The Black Country; Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Walsall, West Bromich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanders.

In the Black Country you wouldn't have thought that there is a massive football following, enough to warrant at least five stadiums to be in a close proximity. Whenever I have gone to the Black Country I have always just seen the working side, the factories and small businesses and family atmosphere, so therefore going for the day I didn't realise that in the middle of all these little businesses is the giant stadiums that clearly help the businesses to stay afloat.
For my dissertation I have started to look at the political and economics of the stadium buildings. For instance in this certain area the political stance of a stadium doesn't mean anything but then when you look at it from an economical sense you can see that people come along and watch the sports and then support smaller businesses (which is always good thing)

The five stadiums I visited all have different structures and layouts, like a fingerprint.  I began the day with a trip to the home of the Wolves. Then onto Bank's Stadium which houses Walsall then back onto the M6 to West Bromwich Albion that then lead to Villa Park (which has a glorious looking stand) and I then ended the day in the rain at Birmingham City's St Andrew's Stadium. (bad accent done in my head whilst typing Birmingham, ha).

I've been sat on these images for a few weeks now and I can finally go through and edit them and draw from them. The next trip I have planned is a trip to see the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff and then the Bluebirds themselves at Cardiff City Stadium and that will be next week along with another blog post on something else.

Southampton FC

For my third year project I am starting by looking at football stadiums. Mixing my two favourite things, Textiles/printmaking with football. In the first image is a picture of the stuff I took on the trip down to Southampton. Where else would I start my journey than a fond childhood memory of every other Saturday afternoon cheering on the mighty Saints. This time I wasn't there to watch a match but to take in the sea air and take a couple of snaps, well about 100 snaps.

 The two cameras in the image above are my favourite ones as one is an digital slr which is easy for editing high resolution photos like the first image below. Then the Pentax is my 35mm film camera and the photos for that came out really well (second image below). My theory behind using the Pentax is that I can use my past experience in a dark room, once back in uni I can manipulate and print the image onto other materials and explore other things to do with printmaking other than my one favourite method of Mono-printing.

This side of the stadium is the only side you can see without driving around and having to get a ticket. Formerly known as The Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium opened in 2001 and can hold over 32,000 supporters. 

The only problem with not being in Uni and having access to a dark room is that I had to wait two days to get my film back (I chose the right film, ha) so it felt like it was christmas going to Boots and opening up the sleeve of 36 beautiful black and white photos, above.

This is only the beginning really, the next post will include images taken from another trip to the 'black country' and around that area.

Thanks. x

Memoria

In the past couple of weeks I've come to realise that I am quite lucky. I have friends, family and my lecturers. I'm doing what I want to do and I'm where I want to be. It was when I saw the picture below of Lambert that started to reminisce. When this picture was taken, four years ago, I was in Wembley watching the mighty Saintsfc. A was also doing my GCSEs and getting ready to go to college. Four years ago! 

Some cliche bits coming up now.

If you told me that in 2010 (jan/dec) I would have lost and regained friends, to then repeatedly do so until this year. That I would pass my GCSEs, just about. Gone to college. To then say 'but in four years time what you have gone through will pave the way for where you are now.' I wouldn't have believed you. 2010 seemed to be a big year. I left secondary school and had to start looking at the future which at the time was to become a teacher. The previous 5 years had been filled with mistakes, growing, learning and laughing, there was always a chance to make things better and we were past that stage where personalities and traits were beginning to grow. To this point now, it has dawned on me that this time next year I will be looking for my own place be it a house, flat, or shop for my business. I can't watch the smurfs or children's telly unless I have kids around. Easter doesn't grab me anymore, it's just chocolate and if anything it's either horrible chocolate or got a mug. In two months time I will be 20 and I feel like I have to grow up. Get a proper job and start a family. But in reality all I want to do is play football in the park or sleep...

I have to make pretty big decisions in the next few months as to what exactly I want to do. Be it mundane things as to whether to throw out my clothes or what to research for my dissertation to what to have for dinner. Life's big decisions. 

For now I want to live in the now...so wake up when I want to, draw whatever with whatever, watch twilight over and over again. But I guess if I'm ready to grow up I might as well.