made in the shade « [last year's girl]

I wish I could draw, of course I do. I like to think that sometimes I can adequately paint a scene with words, and of course I can grab the odd lucky photo, but I’m lacking whatever it is that links the eye and brain and hand of an artist. It took me forever to realise this though, as upteen thousand childish drawings of ponies with bulbous heads are a testament to. I approached drawing with no shortage of enthusiasm. I wonder if this was what made me my art teacher’s favourite, as she always picked me to demonstrate when we were sketching the motorbikes she loved in india ink. Nothing was really going to stop me picking music for my creative subject though.

Despite this, I think I have a good eye. I know what makes a photograph engaging even if I don’t always pull it off, and while I could never tell you why I always had an eye for layout in my magazine editor days.

All of this just to say: I know what I like. It’s just that I can’t always explain it adequately.

And right now, what I like is cartoonist and illustrator Neil Slorance. I love his wicked sense of humour, and how his sketches capture my mood so effectively in just a few lines. Most of all, what I like is that his is the next exhibit at The Tiny Gallery in the Made in the Shade Maisonette, so I can spend most of the month of April enjoying his work.

Says MiTS: Exposing all our little foibles, the crazy ambitions we might bury, our secret wonderings about the guy sitting opposite us on the tube and the judgments we make about our neighbours’ curtains, etc., etc., ‘I’m Not Weird’ explores the spectrum of emotions we slide up and down on daily basis and takes a closer look at our most fleeting thoughts and ideas.

“I’m Not Weird” by Neil Slorance will be showing in The Tiny Gallery at The Maisonette, De Courcey’s Arcade, between Saturday 3rd April and Friday 30th April 2010.

Anyway, I’d better get a move on because I’m going to be late for work.

Trying to catch up, slowly but surely, with bookmarks and photographs and little notes on bits of paper scattered over the sofa I jokingly refer to as my desk. The Made in the Shade Maisonette, which opened its doors in the newly renovated upper floor of De Courcy’s Arcade in the West End at the end of October, promises to be Glasgow’s permanent retail, gallery and social space dedicated to showcasing and promoting off-beat design, craft and vintage lifestyle in what the papers are now calling the city’s “answer to Covent Garden”. Roll your eyes if you will, but the shop is an adorable and friendly little space stocking everything from hand-bound notebooks to Tom Selleck embroidery. I might have spent more than I intended, although I’m afraid the ‘tache didn’t do it for me.

Since Carrie and Clare are my best Twitter friends I’ve got a piece on my visit and the opening published on Mookychick and many thanks to Kaite for setting me up with that one!

And since we don’t like to be called parochial around these parts I’d also like to direct you to the home on the web of Blackbird Summer Market, happening so far away it’s a whole other season. The first Blackbird will take place in Melbourne, Australia’s Worker’s Club, 51 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy on Saturday 5th December. The fabulous Sam and Courtney have been working flat out to put together an exciting all-day lineup of great bands, DJ sets, food and – of course – vintage fashion and handcrafted jewellery and products. Definitely not to be missed if you’re in that part of the world – the Glasgow contingent will be shivering and wishing you the best of luck, girls!