Exciting things are brewing...

As you may have guessed from my recent lack of blog posts, things are becoming pretty hectic with my graduate fashion and interiors collection being launched in just over 1 month - Don't worry all shall be revealed very soon!

My fashion and interiors collection is to be launched and showcased at the Grays School of Art Degree Show in Aberdeen from the 15th - 21st of June and in the following week at New Designers in London from the 26th - 28th June .

As you can imagine I'm keeping everything TOP SECRET till the launch but until then I will allow you a " Artnthat blog exclusive" sneak preview of one of my graduate collection prints & fashion designs.

In the meantime you can keep up-to-date with my daily goings on in the studio via twitter @artnthat  or you can 'like' me on Facebook here.

Make the most of Today...

M x

Mochou Lake Park, Nanjing, China

We occasionally had some free time in Nanjing on a Sunday so we often decided to jump in a cab and point at the map to see where we would end up, one of the best destinations we discovered was Mochou Lake.

According to one legend, the name of the lake came from a young woman of beauty and virtue named Mochou.who lived during the Northern and Southern Dynasty (386-589). She married a man from the Lu family in Jinling (now known as Nanjing City) and had a baby. They lived a happy life until one day Lu was recruited to the army. Because there had been no news of him since he had left, she missed her husband dearly day and night. Finally, it is said that Mochou turned into a lake, with the hope of flowing to her husband's side. In memory of the young woman's undying devotion to her husband, the lake was aptly named Mochou Lake by the local people.

The Statue of Mochou herself.

It was such a pleasant place to visit and it was full of locals spending a lazy Sunday afternoon in the sun away from the madness of the congested city. 

Matt 

☯

Chinese Painting Class Experience

Above is a photograph I took of our Chinese Painting teacher at Nanjing University.  

During my time spent in China we had various lessons, most frequenty was our Chinese language classes which took place every day, from starting as early as 8am. 

Along with this we had culture classes where we undertook painting classes where we were taught the traditional way of Chinese painting.

During my time at Art School in the UK I have had lots of painting classes, however this was completely different as Art in Asia is so different to that of Europe's.

 We learned that Chinese art in particular is so different to that of the west because artists in China are seen in a completely different light. Historically Art in China was not usually  created by "artists" as such but the art that was produced was usually created by philosophers or Poets that were respected at the time, often therefore a painting would be used to create a feeling towards a particular poem instead of being a visual representation of something which was originally the case in the west.

This means that chinese paintings are very often not lifelike, or directly a representation of something in paticular, making each artwork into an abstract metaphor.

Saying this however is making it seem as though their painting has developed in order to create this metaphoric representation, however the art of China has not changed very much in the past 2000+ years that its been around.

Why has it not developed like the art of the West? Well in my experience with the chinese they found it difficult to understand the purpose or prospects in Art, they are after-all still a developing country trying to feed themselves.

Art seems to the Chinese luxury not necessity, however with the economic climbing China does every day - becoming closer and closer to being the economic center of the world they become closer to their World of Art taking off.

With the wonders and masterpieces I saw in Chinese traditional art such as "Chinese paper cutting" and the wonderfull embrodery they have behind them, I can only dream at the moment for the wonders that the Art of China in the future will bring.

 Me (Matt Russell) with my Chinese painting teacher holding my first -poor- attempt at Blossom tree's.

Chinese Hotpot Experience!

The Chinese food has to be one of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome during my time in China. Name it and the Chinese will eat it. You are constantly surrounded by street vendors selling scorpions, ducks heads or chicken claws, and I really struggled to eat many of the meals that I discovered in the restaurants. 

From a disturbing dish of baby turtles to a difficult experience I had with the traditional Nanjing Ducks blood soup (ya shui tang)  This looks and tastes like dark red-brown jelly firm tofu, in a spicy broth however the jelly turned out to be congealed curdled blood cut into squares and egg like chunks which was revealed to me as ducks liver. This led me to no longer asking what things were and just eat to enjoy rather than eat to worry. By some of my Chinese friends we were recommended to attend a Hotpot restaurant.

In a hotpot restaurant you have a giant pot full of a tasty soup like liquid at the centre of the table above a electric heated hob. You then choose what you would like to cook in your hotpot and you empty these raw contents to cook in your pot.

Below you can watch a short video of  this pot and a kind Chinese waitress who saw our looks of puzzlement and decided to help us cook the mushrooms and various meats we had ordered. 

The left hand side of the pot had  oily slightly seafood taste and the right half was full of a taste bud killing mixture full of Chilli seeds blew my head off.

(Below) Tasty mushrooms- who'd have thought there was such a thing.

I really enjoyed the food this night and I'm glad we persisted with exploring the various foods available, it was funny however we soon discovered that the most dreadful looking back streets had the most fantastic authentic restaurants. You can look forward to a post I am preparing named "Bird Flu Alley" which took cooking to a whole new level.

M xxx

Nanjing here I come....

Cant believe the time is here but this will be my last blog post before travelling to China.

In the next few days I will begin my adventure in China where I will study the Chinese language,the Chinese economy, Confucianism, modern Chinese history, as well as Chinese customs and folklore.

My Travel Itinerary is as follows: 

Saturday the 9th of April I travel Glasgow to Dubai- Dubai to Shanghai- Shanghai to Nanjing.

I will spend most of my time in Nanjing which is in the Jiangsu province -one of China’s most economically vibrant provinces, benefiting from significant foreign investments such as Suzhou Industrial Park. Nanjing, as the capital of Jiangsu province, is situated in the lower

Yangtze River.

Together with Shanghai and 14 other cities, it forms the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone. It is one of China's most important historic cities along with Beijing and Xian and was the capital of the Republic of China till 1949.

Nanjing has also been a national hub of education, research, transportation and tourism throughout history. The population is over five million which is equal to that of Scotland.

The city still has the best kept city wall built by the first emperor of Ming dynasty in 14th century and I am so very interested to experance the worders Asia has to offer me.

I am currently unsure to what will be the best communication methods will be the best across there as whether as I know my daily photo blog - ARTnTHAT Daily Photo is banned due to its service being TUMBLR as well as such things as YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia so fingers crossed that I will at least be able to access this blog to keep you up to date.

Howver my plan is to create a mailing list of people who may be interested in having an update with some photographs regularily throughout my trip.

If you would be interested please don’t hesitate to email me at

matt0805@hotmail.co.uk

I will leave you with this quote from the Chinese thinker and social philosopher - Confucius

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

Byeeeeeee!!!!!  M x

Tex styles Knitting....

Knitting is something I have never really been that interested in, as a child my Gran taught me how to knit, however after constantly forgetting my stitch number I eventually gave up, Knitting in the Textiles and Surface Design Department at the Art School is on a completely different level to my grandmothers sitting room.
But does that change my opinion?

Well first of all, its machine knitting not hand Knitting. These machines consist of 200 needles and can be very unpredictable. You  have to by hand manipulate the needles adapt the knit and depending on what you do changes the knit completely.

Knitwear is something which as you will most likely know has became very popular this Autumn/Winter with some fantastic knits and creations across the board and this helped me plow ahead and keep at the knitting. Unfortunately after our third day of our technician taking us through the basics she got stranded in the snow..and that was the end of our teaching time. The Snow which had been steadily getting worse in Aberdeen reached a peak, temperatures reaching -22 and eventually our knitting was put on hold, I decided to keep on going and with the help of a few others and my knit manual I managed to keep on and make the most of what I knew.

I did however manage to make some knitwear for myself to keep cosy and make the most out of the mad snow....take a look at my knitted collar scarf and fingerless gloves.

The Knit Project is due to be completed on our return, if the weather persists that is. I have to admit that I much preferred the printing project due to the freedom of what you create and I have had a steady love for printing over the past few years since my master-class at the Glasgow Print Studio, but I wont dismiss the knitting just yet....

To be continued.....

Movement.

I have been interested in movement recently and have been putting some thought into ways movement can be expressed...one way I particularly like is long exposure.

Sometimes I felt as though long exposure never really showed the full extent of the motion so I decided to emphasise this by using flour to leave a track.

This is a few of the flour motion photos I took. :)

This one below is one of me blowing the flour..I really liked the contrast of colours and distortion of this image by my face not being visible.