fab graffitti or art work?

One thing I did notice whilst in Spain was that graffitti must be supported in many areas. Yes there were the wanton squiggles showing 'someone was there' on house and shop walls or in underpasses here and there, but in many places there was stunning artwork.
On hoardings surrounding unused land or as above in Cartegena, on road side walls at various points, you fould humorous manga like or fantasy characters or intricate styles of art work. It was invigorating.
In Torreveija I saw that some of the hoardings had 'reserved' ( in spanish lol) on them as if artwork started at one end, was being undertaken as it went along the length of the hoardings. It apeared as if it was allocated to individuals. Though maybe the Graffitti-ists were just arrogantly selecting their own hoardings, who knows lol
It was fabulous though to see talented creativity at play rather than any amount of flyers advertising some commercial product or innane tags meaning some daft person sought attention.
I asked a bright young thing who the faces were meant to represent (above left) but she said no one, its just Graffitti...........

The top right one was beside circular metal stairs going up a level and the art work went all around the stairs there too.......though the angle I took this one photo from does make part of it look kind of like male genitalia.....and it wasnt honestly!

Im not back at work yet, having injured the tendon in my ankle whilst on hols and am unable to do much more than hobble, in OH SO much pain!  So after a taxi ride to and from Drs, am relieved to know it isnt the achilles and he couldnt feel any tear in the tendon. But am signed off for upto 2 weeks and have to keep the foot up as much as possible and not walk of course.
So back to ice packs, different anti inflamatories and pain relief.........Ive gotten through 4 books in a little over a week. Its Bank Holiday wknd looming up and Im going to be tied to the house!
Its not as if Id been doing anything daft or was inebriated, so its not like it was self inflicted... so annoying.
 Okay its pain relief time so away to hobble back to horizontal ...... and its chilly! In need of a jumper too now........lol

Cartegena Roman town

Dont go on a Monday, the amphitheatre and underwater archeology museums are closed! Dam it...

Theres an impressive harbour and walkway along the prom there with a simply magnificent bronze seated man statue, whose huge! Hes there to commemorate those killed in a terrorist attack and he is simply amazing.
One pic here shows the staining at his armpit, so wonderfully has the bronze worn in the heat I suppose. His toes have the familiar green tinge to them but his back and muscles had this different hue to them.
And I was fascinated to see that in order to preserve the old buildings they must leave the old frontages, supported as you can see by scaffolding, then simply build behind it! There are some odd buildings therefore, with small sections of an old building completely enveloped by the new all round them!

Torreveija

Blues ................

Home, but with my ankle strapped up and unable to do much more than hobble and the last days over in Spain were much the same.

Whilst on volcanic rocks at the waters edge in Torrevieja, which has a lovely promenade and harbour where you can while away afew hours, where they have built huge concrete seats, painted white, on the rocks and you can sit and have the tide come in over your feet in various places....delightful!
One even has a bronze lady sat on it gazing out to sea.


So off I set over the rocks, but lost my balance on the foot with the big toe that no longer lays flat since the bunion op... counter balanced with the right foot and that ankle gave way enough for me try and stabilise myself and I felt something pull at the back of the heel............OW painful!


And the bus station was at the top of the hill = agony!

Cabo Roig 2 and wigs!

There are some lovely cliff walks along this part of the coast, thoughtfully done and an area of rope walks closer to the rocky shore where you walk through natural habitat, hoping my pal will send me some of her pics from there, I spent so much time trying to balance whilst hobbling, I didnt think to take many myself!

And talking about colour, all be this manmade lol

Now you see, we dont need to stick to the blue rinse as we get older..... but unnoticed you aint gonna be !

Cabo Roig

Tiles feature all over the place of course and many have a distinct moorish flavour to them. The coast was inhabited by different cultures of course over time so these influences can be found. I was tile spotting like some major 'anorack' but resisted too many pics of them lol

Small walls were topped in this interesting zigzag which caught my eye.

I love that there was so much human constructed pattern in Cabo Roig and you couldnt help but see the modernism influence in the design of many of the buildings.
There were buildings that struck me as very Art Deco and the colours of buyildings were sympathetic to the natural landscape.

Having said that we drove past Benidorm and that looked like a monster invasionof humanity on the natural coast and one I would never wish to go to see.

Spain, pattern, colour, graffitti and a gammy foot dohhh

Nature manages to out do us on every level doesnt she? Vibrant and exhilarating colours... even the frozen shrimp colours were intrigueing in the supermarket!

Spain, (Cabo Roig) was as Id expected it to be, full of Brits and Irish folks lol but we were lucky with the weather and the skies were a liberating blue, that lights up the mind after the dull greys of the british winter months. The Mediterean was that magnificent shade of blue that almost cannot be believed. So it was a nice break....up until I pulled a tendon/ligament or whatever around the achiles..then it was somehat painful!

Should be packing but....

Now I should be packing for the weeks holiday tomorrow, assuming the aircraft takes off and Ryan Air dont cancel due to volcanic ash but a quick pic or two.
I have done the first something with the painted what-ever-it-is fabric  squares, that seem to be abit like tyvek fabric. I found it at Scrapstore and mentioned it in a prev blog entry but dont have the original pic of it, so do scroll back if you want to see it in its pre-faffed with state!
So here goes, a pictoral tutorial lol

1.2.

3.

4.

5.

Now this isnt finished yet, but having cut the painted flowers out, much like peeling an orange you know? I caught them up together in loopy form with light stitching, as in pic 2 above.

The cross piece in pic 3, was the central painted area of the original piece of fabric and I caught it up on itself, as in pic 4.

This I attached off skew on the flower shape and then carefully heat gunned/zapped it all.

It doesnt have the same zizzing qualities that tyvek has, so it was interesting to see how it altered and the dot like impressions of the original fabric, show through the paint. But, zapping it from behind last of all, made the edges disintegrate more. 

Must try to blether other test pieces in other products to se ehow that affects its behaviour too, but that will have to wait till I get back off my break. Watch this space!

Oh and heres a tactile solar system- ish I  threw together today for a totally blind child to use in class later this week.......it has a brailled text 'key' to use with it, so he can find which planet is which, well, hopefully!

 and the mixed odd shapes to the left of (large) Jupiter above, are asteroids and meteoroids, of course they are!

Oh yes and Cyndi reckons Im a 'mixed media artist'

http://www.mixed-media-artist.com/2010/05/mixed-media-artist-lynne-lewis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MixedMediaArtist+%28Mixed+Media+Artist%29

.... so I should maybe stop calling myself a 'CLARTist' !!

Thanks Cyndi, Im chuffed to bits to be acknowldeged as an mma!

Okay cant put it off any longer, packing it is....

Catalogue killin' continues

Now inspiration strikes in the strangest ways doesnt it! There was I topping up the dogs flea 'spot' treatments and having bought a new variety of the stuff...this one comes in the foil-ish container above. Interesting shape yes? Then I'd had Philly and crackers for supper and the little tin foil lids are a nice thickness....

So .... out come the alcohol inks ....

  I used the Cranberry Adirondac Alcohol ink using a sponge, dabbing rather than painting it on, then knocked it back abit with brown paint, again dabbing it with the sponge.

I let it cure overnight and then cut down a photocopy of a PreRaphaelite Angel and glue stuck, him/her into the alcove. I painted over him/her with acrylic wax to seal it place.

(Are they androgenous them Angels?)

So quite liking the alcove effect, which fits just nicely (serendipity!)behind the larger window Id cut out, I then attached both of the above to the back of the 'killed cat'. But since the alcove sticks out at the back, I stuck it all onto a piece of neoprene foam, about 1" thick.

I had to gouge out a rough alcove shape in the foam, so the prominent alcove would lay in it.  I got the foam from Scrapstore and its pretty useful, because if you zap it with a heat gun, you can impress into it and then use it to stamp with ...

So this is where Im at with this one so far..

and remember Im taking my lead from Maggie Greys original idea of 'Killing catalogues' by burying them outside in the garden over winter.

So its inspired by her antics with catalogues of her own!

(http://magstitch.blogspot.com/)

Oh I forgot, I had wafted abit of gold paint around the edges of each window. The piccy on the right shows the thickness of foam that is now backing the 'killed cat'......sorry about the un-aesthetic cans of soup!

Now in looking for something recently, I found a PHD (project half done, yup, the unbiquitous UFO)and realised it wasn't half done at all, it was virtually complete and didn't really need anything more doing to it.

So now I'm trying to decide how best to present it for hanging and so far I have splodged the edges of a canvas with colour and I may stitch the piece on that... but here it is laid on the canvas.

'Earths Layers'

Now, Ive been busy at work this past week or two making stitched items. Bean bags with fragrances but no beans in lol for example, and also this
Pepper Pig up and downy watnot toy ..

and yes, thats my left foot!

Im currently making a fabric solar system model for a totally blind child to use.......basically a strip of fabric with couched lines symbolising the orbit positions of the planets. I plan on having the different sized planets represented by diff sized balls which can be stuck on with velcro.

If its successful I will show a pic of it, well even if its not, it might give someone a laugh!

Oh and lastly here's pics of my cork board in the kitchen and my family photographs........and yes, ageing sucks!

Long post I know, but these bits whilst I think of them!