museum of un-beautiful things

 I came across these images a while ago in World of Interiors magazine and they've stuck with me ever since. Ettorre Guatelli is a guy who spent his life collecting Italian farm tools, and his home is a museum dedicated to his obsession. The way he's found an order for all of these objects is wonderful; on their own these tools probably wouldn't be much to look at, but he's organised and arranged them in a way that makes them collectively part of something that's really quite beautiful. He's also saved them from being thrown away and has preserved a part of farming history which he's obviously passionate about. Completely bonkers and brilliant.

Marimekko inspiration

I like Marimekko's distinctive graphic style. I'm all for experimenting with media in my work, but really I'm happiest and at my most comfortable with a black marker pen in my hand. I like things that still look hand-drawn, even if really they've been created or manipulated digitally. It makes you think about who created it, and I like the idea of someone doodling with a pen and coming up with stuff like this.

On tuesday I spent a few hours at the Castle Museum study centre. They have an amazing natural history collection hidden away in their archives; everything's meticulously labelled and wrapped up in tissue paper, so you're never quite sure what you're going to find when you open up one of the boxes. I love all the hand-written labels, and had to keep reminding myself that I was really there to look at the nutshells.  I'd like to do a project on archiving at some point but I'm not really sure how to approach it at the minute. It fits in with my interest in order and organisation in my work, and people's obsessions in general. Anyway, I came across lots of interesting nuts and seeds and it's inspired me to get going with my drawing...

My work is often about order and the organisation of objects. The photos below are from my last project when I was really interested in the arrangement of man-made components, and I spent a lot of time arranging them in different ways to create interesting patterns to draw from. I want to take that idea through to this project, and arrange the nutshells in different patterns to inform my drawing. 

My current project, in a nutshell.

I'm intrigued by textural contrasts and the idea of interior and exterior shells. I want to explore the strength and fragility of these structures in my drawings, and look at the variety of textural qualities that different kinds of nuts have. I'm interested in the idea of the protective nature of the hard casing which shields and creates an external barrier. The structure acts as a shelter and a sanctuary.