17-07-14

The rain and cold perhaps drained a little beauty out of Melbourne's architecture this time, especially since it was kinda difficult to get the whole picture through the fluff on my hoodie. That being said, it was nice to be told to lift my head off the ground. It definitely got me thinking about how I should be doing that more often. Going to the block arcade was good too. I walk through there all the time, it's so obviously decorative, I was surprised and a bit annoyed at myself for not having stopping to look properly. So after looking around a bit, once everyone sat and drew lights and doors and roofs, I took my camera around the corner to a little run-down section that lead to a dead end, passing a run down lady dragging a massive bag into a rubbish bin. It smelt like piss, cigarettes, and old coffee. Man, I hope that didn't rub off on me for the rest of the day. Oh well. Maybe it was worth it, because there was a beautiful small patch of sky poking out between the buildings. It would have been the perfect place for an alien to abduct me, but no. I'm still here.

Anyway, since I'm still alive and writing I should probably review the actual galleries we went to. 

To be honest, the Diane Singer gallery didn't do a lot for me. The lights put me off a bit. They were ridiculously fluorescent, which always gives me a headache. I wasn't absolutely amazed by the work, however I appreciated how bold she was for using such bright, child-like colours and simple shapes and objects in her art, in a world of adults trying to be serious and dark and moody. I suppose you could say a lot of artists focus on the child-like side of things, but it's good to see it done in a contemporary setting in somewhere so close by.

At Westspace I think I liked the black and white photographs by Ross Coulter the best, they were quite dreamy. That's not a very interesting thing to say about them, but to be honest I don't particularly remember a whole lot more about them. There was also a section about homelessness and if I remember correctly there was some statistics and writing on lamps and things. That was an idea I hadn't really considered, so it was good seeing things presented a little differently.
Oh and back to architecture, we went and looked at St.Paul's Cathedral, which like many churches was overwhelmingly beautiful. Churches always make me feel a bit odd, kind of out of place and I'm never quite sure if I want to be a part of it all or not. Everyone sat on the pews and drew, and do did I. It felt a bit disrespectful drawing in a church. I drew the people behind me very roughly. Bailey, Raff, Zach. Kirrah, Rachel and Jale were up the back, but you can hardly see them in the drawing. I drew a young girl who was praying too, but I didn't do her any justice at all. I rushed it and gave up. The whole drawing's really pretty crappy, but it doesn't matter.