What are you looking at?

Oh... you want to know? Oh, yes, of course. Well I'm Hollie Anderson and this is a collection of my work and ramblings. Thats it really, don't worry I won't be upset if you leave. I won't cry. Honest...

Well. Maybe a little.

Saturday 23 April 2011

My New Website

I won't be updating here in the near future, if at all.

However, I am still here! Its just that now I am over at www.hollielanderson.com

See you there!

Thursday 2 December 2010

So, so sorry!

I haven't blogged here for a while, I know, I got a little... distracted by the image flooding charms of tumblr.com so I have been over there for a while, and in all honesty I'm thinking of making this into a professional blog and importing some posts into a new url, but not as yet.

Things are getting closer to the end now, with the first term of my final year as a student coming to a close. My new work is coming on nicely though and I feel happier about where it is going than ever before, although it is becoming more fine art and less traditional 'craft', maybe even moving out of the applied arts bracket, but that remains to be seen. I'd love to keep making smaller, more twee things because I think you can get too hung up on the serious work, and I need that outlet really.

Thinking about it I'll probably keep this as a blog for all of those things and have a professional website under my real name. I'm not leaving my tumblr though! I'm in love with that thing!

And just to prove I'm not dead:





Iron oxide clay is my new love. The little guy in the corner fired particularly well, hes a dark black now, lovely.

Spek soon (honest)!

Monday 18 October 2010

Testing the limits...

I have been desperately trying to make some kind of articulated ceramic figures for a long time now, but I don't want to drift into the realm of dolls too much, I want art figures which react to being touched and lifted, I want to put a soul into heavy porcelain.

Today I got one step closer, after much discussion and drawing the first maquette came out of the kiln looking a little like this:













A very rough maquette she is, but loved all the same! Now back to the workshop...

Tuesday 14 September 2010

New Wares

I have been knitting away recently, making lots of lovely new headphone earmuffs for these cold months ahead of us. This year as well as the smaller sets I have got my hands on some high quality iSound headphones which are a little chunkier (you can see them there, first on the left). These knit up into big fluffy warm earpieces and have a better sound quality for those of you who like to blast your eardrums out. I will also be opening up to commisions and this includes coverign headphones you already own or heaphones of your choice!
Have a lovely week, I will be busy settling into my new home by doing lots and lots of knitting.

Wednesday 18 August 2010

London Baby!

Well, now that I am well and truly rested from my forray into the Mayfair art scene, which is incredible, by the way, I am back to tell my tale!
After a long trip on the megabus listening to some hilarious London students speaking in very posh accents and then trying to buy drugs over the phone whilst attempting to make themselves sound less muggable by using words like "bra" and "bare good" (no doubt they have been watching East Enders lately and wanted to try some of Phil Mitchell's crack), my Mum and I met p with my good chum Rhiannon and we checked in at the Hilton. The Hilton seemed to be a little confused when Rhi and I checked in for the night at the desk, and when we got to our room and discovered this we realised why:

They were probably trying to decide whether or not to appologise to us, or whether we were in fact married, or possibly both.

After we got our glad rags on it was down to the gallery on Cork Street for lots of wine and art! A good mix indeed. There was a brief speech from the lady who organised the exhibition in whihc she explained her aim to give artists an opportunity to both raise money for charity and also to get some exposure in such a well known area of London (we were exhibiting on the same street as William Turnbull and Andy Warhol). Then all of the artists were invited to sign a piece of charity artwork.

The whole thing was completely surreal for me, I have to say. Not to mention that the prize winners have been invited to exhibit together in London within the next 12 months, so I had better get working! So I left the gallery with my eyes, ears and mind buzzing, bottle of prossecco in one hand and exhibition poster in the other and Rhi and I proceeded to run up a large tab in the hotel. The rest is a bit hazy... but the image that I will take away from the night will be the one as I walked up to the gallery of it spilling out into the street... that was one of the most terrifying and exciting moments of my life.





I am so grateful to have won a prize, and to have been chosen to take part in the exhibition at all, and even more grateful to Hereford College of Arts for educating me enough to achieve this and to the wonderful Gaz for encouraging me to have a little faith in myself.


Bye Georgia!

Monday 9 August 2010

A social life based update...

In the meantime I have had a birthday, which was great fun, it coincided with the last week or so living in my house which has been the most wonderul, loving home for the last two years. I have made friends and family there, met the love of my life, started my own career, become myself and lauged every day. I am sad to leave but life goes on in an endless tumble through happy events so my chin is well and truly up! Here are some photos form our Shisha Barbeque, with a shot of the love tent that the great Alex helped me to nail to the neigbours shed erect in a sensible and safe fashion with no risk of electrocution at all.


Fun fun! I also got some amazing pressies (not least of which was a Lush box from Gaz's Mum and sister, which was very much appreicated, thankyou Ann and Jenna!), including a le creuset cauldron pot and the most wicked casserole dish, the likes of which I have wanted since I was 10, which the lovely Gazareth got for me. And a super cool desk made form branches form my Momma. Here are some more photos:





I did make some yummy soup in the cauldron, and took photos of the tasty roasted tomatoes, and completely intended to take photo of the finished soup... but... well... we ate it. So here you go.




It was SO good. ANd in other, other, very exciting news, my sister got married. But I will cover that later when I can nab some good photos, because it was a very unusual and funky wedding. Which will be illustrated below by a photo of my very unusual and funky sister and I on her hen do.



Tada! Right, I'm all caught up. I'll be posting after wednesday with news from Londinium (and many, many photos of the Hilton).

Ahh! Bad, Bad Blogger!

I'm an awful person, I know.

But I have been in Bristol and the internet here is SO SLOW I just couldn't bring myself to load photos onto this thing.

However, times have become so very exciting that I now can't help myself. I have had the most surreal of weeks. For the last eight days I have been living in a tent helping with an art installation at the big chill festival, this, my friends, was AMAZING. Honestly one of the best things I have ever done. I met some wonderful people, had a fab time, worked until I was tired (which I find to be one of lifes greatest pleasures) and in typical Hollie fashion REFUSED TO GO AWAY. So I stayed far longer than I was going to and stuck my fingers in all sorts of pies, made giant rust and a portamatron, which makes no sense to you all I'm sure. Here is some visual evidence of what I did though (I forgot my camera!), these are a couple of posters I made for the intallation called Dereliction Drive In, a futuristic grimy seedy world, offering discounted misbred genetically modified pets. Want one?



Haha, so that was that silliness. Another ABSURD thing that happened whilst I was away was that I was not only selected for the Cork Street Open Exhibition, from 1,200 people, but I was put on the flyer:

And THEN I was awarded the young artist prize! Yes, me. Insane. I am heading up on wednesday for the artists' reception. Hearing that you have a complimentary room in the Hilton whilst you are half alseep on the floor in a tent, covered in blue paint, is a very odd experience indeed. So, I am ecstatic, as you can imagine. And will be taking part in a curated exhibition in London next year, which is a real honour.

Phew. What a week! And in other news, I know that I promised a bit of they Boy's work, which I am still going to post! I didn't have access to a copy of the images, and still don't, but email is a wonderful thing which I will now utilise. Honestly.