The Diary of Hands & Feet

Photos, photos, photos. More, more, more. Yes, I'm addicted. I've been using film a lot more recently. My latest camera purchase is the Lomo Diana Mini, a smaller version of the model that was popular in the sixties. The coolest thing about it is that it takes full frame (sqaure) and half frame (rectangle) photos. And the rectangle ones come out as diptychs. Beautiful.

Today I was looking through the photos I'd taken this week and noticed an abundance of hands and feet. Here are some of the best ones. The bottom two are Diana pics. You can see more here.

Photos feature Katie P, Jonzi D, Mini-b & me!

Fast Forward Project on Islington Estates

In collaboration with Sadler's Wells, All Change have launched the lastest arts project in their Autumn programme.

Fast Forward combines dance, music, film, literature and photography into an exciting series of workshops for young people living on Homes for Islington estates. Exploring the theme of the theme of the future (personally and socially) young people aged 13-19 will be collaborating with professional artists towards a performance at Sadler's Wells in March 2010.

During the October half term week, the artistic team ran taster workshops on the estates and did outreach work, handing flyers out around the area and generally speading the word about the project and it's opportunites. The young people we're looking to attract might not have had much involvement in the arts outside of school. Many of them might not attend school at all. But all of them with have ideas, creative abilities and enthusiasm that will build from being involved in an experience like this.

So if you know any young people from the area who might be interested please contact

All Change: info@allchangearts.org

The Free Thinking Lecture: Professor Tanya Byron

If you work with children or young people in the UK, if you have a child or if you see children walking down the street, YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO THIS!

Professor Tanya Byron is one of the UK's best known clinical psychologists and presenter of the highly acclaimed television series 'Little Angels' and 'The House of Tiny Tearaways'.

She led the government task force into the influence of the internet on Britain's children and is Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Edge Hill University. She opens Free Thinking festival 2009 by laying out her vision of the challenging future for the family in 21st century Britain.

Micro-Pages & Esther Yarnold

My friend Esther Yarnold is featured in the current Micro Pages Exhibition (a touring book arts exhibition on micro).

Check it out...

'Micro-Pages' will start a conversation about the issues surrounding the display of artists' books.
A series of selected artists' books have been turned into a reel of microfilm for a touring exhibition. The work will be accessed through microfilm readers in participating libraries and archive centres.
The books selected relate to the history of artists' books, archives and libraries, or challenge the preconceptions of the future of preservation and display.

Website Link: http://micropages.ning.com

Mini & Flahji

Mini & Flahji. Always smiling, two inspiring artists and friends.

Is Your Creative Heating On In The Winter Months?

After a fairly quiet summer, things are getting busier work-wise. You know the type, full days with multiple meetings scattered around London and a pile of emails to answer when I get home. Though I can't moan. I'm the kind of person to responds more quickly when things are coming a mile a minute. I like being busy, or as my fellow poet Lemn Sissay says 'I have a full life'. Last year around this time I did a lot of evening workshops on combined arts projects. I'm happy to have the chance to do that again this year. In a couple of weeks I'll start on a project called Fast Forward, it's a collaboration between All Change and Sadler's Wells. Using dance, literature, music, photography and film, a group of artists will design a series of workshops focused on the future of everyday life for young people in Islington. I'm really excited about this, especially being able to help young people create speculative fictions and new realities.

I think imagination is even more important with the darker and colder evenings approaching. For me, it'll probably be listening to audio books on the underground journey home. Or sitting on the Southbank scribbling ideas for poems, before it's too cold not to be wearing gloves and heading home to finish. And if it's freezing, I'll just be chilling at home watching a dvd.

What is it for you? Are you a snuggle up and read a book time, a dancing around the living room person? How do you keep the creative heating on in the colder months?

Comment back, let me know.

Peace,

Yem

Walk & Talk - I Love London!

We are in beautiful early Autumn, wonderful for chilling out in the park and taking pics. Yesterday I chilled with the wonderful Maggie & Holly in Finsbury Park, North London. I think I'd forgotten how amazing it feels to just walk and talk.

Havant Lit Fest - A Great Sucess

View from the train to Havant.Written: Sept 29th 2009

I'm writing this post on a train home from Havant to Waterloo. This evening, I gave a short presentation on 'Blogging - The Art of Success'. The event was a double bill, with myself and Alison Braverstock sharing the stage. Hosted in a small church a couple of minutes away from Havant train station, a collection of artists, writers and generally blog-interested people attended the event. It's the first time that I've shared the bill with another speaker on blogging. And I think Cibas made a good pairing. I'm new to Alison's work, and I like her message of empowerment. Her talk was packed with examples and also beautiful quotes. My favourite was 'If you want to do something in life, it is important to be slightly underemployed'. Brilliant. This is so true. I know that personally, my best ideas often come at a time of boredom or in rest periods between projects. Coming back from China has been mixed. In one sense, I'm inspired and motivated to create new work and connections. However, I'm also craving some of the chill time I had in Shanghai & Fujian. My London task is to find the middle point, or at least get used to switching between the two extremes :)

Si Blake Photography - New Website

Thanks to everyone who has posted comments on my China photos, especially Bevaristo, Brrnrrd and Miss Dee. Lovely feedback, I'm very happy. So I've set up a side-site dedicated to my photography. I'll still be posting on this blog, but the new site (www.photo.yemisiblake.co.uk) will just have photos. Enjoy!

UK China 400 - Prime Focus

Before going to China, I had only ever travelled to european cities, which weren't to surprising as they were pretty familiar in terms of architecture, people and culture. Shanghai & Fujian in particular were far away in miles and also behavior, food and customs. Being in such a new place was brilliant because my head was always turning towards something I'd never seen before e.g. mass dancing in a park opposite an enormous statue of Mao and snake wine!

A few days before the trip, I bought a new lens for my camera, a 50mm 1.8. A lovely little device, which is great for low light settings. However, when I got to the shop, I found out that the auto-focus function on the lens I wanted wasn't compatible with my camera. So I had to make a decision. Do I travel to China with bog-standard out of the box lens, and when I get back, save up an extra £200 and get the perfect auto-focus lens or just buy the manual focus lens and take it with me. I bought the lens! And it was the best decision I could've made.

Without the opportunity to point and shot, knowing that the picture would come out how I wanted it, I was forced to take more time. Really think about how I wanted the picture to come out. With the process being a lot slower, there were some picture opportunities that were lost. There were wonderful surprises. Here are two of them.

Shanghai Motorcyclist

Shanghai School Girls