Month: October 2007

Oh não! Criei um monstro!

Está aqui

My first doll ever | O meu primeiro boneco de pano

This is my first fabric doll ever. The good news is that its theme was “monster”. It means that if my sewing is less than perfect (a lot less, I may add!) it actually contributes to the character´s mosntruosity. It´s for Penelope´s Illustration´s Monster Mash.

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Este é o meu primeiro boneco de pano da minha vida. Felizmente a temática era “monstros”: qualquer defeito que o boneco tenha pode ser atribuído à minha inexperiência… ou então ao carácter monstruoso da personagem. 🙂

É para o concurso Penelope´s Illustration´s Monster Mash.

Rubberstamp II | Carimbo II

Another rubber stamp carved to be included in the treasure box I´m preparing for my niece. These are her initials.

Here´s something I forgot (and had to carve it again): always carve letters inverted. It´s so obvious – and still I forgot it. 🙂

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Mais um carimbinho de borracha para a caixinha dos tesouros que estou a preparar para a Carolina. Desta vez, com as iniciais dela.

Ah… algo que me esqueci e que é muito óbvio: ao gravar letras, desenhá-las invertidas!

These masks look nice | As máscaras ficaram bonitas


That´s why I decided to post them as well!

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E por isso ponho-as aqui!

Back to kindergarten days | De volta à minha Quinta Florida





There are some images I remember from kindergarten. Some of them remain with me as if they happened just yesterday… So this is something I remember doing there. It´s a very easy technique and probably the precursor to the airbrush or today´s ink spray: you put a little bit of ink on a spoon and then you spray it to the paper with the help of a tooth brush.

I decided to use some simple shapes: a tree branch and a bird. I had to cut masks twice because the first round ended up to be too thin to get a good image with those tiny ink blotches. I learnt by doing it that it is recommended to have a minimum amount of ink on the spoon, so that you don´t get big, splashy blotches.

It´s fun to use different colors on a shape: “spray” your first color, allow it to dry, and then apply your second color.

What do you think of it? Let me know if you have any fun kindergarten techniques to share. My niece will be visiting soon and I have to keep her busy! (and improve my collection of her drawings, of course!)

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Esta técnica de pintura vem dos tempos da Quinta Florida, o meu jardim de infância. Não faço ideia de quem a terá inventado e não me lembro exactamente do tipo de tinta que era usada no processo. Mas lembro-me claramente de uma colher com tinta e uma escova de dentes que salpicava a tinta para o papel.

Fiz umas máscaras simples: uma em forma de ramo de árvore e outra em forma de passarito. As máscaras têm de ser bastante abertas, ou seja, não vale a pena enveredar por um desenho demasiado elaborado porque depois os pontinhos de tinta não conseguem ter a definição necessária para os detalhes.

Mesmo assim, é uma técnica muito fácil que pode dar resultados muito interessantes. Por exemplo, pode-se aplicar duas cores uma em cima da outra, desde que se deixe a primeira secar por completo.

Se alguém se lembrar de outras técnicas dos tempos do Jardim de Infância, partilhem-nas, por favor! É que a minha sobrinha está quase a chegar e tenho de a manter ocupada… já para não falar de que quero ampliar a minha galeria de desenhos dela!

A minha veia culinária

Isto não me dá com frequência. Mas, quando dá, costuma sair bem (tirando o assado de alcachofra).

Ontem cheguei a casa muito cansada e totalmente desinspirada. A cozinha parecia o Sahara; nem uma palmeirita para me dar uma ideia de qualquer coisa rápida e pouco trabalhosa para fazer para o jantar.

E, de repente, olhei para um imenso molho de coentros que tinha deixado de molho.

(espera lá… esta frase soa estranha! Ó Mãe! Aproveita a frase para ensinar as palavras homo-qualquer coisa aos teus alunos! E, de caminho, a mim também, eu seja santa, tanto acusativo, tanto dativo que agora me esqueço do português)

Ora bem, molho de coentros… vai daí, pesto de coentros! E não é que ficou bom? Tudo feito a olhómetro, está claro: coentros, azeite (de preferência do bom), queijo (era parmesão, mas não havia), um pouco de nozes e outro pouco de avelãs (dizem que era pinhões, mas não havia) e tudo passadinho na varinha mágica. A páginas tantas juntei-lhe um nico-tico de água. E cozi a massa.

Mnham.

Hoje (a febre culinária durou até agora) fiz umas favinhas à moda da “Avvvvvó” e uma sopinha de brócolos. Vamos ver no que resulta.

TPC de alemão

Depois de um dia inteiro a adiar a evidência (“tenho de fazer o TPC de alemão!”), lancei-me ao trabalho para apenas conseguir aquela que é muito provavelmente a composição mais estúpida jamais escrita. Estará pelo menos no top das composições mais estúpidas que já escrevi. E atenção que isto não é dizer pouco.

Espero ao menos que não tenha muitos erros. E “muitos” é quando a professora tem de rescrever parágrafos inteiros porque não se aproveita quase nada. É assim tão baixinha que está a minha fasquia.

Pecha Kucha Night – the images

Centro Cultural Ciudad Konex

Everyone was invited to draw or write something to put pressure on world politicians for the accomplishment of the Millenium Development Goals

José Maria Muscari

Jimena Nahon and her “Catalogue”

Dick el Demasiado

O nosso contributo para a campanha eleitoral

Aproximam-se as presidenciais cá na Argentina. E, como em tantos outros países, cresce a histeria na proporção inversa do tempo que falta.

Apesar da Cristina ser esta boneca que aqui se vê, apesar de se contestar o seu diploma de jurista e apesar de agora se começar a contestar a utilização de fundos públicos para a sua campanha (hmmm… talvez me tenha esquecido de mencionar que a Cristina é a mulher do actual presidente, que, curiosamente, assiste aos seus comícios como apoiante ferrenho), parece que é a vencedora incontestável, pelo menos a julgar pelas sondagens feitas até ao momento.

Honestamente, já não sei o que pensar… por isso, aqui vai o nosso contributo para a campanha.

Esquerdo ou direito?

Digo já que a minha bailarina dança alternadamente no sentido dos ponteiros do relógio e no sentido contrário. Quando olho para o lado, a desgraçada muda!

Pois, e do que é que estou a falar? É deste artigo-barra-teste que vem no Herald Sun, “Australia´s biggest-selling daily newspaper”. Aparentemente, conforme percepcionamos o movimento da garota, assim utilizamos mais um dos lados do cérebro.

Como diria alguém que eu conheço: “é xiro, não é?”

Pecha Kucha Night – something like a report

Las Tuesday was Pecha Kucha Night here in Buenos Aires. It was in Ciudad Cultural Konex, a venue I had never been to before but is very appropriate to events like this one. Inside there´s a big patio with a bar and a shop. There were some exhibitions by different artists, some of then were also speakers. I was a bit scared that it would be a succession of designers promoting their work but it really wasn´t that way.

Well, I´m not the best person for remembering names, so for those of you who may want to know more about the artists, I´ll redirect you to the Pecha Kucha website, where more accurate info is available.

What follows is a small review of the presenters that somehow impacted me. Any lack of accuracy is due to my unjournalistic eyes and purposes.

The first presentation that really called my attention was by José Maria Muscari. It was about loneliness and love. His images captured an evening in Buenos Aires, a well-known city for its “movida”, where people seemed to be at the loneliest ever, even if they had company. I really liked that someone actually took the time to be curious enough to work about being lonenly. He certainly isn´t the first one in art, nor the last one, for that matter, but it did appeal to me in a way other works haven´t. Maybe I just identified myself with it at this speciic point in time, but then again isn´t it always like this? Doesn´t someone enjoy something and sometime later realise it wasn´t exactly that good and vice-versa? Well, I did like it. I liked the images and I liked his presentation, which, on a second moment got connected with love.

Lateral Media Lab were also there. Their presentation was less interesting than the content itself. In that line of thought, they had a really fun device on the patio that everyone could try: with a little pointing devide, one could digitally paint grafitti on the wall. It even had the effect of the excess ink running down! Their work had a really interesting concept underneath, mixing technology, media and communication to have users interact with digital instruments.

One presentation that I really enjoyed was the one by Ants.tv. They showed some of their work in motions graphics for TV. They do the kind of animations that appear before ads on a given channel. I liked it so much, I admired them so much. I wonder how they do it. I really like the fact that their wonderful illustrations were moving. It´s a totally new dimension but they certainly deal with it well. I just wondered how they do it, it´s amazing. (Or so I think.)

There was a serial entrepreneur called Santiano Bilinkis. His stories were fun and inspiring, though I don´t have the entrepreneurship blood running in my veins.

Don´t be fooled by the lack of information Jimena Nahon´s website displays. I visited it and was a bit disappointed. So then, when I heard her presentation, I had low expectations and came out pleasantly surprised. She presented her work, a catalog of things. So she developed a catalog of things, basically clothing, shoes and beauty care. They make their own photographic productions for the products displayed, which adds up to the level of interest. The best part is that it ends up working like a source book for me, when I need ideas or images to start working on some idea. And I really liked the concept of making a catalog of everything.

There was Fernanda Laguna, who presented in the category “woman”. I wonder why she was there, but her presentation turned out to be fun. I thought that suddenly 6´40´´ would be way too long and probably tedious, but although she didn´t present anything special, she made us all laugh. It was a good opportunity to learn some slang.

I just couldn´t finish this pseudo-report without mentioning Diego Golombek, a biologist and scientist. His presentation was fun and informing, full of great and intelligent jokes and references. I actually learnt something from it: he studies the mechanisms of time inside the living being (I hope I´m not saying anything wrong here, so if I am, Diego please forgive me). He mentioned that somehow people living in the poles did have a sense of night and day, even having 6 months of sunshine and 6 months of night. Somehow, the sense of time is embedded in our brains and our bodies. That´s what he talked about. This was one of the presenttations I wish were longer.

There´s still no date for Pecha Kucha Night in Buenos Aires vol.8, but I´ll definitely return.