catching up...

I've gotten out of the habit of writing here even though I have had things to say. Last week I celebrated my birthday (I'm as old as Star Wars in case anyone wonders), and spent the day at Mudchute City Farm. We saw cows, sheep, llamas, pigs of varying sizes and breeds, happy free range chickens, horses, feisty big goats and feisty little goats. We also had a worrying run-in with a psychotic squirrel, but we didn't let him spoil our day. It was lovely and strange to find fields and woodland and animals right in the middle of the city.

The farm also has a very tasty cafe, which was serving still-warm freshly baked carrot cake when we were visiting. Mmmmmmmmm.

On the way home we ran into this Halloweeny fellow:

I also received a wonderful home made dark chocolate and Marsala cake for my birthday, making it a two-cake day. Not too shabby.

Today I had the amazing opportunity to tour the sets and workshops for Wes Anderson's stop-motion animation film Fantastic Mr. Fox. Having signed a confidentiality agreement I am not allowed to say anything about what I've seen, but suffice to say the people working on it are very, very talented and the tour was incredible for a design/modelmaking/puppetry geek like me. What we were allowed to see was fantastic indeed and I cannot wait until it comes out.

Hi Dad!

In case anyone has been wondering, I have not disappeared into a black hole. I've had one of those periods, which may be familiar to other artists who work in relative isolation, in which I managed to get stuck in my studio and in my own head like a snail in a shell. However, I spoke to my dad on the phone today and he told me he missed reading what I write here so I thought I should pull my socks up and stick my head out again.

I've been away this week seeing friends and meeting the rest of the Toast in the Machine participants. I have also (finally...thanks Max!) procured the perfect leather to finish up one of the sculptures I'm working on. There's been some news in my family as well... some very bad (but it's okay, because the robots are going to sort it out), and some fantastic. On the fantastic front, this man will soon be joining our family:


Doesn't he look nice?