Living in East London

A favourite East London pastime of mine is cycling along the canals in the area. It's a great way to avoid traffic and to spot some birdlife along the way. On a saturday morning, you start off by the Olympic Park in Stratford and follow the canals past local breweries, imposing gas work structures, cosy barges selling cups of tea and books, smiling poochers, pass the daffodils in Victoria Park, and then get to Broadway market just in time for some Vietnamese coffee and a pastry for breakfast. There you will find purple carrots, a french girl with an accordion singing for her supper, and something so symptomatic of East London. Streetart. Oh so much of it. On a sunday, you get yourself to Columbia Flower market close to Shoreditch and find nothing prettier in the whole city. An entire road closed off and filled with flowers for sale. If you get there just before 2pm, you can even haggle for them at a next-to-nothing price. Shoreditch itself is just eye-achingly crammed with streetart. Some famous artists, and some lesser known ones. You pass the infamous beigel shop that is ALWAYS busy, see sneakers in the sky, pass tattoo parlours and vintage clothing shops, and leave thinking about just how many lovely, gritty, messy and creative things there are to see in this part of the city.

The Other Art Fair

Damn, I'v been bad with this blog of late. Too many photos, too little processing time. But better late than never I guess. Had a good gander at some inspiring artwork at The Other Art Fair a few weeks back. I came across Paper skulls and plastic peacocks from discarded material, gigantic totem eagles drawn with ballpoint pens, blotted ink swimmers, delicately folded sculptures from found magazines, haunting faceless portraits with a crackling veneer, ceramics with star constellations on them, canvases from cardboard fruit boxes, and a girl whose paintbrush is a typewriter. Too much of rad.

One year on

Gazing Maven is one year today. And so. so. much. has happened since then. This little blog has been my visual diary for a year of my travels, and to mark the occasion, I have decided to showcase a new item on it. Since my move to London, I have already come into contact with so many inspiring creative minds, that I want to share each and every one of their visions. So, to mark this creative collective of not only my own thoughts but others  too, I can think of no better way to highlight this new colourful birth, than with photos of my afternoon with Zoe Thomas, a textile designer/ creative practitioner/ educator / and everything else of vibrance. Her home, a mirrored collection, a childhood haven, a splash of balloons and chalk reminders, fun spice racks, with kisses of colour. Her fabrics, as her life, are full of flowers, festivity and humour. In the grey of London, it was good to see colour again. It's hard not to want to create after afternoons like this.

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies.

My thought for the day as my man and I brave the change and head to London today. Wish us luck!

Some ceramics

Been tinkering with a new medium recently, handpainted and sandblasted ceramics. The latter my man helped me with. You can see my parents' grandchildren were the main inspiration.

An eco-art playshop

I recently had the privilege to run an art worshop for 22 children of Future Families, an organisation that helps families affected by HIV. New and exciting, "love nature" was the theme. I decorated the trees in the garden with animal cutouts, used old donated acrylic paints and leftover paper from a wedding stationary design job I did a while back, encouraged the kids to use leaves and flowers in their greeting cards. Finger painting, cutouts, smiles and a conservation message slowly sinking in. Really, it feels so good to share.