I am over here too! http://www.screaminglulu.com/
January 10 2012
Another long break since I've been here. Having completed my second MA at Sussex, I've not really got back into stitching again - apart from attempting a quilt for my upcoming grandchild, due in April - but I have been creating images and animations on my iPad, though its more playing than producing anything substantial.
However, I decided to do some voluntary counselling, which made me think about returning to counselling training (having trained/worked as a counsellor in the early 90s). So that's where I am at for the moment; looking to apply to Brighton University for yet another course, a PG diploma in Humanistic Therapeutic Counselling, and doing some voluntary work at the same time. Hopefully I will also be able to be creative again, though I did find alternate switching from creativity to academic work quite hard over the past two years, I will endeavour to combine the two now. Its important I do something worthwhile in my life. Playing on my iPad is enormous fun, as is stitching and I dont intend to give them up. But I do love the structure of an academic course and using my brain again.
July 3 2011
If you are a woman over 45 and would like to help me with my dissertation, please fill in this questionnaire! http://screaminglulu.tumblr.com/ thank you! (Edit: link to the questionnaire no longer there, but you will find some iPad fun!)
May 28 2011
My dissertation has begun - Ageing (Dis)gracefully - Cosmetic Surgery as the New Religion, 18,000 words to complete for September. It's a subject that fascinates and depresses me at the same time, but one which I feel passionate about. I cant wait to return to the creative world again and be able to stop reading books about surgery as a denial of ageing and death. At least stitching about it might be more fun!
January 18, 2011
Another big absence since I've been here. Again, I've been in academic mode and having just handed in an essay (Western Eyes and Globalised Beauty) I can relax a bit. Last term wasn't all that exciting and quite frankly I cant say I was that into it, though the subject of media and how war is represented was fascinating, the reading that accompanied it was hard work and my group wasn't the most inspiring. Now I've began my final module 'Queering Popular Culture' with the wonderful Andy Medhurst, I feel inspired again and ready to read and absorb. Looking at lesbians in The Golden Girls and Kate and Allie and then watching Victim from 1961 will be interesting and thought provoking, as well as fun. I need fun! I think this course overall has been great but I've got very serious lately, as it's all very sensible indeed. Stitching made me feel alive - and I don't think I've felt very alive for a while. Andy's course will, I am sure, inspire me in many ways. And I will post here more often - though if anyone is reading this, I have no idea, but its a good thing for me to do anyhow.
September 10, 2010
More details of the videos at the Cutting Edge show are here: Connective Thread and this link shows some of the other artists work Connective Thread exhibits I am clearly in great company and wish I had got my act together and arranged doggy sitting, flights and hotels to be there for the opening in 7 days time.
August 31, 2010
My Invisible Woman film will be showing at The Textile Arts Centre, 505 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, New York in the exhibition Cutting Edge: A Celebration of Fibers, curated by Joetta Maue from September 17th to October 11th. Hopefully this might inspire me to do some more stitching before returning to academia in October.
June 28, 2010
Half way through my second MA at Sussex (Gender and Media) and about to get to work on my 20,000 word dissertation which will, of course, be based around the pressure to have cosmetic surgery and how the media portrays women who dare show they have aged and the denial by those who have succumbed to the knife but haven't chosen to own up to it. More of this later. In the meantime, I have completed 2 essays - one which looked at Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' video and argued that despite her image of a young woman in command of her own agency, her performance is nothing more than a commodified and constructed image based on the ideologies of a patriarchal hegemony. I was pleased to receive a B+ for this 5000 word essay. Last term I wrote about French vs English attitudes to ageing and used Joan Plowright and Jeanne Moreau as representations. Two highly different actresses of the same age, with entirely opposing images. This essay received a B mark and the constructive criticism of both essays has been hugely helpful and hopefully will enable me to attain an A for my final dissertation (and the 2 further essays which will be written in the next Winter term and then Spring). So, all this academia has resulted in little creativity; it's been hard to combine the two and this summer break should largely be spent doing some preparatory reading before the new term starts. Hopefully in keeping up this blog, I will be inspired to clear my head and clarify my thoughts. Any further stitched work can be viewed over here, on my more creative site - www.screaminglulu.com. On final thought for the moment - I find it intriguing that I am split between the invisible woman and the screaming one; I'm not entirely sure what that says about me but when I find out, I will be sure to report back here. In the meantime, anyone out there reading this, do please pop back for updates!
March 11, 2010
check out ink'd where I am exhibiting my dating profiles, swearing pieces and blow job images! Hurrah, they wont be banned either! Private view this evening, exhibition is on for a month. Check it out!
March 11, 2010
Oooo so busy at uni, lots to do and all of it keeping me away from here and from my sewing machine :( My 3 blow jobs images were exhibited briefly (and badly) at Shoreditch before being removed as they offended someone! (scroll down for the images). I am amazed quite frankly but imagine if they were naked shots of women then that would have been acceptable (and so normal that no-one would have noticed really). Of course these images are uncomfortable and disturbing - that's the fucking point Shoreditch people! And I thought it was such a hip and cool area; clearly not!
November 13, 2009
More absence.... I am reading, writing and watching old films (in preparation for a 5000 word term paper about Katherine Hepburn and her reel life vs her real life); my sewing machines are quiet and lonely and gathering dust... I must return to them pronto, maybe this weekend, yes, I will, I will sew something this weekend. I'm tired, I'm sleeping badly, my new pc has gone away for its 2nd repair and I am preparing for 2 christmas shows oh and I have had a new haircut :) So yes, I am busy and hot and tired but mostly happy. More soon....
October 15, 2009
Oh dear, I have no idea when I was last here, but I fear it was a long time ago for which - if anyone has missed me - I apologise. I have begun my wonderful MA in Gender & Media at Sussex University. It is quite brilliant, the course, the campus, the people, the coffee, the environment and, especially, the books that I am (attempting to) read. I am delighted to report that the reading of these academic books is getting easier; I dont have to look up every other word anymore. Just every 5th word perhaps. Currently I am wading through an article called "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality" and "Bisexual Women, Non-Monogamy and Differentialist Anti Promiscuity Discourses" and of course not forgetting "Who's Afraid of Feminism", "The Will to Knowledge" and "Feminism & Sexuality" (stunning!) So, needless to say my poor little sewing machine is currently getting a tad dusty as I havent had time to sew anything. I did have a successful exhibition at the Brighton Art Fair - though I probably only covered my costs, I did have a huge amount of appreciation for my work, with the exception of the woman who took offence to this, in fact she was so offended by it she had to take a photo of it, which amused me no end. It was wonderful to see people come along and simply smile or laugh at my work (in the nicest possible way of course!) so I dont mind that I didnt have a sell out. I dont know that many people did. I did get some interest from a local shop and I will be featured in their window next week for 2 weeks plus an invite to share a Brighton Xmas Open House with the lovely Lisa Gellender. So I am still somewhat hovering in between academic and creative mode, mostly in academic mode but as soon as things calm down a little and I get into some sort of normal routine, my sewing will be inspired by all that I am absorbing via books and you will see the results here.. at least they will be posted here anyhow; whether I have any kind of audience is another matter!
August 15, 2009
I am intrigued (and disappointed too) by the way women conform to the ridiculous sexist ideals that pornography continues to espouse. It's all so dreary and predictable and, of course, misogynistic. I also find the nonsense that (some) men come out with as they spunk all over your face, assuming that women like it, rather pathetic I'm afraid. (I know this sounds like I have turned into a very prim and proper 50 something spinster which is soooooooo not the case!)
August 01, 2009
I am busy and yet bored I havent sewn anything for a while; I've gone into a strange place and hopefully will escape it soon. I have a zillion books to read in the next couple of months before my MA starts. Some I can understand and am enjoying. Some are way too wordy for me at the moment. Hopefully that will change. I just need to get on with it and stop wasting time and feeling sorry for myself!