Simone Quentin de Manson

Rita Angus Portrait of Betty Curnow 1942, oil on canvas
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, purchased 1970

I went to see the Rita Angus exhibition at Te Papa in Wellington on Monday (I was there on business and I had a spare hour). I adore her art, always have, but I must admit I have only seen a small sample of her work. Until now. It was amazing to walk through the gallery seeing her pictures in each stage of her life, feels hard to describe it right now though. Except to say she painted with a honest and idealist take that inspired me. I will be spending quite a bit of time at the exhibition when it comes to Christchurch.

Its labour day in New Zealand. I am sitting on my sofa cuddled up in a knitted hooded jacket I found in a second hand shop, (made in Nepal and it is the warmest pinkest thing I own) with a cute cat on my lap.

Just about to put the laptop aside and start on the chores I have avoided this weekend so far. But I wanted to share what was found whilst surfing the net reading my usual blogs. They are called Spoonflower, you can print your own fabric through them (not yet.. soon, they are in beta). I have to say right now.. I LOVE the internet. People can print their own books, fabric, tea shirts and who knows what else.. Its all rather wonderful really.

And just cause, here is another autumn shot. Such beautiful views around Christchurch at the moment, the colours are making up for the colder temperatures.

Its the day to celebrate the Irish, the Irish way! Well if your into that sort of thing anyways.

I have been busy training for a bike race I have now officially entered, which means I know I can do this! Woo hooo. Two weeks ago I biked le race route on my mountain bike to Akaroa. This took me six hours! I was REALLY tired after that one. But now I thankfully have a road bike. Yippeee, I am borrowing it off a very generous chick who had it shipped down here from up north so it can get some use again. Now its time to start conditioning myself for the hills as the gears on this baby make it quite a bit harder to pedal uphill, however much faster, so I’m working hard for a shorter amount of time.

I also wanted to show you guys this signal jacket for cyclists:

One every cool idea from Leah Buechley As found at craft magazine I think this should be in the shops for christmas! That or something that can attach to your backpack aswell…

In the name of the biking/st patties theme, last weeks craft sanity podcast featured a cool chick by the name of Anne Auerbach. A lady who designs political machine knitted garments. She bikes everywhere too!

She also designed this cool dress:

In reaction to the voting on St Patricks day.

As some of you already know I am addicted to online communities. I have always been a bit of “lurker” and not contributed much. However, lately I have felt the need to offer my opinions and/or help. This community approach is popping up all over the place in my design research, the lean towards collaboration and communities, what I have heard called the “online village”.

As the world becomes that much smaller, I get to know and have conversations with wonderful people from countries like Alaska, India, UK, Australia, America and Ireland to name a few. This creates a sort of online village of people supporting and inspiring each other with words, images and voice. To be subtle and quiet about it, I LOVE IT!! Really.

I have been recently listening to Ted Talks (as you may of guessed) I go through phases. I am working through a section themed collaboration. The last two talks were very interesting, worth a listen if you interested.

• Ted Talks : Richard Baraniuk: Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning
• AND Steven Pinker: A brief history of violence

Around the back of Christchurch at the base of the port hills is a wee place called “Creative Junk” some of you may have heard about it before, basically its a place for “trash” to be turned into materials kids can turn into something else. But its good for us big kids aswell. Carpet and fabric off cuts, cardboard tubes, old office stationary items, books, foamy, crackly, silvery, marg containers and LOADS more. They also have a shop area with new things. Like paint, paper, glitter and the list goes on. All ya need is an open mind and some imagination. I over heard a lady once saying her and her kids used veneer offcuts for gift tags.. how coool!

Check out the link if you have kids you want stuff for, they have memberships and hire equipment, anything creative and fun!

see comments for address

Sitting in the stands waiting, we saw the cars roll up to the stage, the crowd starts a nice conservative loud cheer. I am reminded of the video living on a prayer as they stride onto stage playing Lost Highway. Sunglasses on, the Man himself tells the crowd off for sitting through the first song and makes everyone stand up. From there on in he had the stadium yelling and cheering louder and louder for every song. Your not in rock and roll for that long without learning how to make everyone sing until they are horse, or at least I did….

It was my first huge international act (for chch) I have ever been too, LOVED it. When I woke up first coherent thought was “I went to BON JOVI last night.” I even wore jeans, white shirt and black waist coat to celebrate the occasion. Quite surprised I can talk this morning.

Check out the stuff review.

When I was young my sister and I used to collect stuff. It was usually out of money my sister and I saved or a pretty little thing my mum would see and pick up for us “as a treat”. Back then I had no guilt about how much money I spent and if the right proportion of my earnings were spent on more “practical” things.

Now its different, I love pretty things; boxes, cups, pictures and more. I gravitate to junk shops and antiques. But as I do I tell myself off, some times maybe even saying “No, focus Simone. Your out to buy bike tyres NOT cups and saucers!” Sometimes I find myself saying these types of things aloud (everyone on the street now thinks I’m MAD). I do wonder where this guilt stems from; being a poor student and gaining a real respect for what money is and how we need it to eat, drink and stay warm? There is an awareness that since we were young the desire to buy and consume is ingrained and when that fact is looked at from an objective standpoint, I ask, “are those teacups really needed?”

But when I look at this post from poppytalk about Lisa Congdon I fall into a delightful daydream of finding such objects to put on my wall.

Art, culture and prettyness are essential to make people happy. Happiness is directly related to making amazing things happen. I am sure whoever invented the wheel was looking at a pretty cup that rolled off the table…

I went to see the court theaters production “The producers” this week. I had recently seen the movie and enjoyed it, so was looking forward to seeing it on stage. It did occur to me it was a very small setting and stage to have such a flamboyant loud fun musical preformed on.

The conductor conducted from his piano (my old music teacher at high school.. one of the best musical producers in chch) to a camera (i think) The set was REALLY clever, half the time I was grinning ear to ear on the sheer coolness of it. I overheard an attendant showing off to someone in the foyer on how the cast did everything from lighting to moving around sets. The costumes were fab, some clearly inspired by the movie, others probably limited by time and budget, but still wonderful enough that you probably couldn’t tell.

Now as for the overall play, it was a full blown extravaganza in a small space. I enjoyed myself from the back, thought it was a blast, I do like feeling in the thick of things. Some friends of mine thought it was “ambitious” and quite full on for a small stage. So if you like to watch from a distance perhaps this isn’t for you. But if you want to feel like your IN the play not just watching it… this came pretty close.

For more see:

• Scoops Article
• Stuff’s Article
• Court Theatre’s Website