everyone. Can I invent my own country that has both equality and heat?
4. What is your favourite book of all time? Gosh I don’t know, every book has it’s own merits, but I remember enjoying Empire of the Sun.
5. What do you like most and least about the internet? Mostly I like being able to access any information I want in a split second. What I like least is how damned addictive that gets.
6. If you could change one thing about the world what would it be? If I could just wish upon a star and suddenly all the world’s wealth was evenly distributed among every individual, that would be great. Can you imagine that?
7. What animal do you most relate to? Foxes. And gulls.
8. What three wishes would you ask a Genie for? See above. This is quite a complicated wish and I think you would have to take the big fancy houses and make them public property for all the homeless people to live in. Nobody would be able to afford to live in a big fancy house by themself or drive a big fancy car, so people would have to share things instead. My second wish, once we are living in a state of what I would call communism, would be to dissolve national borders so that we are free to move about the world as we please, not that anyone would be able to afford to jet across the world, right? Seeing as there are no national borders and wealth is evenly distributed, I figure that would put an end to all wars. My third wish… is that procreation becomes a much simpler business and nobody has to worry about getting accidentally pregnant. If you want to have babies then hey presto you got them and if you don’t then don’t worry you won’t!
9. What do you like about yourself? I like that I’m a little bit unusual.
10. Sweet or savoury? Savoury, just because sometimes you can get sick of sweet things, but you can never get sick of savoury!
11. What happens when you die? Your body stops working and it gets turned into compost. The “you” in the equation isn’t really your body, and it’s not your Ego either, it’s the Youniverse. After your body dies, your Youniverse keeps on going, so don’t worry.

And then some random facts of my own invention:

1. I broke up with my boyfriend last year.
2. I now have a new boyfriend.
3. I live with my parents now.
4. I have a part time job.
5. I owe my bank about two and a half grand.
6. Despite being skint, I’m going on holiday this weekend.
7. I am about 11 and a half stone heavy.
8. I’m quite happy with my body but I wouldn’t mind being a stone lighter.
9. I have lightened my hair a little bit and think I might try being blonde this year.
10. I keep looking at my desk, knowing I should be sat there drawing or painting.
11. I wonder how I will ever manage to look after myself as an independent adult!

And now my questions to ask are:

1. When you were a kid, what did you think you would be when you grew up?
2. What is your favourite sandwhich filling?
3. How many stars/constellations can you name when you look up at the night sky?
4. How often do you swim in the sea/ocean/lake/river?
5. What is your ideal outdoor temperature?
6. If someone bought you a bunch of flowers, what kind would you like?
7. How many snowmen have you built?
8. What drink do you order (or would you like to order right now) when you go to a cafe?
9. When was the last time you had a picnic?
10. If you could spend eternity in one time of year, what would it be?
11. If you were given an all inclusive holiday anywhere in the world, where would you go?

And I will pass this award on to…….

1. http://sycalaelen.wordpress.com/
2. http://thespiralledpath.blogspot.co.uk/
3. http://www.joannadevoe.com/
4. http://cricketsong-lunarwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/
5. http://tiptoechick.blogspot.co.uk/
6. http://alicetheredrosefairy.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I can’t promise I will update it again any time soon, but maybe, just maybe, I will….

Annika

Work in Progress

I have added a “reviews” or “testimonials” page to my website. I’m surprised I didn’t think of this earlier. Check it out http://www.annikagarratt.co.uk

I have been working on another painting. This is what has happened so far:

The Horned God

I have also been asked about another commission, to possibly paint the Egyptian deities Nut and Geb. I will do some research to figure out how I could go about this wonderful idea.

Size will be approximately 13 inches x 9 inches. Nut and Geb will be standing next to each other, with thier bodies facing forward  but heads turned slightly to each other and hands reaching out as if expressing the love yet the huge gap between them.  Nut will be on the left and Geb on the right. The Milky Way will be on the left side and the Earth on the right, with pyramids and beautiful green palm trees.  I think the colours will be mostly in the spectrum of green-blue, with lots of black to make the colours pop! I am sketching now and hopefully can start painting next week!

Annika

Painting Merlin (Myrddin)

I am so tired and relieved right now. I have finished, or at least I think I have finished, painting Merlin. Well I will just show you some photos of the painting process and you can let me know what you think.

First I sketched out the general idea of how I wanted to position him. For some reason when I upload my photos to wordpress, it turns them upside down and sideways, so the following are the only photos it would put the right way up. You can see more photos on my facebook page.

Photos don’t really do him justice, so I made this video:

Annika

Plans, ideas, stuff.

Tomorrow I have a skype call planned with the guy from the SNS. This will begin a new project on Spiritual Naturalism. This is great to give myself something to focus on. I really want to focus more on illustration, using ink. I want to be able to sit here and paint lots of illustrations in ink and build up a big portfolio. What I like about ink illustrations is how they flow. Pencil illustrations can look very tight and intense. I love fluid lines, that’s why I’m a fan of Art Nouveau. There is also something more “organic” about ink, it has a more spontaneous sprouting effect. It’s that energy of the spontaneous that is so attractive in lively art. Splatters and scratches have a vibrancy to them.

I like images that have a rustic “folk art” feel to them. I love old medieval woodcuts. I love religious icons, like those in Orthodox churches or Hindu temples. What I like about them is the sense of mystery and passion. They are full of powerful emotion. They have a depth of symbolism. This is my job as an artist, to speak in symbols. It’s a difficult job trying to bend your mind away from words. How do you say something without writing or speaking? You have to use the language of dreams.

One reason I need to focus more on illustration is so that I can reproduce my art more easily. Illustrations lend themselves to postcards, tshirts and website graphics more easily than paintings on canvas. I need to find a way to make money out of what I do, or else I can’t afford to spend this much time on art. I can’t think of any other way to support myself, as art is all I’ve ever known. Only last year did I branch out into dance, which is essentially performance art. I have been making videos for a few years now, which is another kind of art. I need to find a way to marry these arts together, to form a cohesive whole. This is why I have adopted the ouroboros as my symbol, because it represents the “oneness” which eternally self-creates.

I’m still working on the Tombulance. I figure there should definitely be an ouroboros on there somewhere. There will be a little self-promotion with my website adress somewhere. The problem with the Tombulance is that I need good weather to work. We don’t have a warehouse or garage to work in. You can see from the photos that we usually work on the drive of the parents’ house. British weather is all over the place, and when it rains there is a risk of running paint. I’ve already made the mistake of trying to paint in the rain and later seeing great streaks of paint run down the van. Fortunately we don’t have any deadline to work towards and can afford to wait for sunny days.

It’s the rainy days that I can spend indoors making illustrations. It’s hard getting myself in the right frame of mind to create. It takes a hell of a lot of concentration just to tune into that “zone” where you free yourself up and let yourself work spontaneously. You have to let your mind flow in the same way that ink flows. You have to tune out the fear and worry that you will make mistakes. You have to become a medium through which creativity is expressed. You open yourself up to a different way of being. You’re being in the moment, accutely aware of the now. If you think too much about the future, you get lost, you trip up because you’re not watching where you’re going. You have to enjoy the journey and let the destination be wherever you end up.

Annika

Red Tent Tribal at Poole Park

When I joined Red Tent Tribal, Steffi told me that in ancient times women would have learnt bellydance as a way of building their strength for childbirth, or so the legends say. I didn’t realise there is actually a book called Red Tent, by Anita Diamant. The following are some reviews:

The red tent is the place where women gathered during their cycles of birthing, menses and even illness. Like the conversations and mysteries held within this feminine tent, this sweeping piece of fiction offers an insider’s look at the daily life of a biblical sorority of mothers and wives and their one and only daughter Dinah. –Gail Hudson.

Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent is an epic celebration of womanhood, written for women everywhere, regardless of their status, creed or colour. It is the story of a woman whose life was blessed by great love and torn by tragedy, of the lessons she learned through her own experiences and those of the women, and men, whose lives she touched. Diamant has chosen as her leading lady a woman whose name alone conjures up echoes of mystery, passion and betrayal. The Red Tentis the fictional tale of Dinah, whose life, like the majority of women in the Old Testament, merits only a passing mention. It is the men in Dinah’s life that history has remembered: her famous father Jacob, his dozen sons and especially her brother, Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat. Not religious? Don’ t worry, this biblical character and the story Anita Diamant has woven from the merest hints, will appeal to all. –Carey Green.

Steffi, my mum and I performed in the open air outside the music tent, battling against the wind that blew Steffi’s flowers out of her hair several times. Watch the video above to see for yourself!

Dressing up is half the fun! I used face paints to draw tribal tattoos around my middle and on my face. We bought lots of fake flowers for our hair. The red tops and harem trousers were made by Steffi. I made tassles for my belt and stitched coins to my hip scarf. I know the outfits are a bit of a cultural jumble, as tribal bellydance is very eclectic. It reflects the way that humans have migrated out of Africa and across the world, adapting to different environments, and developing the arts.

“I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.” Socrates

Annika

Green Community Arts Fair

Renewable Energy Companies, local and regional charities, community and voluntary groups, ethical/environmental traders and businesses and Transition BH Hub are teaming up for a free event, Poole’s First Ever Solar Powered Event – The Green Community ARTS Fair, Poole Park Sunday 3rd and Bank Holiday Monday 4th June. I am going to be performing on Sunday at 3pm with Red Tent Tribal Belly Dance.

Annika

Red Tent Tribal Hafla

I have been learning bellydance for about a year now with Red Tent Tribal, lead by Steffi Colbert who trained with Gypsy Caravan in Portland, USA. This summer I had my first performance at a fun and informal “hafla” or bellydancing party. Dancers took turns performing for each other, and there was some open-floor dancing for everyone to get up and enjoy the music.

The indoor show was followed by a little improv on the beach.

We should have another performance coming up next weekend so stay tuned!

Annika