East London Street Art

Way overdue? Uh, yes!

To begin, as always, I was in search of art.

And I ended up in East London. Set apart from the pristine museums and hurrying business suits is Brick Lane, named for former brick and tile manufacture that used the local brick earth deposits. This industrial part of London attracted an influx of Irish, Jewish, and Bangladeshi immigrants, both skilled and unskilled laborers, who quickly "overtook" the area.

Today, though the influences of each culture remain in the form of breweries (like the Black Eagle Brewery and the Truman Brewery), Jewish bagel shops, and curry houses. But equally well-loved is the Brick Lane Market, active every Sunday. The area has also broadened to being a vibrant art and fashion student area, with considerable exhibition space. Each year most of the fine art and fashion courses exhibit their work near Brick Lane.

Brick Lane is also world famous for its graffiti.This is where I stepped in.

In an interview with well-known street artist, Adam Infanticide (who uses stickers with short sentences, full of meaning, almost mottos):

By Adam Infanticide

A collection of some of his well-known stickers

Questioner: Sometimes I feel claustrophobic in the USA. The conformism and the superficial morality are heavy. Your messages leave a strong imprint in my mind; I read them as a breath of fresh air. How would you describe your style?

Adam: Well, we’re constantly bombarded by advertising and corporate propaganda whenever we leave our homes but there’s no forum for regular people to express themselves publicly. How can there be free speech if you have to rent a billboard or own a TV station or newspaper to say something? You can’t compete with mass media. There are barely any public spaces for people to go unless you’re going to buy something. Street art is a small but significant reaction to that.

Dear Maria, Count Me In

Home again, home again, three weeks later. Thankfully, the jet lag has been minimal and my productivity since I've been back has been maximal. In a single day I bought and assembled new storage boxes and clothes racks and was able to reorganize my room entirely to make room for all my new stuff, from Xmas and from additional supplies I brought back with me from Cleveland. I also edited, completed, and finalized my first BIG presentation for the year, submitted the paper for my 'Obesity' class, framed some photos, went grocery shopping, potted my first house plant in this dorm, and made sure to write to everyone back in OH-IO. Oh, AND I had my first celebrity sighting: the band members of All Time Low were on my flight – I saw them in the US terminal, on the plane, and again at customs, but in an effort to not be weird in case it wasn't them I didn't bother to go over and say 'Hi'. Stupid me. Because it WAS them. Facebook confirmed. Missed opportunity, alas.

All Time Low

More importantly, though, was the realization I made while I was in Cleveland: if I end up back there, if I can't find a job or money for school or whatever, it wouldn't be ALL bad. While everyTHING I love is in Europe, everyONE I love is in Cleveland. I didn't realize how badly I missed their company until I returned...not that I didn't think about my family and friends every single day, but I'd been so preoccupied with all the novelty of Europe I forgot I was basically alone here. And since no one is going to come here to be with me, my choice will inevitably end with me giving up one half. This is called being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

But enough with all that sadness. As it always has, the perfect opportunity will present itself at the right time.

While most of my time was spent on schoolwork and establishing funding for my PhD I was able to spend a considerable amount of time with my friends and, of course, the family I was living with, again. It's interesting going from the complete privacy of my own rooms at school to the a house I have to share with other people (not that I haven't done that 100 times before, but still). I tended to avoid being home, though, whenever I wasn't working and instead practiced film photography on my new camera with my buddies. I think we mastered the art of double exposure and color filtration. It was awesomely retro to use film and not be able to edit the outcome with photoshop. The result is so much more real, in a way...you get what you can artistically capture in the frame. I particularly like this camera's double-photo aspect, meaning you get two images per slide. So on a single 4x6 print there are two photos side by side.

In addition to visiting all my all my usual favorites, as I mentioned in the last post, I was also introduced to a lot of new ones and all because I decided I'd pursue other academic avenues in London (on the chance of finding additional funding) and finally made my artist portfolio. I met my new best friend when I went in to make copies of my paintings and to print off some photos. The process took 2 hours and during those hours he kept me company the whole time, despite the warnings from his supervisors. In the end, though, it turned out to be one of those connections that's just like WHOA because it feels like you've known each other for years.

One of my favorite parts of making new friends, they show you places you didn't know about. Let's see.....I got to see THE Olmsted Falls, parts of Berea and parts of Strongsville. I also got to play with a Pomeranian for the first time, and any of you who know me are aware that this is a big deal because I absolutely love those puffy little dogs. They're so tiny and round and happy looking! I've wanted one SO bad for years and years, so getting to hold one was a good second option. Unfortunately, those photos are all on film too so I can't put them on here. Another thing: I love finally seeing inside a place I've driven past 1,000 times....and you find out you've been driving past someone who could've been your best friend all along....it almost feels like another missed opportunity because it took so long to run into that person.

I also went to see 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' despite the fact I could never get past the first couple chapters in the book. But now I am definitely going to give the book a second chance because I LOVED the movie. The main girl reminded me so much of, um, me before one of my many re-transformations: black hair, makeup, boots and clothes, same piercings, same rib tat, skinny, bad attitude, but with underlying, uncanny smarts ;) plus all the rest (minus the drug addiction and the mohawk, of course). It's a good mystery-type story and that main character, the girl, totally steals the whole show. No one else is as interesting as she is and I, for one, spent the movie waiting for each of her appearances. She suck a hard core character she makes you want to go after all the really evil bad guys and bust them up with golf clubs and tazers. The world's coolest heroin.

Vogue 'Dragon Tattoo' article

Having a car to drive was a thrill I'd been missing, too. And this time I wasn't driving 'Old Blue #2', the Buick. Nope, I got to drive the 'Panty Dropper', Nick's Camero. Hot.

But I need to cut this short. Enough screwing around. I need to practice my presentation for tomorrow. I haven't given a presentation in years. Guarantee I'm rusty. And just think I used to get up and sing and dance and recite in front of people ALL the time, meaning every single day. Ugh, I'm dreading it now though...and I don't even have to sing about 'The Pre-race Competition Breakfast Eating Habits of Adult Runners'.