Zosienka

2010-04-24T18:42:00.003+01:00

This blog is hibernating while
www.littlezosienka.wordpress.com
is in full swing...

Rabid

2010-03-18T20:34:00.004Z

Something you might need for keeping your bits and pieces in...More updates on
www.littlezosienka.wordpress.com

moving home

2009-09-07T21:08:00.002+01:00

For a short while I'm trying out a new blog canvas:

It will no doubt confuse things, some posts here, some there, but you could always look at both.

www.littlezosienka.wordpress.com

Ladislaw Starewitch

2009-09-05T21:10:00.003+01:00

This afternoon at the Renoir Cinema, a documentary was screened on the life of Ladislaw Starewitch.

Starewitch is marked as the inventor of stop motion character animation. His experiment began after unsuccessful attempts to film beetles in combat. Considering them incompetent in following his direction, he was compelled to kill them and take care of the action on their behalf. This he did by removing the legs and re-assembling the bodies with pins wire and wax so that they could be controlled and maneuvered. It seems that in 1911 when “The Beautiful Leukanida” was shown to audiences, they were convinced he was a magnificent trainer of insects.

After a series of wonderfully choreographed insect films, he started to make puppets, some of which were built to huge proportions in order so they could make every possible human facial expression.

He moved to Paris and had great success as a film maker, but was cautious about sharing his techniques. His crew consisted only of those he trusted with his secrets; his wife and daughters, who worked vigilantly and silently beside him. The documentary was unconventional. It was narrated by an animated bug who fell in love with a Starewicz puppet and burnt his wings in a film projector. Contributing to the story of the animator were historians and professors from Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Norway… and The Quay Brothers, brought together in a peculiar narrative alongside the bug, and who were embarrassingly forced to use cardboard props, and switch on lamps after talking in the dark for a number of sentences. Despite that, the content was fascinating and has left me quite a hungry investigator.

Poster for the show after that

2009-08-30T18:04:00.002+01:00

Poster for the show

2009-08-29T23:32:00.002+01:00

Asbury is playing at The Airliner on Tuesday. GO if you are in Los Angeles.

Hope it all pays off

2009-08-26T19:38:00.002+01:00

We wandered past the flamingo window in the twilight and a china man, watching us cautiously, planted a device beneath the black wheel bins that set off torrents of steam rolling in to the sky. He nodded in our direction, so we knew to keep it hush hush.
Like a mysterious vacant firework display we watched mystified, listening to the hiss. And he watched us with a furrowed brow, willing us to get gone.
We left the scene not quite knowing what we'd witnessed,

Seated Convict

2009-08-26T11:42:00.004+01:00

Another recent sketch.

Alice

2009-08-26T11:37:00.002+01:00

My Alice stickers have appeared after four years in hiding. And where were they hiding? In a pencil box. I have not used coloured pencils for tooo looong.
Well, now that we're reunited, I will stick the queen on my bicycle for identification and deterrent purposes.

Atelier

2009-08-25T12:05:00.003+01:00

This is my space for creation, I'll be doing all my posting from this sunny corner from now on. So now you know.
I've had a busy sort of a morning (thanks to not having a laptop in the house for distractions) cleaning, sorting, visiting the police station. I think I'm going to get a milkman soon. And adopt a local butcher. I'll be spending the afternoon at Wolf and Sheep studio, where the animation Butter Mouth is drawing close to it's deadline....

Tim Walker

2009-08-23T21:12:00.006+01:00

These beautiful sets have been photographed by Tim Walker, and it's evidently a heaven made match. They are a great inspiration for home making.

A chair with a tail:I wish I'd concocted that!

This dress was sewn by my marvelous Louisiana ~ AdelaideAsleep, who is lacking in website, but has a collection of roses

This one is for sale at Show Studio

Polaroids by Lina Scheynius

2009-08-23T11:52:00.002+01:00

Lina has a collection of polaroid photographs that were compiled when the terrible news came about the end of Polaroid. Of the many beautiful images, I chose these two bathtub shots to show you. Both are spooky, even in a milky yellow glow.

Dan Hillier * blue

2009-08-23T11:07:00.007+01:00

Dan Hillier has many prints for sale, both at his website and at the Sunday Upmarket on Brick Lane.
Much of his work is the manipulation of engravings, as below, but I'm particularly fond of this blue ink painting and his tendency for extending forms from the heads of people & animals.

The mixture of engraving is akin to Lhasa De Sela's album artwork for her record 'The Living Road'. I have been listening to her songs lately. She has an exquisite deep voice, a little like Nico, but her verse is quite different, terribly poetic and haunting. She sings in French and Spanish and English because she is half Mexican and lives in Canada.

Drawer

2009-08-22T15:22:00.004+01:00

As a person in search of furniture, this set of drawers took my interest.
/

It belongs to Valentin Loellmann, of Germny and the Netherlands.

And a very good idea by Karen Ray, found on Dezeen

"The Whittle Chair", she says, "All it requires is a penknife and an unwanted chair."
In do-it-yourself style. So I'm on the look out for discarded wooden household objects to whittle at with my penknife.
Once, though i admit it isn't whittling, i made use of a discarded slender wooden lamp and painted it a grim seaweed green and attached to it thorns from a dead rose bush. It was beautiful but it also took one by surprise in the dark and eventually when I gave it to Louisiana, her father proudly removed each and every thorn as a measure of protecting his daughter.
No photographic evidence remains, but an idea that could be recycled.

Mick Jagger..... & ..... Mick Jagger

2009-08-18T12:03:00.005+01:00

We went to watch Performance last night at The Compass,
I've seen it twice before and this time it was completely different which leads me to believe I may have fallen asleep on the previous occasions and invented the story based on the soundtrack.

Swan sketches

2009-08-17T15:49:00.006+01:00

Blind Dog and Turnip

2009-08-17T15:29:00.004+01:00

Blind Dog and Turnip is a drawing from an old photograph where originally the girl and her dog were all too 'cute'. The intention was not to get so ominous, but the dog turned blind and the girl seemed to want to take credit for this with her turnip.

jumped over

2009-08-17T15:14:00.003+01:00

This started out as a tracing of a template I cut out to use for a place-mat design. But then I started giving him a little fur, and then I felt the sky ought to be dark like a winter evening, and it ended up taking all afternoon to finish. And the cat on the roof top is the one who sneaks into our kitchen sometimes when we're eating. He scratches the palms of our hands in an affectionate way.

Hanna Melin

2009-08-16T17:00:00.005+01:00

Tile and Plate designs by Hanna Melin.
See also Sara Melin, illustrator. Sisters.

Playing the Building

2009-08-12T11:01:00.005+01:00

With it having been my birthday recently, Louisiana took us both to "Play the Building" at The Roundhouse. It's a fantastical concept and of course only David Byrne would realise it.
It's a very atmospheric setting in the cold light of the gutted out Roundhouse auditorium, with wires stretching to the circling metal columns, and a silenced queue of organists waiting their turn under the spotlight, while the building gently taps and flutes and vibrates.

Avalon Juniper

2009-08-09T09:12:00.003+01:00

A gift from Iwoncia who went to Florida. The most incredible smelling soap in well designed packaging.
Pacifica make a great range of soaps, candles and frangrances and are ethical in their process.

I like too much

2009-08-08T18:15:00.005+01:00

another of Lizzy Stewart's drawings.
It is available in a book which you could buy from Sing Statistics

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-08-08T17:58:00.006+01:00

Remember that beautiful blue bicycle?
She is now my traveling companion, thanks to a wonderful husband boy who found the last one in town for my birthday. Here we go through The Hackney Marshes with my head severed.

All the colours

2009-08-03T21:50:00.003+01:00

We walked up and down the staircase at Cycle Chic today and for a diversion wandered up Rivington Street where this rainbow of books dressed the window of YCN. I like it.

droop

2009-08-03T21:35:00.007+01:00

Originally uploaded by nakedbrunch

I found the 'blog it' button on flickr...

Aphrodite

2009-08-01T22:13:00.004+01:00

Aphrodite, originally uploaded by inverselive.

Look at this fleeting floral kapelusz. Colours!

I've been waiting for this moment

2009-08-01T21:28:00.010+01:00

but it's a little disappointing.

The trailer for Fantastic Mr Fox by Wes Anderson has been released and despite my eager anticipation it tripped and fell at my feet. Perhaps only the trailer edit is to blame but frankly mr shankly, I feel quite bewildered and confused by this yellow looking jittery chaos. And I'm not fooled by G. Clooney. I can't stand him or his voice and never in a million years would I translate a fox into a human via that man. My hope is that Bill Murray's badger character will be endearing and for the dialogue to be as humorous as Anderson's previous films.

Spider on the Ceiling

2009-07-31T22:56:00.001+01:00

Zosienka gets bored when there are no comments.

Tasty Baby

2009-07-29T18:39:00.004+01:00

I adapted an old card design to this baby eating cat picture for a t-shirt. At Chimpogo, people submit designs which visitors to the website vote for, so if you are passing by, please cast me a vote.

Tasty Baby by Zosienka

Ceal Warnants

2009-07-28T21:45:00.007+01:00

Ceal works with me at Biscuiteers. She told me a lot about her artwork and the concept sounded very interesting, but when I actually, eventually looked at the life size paper sculptures on her website, I was quite astounded.

Sadly, delicate paper giants such as these are prone to vandalism and Ceal has found some of her instruments demolished at their exhibition space. It's maybe just too tempting to try and crumple a corner and prove it's made of paper afterall.

Ceal's studio is nearby our Wolf and Sheep studio in Hackney Wick and will be part of the Hackney Wicked Festival this weekend. Everyone is welcome.

The Story of Mr Sommer

2009-07-27T22:54:00.006+01:00

I am reading ...

by Patrick Süskind

A grin of teeth - Alice in Wonderland

2009-07-27T22:29:00.005+01:00

Who knows what will become of this film...
...Maybe it will save Tim Burton from sliping into the precipice of slick predictable Hollywoodism. Well, one can only hope. But I do wish to compliment the Cheshire cat in his adaptation. Always my favourite character. When I was in reception at primary school, my Mama dressed me up in pink and purple stripes and stuck a grin on a stick for me to hold in front of my lips. I remember being confused and smiling anyway behind the giant grin.
Tim Burton's cat has at least 22 teeth in the top row, and FANTASTIC blue eyes.

Wild things

2009-07-26T21:32:00.006+01:00

Are you following the voyage of "Where the Wild things are" to our screens?

We Love You So

is a blog by Spike Jonze and other writers,
telling us everything we yearn to know about the film.
And more. Of course, there's always more.

Evening

2009-07-26T20:23:00.003+01:00

I've completed another sixteen page storyboard this weekend for Butter Mouth, and for that reason only managed two of the four things that had to be done.
half
On Friday night I stopped by to see Emma Puntis at The Supplement Gallery. Beer in an ice bucket and plenty of portraiture. It rains so often in London. Every day, I might add. And for compensation there have been a few great arcs of rainbow over Hackney.
The V&A spent two days without me.
I played some poker in Maida Vale with good friends who lightened the tension with twiglets and chocolate muffins. We each contributed 20 pence to the prize for we were all novices. Besides, whilst watching Rudo and Cursi this afternoon, I realized a Poker addiction can leave you with only one leg.
China Town fed me during a drizzle. Could there be anything tastier than pork dumplings?

And as for tomorrow, I'm moving in to a new corner of a studio in Dalston!

What must be done

2009-07-24T17:35:00.009+01:00

This weekend the following good things are happening and I'll endevour to take part...

The V&A, Telling Tales...

and Village Fete 2009

Emma Puntis Solo Exhibition at Supplement GalleryRudo and Cursi at the Curzon Soho

Saint Fabiola

2009-07-14T17:53:00.004+01:00

At the National Portrait Gallery, the artist Francis Alÿs is displaying hundreds of portraits depicting Saint Fabiola. Each portrait is a copy of the nineteenth century painting by Jean-Jacques Henner, which ironically was lost in 1912. Now all that remains is this cloud of interpretations.
But it's an unusual sensation being surrounded by these heads and following her gaze from one Fabiola to the next. I felt very serene.
This makes sense. Once I had a concept for a record that one song be written; a simple song, a few chords, and lyrics that could come from the mouth of anyone. Then for the score to be distributed amongst musicians spanning every living genre, so the album would playback a collection of vastly different translations of the same melody. Say, a choral version followed by heavy drum and bass.
Has it been done?
In visual terms Francis Alÿs is somewhere close. It's always been of interest to me what people notice when looking at the same thing. When I had cosmetic surgery and came out looking more like the groke than ever before, I felt considerably transformed. A reasonable percentage of my visitors couldn't tell my features had changed, while the rest claimed they'd have walked right past me in the street. Curious no? So I realised that the inside can be more noticeable than the outside.

Gather your umbrella's and RUN to Fabiola

Things hanging on strings

2009-07-06T21:44:00.003+01:00

Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber

I was looking at things that were hanging from strings. It started with this painting which I know very well. It is by the Spanish Baroque painter, Juan Sánchez Cotán, painted 1602. Then I came across Claire Morgan's work. Installations of suspended articles. Including food, some delicious, some not. "Fantastic Mr Fox" is entrapped in a swarm of rotten rabbit meat.
These installations are meticulously assembled to create enthralling still moments of animal fantasies. Look especially closely at 'Gone with the Wind', it is composed of wild flower seeds. I think this artist is remarkable. But of course, I always loved things that were hanging from strings.

Fluid

Fantastic Mr Fox

The return of Vincent Gallo

2009-07-05T23:37:00.005+01:00

There is plenty to say about Vincent Gallo (good things). And I'll probably write about him again in the future. But for now I would like to share my excitement that he has returned to the cinema in a film by Francis Ford Coppola.

Tetro

Here for you - a film clip

M&M

2009-06-18T15:08:00.001+01:00

♥

2009-06-15T17:23:00.002+01:00

I've just left Andrew at the Heart Hospital for a week where he'll be having stents placed amid the complicated pieces of his heart.

This heart of wool is made by Sarah Illenberger, who has many original ideas for set design.

drawing

2009-06-14T15:29:00.004+01:00

Edward Krasinski

2009-06-13T20:00:00.005+01:00

I have memories from the sandpit days in Zalesie (the woods outside Warsaw) of Edzio, my mother's cousin's father. I was afraid of him. I was also afraid of the lady in the kitchen with the red hair. And of some of the dogs. I would feel very nervous at the prospect of going up the dark staircase to the attic where all the sculptures lurked in the shadows. And the house, always smelled like soup. But I didn't know then that this was one of the most important premises in the history of Polish art at the time.
One long summer we stayed in the little concrete shoe box in the garden and cut masks out of paper. I remember watching the wasps get stuck in bowls of honey and slowly drown.

Edward Krasinski is renowned for his blue line. The blue line is adhesive tape and no matter where it ended up, it was always placed at a height of 130cm. Some of this blue line lives at my cousin's home in Warszawa.

He died in 2004 and I regretted very much never making my adult self known to him. I imagine he would only recall me as one of the noises in the garden. But I understand he was very much involved in his own thoughts and wouldn't really have had time for his admiring relatives.
His appartment has since been transformed into a gallery.
Funnily, it sits on the eleventh floor of an ugly block of flats. You wouldn't think anything of it till you took a ride up the rickety elevator and entered the appartment.

Camille Anna Roman

2009-06-12T23:31:00.005+01:00

I had the pleasure of working with Camille of "Tour de Force" this week. She has been sewing flamboyant costume for the characters in Butter Mouth, and I had just dropped by with some small feet which needed shoes and ended up spending the whole day at the studio helping stitch and sew.

Camille is the inventor of incredible hair pieces. She showed me a bird cage hat which blew me right out of the window on to Kingsland Road. We've spoken about collaborating in the past, as Camille loves puppets, and I'm hoping something comes of our ideas this year.

distractions

2009-06-12T21:13:00.002+01:00

I ought to be making dinner, but instead, I'm looking at this:

Slepé lásky

2009-06-06T11:55:00.005+01:00

I watched a film with Emma and Jack not long ago. "Blind Loves". It is screening at the ICA till tomorrow. If you have a chance to be there, I recommend it. It's very moving.

Here is the review from Time Out magazine:

"Deliberately intimate, while never invasive, it’s a film that allows and shows vulnerability while never exploiting it. The linking theme, ostensibly that of the special course of love and romance for touch and sound-oriented unsighted people, slowly emerges as something more general: a meditation on the essentials of social identity, attachment, feeling and pleasure. It’s elevated no end by the adventurousness of the filmmaking, including some arresting, often beautiful, formal framings by cinematographer Juraj Chlpík and Juraj Lehotsky’s audacious use of animation and superimposition."

Wheels

2009-06-06T10:43:00.006+01:00

I am looking for a bicycle like this. It's marvelous. And it doesn't look as though it would be too much trouble to carry around if I got tired of riding. If you know of one, or see one in the street without a lock on it- let me know!
There exists a unique cycling magazine called 'T he Ride'
It isn't the average catalogue of new bicycle technology or sports events or youth culture. Rather it revolves around the journey you make on your bicycle. The experience of riding. Your destination. People with bikes, whether casual riders or extreme cycling heroes tell their stories, and artists and photographers with a similar passion illustrate these tales with beautiful imagery.

Coconut

2009-06-02T22:32:00.004+01:00

A small update to show you Andrew's coconut from Carter's Steam Fair. And our blurry glee on the swings.

Pet - one who is excessively loyal to their superior

2009-05-31T23:11:00.005+01:00

There is a mouse in the cupboard called Gerald. He has made a hole through the cupboard wall into the chimney and lives there. He probably has tunneled access to the rest of the house too, as someone has mentioned seeing him in the kitchen.
We met last night as he was shuffling about behind my suitcase. I fetched him a biscuit and left it in the cupboard for him to enjoy as a midnight snack. Instead, he woke me at four o'clock this morning with a cacophony of bag rustling and frantic nibbling. I turned the lights on and discovered him inside an old blue-white-stripe-bag eating toast! (This toast was a snack I saved for birds or ducks on the off chance I should be visiting a pond.) He hadn't touched the biscuit.
Gerald is about the same size as the Hedgehog I bought for my friend Louisiana. He is made by Miss Bumbles who sells various felt animalesque characters.

I'm going to open up a shop on Etsy soon.

End of the World

2009-05-30T11:55:00.006+01:00

I don't have a scanner handy at our current home. So please make do with something old. This is a sketch of an idea for a logo for an upcoming Chocolate and Wine shop called "End of the World".
I figured one's world could end quite easily when confronted with a vicious set of jaws.
Inspiration came from a wonderful set of monsters from A Chronological Chart of the visions of Daniel and John.

Well whaddaya know

2009-05-29T23:56:00.001+01:00

Here is a very bizarre mix of people re-enacting a very important scene. From the film "Basquiat" by Julian Schnabel.

Public House

2009-05-24T18:19:00.005+01:00

On our travels from East to West last night we came across these two exciting things...
The Fox pub in Dalston,
and later
a Chevrolet car, which parked in front of us, and the man who got out, ran over the road to pick up a 6 pack of beer from Tescos. A waste of a glorious car.

Now we're off to the Steam Fair in Victoria Park for some old fashioned Candy Floss!

I've borrowed this image from a kind somebody on flickr who also went to the fair.
We had such fun but we forgot the camera to capture it. Outside the fair were waiting for us Sebastian Sequoiah-Grayson and Frida, and inside the fair were waiting for us hot doughnuts, swings and coconuts. Though we all tried hard, Andrew beat us on his first go and knocked the coconut clean off its stand. Turns out you just win the coconut, but that's great, infact. All the other prizes were made of plastic. We can eat that for dinner tonight.

I'm buying a bicycle, and selling roller blades. Hopefully one will fund the other. This is my first ebay selling experience...

This is precisely where we live

2009-05-23T10:53:00.002+01:00

"London, London" video by Cibelle feat. Devendra Banhart from Crammed Discs on Vimeo.

William Eggleston

2009-05-23T10:25:00.004+01:00

William Eggleston is my favourite photographer, still, after 8 years. No-one has taken his trophy.
And here he is in Interview with Harmony Korine, for those of you who would like an introduction:

"I've also never had favorite pictures. Or subjects.
I have discipline of treating everything equally."

—William Eggleston

Dancing in grass

2009-05-23T09:38:00.004+01:00

This image belongs to "Shorpy". What a phenomenal pose! This is Madame Lubouska... I wonder which direction she was going in. Seems as though she could glide foward, fall backward, or just be lifted up to the sky on a thread.

I realise I am getting old because when I register my information online, and select my date of birth, I have to scroll down in the drop down menu to find 1984. It used to just be there, easy reach. I've fallen from the top 18 list.
And all this dawns on me because I am eating ORGANIC MELTDOWN chocolate and have discovered that I have a saved a TREE! So I am just registering myself in order to become acquainted with the tree I have saved. Not being a vegetarian like almost everybody else these days, this is pretty much the best I can do.

By the by, my tree is in Ecuador, and its home to frogs.

I ❤ David Byrne

2009-05-21T20:19:00.004+01:00

I expect this song to be playing when I die.

Most people haven't heard about this film, we had a television recording of it in the 90's and it was so frequently watched that the tracking lines became deeply engrained. Therefore I am grateful to the internet that I can watch it crisp and small on my laptop and as often as I like.
Buy it, it's too good not to be part of your life. Here, I'll tell you a little about it...
Byrne takes a drive through Virgil, Texas and in the 80's. He gives a commentary of how Texas is evolving and meets eccentric characters who live there. Their lives involve songs by Talking Heads, which are performed in church, at the mall, nightclubs and by kids in the street bashing bin lids together. It has a sense of documentary but for the most part we are spying on them. And the soundtrack- is incredible. The best Talking Heads record of all!

Jamie Wieck DOES

2009-05-19T21:50:00.005+01:00

Jamie Wieck, or Jam/Jamborine/Jampster as I sometimes call him, is my friend from the Central Saint Martin days. We met on a stop motion project in our first year and I was quite mesmerized by his troubles which I convinced him to tell me over a bar of Twix chocolate in the canteen at the end of the day. (Though I confess, I can no longer remember what those troubles were, so evidently they weren't too grave or persistent. Thank goodness!)

Jamie Wieck is an extremely successful graphic designer, he works for Airside and he's always DOING something, or MAKING something, or MENDING it, or INVENTING something amazing. He possesses confounding amounts of enthusiasm and persistence and those are tremendously important qualities in a designer and I ought to model myself on his methods.

I am the proud owner of this piece... "American Gothic"

Namesday

2009-05-18T22:18:00.005+01:00

Last Friday was my Namesday and we celebrated with Sushi dinner in Holborn. There hasn't been an awful lot said about Saint Zofia. She had three daughters; Faith Hope and Love. I once knew a girl named Hope. I don't think I will give my children these names, unless I find a suitably pleasant sounding foreign translation for them.
These were my incredible gifts...

'maxwell holyoke-hirsch' print- for which I today purchased a frame, but left it in the studio...

glamorous sun shades from Harvey Nichols department store!

Lurking bears

2009-05-17T15:40:00.007+01:00

I can't remember when or how, but I came across Lizzy Stewart's work and began to follow her blog. It's filled with great references to things, and it's really a super source of information about what's happening amongst young creatives. Then funnily enough I discovered a bear in her collection that looked familiar...... just without a dying swan betwixt its jaws...
I think we used the same bear photo! You'll see bears often feature in her illustrations and they have been inspiration for a children's book called "Nora and Bear"

She has a wonderful stlye, that is delicate and penciled and then the little bits of colour in the pictures are somehow perfectly placed.

I'm going to eat him

2009-05-17T15:29:00.002+01:00

The chocolate Lindt bunny from Andrew.
It's time, my chocolate friend...

Double vision

2009-05-12T22:52:00.003+01:00

It's not really correct to post this on two blogs, but I am quite proud of the red velvet sofa I made today for the set of 'Butter Mouth', and as I've not had time to draw much lately, this'll have to do in terms of creative evidence...

Todd Colby

2009-05-10T12:44:00.007+01:00

Todd Colby's Glee Farm

It is possible that what I'm about to do breaks some rules, but I want to type out one of Todd Colby's poems. It is called "My Music"

My thigh bone
is actually a bell
and I ring it sometimes late at night.
I wait until everyone has gone to sleep
and then i tiptoe into the anteroom
sit down in my rocker
and poor myself a glass of Nyquil.
After I'm feeling drowsy from the medicine
I peel back the skin and muscle from my thigh
with a pair of cheap tweezers
from an old Operation game
and tap the bell inside
with a tiny brass
xylophone mallet.
This is my music.

We have recently moved to a new room in Clapton, Hackney. It's good to be back in East London, and we're ever so close to the studio. The trouble is the Internet is fluctuant, so there may be long gaps between posts coming up.
I have left behind my great René Magritte poster...

Persepolis

2009-05-09T00:02:00.009+01:00

This is Persepolis, a film based on a graphic novel, and both created by the talented lady Marjane Satrapi
What appeals to me about the aesthetic is the grainy charcoal smudge that always lingers behind the clean cut lines illustrating the characters. This sort of smokey cloud is what creates the oppressive atmosphere in the film, which is appropriate, as the story tells of a childhood in Tehran during the Islamic revolution.

Every element of this creation is intact, I especially love the website, which unusually creates the illusion of depth.

Tony Ross and Janosch

2009-05-04T21:45:00.005+01:00

Two brilliant illustrators from my Pocket Puffin Collection:

Janosch

Tony Ross

Slide

2009-05-04T17:23:00.004+01:00

This has been the view through my notice board for a while, but like most things one looks at too often, I stopped noticing it all together. So now as the room is being packed up for the impending move to Clapton this week, I saw it for the first time again and it was gooood. The photograph was taken five or six years ago on a slide film, and hence the saturated colours. The camera was one that my father bought second hand in 1970, and it's still in perfect working condition.

Wolf and Sheep

2009-05-03T09:32:00.006+01:00

I have set up a second blog to document the process of animation on our Wolf and Sheep production. It's now at the top of my 'go see' list, so go see!

Everyday I draw it again

2009-05-02T21:09:00.002+01:00

Warehouses and Emporiums

2009-05-02T19:49:00.007+01:00

A sunshine day and a visit to Hobby Craft with Louisa. I never knew this place existed until today, it is a huge arts and crafts warehouse but in the form of a Lidl or Primark, where the staff don't really give a damn about anything and don't KNOW anything either. So art is no sacred thing in this store. It's a medley of paints and clays and buttons and string, stencils, glues, wood, plastic flowers, cloth, beads, dolls houses, and packets of mini eggs. An unusual selection, wouldn't you say?
So I came away with some balsa wood planks, a little spray paint, two terracotta flower pots, copper wire, milliput, green fabric and extreme hunger.
Hunger is always a consequence of shopping. Two days ago I only managed to browse two fabric shops on Berwick Street before weakly collapsing into a Greek Cafe and greedily ordering some Halloumi.
Speaking of fabric shops, "Cloth House" was magnificent:

Some of the fabrics were very beautiful, but what impressed me most was the design of the shop interior. My camera was unavailable, so no photographs of my own to share with you. All I can do is recommend a visit... No. 47 Berwick Street, Soho, London, W1F 8SJ

Everyday I draw it again

2009-05-01T21:03:00.002+01:00

Green

2009-04-30T20:43:00.007+01:00

I have stared at this image for hours and turned green with Envy.

This is by Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch, a great San Francisco illustrator.
Unfortunately when I'm so in love with an artist I dare not try to express it, because my attempts at written praise can never match my enthusiasm. Having just discovered the work is for sale, I'm off to buy a print.

The SPEAKER has been airing on the BBC and it's been encouraging to see such intelligence and character amongst British teenagers. Its quite rare these days to hear about youthful achievements. The children that draw the most attention are the rude and violent ones. I was losing hope for a while. Little Duncan deserved his trophy, he was inspiring. I was working on my laptop while the candidates gave their final speeches and his presentation tore me away from my computer screen, for his tone was gripping and there was urgency in his message. I would like to have him as a little brother.

Everyday I draw it again

2009-04-30T20:02:00.002+01:00

Delicious Jelly Rolls

2009-04-28T00:48:00.004+01:00

if you really love me, you'll buy me these.
Jelly rolls of fabric could just exist as they are. Perhaps with a different ribbon, but aren't they exquisite?

I have been shopping at Tikki in Kew for my quilt materials and although its a tiny shop, there is enough beautiful fabric inside to take up a whole morning of gasping in admiration. This is a small section of my quilt so far. The numbers depict my most favoured patterns- those of which I am struggling to locate.

Everyday I draw it again

2009-04-27T10:50:00.004+01:00

Everyday I draw it again

2009-04-25T21:02:00.004+01:00

Why Foxes?

2009-04-25T19:07:00.012+01:00

Recently somebody asked me; "Why foxes?" and I couldn't patch together any sort of reason, but I did think of this book I read when tiny. It is the story of Mrs. Fox's Wedding...

“She was very pretty, was Mrs. Fox, and as smart a young vixen as you could wish to meet. But now she was sitting in her room a-weeping, because Mr. Fox was dead”

So I imagine these illustrations by Errol Le Cain were rather influential. A fox with nine tails? What a notion! I wish I had thought of that. There must have been a time long ago when having basic new ideas was so groundbreaking. Lately, so much has already been thought and said and done, that there's really no use for so many human beings to exist.
I'm actually considering changing our names to Mr and Mrs Fox...
On the bus I finished reading Breakfast at Tiffany's (again) but good thing I read it twice because I must have gotten it completely mixed up with some other novel involving meals at Tiffany's, and was therefore pleasantly surprised; it was as though I'd never read it before.
When I hear 'Moonriver', though, I always well up with tears. It is enchanted.

Which reminds me of a German I met on a bus in Spain, who kept delighting in his pronunciation of the word 'Encantado', tho he turned it in to 'In-Cun-Taaaaaaaaaaaa-Daaaaaaaaaaaw' with too much breath and too little toothpaste.

Tail Duster

2009-04-22T23:43:00.004+01:00

The results of sitting in the evening sun today.
The last few days have been enjoyably busy, setting the studio up for animation. Yesterday Andrew and I ran about town picking up paint and modeling materials and ended the night at Emma's private view at the Jerwood Space.
And today, we have been studying the set in detail and designing furniture props which are going into construction tomorrow.

Coraline

2009-04-22T17:58:00.008+01:00

Coraline. Its here. I haven't seen it and am wary of the buttons (my Koumpounophobia)... and weary of the same ol' whimsy Tim Burton / Nightmare before Christmas style (spiraling branches and jagged cat tails), courtesy of Henry Selick. However, at the same time, I am completely impressed that a stop-motion film is fighting back against the CG disasters that poor children have had to endure this last decade. Well, there is a little computer work involved, but it's just the dustpan and brush that cleans up the very last bits.
It took 18 months to shoot.

Above is an image by Jon Klassen who worked on the film during the visual development process. He has used very fine light and colours in these images and I hope that it has translated to the film itself. He's so talented; I am an admirer.

Asbury

2009-04-22T00:06:00.003+01:00

This is my smashing friend Dave. He has been making music all the while I've known him, which, can you believe it Dave, is eight years now? And a little longer. The first time we met was at John Frusciante's solo show and the next time we met again was at The Shepherd's Bush Empire to listen to PJ Harvey. I say 'listen' because we saved our money and sat by some cold emergency exit alone, outside, where the sound was surprisingly clear.
Dave is otherwise known as "ASBURY" and writes very beautiful songs which are gradually reaching people's ears.

I recommend listening to him with eyes closed (or half closed as does Dave).

Le Gun

2009-04-20T18:39:00.006+01:00

Le Gun is full of curious pictures. It's the sort of magazine I would take on a long trip to keep me occupied and to avoid loneliness. Also, it is a lowly goal of mine to cover some Le Gun pages in my drawings. I offered them this two years ago. It's time to try something new...

Le Gun is composed of a few regular artists and takes contributions from others for the publications. Of these some of my favourites include...

Emma Rendel,
Steph von Reiswitz,
Anna McClelland,
Andrzej Klimowski,
&
Amelia Johnstone

Sowa

2009-04-19T21:12:00.004+01:00

Do you remember them?

Michael Sowa is our family favourite, very few occasions go by without a message in a Sowa card, and each one is charming or puzzling or completely hilarious.

Warhol... as in holes

2009-04-18T20:44:00.004+01:00

Aaaah Andy,
I recently read POPism by Warhol and Pat Hackett. It's really very informative, if you care at all about the New York scene in the 60's. And what is most insightful, is Andy writing of how he entered that whole world, because I never really understood his transition from a feeble ill child to a superartist. Some of it is a little shocking too.
Better still is "from A to B and back again"

Lookaftering: an update

2009-04-16T22:12:00.007+01:00

The beloved "Lookaftering" poster in the hall.
It's the exact same spot that the Mozambiquan spitting Cobra hissed and danced at Andrew

Tarkovsky

2009-04-16T18:04:00.008+01:00

Today; Tarkovsky

I've seen only a portion of his films, and there are a few waiting for me close by. It's just the films are terribly intense and your mind must be perfectly adjustable in preparation to watch.
Once on a rainy day on Eland Street, we watched "Stalker" until it turned dark outside and I was very fragmented afterward. But I'm often quite deeply affected by movies.
"Mirror" is the first Tarkovsky film I watched, and I watched it with Nanette at the ICA, then I returned a few days later and watched it again with Badzia.
Although it's Russia, the scenes of fields and forests remind me of my childhood summers in Poland.

Olive Cars

2009-04-15T19:13:00.004+01:00

This great car I saw on my last day in L.A five years ago. It's been too long.
But the other day Andrew was showing me a Smashing Pumpkins video and I thought they were driving that very same car, so I dug this photo out my polaroid shoe box just to make sure.
...it's not, by the way...

Instructions:

2009-04-15T13:46:00.003+01:00

Listen to
This American Life

More animals

2009-04-14T21:35:00.006+01:00

Today we are celebrating the first day in our Nooooooooooo Studio (new studio) Hoorah!
It is big with a little window which is perfect, for we are going to be making a stop motion animation and light needs to be strictly disciplined. Just over the canal from us, the Olympic stadium is taking shape, its quite exciting to watch such a major development.

There have been many greyhounds catching my eye recently. Don't you think there are more about than usual? When they run they disappear.

Whyn Lewis paints greyhounds and other animals, I used to have this poster in my home in South Africa. I had it mounted on wood though and the lizards made a home behind it, so it was too heavy and too disruptive to take it back to London. I miss it though...

Mazurki

2009-04-13T16:27:00.003+01:00

This year's Mazurki are SO delicious. We decorate them with edible things like nuts, fruits and rice paper.

Bat For Lashes

2009-04-13T13:50:00.011+01:00

If you're going to see Bat for Lashes for the "Two Suns" tour, glance at the merchandise as they have created some interesting things such as pillow cases, t-shirts and tea towels using some of my illustrations...

Or you can be prepared and buy them before the show on the Bat for Lashes website

Also, I had a memory today of drinking from some beautiful mugs in Brighton last winter and i decided to seek them out because I really wanted to see them again. They were difficult to find as i was searching for 'blue' 'tree' 'plates', which brought up all kinds of rubbish. But then, with a little luck they appeared...They are designed by Klaus Haapaniemi for Littala. Strangely I don't much like any of his other work, but these creatures I love!

Badges

2009-04-13T00:28:00.000+01:00

Do be advised to look in Bonbi Forest from time to time. Lately I sent some badges there.
One of a bear and one of a goose.
They come as a pair and are printed on a very special canvas badge!

Changes

2009-04-12T13:40:00.000+01:00

As my new website is looking well and is almost ready to go on stage, "little zosienka" will forfeit its place as a portfolio site and become somewhat more active and informative.
Until now I've been mostly posting images, sketches and experiments that have no explanation. Instead I'd like to post thoughts and found things and open up comments for anybody who might also have something to say.
So to begin; Yuri Norstein who influenced this years Easter Egg.

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2009-01-05T23:27:00.001Z

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2009-01-05T00:15:00.000Z

2008-12-22T23:14:00.000Z

Zosienka's amazing little birds... by The Bonbi Forest Indie Emporium

2008-12-21T23:11:00.000Z

2008-12-21T21:55:00.001Z

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