Miniature works of Art

I’ve had what I thought was a collection of Soviet era stamps which I picked up a few years back when on a work/cultural trip to Estonia. Having dug a little more, it turns out they are not stamps but match box labels and that there’s a whole world out there of matchbox labels and matchbox label collectors. It would seem that in the old Soviet Union there was a lot of use for matches and that matchbox labels were used as a form of propaganda as well as a medium for promoting and nurturing a deep pool of national  artistic talent.

In his website a History of Graphic Design, Guitry Novin  describes how matchboxes and subsequently matchbox labels became… ”a most convenient, efficient and powerful medium for visual communications. Produced under a strict state-controlled production processes…they were aimed at exploiting and publicizing political initiatives, promoting public health and safety, and selling the communist ideal both at home and abroad, the artists used them as a vehicle to experiment with various imaginative ideas and artistic techniques, achieving truly stunning results.”

And although he is making reference mainly to the former Eastern block countries of Romania, Czechoslovakia and Hungary the similarities to the Estonian matchbox labels I picked up are obvious, both in their subject matter and style.

Personally, as a designer and artist I love the print-woodblock style of the stamps. The fact that they are printed on poor quality paper, which renders a flat  grainy texture to the often miss- registered images. I also like the way that in places the colours overlap, forming unintentional and additional shades. The labels date from the 1960’s and their subjects run in series, revolving around all aspects of Soviet Era-Estonian life and culture, from public buildings and statues, to flora and fauna. What is amazing is how the artists managed to take something as mundane as a public building or piece of agricultural machinery and turn it into a piece of art. Even given the restrictions of  scale and the very strict limitations on style and content, they managed to produce work both powerful and beautiful. Most of the labels are no bigger than 3cm x 2cm and really are miniature works of art.

View over London

It seems like a lonnnng time since I put one of these out. There are no reasons, only excuses which I won’t go into except to say its been a busy few months.

Last weekend we were in London for a few days. Like many people I know, I have a love hate relationship with London. There are so many things to like and dislike.

I will list some:
DISLIKES

• 
it’s busy and stressful
• 
it’s exhausting
• 
it’s impersonal and people are rude
• 
it can be dangerous and alienating
• it takes too much time to get anywhere or get anything

LIKES

• 
its energy
• 
its bookshops, clothes shops, cafes, pubs, cinemas, restaurants
• 
its hugely diverse and innumerable people
• its exhilarating urban landscapes
• the diversity in everything
• freedom and anonymity
• its both stimulating and exhausting at the same time

While I was there I managed finally to get hold of one of Miroslav Sasek’s brilliant books, This is London. I wish I had the time to do justice to the people and sights I saw as well as he did. Sasek did a brilliant job, he is sharp, witty and informative and his illustrations deceptively simple and yet saying so much. They capture beautifully the spirit of the big city and also the detail of its places and people. Some things have changed a lot in London in the fifty years since he made the book, even in the four years since we left. Like any big city, London is constantly in flux. 

One thing that does remain the same however is the magnetic energy that draws all kinds of people to London. Its vibrant diversity and the feeling of being part of something big. A place of opportunity, of gold, silver and big bright shiny lights.

The world is full of interesting people and things…

Here are some lovely new blogs for your perusal…..Well, not really new, but new to me!

Everydayaperture…I would like this blog even if the photos in it weren’t already fascinating and just because of the opening line in about which says; “When I have my camera with me, I notice the world is full of interesting people and things.  It makes me appreciate the world a little more instead of focusing on where I am supposed to be and when.” I guess we just have to stop and open our eyes sometimes.The second arestlesstransplant, is the photojournal of a guy who left his design job in New York, bought a VW van and set off on a visual journey of the U.S.A, with beautiful results…….and theburninghouse which asks simply, ‘what would you take with you if your house was burning down’ and which ends up being a collections of the things people find most precious in their lives. What would you take with you?

Paris

My favourite pastime while traveling…and no better place to do it than the metro and cafes of Paris…I would have liked to have had the time to get a few street shots in….maybe next time….Looking at these has just made me realise again how closed and introspective most people look in large cities, especially on the subway or metro…or maybe its just the ones I pick on?

The Power of Making

On my travels I have stockpiled a fair few objects, toys, dolls, books, stamps and textiles… as well as a heap of sketch books. Why I picked them and what I love about them is man’s and women’s innate use of creativity in describing his world, through the making of toys and objects, whether practical or decorative. The art or craft of making is as old as we are. Mankind has being trying to shape his world in one form or another since he fell from the trees. Either as a way of expressing his thoughts or describing his surroundings. Or, as a way through craftmanship, to improve his life. The art or craft of making objects exists at all levels of skill, from the master craftsman and model-maker to the very elementary figures we carved from plasticine as children. I was hugely impressed by this level of craftsmanship and skill when I visited Museum Rietberg, in Zurich recently. It has a hugely impressive array of artifacts and objects, tracing the global history of mankind’s endeavours to shape his world, dating back thousands of years. Though what actually triggered this post was a look at the current exhibition at the V&A in London, entitled ‘The Power of Making,’ which celebrates the role of making in our lives, in presenting an eclectic selection of over 100 exquisitely crafted objects. I am just annoyed I won’t get chance to actually visit but I would love to hear from anyone who has or will, it looks fascinating.
Peru

Lesotho, South Africa

Peru

On the plane

 

I love the work of Photographer, Phillip Kalantzis Cope and anyone who has spent any amount of time on aeroplanes and in airports, will appreciate the world within a world, he has managed to capture so beautifully. So many times up there I find myself lost in thought while the world zips by below and above me. Not quite knowing where you are passing over or even what it is you are looking at, at the same time both vulnerable and cocooned.  It`s also a little topical, as last week I lost a sketch book and all my favourite drawing pens, on a Swiss air flight back from Dusseldorf….full of snapshot sketches taken from the same viewpoint.

gattobravo

Here’s a link to a really great site thanks to my friend at sparkman. A sketch blog (albeit, with a purpose).  Anephel at gattobravo, reviews and critiques good food and wine, as well as the occasional feature on design, architecture and music but illustrating everything. A great idea, stylish and beautifully drawn and painted.

London Underground

Paris London Zurich

… its been a busy last couple of weeks and the pen has been busy but mainly with doodles…that’s the good thing about sitting on buses, trains and planes, there’s always plenty of other people sitting down too! I love trying to figure out who they are, what they do? where they are going?…..Why they are going? What are they thinking? Why are they thinking it…? Did I see this person before? Will I see them again? I could go on! Needless to say people watching is more than just watching…if you know what I mean…

Frank’s Cafe London

I was back in London for the first time since we left the UK three years ago and was devastated to find that my favourite Cafe had closed down. Frank’s had been serving up typical cafe fare and anglicized versions of Italian food for fifty years. For me it was nearly always a variation of the same, eggs, beans, sausage and chips with a real mug of tea. I think the first time I went there was when I was a student nearly twenty years ago but it really became a regular for me when I first began working in Covent Garden. I later began taking my daughter there and was looking forward to taking her there again on our next visit, as it is one of her earliest and most vivid memories of London, it wasn’t to be. Frank’s had hung on for longer than most in an area which has become more and more homogenized and increasingly less individualistic. Such a shame, I’m not sure when exactly it closed but I’m sure it will be missed by many, myself included. of London.