Corinne Bailey Rae live in Concert

Sistah looking hot and gorgeous as ever

Been listening to her song ‘I’ll do it all again’ on repeat, wonderful tune of bliss and some kinda melancholy.

Over the Easter break I had been thinking about what I was going to do for my individual project for this module. Initially, I had thought about doing a photographic slideshow, focusing on artistic images. But then I found out that for the group projects, there was going to be a group website project focused on arts both old and contemporary, and it was then that I decided to drop the idea. That was the only topic that I could see working for me if I had to do a slideshow and so the idea had to be put aside.  It was then I decided to do a form of social journalism blog called ‘Hot Cocoa’.  Though with a peculiar sounding name, I chose it for the sole reason of it being catchy and pretty easy for people to remember.  I chose to use the blog host Typepad, because the domain name ‘Hot Cocoa’ already existed on WordPress even though WordPress was the blog space I had intended to use.

Being that it was going to be a blog tackling social issues and bringing people towards a sense of social awakening and consciousness, I chose to write about topics like interracial relationships, politics and how mental illness is viewed in today’s society.  Topics that will get people talking and debating, supporting and disagreeing at the same time. Before starting the blog, I went on to Facebook and created a fan page for the blog, inviting all my contacts and encouraging them to tell their contacts to join and check the blog out too. In the first week, I got about thirty two people joining up which was pleasing because it meant people were interested in knowing more about what the blog was about. However when I wrote my first post about interracial relationships and linked it on to the blog, I tried to spark up debates by asking questions but only three people responded out of all the forty-three people that had now joined the blog. That sort of upset me and although I had consulted with you, Jim and then Ben Gilbert, I took heed of your advice asking me to be more informal in terms of trying to strike up debates and I did this but there was no improvement. So what I devised was to go round the university and outside of it, asking people questions concerning this topic and leaving them the blog URL on pieces of paper so they can check it out, which I doubt they ever did, if not they should have been able to leave comments or some sort of feedback.  Overall I did not enjoy doing this blog because it turned out to be an utter failure for me, in terms of what I had been expecting to get out of it, which is getting people to debate about serious yet interesting social issues and I am going to discontinue doing it even though it was still interesting typing up the posts.

Group Project Website- ‘The Protégé’

It was interesting being a part of this project. First of all I liked how we were all given the chance to have a say in making decisions for the project. For instance when the website was being designed and a logo was being created for the blog, the editor, Kaltrina called us and asked for our opinions about it. I liked the overall co-operation within the project but obviously there were some setbacks within the group such as some individuals not attending group meetings and putting their all into making the project a success. This has not really had a setback on the website per say because those of us that were present made sure we put our weight into contributing and seeing the website coming to light. In terms of my contribution to the group, I had to write two features. The first was about a sketch artist and painter from London called Adebanji Alade, and then the next was supposed to be an interview with an independent filmmaker, Nikyatu Jusu from New York but she did not get back to me in time so I had to use another interview I did with the visual artist Brianna McCarthy who is based in Trinidad and Tobago. It was not difficult writing the features, because according to what Kaltrina had said, she said she wanted our stories to be quite informal and creative in terms of how it is laid out. This I tried to achieve via the writing and I think it was a success proven with the feedback I got back from Kaltrina.  The site seems to work because we try to go with the trend of magazines forming some sort of space online, and making the writings succinct and punchy, whilst elaborating on it with the use of images to help illustrate what is being written about. Another thing to note is that the website seems to work because they are not many art websites out there, and the ones that exist all seem to have a clichéd feel to it in terms of stories and images, they usually focus on avant garde forms of arts and a way that The Protégé is different is that it mixes all forms of art, old, new, famous, not famous, abstract and literal. Finally the website is targeted at young people interested in art and it was also intended to be some sort of platform for both established and wannabe artists, filmmakers, photographers and other creative people to be able to exhibit their work to the public.  We hope to carry on with this website, as we seem to find it interesting and innovative enough for it to become a success even after it has been marked.

Newsday

For the newsday exercise, I was part of the first newsday and I decided to work with the television group .  I had to post updates on to the Westminster News wordpress blog. I posted information about the latest on the final leader’s debates on the blog. I had to go round the internet looking for information on what the newspapers were saying about the debate, and I put up information I collected from The Guardian, The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail. I also interlinked the stories back to the websites of the newspapers so that people interested in the news stories can go on to read more about it on the sites.  At a point during the newsday exercise, everything was so disorganised with the television group not being able to update the blog in time with Naomi’s announcement of the news bulletin. But we, the online lot worked to schedule with the time.  In terms of what I learned from the experience, I did not learn that much because it was all quite disorganised with the television group failing to meet up to time and really the newsday was like a waste of time for me. Perhaps because I had been expecting it to be challenging and stressful as Jim had predicted it to be, and I was sort of prepared for that but unfortunately I did not see that challenge and overall it did not give me that much experience in terms of  a cross media experience.

Can you just give a brief biography of yourself i.e. your name, age, country of origin and residence?

Brianna McCarthy, 26 years old Trinidadian visual artist – working and living in Trinidad and Tobago.

Where and how did you learn the arts of drawing and painting? Was it fun? challenging? or both?

I can’t really recall how or where learnt. I can say for sure that it has been gradual and still is a process – I haven’t had any formal art training. It’s been both a challenge and greatly fulfilling.

Why did you decide to become an artist, and what were the inspirations for your works? Was it past artists, real people you have come across or something else entirely

I haven’t actually made that a conscious decision! I’m doing what I love; what excites me and calms me at the same time. I did make a decision in the last year or two, with great encouragement from those closest to me, to challenge myself by putting my work in a more accessible place. This was the reason I started Passion.Fruit. Before that my work was essentially very private. Thus far the strongest artistic influences on my creative perception have been Erte, Yinka Shonibare and Boscoe Holder. Outside of being influenced by other people’s work, generally people fascinate me. I think one of the loveliest things on the planet is a face. I love women, people who exist, live above stereotypes and boundaries

One of Brianna's works titled 'Josette'

You seem to have a certain likeness for painting portraits of black women and girls? Can you tell a bit more why you always do this?

Definitely. It’s a bit of self-portraiture at times. I can’t say it’s intentional though.

What were you or do you usually try to achieve with your painting? Do you try to give social, political or any other kind of commentary?

My aim is something simple; Afro-Caribbean women have always been portrayed as strong, long-suffering and exoticised in a world of poverty, hardship, abuse or scorn. The range of emotional experience and expressions of our women in Caribbean art and culture have thus been limited to these circumstances. Hopefully, my work exposes a new range of depth of expressions and emotions, which for the most part, are non existent in our recorded culture.

Another titled 'Victoria'

Have you got any up and coming projects i.e a new art work or are you featuring in art exhibiitons? Can you give a snippet of that please?

Right now, I’m working on a project with Rodell Warner, Trinidadian photographer and designer. I’m also looking forward to the 2nd Annual Trinidad and Tobago Erotic Art Week. I participated last year and it was a liberating experience. There’s also the opportunity to get into fashion design this year.

'Moremi'

Any advice or words of motivation for any aspiring artists out there?

I’m my very short time practicing I’ve learnt a few things I think are really important ; be true to yourself, be honest with yourself and challenge yourself constantly. Don’t stop working.

More about Brianna and her works can be found at

http://briannamccarthy.blogspot.com/

Sol-Angel

like its your last because death

may just be lurking round the corner.

DaGrin

He was a musician, known for his distinct use of the Nigerian language of Yoruba in his lyrics and freestyling

He was getting success, having collaborations with other musicians and rocking the party scene

with some of his tracks. Last week on his way home, he was involved in a car accident in Lagos Nigeria.

He sustained severe head injury, a fractured arm which left him in coma and in the intensive

care unit. News that was spreading earlier this week was that he was recovering, until when he finally

passed on yesterday. His death has been one of shock and sadness for both friends, family and fans.

Olaitan Oladapo Olaonipekun aka DaGrin, aka Fimilejo, aka Lyrical Were, aka Barack O’ Grin

you will be missed and may Jah rest your lovely soul bredren iLove x

One of DaGrin’s awesome video for the song called ‘Pon Pon Pon’

Video for a remix he did with another Nigerian artist called General Pype and the song

is called ‘Champion’

Typepad is a blog hosting site which launched in 2003 but

got less prominence than Blogger and WordPress because it charged potential users via subscription rates.

But as of recent, earlier this year or so they started to run  a free blog which isn’t too bad as it caters to

the wants and needs of its users. Now everyone can get the same qualities of subscription, nice fonts, ability to personalize blog backgrounds

and even link social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter onto it, meaning your friends and associates on

these sites can see what you have been blogging about. Personally i think i will go for Typepad because it seems more diverse in the way

you update your personal blogspace with information and also because it isn’t so well known like Blogger, WordPress and co, when it comes

to people blogging. Its different, amazing and yes, its doing it these days.

it can be found at  hotcocoa.typepad.com/blog/

For the group project, I am doing an interview based story on a filmmaker called Nikyatu Jusu, who is based in New York and then a feature on a painter and sketch artist, called Banji Art Alade. I will also be doing a small historical article about the Victoria and Albert Museum. My role in the creation of this project is the sub editor.

Creatif  looks like it is aiming to target a younger audience.  Perhaps because the creators may have noticed that young people of today are very visual and are interested in something very visually captivating rather than plain. It is worth checking out purely for its creativity and visual stimulation.

Here is a link to the site