Badaude

Street Scene - Book People

At the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival last weekend.

Is dressing up to hear a writer speak very different from dressing down to read a book? 

Street Scene - Back to Black

It may be Spring but that doesn't mean you have to wear floral print all the time...

Street Scene - Art Heads

The Nobleman

Caroline Warman's new translation of Isabelle de Charrière's The Nobleman and other romances was published yesterday in the US (and will be out in September in the UK). I did the cover design...

Penguin says, "The Nobleman and Other Romances will delight fans of Jane Austen and Enlightenment-era French literature."

Street Scene - Modern Art

Galleries are the best places for fashion-watching. I love Indigoalison's photographic gallery-style posts. 

Here's my take on the Kusama exhibition at Tate Modern.

 

Five-Minute Academy - How to Work in a Cafe

Very sadly my last Five Minute Academy for Metro: it's been fun...

As freelance work becomes more common and technology means your boss can get at you wherever you are, your leisure time is now your work time. You may as well get a latte with that.

 

Fig 1: get there early to get a table. NB avoid the breakfast rush.

Fig 2: Learn art of cafe-table Feng Shui. Distribute your belongings in a way that maximises your wellbeing and discourages sharers.

Fig 3: If the cafe gets full, shut out potential table sharers with one of these strategies.

Fig 4: If you see a friend, you are allowed to make room. If you have your laptop open, chatting counts as 'work'.

Fig 5: Learn to leave a 5% residue in the bottom of your cup. That way your table won't be cleared and you won't have to order another coffee.

Fig 6: Work out your £ per hour ratio. Congratulations. You have paid £1.70 for an espresso. You have gained free heat, light, electricity and wifi for three hours. You are a cafe pro. Award yourself a donut.

 

Five-Minute Academy - How to Host a Midweek Dinner Party

“Does anyone have dinner parties nowadays?” That’s what you used to say before the recession when you could afford to eat out. Now that double-dip translates into home-made hummus and tzatziki, how best to spice it up?

 

Fig 1: Who to invite? Anyone. Your recession-hit guests will be delighted to attend.

Fig 2: Seating: you could agonize over who gets on for hours. Don't bother. If your dinner isn't fun, at least it will be memorable.

Fig 3: The point of a dinner party is to make the maximum impression with the smallest effort and expense. Start with posh olives and a nice drink: move on to...

Fig 4: Stew and plonk. Starters and dessert must be impressive. But no one notices the main course and...

Fig 5: nobody makes dessert. Buy something from a supermarket. But don’t forget to ‘destroy’ it a bit for that ‘home made’ effect.

Fig 6: Getting rid of your guests. Remember Tuesday's a school night. If you can't think how to break up the party, try this strategy.

 

Street Scene - Totes

Yes they get wet, dirty, go into holes through which you lose your keys, but I've come round to loving them. I've even designed one...

What does yours say?

The White Review issue 4 is avaiable here.

And the winner of last week's Inspiring Women postcard giveaway is Nancy. Thanks everyone for inspiring contributions.

Inspiring Women - M.I.A.

If drawing this series has taught me one thing, its that, with regular routes to success less available, the experiences of the women who've ended up on this list have been far from orthadox, as have been the methods they've sometimes used to achieve their goals. 

So I guess the lesson I've taken away is, behave badly: alter your age (MIA, Kahlo); fake the awards the state won't give you (Seacole); commit acts of violence (Pankhurst)... 

And if you need their (abridged) life stories to remind you, I have a set of my postcards to send to someone who nomintes her (or his) inspiring woman in the comments box below. I'll pick a winner after midnight tonight.

Inspiring Women - Frida Kahlo

It seems a little disjointed that, although all the other women I illustrated have links with the UK*, the artist I was asked to draw has none.

Before the 20th century female artists were (even) more rarely successful but the nature of 20th Century art has been so much about transgression that it may have been difficult to choose a woman whose work is, at least at first glance, easy to look at (of course I'm aware that, if you look twice, Kahlo's art is as full of complication and disturbance as any other artist's).

My nomination would have been Louise Borgeouis with her 'Filette' tucked under her arm. No UK links there either - except her current retrospective at the Freud Museum.

Dora Carrington, Bridget Riley, Barbara Hepworth, Ceri Richards, to Lucas, Emin, Dean etc. British or not - who would you choose?

*the project is UK-based