David Shrigley pictures

I came across an artist named David Shrigley while perusing a Soho bookstore. He takes pictures, sculpts, and draws. Here are some of his photos (I'll send out some of his drawings later.)

Just dropped in to London town

Oh boy!!! I saw, with 100% certainty, my first celebrity in London! I was walking past Piccadilly Circus towards some art galleries down near the “fancy part of town,” when I did a double take and realized the lady I had just passed was Gina McKee. Obviously I didn’t know that was her name (imdb.com is a wonderful thing) and you probably have no idea who I’m talking about. But to most Americans, she will probably always be “that woman in the wheelchair from Notting Hill.” She recently starred in a Harold Pinter West End play and I’m guessing lives somewhere in or around London; so it’s not that far fetched that I would see her. But still! Woo hoo!

Apparently, the issue of God is a touchy subject, and so I must clarify what I said about a certain Jon Gezotis and his beliefs. His response to the Let’s Play Make Believe picture verbatim:
“It’s not that I don’t believe in God. It’s that I don’t believe in religion. You know this. But you are right…[arguing me is] a pointless effort once you finally realize that my debating skills are far superior to yours.”

So back to those art galleries I was going to. The first one wasn’t actually an art gallery; it was a Paul Smith “store” that happened to feature a collection of photographs taken by the Italian photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri. (Again, I had no idea who he was either, but his picture of Anjelica Huston in the newspaper pretty much secured the fact that I had to go see his works.) I wasn’t too smitten with the collection, but I did decide that Anjelica Huston was/is one of the sexiest people alive.

The second gallery, and the one you need to pay attention to, featured the photos of New York-born Gregory Crewdson. Okay right now you need to go Google images for him. Do it. Stop reading. Go. He is an incredible artist. Wikipedia says he “is best known for elaborately staged, surreal scenes of American homes and neighborhoods.” The collection that was on display in London (and the clincher that told me I had to check it out) featured pictures he took in North Adams and Pittsfield Massachusetts. When you look at his works it is as if you are looking at a movie still. He has an entire crew to set up a mere one photo - hiring actors, using huge spotlights, building sets, and in one case, setting fire to a house. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this guy before, especially because he was shooting in western Massachusetts between 2004 and 2007. But I could look at his photos for hours; there is just so much in them. People say he is reminiscent of David Lynch and I think this is so very true. Because just by looking at one his giant photos you can pretty much write an entire play/movie/novel/etc. They have that much character to them, that much detail, that much imagination. Again, I’m not doing this justice and, in fact, seem to rambling. But his pictures speak for themselves. So take a look. (Also, it was really cool to see him feature the thrift store in Pittsfield that I bought so many of my awesome t-shirts at.)

*music – I’d buy you Rogaine when you start losing all your hair, Sew on patches to all you tear ‘Cause I love you more than I could ever promise, And you take me the way I am

Screamingly hysterically funny

As I stepped outside Friday morning, I noticed a very distinguished…stink. It was a mix between cow manure, dog crap, and general disgustingness. I kept looking around to see if I had stepped in something or if there was just a big pile of rancid garbage somewhere nearby, but I found nothing. This, as you know, is not the first time I’ve been bombarded with some bad smells in London, so I just accepted it and went on with my day. But as I walked to the Tube and the smell didn’t disappear, I wondered to myself, “Maybe this smell isn’t just a normal London-has-weird-smells smell. Oh really, Lisa? What are you gonna watch the news later today and the reporter will announce ‘Today London had a very funky smell to it.’ Shya right.” And then I went to work and checked thelondonpaper.com…
“Stench over London: A foul mystery smell engulfs capital, sparking hundreds of complaints.” (They attributed the smell to unusual easterly winds bringing spring fertilizer odors from Europe.)

I attempted to find an art gallery near Liverpool Street today to no avail. The address was 83 Rivington Street. Well. I found Rivington Street. And I walked down it. I found #80 and right next to it (as predicted) was #82. You would think that #83 would be either right next to #82 or across the street. Here’s where you would be wrong. #82 was actually the last building on the street before the next cross street. And directly across the street was #94. How does that make any sense? It doesn’t. Which is why I didn’t find the gallery. But I DID find a lot of pretty awesome graffiti and stickers around the neighborhood. I’ll be posting some of the art I found every day this week. I don’t know what a lot of it means….okay, I don’t know what ANY of it means, but I still think it’s an incredible medium that is far better than anything I’ve seen in Boston.

Today we’ll start with the mooning Mona Lisa by the artist Nick Walker (this is the only example of graffiti pictures I took whose artist’s name I know):

P.S. Happy Boston Marathon day!!!