Hey sweetheart :)

Good to hear that you're keeping yourself occupied with Dan Brown. Angels and demons is a wicked book but yeah you do need the first part :P

Uni is going alright, just need to plan my days out today so I can have everything ready for the 8th of June. I'm self teaching myself 3d sketchup google at the moment. It's a slow progress but hopefully I will have something cool out of it.

As with work, I'm in every Tuesday and Thursday. But come the summer I will be working full-time to earn some $$ and have fun. I'm learning so many things about myself and business through work. The other field representative are really cool people who know how to work hard and play harder. Even after a long day, they still have social gatherings at bars, clubs and barbecues. It's cool, but it can get hard when you concentrate on the negatives and forget about the positives. That's why in my job, it's essential to be self-motivated and have a good attitude throughout the day. Not always easy smiling for 6-7 hours when you feel like crap. But I remind myself of the good. That I am offering something free to change , cheaper and nothing changes. I turn negatives around into something positive for a job. I get to meet some cool people, make people smile and make money. That's what goes through my mind.

I know things aren't easy for you at the moment. Your dealing with many new feelings being in NZ. Just remember why you are there. You are there to go into education, get the grades you deserve, to experience a new country and culture and to have fun. Don't get comfortable being lazy now that your not in school. You should be using this time to find out the syllabus for your GCSES in school. Brush up on anything your not sure about. Treat this seriously, you should use each day to it's full-potential. Being in NZ is a great opportunity and there is so much beauty in the world. Explore, try new things, and push yourself hard for the things in life you want.

You haven't tried until your head wants to burst and you have sweated, and cried. Once you reach this, you will want to give up on everything in your life. You will think "it's too much". Step away, and do something you like to take your mind away. It might be that you read, write, draw, go for a walk, play a game. But make sure that once you have enjoyed yourself and feel better you go back to the problem with more strength. Ignoring it or putting it off, will only make it worse in your mind. Tackle it head on. If there is nothing you can do about it...Don't worry about it.

I have wanted to give up so many times this year. Give up on mom, uni, work, friends. When I get this way nothing matters and all I want to do is hide and do nothing. Its easy to hide from your problems and create excuses for yourself for why you can't do something. It's not so easy admitting that you feel weak. I know your more stubborn than me a lot of times. Stubbornness is a brilliant thing to have if you apply it to work or school. You question why things have gone wrong and seek to fix it. But remember that you need fun in your life too but there is a time and place for it. Use it as a relief from the stresses in life. When you are at work, work comes first, when you are relaxing, that comes first.

Don't give up, re-evaluate and go back to it with a clear mind. Life doesn't have to be a mass confusion. Most people wander through life with no direction, just floating and get caught up in the rat-race. Show me one person who enjoys working 9-5. Never be afraid to be the best you can be. If you keep on being your best, then it WILL become natural for you. As I said, you haven't tried until you have been through blood, sweat and tears.

I love you baby, Please understand that the reason I want you to push yourself is for your benefit. Your in the deep end, but I'll never let you drown.

Is it better for a mother to coddle her child when they fall over and kiss the pain away. Or is it better to brush them off and send them to play again? What kind of people will each child grow up to be? Rewarding the child with affection when they are hurt will only promote that it is ok to fail and be weak. Whereas the second child is taught that it's no big deal to fall and to continue on having fun.

Whenever you need emotional or spiritual guidance, I'm here. Please use me. :) I like that I can help you through your development in life. I wish that I had a mentor when I was younger.

Every example of good interior design has a idea behind it

Hopkins architects were no exception when they took on the challenge of redesigning the Westminster Underground station and the Porticullis house directly above. The brief was to design a functional station which would be the supports and footings of the parliamentary building above, include a new ticket hall for expansion of commuters, and two new underground lines, the eastbound and westbound Jubilee lines.

Hopkins has numerous problems to solve in the construction which lasted six years. The station was the most complex out of the Jubilee Line Extension which formed several new precedents for underground construction. One of the main concerns was not to effect the surrounding buildings in the area including our beloved Big Ben. Due to this, the Jubilee lines were stacked vertically as opposed to the standard side-by-side layout. This is a common practice in North America's subway systems.

The basic structure of Westminster Underground is a solid concrete box which is held in place primarily from the steel struts that lie horizontally. The weight of he struts is bared on the six reinforced concrete columns which are over 40 meters long beginning on the ground level visible in the courtyard area. The columns cast in-situ were built top down, gradually placing the flyer struts in place which later would become essential to then support the escalators inside the box. Six layers make up the whole arrangement, although clearly signposted to the trains, the escalators make the space very easy confusing. The diagrad ceiling in the ticket hall level acts as the main supports for the building situated on top. It was important not to disturb the current train service, this meant that the majority of work was done in the few early hours of the morning when the system has shut-down. The whole cost of the new station was over £20 million pounds.

The overall effect of the station is that it cast an image of traveling on anarcheologicall dithrough catacombssss due tthe essentiallll expansivebuttressess, eerie spotlight lighting and the panels of the escalators as being transported. For finishing touches the concrete was lightly sand-blasted to a smooth finish.

Lost in cyberspace

The aim of this paper is to discuss the extent of impact Pablo Picasso’s, The Demoiselles d'Avignon has upon the modernist movement.

In order to discuss the effect s of one of Picasso’s works directly to modernism, firstly modernism must be defined, how the Cubist movement evolved and most importantly how was the art received in society.

The modernist movement emerged in the mid-19th century in France. It is suggested that it began specifically in 1863 with the arrival of Edourad Manet’s Dejeuner Sur L’herbe. The oil painting categorically marks a new beginning out of the renaissance. Most noticeably, perspective space was experimented with. From a single view-point the visual planes adjusted to no longer conform to mathematical principles.
Modernism exploded to a cultural movement as a collection of artists and designers who rebelled against academic, historic traditions and conformities.

With the rejection of pre-modern art came the freedom of expression. In the early stages of the avant-garde, women were portrayed with realism and fault, truthfulness unlike the highly polished angels previously depicted. Dante Gabriel Rosseti Venus Verticordia contrasted to Ewourad Manet’s Olympia is a example to the subtle changes that would occur later in art history.

Radical changes occurred gradually in form and content of art. Elements of art, principles of design and physical materials became more flexible in personal choice. Subject matter of content opened up moving away from renaissance themes. The artists portrayal and what it actually portrayed became controversial issues for discussion. Constantin Brancusi Bird in Space, 1923 is a prime example of a new thinking. Brancusi's inspired abstraction realizes his stated intent to capture "the essence of flight." Although the sculpture in no way resembles any of the physical attributes of a feathered creature, I believe in some way, he has captured a specific action and filtered out everything that would obscure this vision. In effect art became more than an aesthetically pleasing visual. Matisse, Henri Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life) 1905. The use of strong vivid colours covers the canvas eloping the viewer into Matisse’s sexual “dreamy” encounter.

In 1908 Cubism was established by the stunned Henri Matisse. The Cézanneist works of George Braque formulated the essential syntax of cubism through use of petit cubes. Together with Pablo Picasso a young Spanish prodigy, a transformation in cubism occurred, creating ‘ligua tranca’ the new language of art. Shattering the conventions of renaissance perspective, it amounted to a break of the ancient system of fixed unitary, hierarchical focus into democratically multiple perspectives. The subject matter was perceived from numerous angels by slicing the planar components and re-shuffling the order. External reality was dismissed now obeying the internal laws of the painting seen strongly in proto-cubism painting such as Picasso’s woman with a mandolin 1909. The new language of communication was flexible enough to accommodate the expressions of utopian aspirations of De Stijl, also the psychosexual sexual dream of surrealists. The movement brought an aesthetic break-through which influenced many artists directly and indirectly. This will be covered in detail later in the paper. Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase 1912.

In 1906, Two Nudes produced by Picasso marks the extreme point of heavy, primitive, sculptural modelling. The geometric angularity of faces accompanied by the plastic simplicity suggests a complete break from Picasso’s Rose period. Woman Ironing 1904.The conceptual form of the Two Nudes is similar to that found in African sculpture, Greek vase painting and Egyptian art. (Source 1&2) This influence is later found in The Demoiselles d'Avignon,1907” Picasso’s first masterpiece”. (quote book). The early sketches of Demoiselles depict an encounter at a brothel with five women, a sailor and a doctor. As Picasso developed his sketches which he posthumerously released, it became apparent in the transition it was a genesis in autobiographical allegory of innocence and experience. However during this process of trial and error Andre Salmon claimed that

“Picasso was unsettled. He turned his canvas to the wall and laid down his brushes…During the long days and as many nights, he drew, giving more concrete expression to abstract ideas and reducing the results to their fundamentals”

It is apparent from Andre Salmom’s words that Picasso clearly wanted to move beyond the mind numbing clichés of old narrative mode. It wasn’t until Picasso’s visit to Paris Musee du Trocadero at the African sculpture exhibition, he had an epiphany

“I realised what painting was all about...They were magic things…They were against everything-against unknown, threatening spirits…I understood why I was a painter…It was my first exorcism painting- yes absolutely.”

William Rubin, art historian, collector and curator pointed out that Picasso recaptured the projects original meaning through medium of style not the narrative illustration. Regenerated, Picasso returned to his canvas with enthusiasm. The finished result was profound; the first
Cubist picture was produced. However it was obscured by the savagery of images, the handling looks more akin to expressionist feeling than early manifestation of Cubism’s calm, methodical procedures and intellectual content.


Concluding why the doctor and sailor were absent from the final painting, Picasso attempted to communicate through his use of style opposed to the narrative which only served as a distraction from the underlying concept. Picasso later discovered that the subject need not be identifiable through use of shape, but left clues to what was deeply disguised. Man with pipe 1911.

Braque, Picasso’s spiritual partner in later developed Analytic Cubism, was working towards breaking down the Demoiselles forms, then reconstructing form in terms of planar components. Braque’s initial opinion of The Demoiselles of d'Avignon was

“Made [me] feel as if someone were drinking gasoline and spitting fire”

A bizarre description for a bizarre painting. It wasn’t until the 1930’s Demoiselles impressed perceptive and informed critics and praised it as “a transitional picture”. Picasso was politically lucky to escape the Soviet Communist views condemning modern art as narcissistic and non-sensencial. The political party claimed that the art was created by mental ill who possessed traits of schizophrenia.

Did Demoiselles begin the aesthetic breakthrough abstract art or was it a break down? Was it the bridge between modernist and pre-modernist linking the primal scene and modern primitivism? Did Picasso psychologically regress until he defragmented a singular perception?

Steinberg commented that the rationale of this transformation occurred due to a

“Trauma of sexual encounter”

Did Picasso suffer from Femme Fatale, a fixation developed from frequently visiting prostitutes?

“if we give spirits form, we become independent”

Picasso’s painted witches would suggest that he himself fears mortality. As stated previously, the doctor and sailor have been replaced by the painted faces of the women which dramatically protrude on the canvas. I would suggest that Picasso has given form to a fear, the fear of death of sexual diseases which is the reason behind the “exorcism painting”.

In a crowded room lost, panicked, hurting. There you are, take my hand?

Some of them want to confuse you, some of them wanna be confused by you. Some of the time I want to be confused by you.

Left me again

Sooner I get over this feeling of abandonment the better.

Brad Pitt

Black guy about to die screaming

Preacher man

Spots

Hair a mess

Window shopper

The look in your eyes when you tell me you love me

Here are some of my memories