Insulting t-shirts 'wow' (wierd!) the public

You may feel that what I have written is me being a bit opinionated but it's just what I think!

1 word: S-T-R-A-N-G-E

I don't see why so many people like this girl below wear t-shirts like this with insulting or 'funny' comments on, do they even know what a dork is? would they in real life ACTUALLY WANT to be a dork? 

also as well as t-shirts that say 'dork' on it there are also ones with 'nerd' 'geek', 'swag' or stuff like 'weird' or 'awesome'.

I think that it encourages bullying, I mean if you wear a t-shirt with 'wierd' on it wouldn't bullies think 'ok if she knows we think she's weird or retarded then she's accepted it and we can be mean again!'. 

All the worlds a stage- Jacques-As you like it-Shakespeare

I have a serious thing that I need to say.... I AM ACTUALLY OBSESSED WITH WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE !! I love his sonnets, his poems, his plays EVERYTHING! My favourite play by Shakespeare is As you like it and you may know that a famous speech in As you like it is called All the world's a stage by the character Jacques, So what I have decided to do is to learn the whole speech. I know the beginning bit so far, I'm not cheating I promise!
All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players:
they have their exits and their entrances;
and one man in his time play's many parts,
his acts being seven ages.
I also know a bit of the end:
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, Sans eyes,Sans taste, Sans...everything
(By the way in case you don't know the word 'Sans' means without)

I'm going to learn all of the speech by the end of the holidays !!

TEDeducation

I have been studying videos on youtube by TEDeducation they are fab !!
All of these videos are great and I recommend you watch them all but I appreciate that some people may not have time to watch ALL the videos so just watch the ones you can....

The art of Lichtenstein

I am very interested in the art of Lichtenstein because he uses dots to create different colours, like a white background and red dots on top to create a skin colour. This is called the Ben-day dot technique, Depending on the effect, colour and optical illusion needed, small coloured dots are closely spaced, widely spaced or overlapping. Magenta dots, for example are widely spaced to create pink. 1950's and 1960's pulp comic books used ben-day dots in the four process colours (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) to inexpensively create shading and secondary colours such as green, purple, orange and flesh tones.  Ben-day dots were considered the trademark of Lichtenstein's work, he enlarged and exagerated them in many of his work and sculptures and especially his interpretations of contemporary comic books like MARVEL. To apply the dots to a drawing Lichtenstein would purchase transparent overlay sheets. The overlay material was cut in the shapes of the tonal areas desired i.e. shadow or background or surface treatment and rubbed onto the specific areas of the drawing or canvas. 

WHY IS IT COOL TO DRIVE AROUND IN YOUR CAR WITH YOUR MUSIC REALLY LOUD?

When I was walking my dog around the block a car drove past me with their music playing really loud,  I looked at the car as it drove away and thought "why?".Why is it meant to look cool? I just don't get it! When you're walking down the road peacefully and a car screaming their music drives past surely it would be a fright especially if it was an old lady walking or hobbling down the road! So why do they do it? doesn't it hurt their ears?  Maybe they think that it makes them look successful and interesting but I don't really think it does. Do you?

3 Things that I think are wrong:

1. Primark:  After a factory fire in one of the textile industries for Primark in Dhaka (in Bangladesh)   over 900 people are known to have died in the collapse of Rana Plaza, a building that housed a factory that supplied both Primark and Bonmarche (which is another low cost British retailer) The fire began late on Wednesday night after working hours. A blaze broke out on the second floor and toxic fumes from burning acrylic jumpers. What is even worse is that they may not of even been operating legally! this means that Primark and Bonmarche have been making them work too many hours! The fire took place at 11pm and that's FOUR hours after it should have been closed under local law! A woman was even rescued after being trapped in the rubble for 14 DAYS

2. Animal testing and animal torture:  Animal's are not ours to experiment on, they feel pain just as we do, Did you know that an animal dies every 3 seconds in a European laboratory in scientific and cosmetic experiments. They may be poisoned, deprived of food, water or sleep, subjected to skin or eye irritants; subjected to psychological distress; deliberately infected with diseases; subjected to brain damage; paralysed; surgically mutilated; irradiated (illuminated); burned; gassed; force- fed; electrocuted; and killed. If you read this don't just think, "oh it must not happen THAT often" but the answer is YES IT DOES! this kind of thing happens to millions of animals every year. (if you want to do something to help many animals in danger of death visit peta.org.uk also the cosmetic shop LUSH have been fighting animal testing as well)

                                                                

                                                                        

As I am a vegetarian, I hate the thought of ANY animals being killed and I am aware of the cruel ways of the fast food restaurant KFC , the roughly 1 billion chickens killed every year for KFC's buckets are crammed by the tens of thousands of excrement-filled sheds that stink of ammonia fumes.

The birds' legs and wings often break because they're bred to be too top-heavy and because workers carelessly shove them into transport crates and shackles. They're throats are slit and they are dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water to remove their feathers, often while they are still conscious and able to feel pain.

GRUESOME FACT:  At a KFC "supplier of the Year" slaughterhouse in West Virginia, workers were documented tearing the heads off live birds, spitting tobacco in their eyes, spray painting their faces and violently stomping on them, This was discovered more than two years after KFC promised PETA that it was taking animal welfare seriously!

I have come across a website called KentuckyFriedCruelty.com , Check it out if you want to help the chickens and other animals abused by KFC!

(as you can see Lush give away free FIGHTING ANIMAL TESTING badges)

3. Child labour:  Samsung admit that their phones may contain tin from areas mined by children! (did you know that?!) There is also a game that you won't find in the apple app store! it's name is Sweatshop and it places players in an unusual pair of shoes! those of a middle manager at a factory that supplies clothing to British high street retailers. Players must hire and fire the workers who stitch together baseball caps, trainers and sweatshirts. To maximise profits (and gain the highest score) the players have the option to hire cheap child workers, speed up the belts to increase the work rate, neglect the hire fire officers and to generally cut corners. Video game players have been trained for efficiency and know how to work systems in order to maximise score-just like a sweatshop manager, the aim of the game is to raise awareness of the danger of Child and illegal labour, I have played it on the internet and I think that it is great show children the realness of what is happening in the world around them.

Pictures from the game Sweatshop by LittleLoud and they worked with the charity Labour behind the Label

My Step-Cousin James Thomas

James Thomas is my Step-dads nephew and he's amazing at art! he is known as j520. and he is an artist/illustrator his blog is called : http://j52oart.blogspot.com/
his facebook pages are  : http://www.facebook.com/pages/j52oART
please check out his work because it is actually REALLY good!

 

The poplar field: a poem by William Cowper

The poplars are fell'd, farewell to the shade,
And the whispering sound of cool colonnade,
The winds play no longer, and sing in the leaves,
Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives,

Twelve years have elaps'd since I last took a view,
Of my favourite field and the bank where they grew,
And now in the grass behold they are laid,
And the tree is my seat that once lent me shade.

The blackbird has fled to another retreat,
Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat,
And the scene where his melody charm'd me before,
Resounds with the sweet-flowing ditty no more.

My fugitive years are all hasting away,
And i must ere long lie as lowly as they,
With a turf on my breast, and a stone at my head,
Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead.

Tis' a sight to engage me, if anything can,
To muse on the perishing pleasures of man ;
Though his life be a dream, his enjoyments, i see,
Have a being less durable even than he.

My interpretation :)

As I said before I really like the work of Niky Roehreke so I looked at this piece by her and tried to interpret it myself by using mixed media from my magazines and acrylic paint ( as well as an old page from a book!)

The art of Niky Roehreke

Niky Roehreke is one of my all time favourite artists because her work is so vibrant, energetic and colourful. Niky Roehreke is a German/Japanese artist who specialises in mixed media (which I am trying to focus on in my art journal), her work shows a playful and fun approach to fashion and she uses many different colour schemes and different types of media to show depth and response in her work .
I especially like this piece of work as she probably uses different types of paint (e.g. acrylic, watercolour, maybe gouache) to create a feel of change and differentiation. I also like this other piece of work where she uses strips of coloured paper to make a woman look like a bird (strange idea but powerful piece!)

Bullying

When I was younger in Primary school I used to think that bullying would never happen to me and that it didn't exist, of course I had heard the stories of cyber-bullying and gruesome stories that kids talk about at primary school that totally creep you out about kids flushing your head down the loo at secondary or when kids hang themselves because they were bullied but I guess I just thought that it would never happen to ME. I have to say I have never actually been bullied but kids at school still say mean things and learning to overcome this is very hard but important at the same time, as I am quite small you can imagine that many people take the mick but after a while you just have to learn to laugh as well. When you think about WHY people act in a particular way it is crucial to think in their position, they might be being abused emotionally or physically by their parents or they might be adopted or maybe even being bullied themselves I don't know but being mean is no way of conquering this situation and some people just get triumph over making others feel small. There are many different forms of bullying and sometimes people over react about what actually IS a form of bullying, I mean taking someone's ruler is not bullying! I think the most important thing to remember is that the person who you either hate or love or admire is NOT actually you, just because they act differently to you doesn't make them a bad person and also think about what they say and if maybe whether you over reacted and they're just being completely friendly and you took it the wrong way? Some people behave and are brought up differently and something that you might think is totally without a doubt terrible they might do or think on a regular basis and something that you think is OK they might think is wrong but that's life and you can't form other people's opinion only your own, I mean forming your own opinions is something that people should welcome as they grow older and changing and developing your own  ideas and thoughts is just normal.