Downtown Shanghai at night showing Meiloucheng (red glass ball)

Shauna Taylor shares some of her favourite architectural sights from Shanghai.

It was Ernest Dimnet who once said that “Architecture, of all arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul”. Had it been only a few years ago, before moving to Shanghai to conduct my studies in a purely scientific field, I would never have given these words much more than an indifferent glance before quickly disregarding what I’ve come to realize was its truly powerful significance.

Having hailed from the tropical paradise of Jamaica where my admiration for Mother Nature and her lush, radiant greenery had always taken precedence over the monotony of concrete structures. I once firmly considered architecture as merely being a necessary means to a developing economy’s end and would never have likened it to the creative expressions associated with ‘real’ art. Yet Shanghai, with its dynamic array of flamboyant edifices scraping the skies into a modern tomorrow, seemed to have captivated my very being, allowing me to see architecture as an intricate way of molding the fine elements of Mother Nature herself into towering works of art. Over time it became official that this slow conversion in perspective had surely made its impact on my soul.

With its race ahead to dazzle the world as being one of the most futuristic cities of the eastern hemisphere, Shanghai has quickly built for itself a universal playground of imaginative thinkers that continue to test the reigns of bold architectural genius upon its very grounds. Such changes are truly a far cry from the image most of the world has held of this amazing country for many years. Five years ago I for one would have quickly painted an image of cobbled streets narrowly aligned with pagoda-shaped buildings on either side with large sculptures of dragons and lions adorning most of their city structures. And yet, although a number of these designs are still present throughout the city and in many other areas of China, still it is clear that it has embraced an architecture that not only demonstrates an openness to the outside world but a creative manifestation of globalization carved into glass and stone. With its rapidly changing image one can only imagine what ten years down the road will dare expect from this amazing city:

Above: Shanghai World Financial Center (492m – 1614ft, 101 storeys).
Currently holding the world’s highest observation deck.
Lujiazui, Pudong District, Shanghai.

Above: Shanghai Oriental Art Center used as a Concert Hall and Performances. It covers an area of 40,000 square meter and is linked by curved glass walls from base to top and the shape gives the effect of changing as you move around it. Pudong, Shanghai, China (PRC).

Above: ‘The Sundial’, located on Century Avenue which has the only street sculpture themed as ‘time’ in the world. Pudong, Shanghai, China (PRC).

Above: Sections of the Yuyuan (or Yu gardens) in daytime showing traditional architectural designs within the heart of the city.

Above: The Yuyuan Gardens at night.

Above: Scene from People’s Square at dusk. Shanghai, China (PRC).

Above: Scene from the Bund overlooking Pudong and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Shanghai, China (PRC).

Above: Sky-scrapers in Pudong.

Above: The Jin Mao tower and the World Financial Center from a distance.

Above: “Another day, another skyscraper”. Construction workers heading home from a long day’s work. Pudong Business District, Shanghai, China (PRC)

Supermarket Sheep

Please go to cashier twelve. Beep. Beep. Unexpected item in bagging area. Beep. Please wait for assistance. Beep.

Baa! Baa!

Not so long ago, while mindlessly queuing for the next instruction from a haughty digitised voice, herded through the snaking cordons like a lamb to the slaughter, I had a moment of clarity; “What in Heaven’s name am I doing here? Why am I treating food shopping as a chore? How has it come to this?”

Call me old fashioned if you will, but of all the things I want for my life, none of them is staring into space while kicking a basket forwards in increments of 6 inches, surrounded by beep beep beep and whining children. Listen to those kids people, they’re screaming to get out; they know.

Now I’m not against supermarkets per se, in fact I still often succumb to their glitzy charms, particularly if I’ve had a busy week, but I’ve taken a conscious decision to inject some enjoyment into food shopping, and that enjoyment comes from going to local shops.

The real inspiration came one Sunday morning while out on my bike near Victoria Park, in London’s East End. Cycling down Lauriston Road, in general admiration at its surprising prettiness, I spied an animated group of people on the pavement, outside what turned out to be the local butcher. Teeming with customers - queuing, laughing, rabbiting - it was a scene of neighbourly delight, and I wanted a part of it.

Suddenly open to the possibility of a local store, I’m noticing greengrocers, fruit & veg stalls, butchers and fishmongers wherever I go; not so rare it turns out as we’ve been led to believe; open your eyes and you shall see. Find them, look them up, support your neighbourhood business. For me, what opened my eyes was getting back in the saddle. I began to explore; what if I turn left here? That parade of shops looks interesting down there. This sort of behaviour simply doesn’t happen in a car; you can’t just stop in the middle of the road and eye up hanging pigs.

“But what if I don’t have the time?” you cry. Well, be creative. If you’ve honestly, truly, really not got time at the weekend, why not grab 5 minutes in your lunch break and pop into the butcher. Even if only for some sausages. Just once. And see the difference. Real interaction with a local person who really knows their onions, or bacons, or fishes. You won’t get that from Shanice on the checkout.

And time? Well are supermarkets really that time efficient? This weekend I cooked dinner for eight. Two chickens, some veg, berries & cream for dessert, some oil, some mustard. Oh yes, and March of the Penguins on DVD. £30 all in. But how on earth does this take an hour and a half to buy? I’ll tell you how; by going to a store where the food is spread out across an area the size of two football pitches, in a windowless arena where time and space are at once banished to the world outside.

“Oh but I’ve got a system” you boast. “How dreary”, I retort. How absolutely, miserably, monumentally dull, to relegate one of life’s most unerring delights to a soulless efficiency drive. Boo hiss to your system. And two fingers up at it an’ all. We’re hunter gatherers people, not drones. And we’ve been hunter-gatherers for thousands of years. So hunt. And gather. And delight in the world and smells and people of food.

Supermarkets? They’re just a phrase we’re going through.

Everybody wants to be a pop star. Everybody wants to escape the day job for the red carpet, being interviewed alongside mates like Amy, Christina, Noel and Liam.

That’s the celebrity lifestyle (so they tell us) but behind every celebrity there are a group of wannabes called songwriters and producers. At best these people are excellent craftsmen/women with a nerdish eye for emotion and detail who often also play a mean game of pool.

Would’nt it just be great to be one of those people? You may be over 30 (and can forget about pop stardom) but hey, you’ll get to hang out with the stars and if you’re lucky you may even get paid.

So what does it actually take to be a songwriter? As a music producer it’s a question I often get asked by wannabe songwriters and my answer is simple:

1) You write a great song

2) You find a publisher or an artist who likes your song

3) The publisher places your song with a famous singer

4) You get paid.

It’s simple yet complex, especially if you start at stage 4. But let’s for fun look at stage 1 ‘writing a great song’. Assuming we’re talking pop music, a song generally has a short intro, a verse, a bridge, a chorus, verse2, bridge2, chorus 2 and then……….a mid 8 which is that part in the middle of the song where you sort of change chords and sing something like ‘DON’T YOU SEEEEE BABYYY’ or ‘I’VE BEEN MISSSINGGGGGGGGG YOUUUUUUU’……..you get the drift, and then a final chorus. Ideally each verse and chorus has the same amount of bars and we’re not talking ‘all bar one’ here.

If you can follow these simple guide lines then you’re well on your way to the Ivor Novellos. Strangely enough I’ve found a lot of writers find it difficult to follow these simple rules but that’s another story.

Now that you’ve got a structure you need to fill it with notes and words. Close your eyes, let your imagination go, write about the lover who dumped you 5 years ago for your best friend. Really let your feelings take over, say it in a new way but in a way where you come out on top the land where hope lives (remember we’re talking pop music here, not Bob Dylan). Notice that on most hit songs the melody tends to go up on the chorus. If the chorus could speak it would say ‘yesssss’ or ‘hallelujah’, this is the part that gives people hope and also the part that gets you paid so really work it until you’ve got the best combination of notes and rhythm.

You also need a strong lyric and by strong I don’t mean Shakespeare just something that says it all and something which isn’t too clichéd. If in doubt copy someone else’s song and move the words around a little.

O.k so now you’ve got a structure and a melody otherwise known as a song. It exists, but only in your head and beautiful as it may be it is now time to marry reality with imagination. This point can be difficult for artists and if it is you may need someone to hold you to it. Somehow you need to find a producer and a singer who can help you record your song. Producers come in several varieties, the enthusiastic school leaver who dreams of being the next Timbaland and the more seasoned spectacle wearing nerd who has been through the system and come through it alive. So there you have it. I know who I would choose but I’ll leave that decision to you. Session singers are easy enough to find. If you have a cheque you’ll also have a singer, in that field the world is your oyster, enjoy!

If you’ve come this far it time for a few words of wisdom. As the old saying goes, ‘you can’t polish a t**d’ and this in my experience holds a great deal of truth when it comes to music. Even the best producer in the world cannot turn a poorly written song into something workable. I am not talking about songs like ‘Aga doo doo doo’ which we may not like but they do actually work. I am talking about songs that don’t work, so for your song to build like a hit record you’ll need to ask yourself: ‘does the melody build? Are there enough hooks?

After you’ve recorded your song it’s time to put on your sales cap (don’t turn it the hip hop way, only works in America).

Let’s sum it up: you are, (in the eyes of the music biz) a novice songwriter, so what can you expect from the business?

If you’re lucky Warners will knock on your door with a suitcase full of money and you live happily ever after and while you should try all options it may be worth pitching a little lower. Say you go to a songwriter event and you meet a fellow songwriter. He listens to your demo, likes it and the two of you start a songwriting partnership. You write about 20 songs over the next 2 years, most of them second rate but song number 19 happens to catch the ear of a local promoter whose aunt is married to a shrink who councils a recovering addict A&R man from from one of the major labels. He loooooooves your song and wants to put it on an album by a couple of spotty upstarts he’s just signed.

It looks promising and you can’t believe it when you wake up one morning and you hear your song on the breakfast show. It sounds a little different, it’s seems they’ve changed the chord structure a tad and in the middle there’s a kid rapping over your carefully crafted melody. Just think of the money.

“It’s a smash!” shouts the DJ, “The best track to come out of Britain since the Beatles!” (o.k maybe I am getting carried away here but it’s important to dream). Bottom line, you’ve done it, no more dayjobs, no more being pushed around by ‘THE MAN’, you can sit back and have a cigar for 5 mins. But wait……. You’re only as good as your last hit and the tide is turning……….artists are beginning to write their own material and if you don’t get on the bandwagon quick it may be too late. And you already know that your newfound fame is no longer enough, it needs to be bigger and better.

START WRITING NOW!

I was lucky enough to attend a raw food event at the Streatham Food Festival earlier this year and learned some new recipes. This is one I experimented with and adapted with with help of a friend, Marinella, who I discovered used to make desserts in a vegan restaurant. She helped me make it look pretty. Who would have thought a vegan dessert could taste so good?

To make the nut base:
Take a good handful of nuts: brazil, almond, cashew. Put in blender with cardomon seeds (from 2 pods), a dash of maca powder (not essential - can get from any health food shop), to make a granular powder. Mash together with a teaspoon of tahini, a splash of water and a teaspoon of coconut oil until its all evenly mashed together. You can then shape it into one big base or make small ones in ramekins or baking cups. Refrigerate for a while (at least one hour) to help it set then tip out onto a serving plate. Add the topping about 30 minutes before serving:

The Topping:
One slice of peeled orange and one slice of kiwi fruit (slice thinly), plus half a strawberry on top. Make a slit in the top of the strawberry and add a fresh mint leaf garnish. Then sieve some cinnamon on top of the (to add a bit of drama and a pleasant aroma).

You could also squirt on some fresh cream if you want to break the raw/vegan rules. As someone once said, naughty but nice.

Enjoy!

WELCOME TO OGZINE.
Articles and pics about creativity and people who like being creative.

Ogzine is updated on a random, rolling basis. Want to know when new articles have been added? Just add your email to the ‘newsletter’ box to your left and click ‘go’.
If you like this, take a peek at our blog too, OggleBlog for short snippets on oggling life.

CONTENTS:
Ogzine Issue 2;
• Shauna Taylor (cover pic) reports from China on an amazing architectural array
• Paul Travers breaks free of the supermarket trap
• Music Producer Peter Larsen ruminates on the songwriter’s journey
• Mel Larsen goes nuts over a recipe for a vegan dessert

Click on OgZine issue 1 to read the following articles;
• Dominic Sedgwick interviews cult opera singer Ernesto Tomasini
• The London Print Studio showcases young participants’ work in London Prints
• Artist Lucy Noakes explores the world of the miniature
• Finance expert David Frederick discovers the global domain of the VA
• Estate Agent by day Writer by night, Paul Travers creates his dream life
• Hannah Taylor shares the joy of scrapbooking
• Beverley Ward braves the cold and stays on trend in Canada
• Music Producer Peter Larsen finds wisdom in baking bread
• Karen Brotherton talks about her creative process

OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we’re doing and make a donation by clicking these links for Plan International or Kiva

Please note: all opinions and views expressed within articles featured on OgZine belong solely to the author contributing that article (or to interviewees quoted within said articles), and do not necessarily represent the views of the oggleverything and OgZine owners, or of the other authors and contributors.

We are still raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more and make a donation by clicking these links for Plan International or Kiva

With some of the funds raised so far, we gave a loan to several businesses run by women including this one, the Khadidiatou Ndiaye Group in Senegal who sell fish:

For the Ogzine and the OgZine & OggleBlog Launch event we say a huge THANK YOU to:
Natasha Graham at NG Associates for event organisation - ngassociates(at)hotmail.co.uk. Volunteers: Sarah Cretch, Yaa Antwi-Nsiah, Jason Marshall, Melanie Knight, Tim Waterfield, Kim Morgan and Mary Rahman for Press work. All OgZine and OggleBlog contributors. Donald Seepaul at Indus Digital for design and print of flyers (dseepaulATaol.com). Keith Forbes and the reddogexperience for dj and vj equipment. Everyone who donated raffle and auction prizes. Clare Fischer at The Red Hedgehog - great new arts venue for London, available for hire. All performers at the launch event:
Rosalyn Wright,
Sylvia Hallett,
AgentSimon,
Vox Simba, colin(at)ethnovox.com,
Juwon Ogungbe,
DJ Globalesque,
Gosia Dzik-Holden

Illustrator Karen Brotherton talks about her creative process.

As far as my creative process goes, I tend to work quickly, pushing all of my imagination into a piece to form a general idea. Once I have an idea of the message I want to send, I go to work with hand drawing the illustration, before manipulating the image further on screen. Adding colour digitally afterwards means I get an amazing colour palette to work with. As colour is something I see has the most important structural element in visual communication, compositionally, colour brings everything together.

Hand drawing all my work is something that is important to me as an artist. In a digital age, its good to get back to basics and actually get involved by manually producing visuals. It is something I intend to explore further, and work at finding a happy medium of digital and handmade practices.

The piece titled 60yrs of Human Rights (see title image above) I did for a designer called Zara Arshad. She brought a big bunch of up and coming illustrators together, and asked them to produce mini protest boards. She did this in order to highlight the subject of freedom of speech, whereby the illustrator was allowed to simply say ‘anything’.

Therefore I produced two board illustrations based on this idea that due to the human rights law, you can say just about anything no matter your race or background.

About Karen Brotherton
I am a 22yr old illustrator from the north west of England. Having graduated last year, I am currently pursuing my dream of getting to draw all day, and call it a job! A lot of my work is based on nostalgia, as I grew up in a small town with not a lot to do. Therefore, drawing, my imagination and the rolling countryside seems to have influenced my illustration a lot. www.karenbrotherton.blogspot.com

© Karen Brotherton, 2009

OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we’re doing and make a donation by clicking these links for Plan International or Kiva

Lucy Noakes explains her fascination with all things miniature

“There was a lacquer trinket-box, padded inside and with the lid open, which they used to settle; and that useful stand-by a chest of drawers made of match boxes.”
The Borrowers, Mary Norton

I can still remember the first miniature I ever made. I must have been about eight and my subject of choice was a chocolate cake with a creamy centre with red dots along the top to represent cherries. Of course, the power of memory is a funny thing, and the ‘cake’ no doubt was more like a blob sculpted by my infantile imagination. Nevertheless, the plasticine treat was to be positioned pride of place in my doll house sat between a full jar of marmalade and an uncut bread roll. The miniature, of course, implies perfection, a world full of daintiness, preciousness and charm. However, every small world has an inventor and every inventor wants to make something new.

Today I am writing as both an inventor and a passive observer. My earliest memories of observing the miniature and the yo-yoing of scale and proportion were through following the journey of ‘Alice’ and ‘The Borrowers’. Despite the strong portrayal of the nonsense in both tales, we realise that amongst the slightly mentally challenged Hatter and the ‘human beans’, the jam tarts and the transformed match boxes are all existent in our world. Through this, the miniscule draws us closer but we are unable to get close enough, we can not cross that barrier into the small world. If given the chance to consume the contents of the ‘drink me’ bottle and to shrink to the size of a walnut, the charm would be lost. The beauty of the miniscule is in its un-attainability.

In essence, that is what I love about all things small: in all its sweetness there is a bitter sting. Someone once told me as a comment on my size (I am a teeny 4ft 10) that ‘poison comes in small bottles.’ That was the moment when I realised that the tables have turned. Not long after, I came across the work of Tessa Farmer and I am still bewildered by the nightmarish beauty she depicts. In her installations there are carcasses of all creatures great and small: a swallow, a rat, a fox and battling mayflies are treated as vessels to be captured by mischievous ‘fairies’. These ‘fairies’ are ten millimeters tall and made not from a baby’s first laughter but from tree root and insect wing.

On witnessing Farmer’s piece, ‘The resurrection of a rat’, I felt torn between amazement, repulsion and again the overwhelming feeling of nostalgia (of capturing ear wigs in empty coffee jars and making mud pies). As observers we become dehumanized, transformed as giants in a Lilliputian universe, bewitched and unable to resist the nightmarish lore of a visit to the deepest and darkest part of the woods. I believe that this is an example of how powerful the miniature can be; we do not know what waits for us until we are too close.

To invent a diminutive existence however is somewhat different to discovering one. To the artist, dollhouse owner or model maker their tiny creation is a universe that they can control or perhaps a place to escape the giganticness of life. For me, it is about trying to capture the magic of child play in everyday life whilst most of us overlook it. I think it is about time that we became just that little bit more curious.

© Lucy Noakes, 2009

About Lucy Noakes
I graduated from a degree in Fine Art last year and since leaving I have spent my time making sugar cube houses and miniature realms that I ‘find’ in my garden which I document through photography. My life long fascination for jewellery (I can not go outside the house without wearing any) has lead me down the path of creating my own, inspired by the imagery of children’s literature. Today, it is Tweedledum and Tweedledee’s embroidered collar, who knows what tomorrow will bring. www.lucynoakes.co.uk

OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we’re doing and make a donation by clicking these links for Plan International or Kiva

“The famous castrato-style performer whose high falsetto can plummet to deep baritone with startling effect”(The Evening Standard)…Dominic Sedgwick talks to the man Time Out called a ‘Voice in Drag’

Ernesto Tomasini is a man of many parts. Born in Sicily’s capital, Palermo, at the age of 10 he was kicked out of the choir by the priests of the Santissimo Salvatore for “singing mass as Julie Andrews”.

Classical actor, singer, comedian and alternative cabaret artist, Tomasini is possessed of an extraordinary vocal range that soars the four-octaves from basse to high falsetto. He has starred or participated in an equally extraordinary range of projects from experimental theatre with Lindsay Kemp to the West End stage in Chicago – The Musical, also appearing in concert halls, theatres, nightclubs and cultural institutes around the world.

Feted for being both erudite and entertaining, True or Falsetto: A Secret History of the Castrati was developed from one of his ideas by scriptwriter Lucy Powell. A musical play in which he sang, danced, acted and cross-dressed his way through musical history, it looked at “the human side of what it meant to be created for art”.

In 2007 he began an ongoing artistic relationship as vocalist and collaborator with composer Othon Mataragas, whose recent album, Digital Angel, features Ernesto’s voice on a number of tracks.

This year he is busy co-devising a piece for Riverside Studios; on the set of a new film starring Derek Jacobi; and making an appearance on Brother Focus: For the Inaugurator of the Pleasure Dome, an album of previously unreleased tracks to raise money for pioneering experimental film maker Kenneth Anger, featuring artists such as Marc Almond, Antony and the Johnsons, Coil, and Rickie Lee Jones. (Listen to Tomasini on LastFM)

Tomasini now lives in London. I asked him a few questions…

1. For many people there is, perhaps, one moment that they never forget of first hearing a piece of music that really touches them, and for musicians this moment probably determines their future. The first piece of music which really touched me was Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”. I was about ten years old at the time, at home from school due to illness. Being bored I put on one of my mother’s two discs of classical music - I’d never heard anything like it - it had so much journey and magic in it. Was there a particular song or piece of music that inspired you to love it, and where were you at the time?

The first music experience that I remember was a production of Verdi’s Nabucco at the Palermo Opera House, I was dragged there by my dotty godmother (an avid Opera lover), I must have been 4. I fell asleep some time during the third act but I don’t think it’s by chance that Verdi became my favourite Opera composer.

As far as recordings are concerned my childhood is haunted by the voice of Julie Andrews, not so much in her more popular roles but in some obscure soundtrack that I was given as a present (by the same dotty godmother). It had Kurt Weill, Cole Porter, Noel Coward, George Gershwin and Music Hall songs in it; riveting stuff. I learned how to sing by duetting with her on this and other records (in the same octave!!!).

2. An ideal audience - which characters from history would you most like to entertain?

Alexander the Great for the sheer decadence of it all, they tell me that his parties could become quite - ahem - naughty.

Also, Galileo Galilei: I would have loved to sing to him a piece that I am writing right now, an ode to science and the “scientific mind” that would have been most comforting to him during his more difficult times.

And finally the greatest artist of the 20th Century: Walt Disney! Forget about Stravinsky, Picasso or Brecht, the artist that more than any other has left his mark on the last 80 years is Disney. I would have loved to see the horrified expression on his face after one of my acts… I like to think that he would have declared my persona to be… unbankable.

3. Some of the venues where you have performed sound fascinating and very beautiful, such as the Medieval Castle of Itri in Italy, and architect Alvaro Siza’s Galician Center for Contemporary Art in the old town of Santiago de Compostela. Which is your favourite performance location to date, and where would you most love to play in the future?

My favourite venue so far is the Royal Albert Hall: It is such a joy getting on that gigantic stage, gazing at that magnificent auditorium, being swept off your feet by the huge orchestra behind and showering in the thunderous applause at the end of every piece; what a thrill!
I particularly love those London theatres where, at the beginning of the past century, they used to perform the so called “intimate revues” (those of Charles B Cochran, for example). Any of these would be on my wish list for the future.

4. Which three composers, living or dead, would you most love to have write for your voice?

1) Francis Poulenc: we would have liked each other and I could have served him well.
2) Rozz Williams: I would love to sing twisted versions of deathrock, or punk or even heavy metal. There are elements of them in some of the stuff that I do but I would love to go for the full shebang.
3) Othon Mataragas: and luckily he DOES write for my voice. His music is my absolute favourite. It would be even if I were an audience member but the fact that he chose me to sing it gives me rushes of bliss that, at times, are truly overwhelming. The man’s a genius and we haven’t even heard the best of him yet!

5. Perhaps singing was invented thousands of years ago in caves where the voice echoes back to the singer. Today concrete stairwells have a similarly resonant acoustic. Are there spaces where you secretly sing?

Funny you should say that as stairwells in theatres are the places where I regularly hide to warm up my voice. I have my favourite secret spot at the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End: a true Phantom of the Opera hideaway where one can wail away undisturbed.

6. What question would you most like to be asked, and if I asked it, what would be your response?

I would like you to ask me: “Mr Tomasini what do you do in order to keep yourself so lean, young and beautiful?” I would flap my lashes and, almost blushing with false modesty, I would lie by telling you that I’m a teetotal!

© Dominic Sedgwick, 2009

About Dominic Sedgwick
Dominic Sedgwick is an artist, singer and songwriter. Originally trained as a biologist, Dominic was educated at Imperial College, The Royal College of Art, and Blackheath Conservatoire of Music. He is a director of Ginkgo Music www.ginkgomusic.com, a charity committed to halting deforestation by creating projects linking ecology & music, currently developing forest restoration projects in Scotland, Ecuador and Afghanistan.

OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we’re doing and make a donation by clicking these links for Plan International or Kiva

INTERVIEWS with YOUNG ARTISTS at THE LONDON PRINT STUDIO:

Jenni Allen talks to Sarah Murphy and Mat(ilda) Keane

participants in the youngartists’programme at londonprintstudio

Interview 1: Sarah Murphy, participant at the London Print Studio. Age:24

Current job title or if you are a student what are you studying and where?
Designer/Seamstress.

What Young Artists’ workshops did you attend at London Print Studio?
Photoshop – Using a photographic image, I learnt how to select specific areas of an image and edit it, by changing the colours and adding filters.

Urbanology Street art workshop – working with Cept who is a professional street artist, I developed images using graffiti techniques.

How did you create your image?
Screen print, digital print, stencil, and working on it with pen.

What medium do you usually work with and how did the course relate to it?
I usually work with fabric, but all my sketch work and shape development, are done more so as illustrations, so this related pretty well. Also, the style or research and work I do was highly applicable to the Urbanology course.

Do you have any hidden talents, how did you discover them?
I’m pretty good at face painting, its not that hard, but when you’ve painted a dinosaur’s mouth on someone’s face its great!

Favourite food?
Bannoffe pie

What is your favourite time of the day and why?
Morning, when its bright and fresh

What colour do you see when you shut your eyes?
Purple

Favourite London place to hang out?
Markets

Shoes or Trainers?
Boots

Tube or Bus?
Bus

Summer or winter?
Summer

Swimming or running?
Swimming

Sport or Theatre?
Sport

One or Two?
Two?

Noisy or Quiet?
Noisy

Spiderman or Batman?
Batman

Andy Warhol or Banksy?
Andy Warhol

INTERVIEWS with YOUNG ARTISTS at THE LONDON PRINT STUDIO:

Interview 2: Mat(ilda) Keane, participant at the London Print Studio. Age:22

Current job title or if you are a student what are you studying and where?
Architectural Studies BSc at the Bartlett, UCL (majoring in international development and design).

Which Young Artists’ workshop did you attend at London Print Studio?
Comic workshop, Print making workshop, Photoshop workshop and Graffiti workshop (LPS love).

How did you create your image?

‘Sting 1 & 2′:The title of the Comic book workshop was ‘What are you afraid of?’, my answer being stinging nettles, heights and mushrooms and so I spent the initial workshop practicing drawing and looking through comic books to get ideas of how to convey a story, in the second workshop I drew up my ideas first in blue pen and then with black ink over the top.

‘Theatre design’ is a drawing that was previously created as part of my architecture portfolio, in the workshop I produced a silkscreen of my images (which was part of the learning process).

What medium do you usually work with and how did the course relate to it?
I usually draw by hand, photograph and etch and I wanted to build up a greater skills base and to understand how to lay out a page the graffiti workshop and the comic book workshop helped in that respect. I wanted to learn different drawing styles so the comic book workshops were really useful.

Do have any hidden talents, how did you discover them?
I have an incredible internal body clock. If I want to wake up at 9:33am I tell myself that I want to wake up at that time and I wake up at exactly that time, therefore I never need to use an alarm.

Favourite food?
Taramasalata, marmite and sushi (not together)

What is your favourite time of the day and why?
4am, it is so quiet, it allows you time to reflect in peace and there are fewer distractions (BBC news 24 has terrible programs on at that time which I’m addicted to!)

What colour do you see when you shut your eyes?
Yellow

Favourite London place to hang out?
Greenwich Park

Shoes or trainers?
Trainers

Tube or bus?
Neither, I only ever cycle anywhere

Summer or winter?
Summer

Swimming or running?
Swimming

Sport or theatre?
Theatre

One or two?
One

Noisy or quiet?
Noisy

Spiderman or Batman?
Batman

Andy Warhol or Banksy?
Both!

Sarah and Mat(tilda) attended the youngartists’programme at londonprintstudio.

The youngartists’programme gives young adults, aged 16-24 the opportunity to work with professional artists and state of the art equipment.

Workshops and tasters are FREE

For more information follow this link: http://www.londonprintstudio.org.uk/E_youngartists.html

Interviewer: Jenni Allen at The London Print Studio
All images © The London Print Studio, 2009.

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