Frieda Kahlo

During my time in San Francisco I couldn't help but notice images of Frieda Kahlo's work all over the city.  Publicity for her exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art was plastered everywhere.  So being the sheep that I am, I thought I'd follow the crowds and check out what all the hype was about.  The queues were huge to get in and you had to get in with a special timed ticket.  But it was well worth the wait. 

 

Although her work isn't something I'd necessarily want hanging up in my room, it is amazing.  Her folkloric style is influenced by her Mexican roots and many of her paintings have a Surrealist feel to them.  Although she denied she was a Surrealist, stating "I never painted dreams.  I painted my own reality".  It's this reality about her life and thoughts, that makes her work so intriguing.  It's shockingly personal and you can't help but get sucked in by the tragedies in her life, wanting to discover more about her.  

Doritos Collisions

Continuing my work for Doritos, last Thursday I went to the most random event to launch their new line called "Collisions". It's basically 2 flavours in one bag (Crraaazzy!!). And to launch it, they had a wrestling night.  First of all was some Lucha Britannia action, then the flavours got down and dirty in the ring to fight for champion. I was supporting "Tenacious T" (representing the oh so tasty T Bone Steak flavour). He's the brown cuddly bull in the picture above, about to get squashed by "Feathered Fury". He eventually made it through the trauma and won the championship- hurrah!  The event was a great way to promote the new product as it was entertaining, different and perfectly suited to what the product is about.

Beggars to Exiles

While I was in San Francisco, I popped into this great little art gallery called the San Francisco Art Exchange. It's located on Geary Street which is crammed full of lots of lovely independent galleries (and obviously a dozen Starbucks- you just can't get away from them!!) This exhibition follows the Stones' evolution and captures the rock n roll lifestyle that you can only dream of having. It's based on the photography of Michael Cooper and Dominique Tarle. Michael Cooper captures images from 1966 to 1970, while Tarle's images are from 1971 when the band recorded "Exile On Main Street".

The exhibition not only features The Stones, but the women that influenced them including, Marianne Faithful and Anita Pallenberg (seen above). While we were looking around the gallery we got chatting to one of the art dealers who kindly showed us parts of the gallery that weren't available to the general public. We were taken to the store room that had stacks and stacks of original artwork from bands such as Pink Floyd to Yes. It was amazing!! The stuff in that room must have been worth millions. If only I could afford a square inch of one of those prints...

Slick Design in Seattle

These magazines caught my eye when I was in Seattle last month. They're free weeklys about the city, providing info about what's on that week. I was quick to scoop up a copy of each as I love the design, particularly the covers. The artwork, colours and typography really grab attention. They're printed on newsprint which gives them a raw, down to earth feel, which works well with the retro designs. I like the way the two magazines compliment each other, especially in that both cover headlines are attractively morbid!

Doritos Ad Competition

So, over the past year I've been doing bits and bobs of work for a company called Face. They're a youth marketing agency and they get young people to think of the ideas behind big brands. So far I've done work for Sure, Lynx and I'm currently working with Doritos for the next year. A couple of months ago they had this national competition to get the public to make their next ad. I think it's a pretty genius idea as it's fun and it gets the consumer involved in the brand. They also offered a whopping £20,000 for the winning ad which was to be aired during the World Cup and it was also the first ad to be beamed into space!! I helped judge the entries, and week by week we whittled them down. Unfortunately I couldn't make the final judging session but this is the winning entry:



Personally, this wasn't my favourite. Considering over 900 people entered, I thought this was a pretty disappointing choice. It's been well executed but it lacks edge and excitement. One of my favourites was this one, which I think is hilarious:



I think it's quirky and witty. I love how they've elevated Doritos to being currency- something that's of value. They're selling Doritos from a different angle to your typical snack advertising which I think would have made this ad stand out on TV. If you want to see more of the ads go to

http://www.doritos.co.uk/

Found Magazine

I popped in to The Photographer's Gallery and came across this cool exhibition by Found Magazine. The idea behind the magazine is pretty simple. They collect things that people have found such as letters, photos and all sorts of objects. There's an entertaining mix of wierd, hilarious and beautiful stuff. You get to see snippets of stranger's lives and it's fascinating! I don't think the exhibition is there anymore but check out the website at http://www.foundmagazine.com/

The Overture

I went to this really great event earlier this month at the Southbank Centre. It was a weekend celebration welcoming back the Royal Festival Hall after a couple of years of restoration. It was full of cultural entertainment celebrating art, music and dance. And it was completely free!

My favourite part of it was getting drawn on the wall of memories. Once these massive pieces of paper were filled, they were used as decorative pieces around the Southbank Centre. It's a fun way of recording the event for both the organisers and the public who attended. There were also some amazing floor paintings that you could watch being created. They were copies of masterpieces but given the location and the fact that they were like street performances gave them a contemorary twist.

I was dragged along by my friend Chris (he's the guy with the ginger beard who's drawn next to me) to see a folk singer called Frank Turner perform. I didn't know what the event was about but so glad I went along. Events like this make you appreciate London and all the cultural things that you can do and see.