Youth : The Adventure Playground

Never have I felt more aware of the power of my youth. Today, and for a while, the thrill of the future and its possibilities consumes me. I'm young and brave and I can do anything.....I think....Thats not to say I'll achieve anything measureable...such as a super salary, or a man who loves me or even a gorgeously deep tan. But suddenly the things that I've always wanted, those tangeable things, seem like accessories to the greater picture. The picture of life, experience, adventure and independence.

I may be spntaneous and make rash decisions fuelled by misjudgement and riddled with chaos but For the moment I think thats ok. I'd rather be bold, be wild and make the mistakes I know that I'll learn from. I believe in escaping the norm in order to learn how ones norm in the future will be. Today I feel like a crusader, an explorer and a soldier.

I went to see Alice in Wonderland last night.........I think I've been laterally inspired.

I love dungares, always have always will.

"You're bonkers! But do you know what? All the best people in the world are."

-Alice in Wonderland

TriangleGrab

On applying to illustrative agencies in London Town I thought now than ever its time to choose my style and bish bash bosh lots of images yumyum...right im off to bathe in rum...yep...rum bath......good for party not for washy.

Chuck Anderson

So I dont really suffer from jealousy, but when it comes to drawing, typography or general creation of images I am a green eyed monster sponge.

Last night I was shown a book by the young legend: Chuck Anderson. born in 1985.....yes he's twenty frickin four! His psychadelic trippy images use patterns, silhouettes and heavily hand drawn illustrations are saturated in colour and vibrance. He combines his abilty to draw on paper beautifully with his abilities on the computer. His compositional skills are immacualte and his abilty to balance the numerous componants that make up his work.

He's done alot of work for brands and bands such as Lupe Fiasco, Mountain Dew, Nike and Adidas. You Chuck, have made me see that I need to get an agent! So when I get home I'm going agent shopping..........FUCK ...24......better get my ass in gear.....

Check his stuff out here / http://www.nopattern.com/nopattern/info_press.asp

Ginger Love

Ask anyone in my family I am obsessed with the colour naturelle of the orangutang. Oh yes. And how much do I dig ginger in the nodule herby form? (Pickled ginger to be precise) A heck of a lot!

My names is Ocki and I'm a gingerholic.

So this Saturday If I finally bite the bullet I'm going orange. Orange like Florence, orange like the rip off phone company. The history of my hair colour is brief, I was born brown. Had a terrible Sun-In-run-in at ten and went orange like straw, orange like sahara and then later on that year I decided pillar box red was the thing. So with a blue bottle of home product hair dye....I remember the smell of it exactly....I went red...well marroon.

Since then Ive gone from brown through to dark brown/black, yep it darkens every year and " No people! I'm not a goth, I did not dye it darker ". So....

"On Saturday Mathew, I'm going to be a Ginger nut"

Picture : Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine

Todays Nostalgia

One song makes it come rushing back. One song can make your body flood with clarity. You'd forgotten about the castle in the woods but now its clear as day. The water, the softness of the ground and the way we walked in silence for hours upon the path. I never wanted to say anything, I always say I was silent but silence seems involuntary. I was quiet because nothing needed to be said. This morning I was worrying about the red stains on my new dress from the water bottle I spilt in my handbag but now I just remember.

I dont remember the happiness you talk of now, you never said anything. You thought I was odd but it didnt matter we sat for hours anyway, thats what I remember. We were stoned for those memories. Thats definately true. Stoned and silent which makes me wonder whether it was real. It seemed perfect. Perfect on that hill, perfect by the docks, perfect in the awnings of that tent and perfect in diagonal under the beams. I dont think I've ever had a friend like you.

You're a dear dear friend and today I miss you, I'll be home soon.

Kria Brekken / Ravine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qul-IWzomI

House Party

The Pitt Street Parlour welcomes you....here's the after and before of a quick illustration I did for the old facebook event invite ting. So if you're reading this and you're in the southern hemisphere get you tail wiggling down to party with meat and rum punch...yes rum punch in a barrel.....oh and Cat will do her paedophile act for you...if youre lucky enough..and/or young enough...

Friday 12th March, 8PM.

Eko_Time

Me and Dads joint venture into eco friendly plastic is an ongoing design dilemma. How to brand an eco product for adults but with a friendly childlike approach similar to that of Innocent Smoothies. We decided we wanted language to be aprt of the illustrations but here are two contrasting ideas that I thought might offer good but different personalities to the product.

Watch out for EKO...comign soon eco warriors! prepare you plate shields and fork guns.

Cover Up 4 Cancer

Me and Mr Harrison are working on some simple but effective logos for a new campaign to target skin protection in the UK......today I got a bit crazy with it and decided to add a bit of jazz and grapefruit to our concoction of black and alignment.

Gottwood Logo

Gottwood Electronid Festival. The facebook group is up and running so check it oot. We got there in the end. A simple logo with some groovy photo and hand drawn typefaces for the artists.....oh and an owl....obviously...i seriously dont know where this owl obsession has come from......

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=340397008898&ref=ts

Dominic Nottingham - Charm in Chaos

I think there's so much charm in the chaos of youth. It may not be clean or correct but our antics, however we wish to pursue them, create adventure within us. Adventure is something I fear people are losing. These photos seem to capture the essence of what it means to be free and I guess oppose my previous notion on neoslavery. A nice weight to even out my mental see saw. But essentially. Without the chit chat. These photos are beautiful.

Ingredients to Here

Memoires of a Pomtavia. ocki magill. 28.02.10

Neoslavery

A new piece, off the cuff, for Some Think Blue magazine. A piece on neoslavery. What I understand of neoslavery is that essentially if you are bound by materialism or "things" then you are a neo-slave. A new slave. Our lives are comparatively free compared to our ancestors yet sometimes we, like them, are trapped by our own being. Ooh its a bit heavy to be honest. But anyway here is my little neoslave.

http://somethinkblue.com/

The Meaning of Life

Me and my flatmate have been sporadically discussing the meaning of life and this morning, whilst struggling to paint my nails at all well, it came to me. Its Love, right? I mean come on, seriously, you dont need to be a balding grey haired academic with a colourful waistcoat to work it out......Its the reason and being of everything....the reason why we sing, why we wear mascara, why we ice a cake and why we feel guilt.

The only reason we do things or atleast the only reason I do things is for this totally intangeable ominous thing. Whatever I do, wherever I go I always feel like I'm on my way to it. Maybe, in fact, the life that I live in loves shadow is making me the doormat upon which he dusts off his feet.

I recently lost a friend. I wanted her to fight for our little love....our friend love....but she didnt.

I recently lost a friend. I wanted her to make a surprise picnic and play me all our favorite "us" music....but she didn't.

I recently lost a friend....I lost a friend cos she let me and my little love thing down.....and it sucks bum to be honest!

I love too hard and I think I might be suffocating it.

Illustrative photographs by Kerensa Purvis http://kerensapurvis.blogspot.com/

Gottwood_Festival Branding

Gottwood Festival is being set up by Tom Elkington and Tom Carpenter. I'm in charge of the branding and thus far we've had multiple ideas about the direction of the logo and the collateral graphics but I think these images show a more refined theme gwarn on.....do we need the owl and the camper?

Clich here for more info and tickets http://www.gottwood.co.uk/

Holy Crap _ Scrabble on Facebook

Yes yes oh yey. After trapesing the net for other mad scrabble fans such as myslef I found nothing. Nowhere where I could share my passion for words and word games specifically so holy crap my heart hit the ceilign when my partner is crime Ally Magill ( sibling less old) invited me to The Scrabble Ball....Ill be wearing double word shoes, a blank dress and a constanant fascinator.....sorry it was called The Scrab-Ball.....

You're invited. Word love shared.

http://apps.facebook.com/livescrabble

( Illustration : something I did for Callum and Josh at the Free Studio)

Soundcloud_Facing the Fear

Dear Stage Fright, Bog off! I'm taking a ticket to freedom valley. Transportation? a sound cloud...apparantly. I may not have the voice of an angel or one that haunts the hearts of the vulnerable but in this case I can learn how to let go of one thing that holds me back.

I sing everyday alone.

Last night I embraced a longneck of cider and my newly strung guitar (which i play irrevocably badly) and off I went up on my cloud.

So here it is people. Four walls no more.

http://soundcloud.com/ocki/tiger-mountain-peasant

Insight Magazine_Performance

My piece on performance for Insight Magazine, Oxford.

Un_CAN_ny?

When I was at school I remember being informed that more Americans die from vendingmachines falling on them than those killed by sharks. Upon researching this seemingly ridonculous statement it appears that basically in a twelve month period in america (obviously) two vending machines tipped over and killed two people whilst in the same time period noone was killed by sharks. So for anyone who does have a vending machine fear.....fear not!

Anyway because of this bollocky-bill story I now have a mild aversion to drinks machines. Everytime I go type in D42 or F39 I watch as the claw hesitates and I panic in a moment. "Oh fuck its doing to D45..... if I get blooming cherry cola it'll break my frickin heart". Its so funny that im now referencing this emotion cos it really is a strong one.......my heart almost misses a beat at the thought of not seeing my sprite can or my coke can clunk to the bottom of the retrieval drawer.

Anyway this is dedicated to The Drinks Machine. For killing people, causing heart palpitations and definitevely quenching thirst with aspertame. ( and I love the way the choocie ones swirl to deliver a Twirl....or a Kitkat etc......the image works better with a Twirl)

Today I'm Dressing Up

Its fallen upon me to once again make myself look as foolish as possible in light of attending a dress up festival. I love to dress up. I love everything about it. The newness and foreign feel of the viscose materials on your skin, the colours you get in photos and the new persona you seem to carry along with your cape wig or mask. Dressing up, I feel, is seen as play, as a jovial game that accompanies, more often than not, the art of self intoxication and general tom-foolery, but for me it feels like luxury, like a treat..... it's like shopping on Diagon Alley...its not quite real.

Kate Bush and Natash Khan both look to costumes and fancy dress as a way of reliving their childhood and keeping in touch with their nostalgia. They use dress up to illustrate different people within their own personalities. Their sudonyms Babooshka (Kate) and Pearl (Natasha) represent themselves in a new light and I guess for me its the same.

So, at lunch, I'm off to "Snog the Frog" to find me a costume and a sudonym.

NATASHA KHAN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXS5DrJGvYo

KATE BUSH http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syDT1MHmvOI

photographs by Pamela Klaffke http://www.etsy.com/shop/pamelaklaffke