Posts Tagged ‘beatbox kitchen’

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beci x gorman and new lamington drive opening

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

things have finally settled down in our world. the family is healthy (well raph has a touch of man flu – but that doesn’t count), and i am busy and working late into the night and happy once again. even ari woke up in a good mood today.

some exciting news – the first of my collaboration tees with gorman is now in store. the print is featured on gorman’s lovely soft organic cotton tee-shirts, and $5.00 of the sale price is being donated to friends of the earth. there will be another 5 prints coming out over the next few months. 

gorman_2gorman_1gorman_3

some more exciting news – the new lamington drive gallery opens tonight! the compound interest has moved from their cozy fitzroy quarters to an epic space in collingwood. the new space will feature not only lamington drive, but also jacky winter HQ, a retail shop (selling among other things, our products), a print and framing workshop, a motorbike restoration company, an architecture gallery and a 150 person cinema! i also heard whisper of a new cafe/deli opening there in near future too. could this be the curtin house of collingwood? 

the opening exhibition is from the very talented eamo donnelly and is titled “health food of a nation”. it apparently includes an awesome installation of vintage australian junk food ephemera. 

exhibition opening and new-building-warming is  tonight from 6pm-9pm, 19-25 keele st, collingwood. oh and the beatbox will be there serving burgers and other deliciousness too! what a night! cant wait!

lamington_drive

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Inside Out Feature

Friday, August 6th, 2010

IO

this week the sept/oct issue of inside out magazine came out which happens to include a feature on our house, beatbox kitchen and our favourite melbourne spots (you can see some of the photos here). it was styled by the lovely and talented megan morton and photographed by equally talented and lovely jason busch. 

to be honest i was slightly terrified at the thought of our inner most sanctum being in print and so very public, but as i have been a fan of ms.morton’s work for while, i had absolute faith that she would do a great job of transforming our mostly hovel-like house into a inside out friendly condition.

when i saw at the photos i though they came up a treat, but i find it hard to look at them without thinking about the huge amount of junk that is concealed inside the kitchen cabinet, and the pile of washing that is sitting behind the kids bedroom door. but, i am really happy with how the whole article turned out, so big thanks to you megan (and of course to you jason), for turning a potentially terrifying experience into a very nice keepsake that we will treasure for long time.

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dinner suggestions?

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

dinner-

as always after a holiday, i am finding it a bit tricky to adjust back into work mode. the studio is operating at a mellow pace right now, lots of nice smaller jobs but none of them very pressing, which meant last week i got to spend a few days re-organising the studio and re-planting and de-caterpillaring my much neglected vegie patch. i have also been spending my nights reading my book instead of in front of my computer – almost feels like i am still on holidays! although its been relaxing, i am such a sucker for punishment i would have preferred to have hit the ground running, and come straight back into a huge job and a some urgent deadlines. i like the perpetuation of that type of working. 

one good thing about the return to work after a holiday – i have plenty of inspiration (blog post on that soon) and a stack of new ideas. now i just need to stop procrastinating (and finish my book) and put them into action.

i do have a different type of work keeping me busy – single parenting. raph has driven the beatbox kitchen up to QLD for the epic splendour in the grass festival. to say i am jealous is an under-statement, but its equally as good to have some solo time with the kids. its also strangely liberating (for the first few days anyway. sure it will wear off soon). and what i am lacking in studio busy-ness i am making up for with house-work – i have been baking like my life depended on it and our washing situation has never been so organised (tyke actually has 4 pairs of folded matching socks in his top drawer at the moment – wonders never cease!).

when it comes to dinner though i am often stumped. unfortunately i am just not a baked-beans-on-toast kind of girl – i like to have a proper dinner every night. and working from home usually this is achieved. what-to-have-for-dinner discussions start early in the day and cooking commences soon after. raph and i share the cooking – he is a really really good cook and tends make more asian and meaty-type dishes. my cooking is more in the mediterranean/modern australian/comfort foods department. but when the pressure is solely on me, my cooking imagination suddenly disappears and we end up eating a pasta every second night.

so… i am looking for suggestions! we have one dietary requirement and that is we don’t eat pork. but other than we eat pretty much anything. well, ari can be still be a bit fussy, but he does well for an almost 3 yr old. if you have any child-friendly favourite recipe links i would love to see them.

also on a completely different note – i have a special giveaway planned in the next few days! stay tuned!

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hello again

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

i’m back. well actually, i didnt go anywhere, i just haven’t felt compelled to blog. possibly something to do with melbourne winter taking hold. in the space of a week a huge cloud of cold has descended on us and now i can no longer ride my bike without gloves and a scarf and all i want to do is eat and read my book in bed (not at the same time. maybe sometimes). and some nights i have even been able to do just that, as the studio has been maintaining a comparatively leisurely pace of late. that was until i wrote a new “to do” list today and discovered i am soon to be back in the land of the manic deadline and late night working.  

despite the calm, there has still been plenty going on, in the studio and otherwise.

most importantly – tyke turned 7. it seems ridiculously old to me, and i still trying to work out how this all happened. but it does suits him. one of his presents was a kite. a proper kite, not one that falls apart after one session of flying. he has been loving it. 

kitetyke_kite

i have also been on a book buying frenzy. everytime i step into metropolis books molly always shows me the absolute best things which i can not resist. i have been re-visiting some of my old favourite second hand book haunts too. plus there was the books at manic sale, where i picked up an enzo mari “il posto dei giochi” (the place of games) for a quarter of the normal price! i cant tell you how long i have lusted over one of these. and even better now i have kids who love it too – for them its like the awesome-ness of a cardboard box on a whole new level.

Picture 1

books

also included in my book booty (which is not at all shown justice by this exceptionally crappy photo) is latest book illustrated by marc boutavant (my current illustration hero), a book about contemporary japanese paper (heaven) and also one on the book covers by celestino piatti - a swiss illustrator heralded as the most productive book designer of all times. score!

the beatbox kitchen has also been going great guns lately. raph and the beatbox have been catering for the likes of wilco, plus many other bands and special events. the friday night jams have been going strong, and he has now added saturday morning breakfast in the same spot. the breakfast menu includes potato tacos with salsa verde and creme fraiche (everything made from scratch including the tacos), minute steak and egg roll, and pour over coffee made from very special coffee beans from seven seeds. if you are northside in melbourne (crn park and rathdowne st  nth carlton to be precise) on the weekend GO! for details check beatbox site

beatbox_breakfast

and as far as work, well of course there has been plenty of that going on too. we have just finished up a very cute job for gorman, some new decor for cookie and are midway through some new prints and embroidery designs for irony. i am also in the middle of an illustration job which came through jacky winter. its quite big, and will go across print and TV, but not in this country! will post about that when i can.

speaking of jacky winter, i recently recieved some pics of the new field guide which will be out in a few weeks. it looks amazing – hard cover, cloth bound, gold foil text, printed end papers and comes in its own printed cardboard box too. lucky me was asked by JW to illustrate the afore mentioned end papers. was one of my favourite jobs to date, made even better when i saw it had been printed in flouro pink!

JW_FG1jw_fg_2jw_fg_3

and last but not least i also designed a little avatar for my sister emily’s etsy store, where she sells very very cute handmade owls (called jorpins) and other things too. i am also (not so) patiently waiting for her to start a blog – she is much better at writing than me and its sure to be a good one. 

jorpins_bannerjorpins_1

thats about it for now. surely that makes up for my little venture into hibernation? hope you are staying warm x

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“infinite shape of rainbows” opens tomorrow night!

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

we have been installing today and i think i am pretty happy how its all looking. if you are in fitzroy area tomorrow between 6pm and 9pm please come down to lamington drive for a beer and a peek (actually beer tends to run out pretty quick – come early!). in the meantime, here is a preview of my “opposites” prints -

life_death_blogpeace_war_blogbad_Luck_goodluckreal_imagined_blog

from the top is life/death, peace/war, good luck/bad luck, imagined/real. in the exhibition they are big and separately framed. there are also collages, gocco prints and new series of hand-painted wooden dolls and mushrooms. oh and many colourful handcut paper shapes decorating the walls. beatbox kitchen will also be curbside out the front serving its usual delicious-ness too.

 i am also going to be on RRR tomorrow just after 1pm (on chris gill from northside records show). tune in to hear me mildly freaking out and having plently of mental blanks as well as talking about my show and other things too.

and after its all over i am so looking forward to some work-free nights and weekends and a full 8 hours sleep (actually even 6.5 would do – this really could be the show that almost killed me!) fingers crossed will have all been worth it though.

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happy easter!

Monday, April 5th, 2010

chillsville

due to raph being away (with beatbox at boogie festival) i was happily forced into having a few days off. we had lots of easter egg hunts and hot cross buns and it was nice. this combined with looking at my new favourite blog chillsville (thanks ed!), had helped ease my stress levels a little.

however, here i am today back at my computer and back to feeling completely freaked out. anyone got any tips on how to stop time or add an extra day in the week? 

(unbelievably appropriate rabbit pic from chillsville)

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the bad and the good

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

FIVE (more) BAD THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEK -

1. i had a major email faux pas. you know when you are writing an email to your best friend at about 12.30 am, and you need to send them someone’s email, so to find that email you write it in the cc box, so that it pops up, and you can copy and paste it into the email? and then you continue to write that email, write some not very nice things about that same person in the cc box (after all, this is a private-best-friend-type-email, not a public forum), and then proceed to send it, without deleting the email from the cc box? yeah, well that. so bad. so so so bad. 

2. ari started to drop the “f” word. completely in context too. he just has to sense a little bit of tension going on and then out it pops with a big smile on his face. it is so very hilarious/shocking/disturbing coming from a 2 year olds mouth. and in an effort not to encourge it we have to run into another room so we can explode in a fit of laughter. but it definitely eases any tension on the spot. 

3. i have been looking at kittens on the internet. now that tyke is getting close to being 7 and ari is also pretty sorted and entering the hyper-cute-toddler-stage (swearing aside), thoughts of a third child start to creep into my head. we have already decided no more for many reasons, and in reality i am absolutely positively fine with this decision. but then occasionally i do suffer from daughter envy (not that i would change my boys for the world)… and off it goes again. so i start looking for kittens on the trading post instead. girl ones. and it does tend diminish any third child thoughts i have straight away. 

4. no internet. i know i already complained about this, but just thought i would re-inforced how bad it really was. did i mention we also ran out of toner, and needed to print lots of invoices. i know its not really so bad, but combined with no internet it really did makes us feel like the most dysfunctional amateur studio in the world. 

5. our webstore still isn’t up. thats all i am saying about that for now. otherwise i might cry virtual cyber tears. and you dont want to see that.

FIVE (really) GOOD THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST WEEK (or  two) - 

1. support scent launch. i have been donating my services and working with clemenger on their charity project for the guide dogs association. they have teamed up with kit to create “support scent” – a perfume you can buy for $5, with the idea being that if you buy a wristband or ribbon or usual charity support wear then a blind person cant see your support. however, if you wear perfume they can smell it. its pretty genius. i designed the flower logo and packaging and helped with other bits too. more details here, and you can you can become a facebook friend via website too.

support_scent_blog

2. built by wendy spring collection. it looks so nice. we made these prints for it

bbw_spring

3. i brought some nice beads. i am currently a little bead-obsessed, and was pretty excited to find these gems. wooden beads from savers ($6 and strung on shoelace – love it), blue lapis geometric beads from etsy

beads_1beads_2

4. i met isobel knowles. we have had a few emails back of forth over the years, but this time i actually got to meet her in person. she is lovely and self-assured and talented and also currently has an animation installation “you were in my dream” (with van sowerwine) on at experimenta utopia nova until the march 14. it looks amazing. i cant wait to go  - apparently has been a huge success so if you are thinking of going weekdays are best. 

isobel

5. the beatbox is going to golden plains. and i am going too! well for saturday night anyway. am wondering how i will cope with this being my first over-night festival experience (at the ripe old age of 37). leah is quite an experienced festival-over-nighter and surely is well sick of me asking her stupid questions like “what should i wear?”, “do i need to bring shampoo?” “if i accidentally take drugs and get lost can you hold my hand?”.

although i am working in the beatbox (international food court – come and say hi!!), am still  hoping to catch a bit of dinosaur jr so i can re-live my high-school days. might even top the nostalgia off by smoking some cigarettes (not drawing back of course) and wearing black tee-bars. cant wait.

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an nice end to my not-so-great week

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

my past week sucked. my problems were all work-related. there has been a hold-up on a job i am working on which left me in limbo (i hate being in limbo). i un-intentionally put a new friend whom i very much admire in a professionally awkward spot. i did a pitch for a job and did it badly, and knew it was bad, and still submitted it, and then felt terrible, like i let a lot of people down. and i had a major cannellini bean recipe failure too. the whole week just felt like a mess. 

but last night i went to an opening at hell gallery and saw some of my favourite people (and babies) who also told me their weeks were not so good. then i got to look at some great drawings, eat raph’s burgers (beatbox was there!), drink beer in the park  and watch the pink clouds in the sunset sky while my kids were happily going crazy in the playground. it made everything feel a million times better. amazing what a night away form the computer in the last of summer twilight can do.

this morning we also discovered this gigantic zucchini in our garden. i am going to slice it length-ways and fry in a pan with olive oil and add lemon juice, fresh chopped mint, parsley, oregano and serve it with goats feta. yum.

zucchini

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justine clarke project and other new things

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

late last year (on christmas eve, to be precise) i was asked if i was interested in art directing the new justine clarke’s 3rd CD and DVD release (titled “great big world“). for those of you who don’t know justine clarke, she is an australian actress who has been in many films and tv series, is often on playschool, and also has a solo career singing songs for kids. she was also in mad max 3.

in the past we have helped justine with some merchandise through tiny mammoth, and she had been a joy to work with. and i always love to work on kid-related stuff, and wanted to try my hand at art directing – so i said yes. 

we have just finished the artwork for the CD (see cover below – released through ABC in april), and are now finishing the concepts for the 15 film clips on the DVD. yes, that’s right, for my first venture into film and animation i am making not one, but  fifteen film-clips. i don’t like doing things in halves. and am quite willing to hand over my sanity for the next few months. 

cover_low_res_blog

other goings on in the studio this week – we have been helping my favourite coffee retailer and cafe seven seeds with some invites for an event they have coming up at the melbourne food and wine festival (you can read more about their event here) we decided to gocco them all on thick poster board… ink didnt like the stock very much and it took all day but we are quite happy with the results. hopefully will be doing a few bits and pieces for seven seeds this year. unfortunately (or probably fortunately) i dont get paid in coffee. 

seven_seeds_invite

this week i also once again entered the strange world that is feminine hygiene marketing. i have been there before and its been in interesting experience. who knew that guiding a females pad or tampon choice was so complicated. believe me it is. i cant say much more than that for now, hopefully can show/write about it more in the near future. has been fun. and weird. very weird. 

and one last thing – the beatbox kitchen website is now up! includes a calender showing which events we will be at in the near future (including good vibrations this saturday) and some other good stuff too – www.beatboxkitchen.com

beatbox

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risographica!

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Risographica

i am proud to announce that this week i will have work in my first jacky winter group show at JW gallery Lamington Drive. the show is titled “RISOGRAPHICA” and features many of the very talented JW artists (including the amazing we buy your kids, who are fast becoming my fav local act). all the prints are A3, editions of 25 and are selling for a tres cheap $50! also a percentage of all sales will be donated to Medecins Sans Frontiere (Doctors without Borders) for the haiti crisis – so many good reasons to check it out. Opening night is this thurs 4th feb 6-9pm @ Lamington Drive – 89 George St, Fitzroy. Exhibition runs 5th feb – 20th feb. more info here.

here are the 2 prints i have in the show (although please note these are the illustrator files – not finished product). they are titled “as day”(top)  and “follows night” (bottom).

riso_1_blogriso_2_blog

on the opening night lamington drive will also be announcing their exhibition schedule for the rest of 2010 (you might just see my name up there…)

in other news this week that school bell finally did ring (HOORAH!) and things in the studio were starting to feel productive and normal again for a few minutes, and then poor little ari got sick. ah kids… gotta love ‘em. but despite this i have been thrown out of my previous starting-the-year-doldrums and into full working action by a new project that we will be working on for the next two months. not sure when i will receive the all clear to tell-all by the powers that be, but i can say it’s something for kids, involves a lot a character design and working with an animator. i think its going to be a good one.

ALSO a quick thank-you to anyone who waited in the very long line to eat from beatbox kitchen at laneway festival! aside from the fact there were only 5 food vendors to feed 8,000 of you, it was our most successful event to date and your patience was very much appreciated!! 

ciao for now x

* UPDATE! UPDATE! beatbox kitchen will now also be at the opening of risographica! will be the first time our much tried and tested burgers will be available to the public! (will still be shroom burgers and fries for vegos). dont mind the rain – come and enjoy!

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