Freedom

Just some funky 6th century BC ceramics at the British Museum.

It's been two weeks since my last high school exam and its consequential delicious freedom. I'd like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the four institutions that have shaped me during the past twelve years:

1. I have the fondest memories of the four years in my primary school, Senamiesčio pradinė mokykla. There I felt so safe, made my first friends and got married.

2. Even more dear were the three years at Kaunas Jesuit Gymnasium. I was part of easily the best class in the year - amazing people I came the closest to 'rebelling' with, and still see every time I go back home.

3. Having finished Year 7, at the age of thirteen I moved in 2005 with my family to London. The first nearly-eight months were spent - painfully! - school-free, as it took us a while to find a permanent home (this is when I started drawing).

Within the first few weeks of living in Neasden, my brother and I were put by the Brent council into Claremont High School. Things changed. On the first terrifying day I had to write with the class a physics test to determine the science set I'd be put in. I also spent an hour in the set 1 German class, knowing not one word in the language. And while they soon appropriately put me in set 3, for some bizarre reason I stayed in set 1 English! I no longer felt safe. For the next two and a half years I felt I was the black sheep in the herd that was the school, or - like Lithuanians say - the white crow.

I'm the one with the leg in the air.
Don't ask.

4. Getting into North London Collegiate School, where I recently took that symbolic last exam (Higher Level German!) I didn't really plan for. But it happened, and there I spent my latest two years. Completely shook my academic confidence, but socially I now feel much more able. Sometimes I still wonder - did I really study here?


What a LIFE it's been, so far. The years haven't at all passed that very quickly, for I feel like I've lived for decades. And to think that in just a few months I would be writing about my first impressions of university life... Someone please wake me up!

It's been two weeks

I didn't notice how I've become fond of ceramic art. I tended to underestimate its possibilities, but by now at least two of my recent posts include clay or porcelain pieces. And here I go again - plastic surgery on dishes by Beccy Ridsdel. What a concept!




I'm happy to be back for a while after busy exam times and presentation writing, which took up my entire weekend. Although there's tonnes still to be done, I thought I'd earned a blog post or two.

I'm starting to put together one of my last final pieces for the IB course that finishes in mid-March. The base will be a large silk cloth with three heads batiked - a young face, an old one and a skull - on which will go a printed collage of.. what, I don't exactly know yet. The main theme is Shakespeare and I'm personally illustrating death and passage of time (blahh). If it turns out to be any good, I'll upload a photo. Otherwise my next project in pending is collage on pottery (inspired by Grayson Perry, of course). Now only to get this all done and, I almost forgot, visit Florence in February half term! Life is becoming good again.

I rewatched Perfume: the Story of a Murderer last night. As disturbing as it may be, it's one of the most artistic films I've ever seen. Couldn't say anything about the book, but I'm intrigued - is it as visual? The director (also of Run, Lola, Run!) did an incredible job at illustrating Grenouille's extraordinary sense of smell.

Recently on TV

There has lately been so much on for the sake of art that I couldn't resist noting ideas down. Below are some discoveries I've made as a result.

During Where is Modern Art Now?, Dr Gus Casely-Hayford introduced the artist Grayson Perry as "everyone's favourite transvestite potter". After such a comment I surely had to had to check his work out, and I must say, I'm now quite a fan. He uses more than one technique to transfer the often brutal imagery onto surfaces, immitating collage. On clay!

so far my favourite, Hot Afternoon in 75, 1999

In Ugly Beauty, Waldemar Januszczak mentioned the British sculptor Rachel Whiteread, who apparently is the first woman to have won the Turner Prize back in 1993.

I've long considered the idea of negative space intriguing. For instance, imagine that it's never you moving, but the space around you moving you.. Well, most of Rachel's work focuses on exploring negative space. Take Untitled (One Hundred Spaces), 1997, below, which is a collection of resin casts of the empty space underneath one hundred chairs!


In a more recent project she made casts of packaging objects. In his review (worth reading for more about Rachel), David Row recalls:

"When I saw Whiteread's exhibit, it was still being unpacked, so there were actual packing materials beside Whiteread's sculptures of packing materials. Talk about life imitating art."

So let the Stuckists stick to their figures, but I think this is all brilliant. Towards the end of Ugly Beauty, Waldemar Januszczak concluded with the following idea about conceptual art:

"In an over-explained world, what could be more precious than the inexplicable?"