On Hiatus

Oh I'm too busy to blog right now, but here's a picture from New York that Cori took. I love that city. I love that it is 5 hours drive away from me!

I have been making lots of stuff, I'll post it all when I get the chance. Today was the Christmas Parade- I felt like I was in some 90s kids movie.

Back Frum New York

We took some cherubic-style, actual NYC pictures, but they're still on Cori's shit hot camera, which is still in New York with her.

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Oh really I hate blogs.

In Between

I always feel like I am in-between things, and right now I am in-between classes.

Picket Line Sista

So I am sick again!

That's what I get for moving to a place that is really really cold.

Cori and I were listening to Marvin Gaye last night as I was painting, and suddenly I just had one of my urges to do a bit of performance- so I started painting a moustache on my face, followed by a full, manly beard.

Here I am on my bed "Come On Come On Come On Come On."




And here is the revised version of my pomegranate/glass painting, only with a pair of turquoise gloves as well!
I don't know about the cream wall, I'm probably going to do something darker. I think it's funny the way you can make preparatory studies of something and end up liking them better anyway- even if you spent one million years on the second one.



I love you like meat loves salt.

Love, Cordelia


P.S Who Loves MY SO CALLED LIFE more than life itself?

P.S

Moonface

At the moment I have been attracted to round things- especially round foods, strangely enough.
So when I went to start on my next sculpture project, I thought I would like to make a quilt that radiates in different fabrics around and around and around until it becomes absolutely huge and incomprehensibly round.





I started making it, and now I feel like it is too "craft" and not to mention eighties "rah-rah" for me. So I am going to put it away for another time and start on something a little simpler.

I have a modernist space project in painting at the moment and I wanted to paint a pomegranate. So this is my precursor/study before I do the actual thing. I am pretty disappointed with the glass of water, but I think the fruit worked out well I think. It is on the smallest piece of canvas board they had at school, it's like 4" x 6".





I went on a long walk to Mile End the other day and walked down Clark Street, which is a Road With No Rules. All of the houses are painted wacky colours and nothing makes sense- which is true of the whole of Montreal actually.





I thought these houses were totally wonderful.

Prairie Frocks

Here are the dresses I was talking about in my last post- aren't they gorgeous?

The model is my flatmate, Mia who is also Australian, the camera loves her, I know!
They are up for sale in my brand new Etsy shop! i'm still working out how to use it, so if anyone has any tips for me, I'm all ears. I really need some computer counseling. It's a traumatic experience for me to even send an email, let alone set up shop online!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5035423&order=§ion_id=&page=1






Today I went to Drawing class and we painted with brushes taped onto bamboo rods, and there was a life model who danced really slowly to Bjork and we had to develop our understanding of contours. I really really really love art school. More than anything.

I want to shout out to Zoe and Molly and Laura and Andrew- I know you guys read my blog, thank you! I hope you are having a nice Melbourne spring! And everyone else in Melbourne who is reading, hit me up.

Sunday

Today is a very frosty, lazy, toast and tea day.


I have been listening to Diving Bell and Gillian Welsch all morning and now it is 2:22 pm and I just finished two beautiful dresses that I have been working on for a while. They will be modeled and photographed tomorrow!




Last night I walked to my friend's house in the Plateau all the way along Avenue des Pins again. It was spitting with rain and the houses were all lit up in the dark. It is such a magical stroll, at the foot of the mountain. I took some pictures, but it was a little too shadowy.



This is the tree that grows outside my building. It has turned completely red within a week, and now is spilling its leaves onto the footpath.
I love swishing through the leaves in the morning on my way to school, thermos of tea in hand!



This is the study of the bell handle at Musee Redpath. I have a lovely crimson bound leather book for my drawings.



My bedside table- it looked especially frosted this morning as I was tidying up. It's in the spirit of Sunday I think!

For Someone

Right now, at this moment in time, I am so content. I made some New Orleans French Bread and it's pretty wonderful.
I have been to the museum again today, but alas, when I climbed the crumbling steps to the top of the hill, I discovered that it is closed on Saturdays. So I sat on the top step and drew some of the surrounding architecture and the door bell, which was ornate and almost blackened with deep rust.





I made this dress, it is scaly and violet and I really can't wear it without coloured stockings!
I wore it to the Yves Saint Laurent show at the Musee Des Beaux Arts and I had a comment about how it was reminiscent of a scale dress from YSL in the 60s. I'd never thought about that before, but I just nodded enthusiastically and said "Ah oui!".


I received a parcel last night, when I came home to get an umbrella before going to a lovely party at Jenni and Emilia's house. It is a tiny deck of cards from Grace and Dinah! Thank you! (if you are still reading)





I am going to another party tonight, but home to bed early, as last night I didn't get to sleep until 6 am! But I had a wonderful walk home along Avenue des Pins, The entire length of the road is dotted with dilapidated mansions and lush greenery. Oh my goodness.

I can't believe I am here.

I promise to make a post about the fantastic colours- no wonder they call it Fall here, I now realise I've never experienced a true Autumn.

Melange

Okay so I have been very busy at the moment with lots of things, so I thought I would do a sweeping overview to sum up the last couple of weeks.
School has been amazing- I have made so many great friends and I adore all of my classes and my teachers. Last night I had sculpture class and my first project was due. We had to make multiple sculptures- anything we wanted, so I chose to make a bouquet of tiny dresses. I made 21 all up, and they looked so cute together that I couldn't help but spiral them around and snap a quick photo before school!



I found a dead chipmunk in the lobby of my building. It had been spotted alive earlier in the day by my flatmate, and we think it may have fallen down the stairs. I decided to take a picture of it- I hope no-one reading this is offended, I was so strangely drawn to it, I wanted to take it upstairs and put a green ribbon around its neck or something.... anyway it had these spooky open eyes and it was the first chipmunk I ever saw.





I have been working on artwork for Ships Piano's new EP 'Acrobats Tumble', and this is a peek at the back cover track listing.




AND I bought these amazing 90s Drag Queen shoes in the plateau, even though they are too small for me! I'm going to put them on ebay as soon as I figure out how to use it, as a sort of experiment in selling on the internet. I just want to wear them with hot pink tights and a sunflower mini dress!



In drawing at the moment, we are focussing on line work, which I am really enjoying. This is one of the studies from my museum trip the other day.





And tonight I am going to the Jupiter Room with my friend from Costume History, Ariele.

xxx

Ruby

Home Sick

So I am at home, sick.
And I am also homesick, because when I have a cold, my Mummy always looks after me and makes me honey and lemon drinks and tells me to put on socks and buys me amazing magazines to read. And when your Mummy is on the other side of the world, you have to do these things for yourself. So today I made ginger tea and sternly told myself to put on some socks and went to the Musee Redpath to draw studies of the stuffed animals for my Drawing class. It was very nice and warm in there and my sketches turned out rather nicely, I spent a long time on a fossilized pre-historic moose head, and then I started drawing the room around it and then the tour guide came over and gave me this big enthusiastic thumbs-up, because I was listening to music through headphones! haha! There was also an Albino Fox and a Puffin and a big Majestic Lioness, with a curled up, dangerous smile.





So now I am at home on my Red Bed really very exhausted.
I'll have some more ginger tea soon and go to see Chuck D do a student talk at my school (!) and then fall asleep! Promptly!

Oh and the leaves are changing now! It is the most beautiful sight. Every time I look upwards, I just swoon.

Short But Sweet

This is the Deppaneur where I bought the chocolate to make scissors with!

High School Confidential

Yesterday I started University! The title has nothing to do with anything except that HSC is my favourite teen-age movie of ALL TIME. Of before time.
I took painting yesterday and it was fantastic, we got homework and everything- next week we are making stretchers which should be fun. Oh I love all of the attractive people at my school as well, GOD they are all so beautiful, and everybody rides good bikes- I'll have to take mine down for a spin.
I have only four classes a week and three days of classes- they aren't even full days either! However, because I am taking mostly studio subjects, I am expected to spend 6 hours per subject out of class in the studios at school, which is absolutely fine with me!
Tonight I have a class that goes until 10:30 pm. it's okay because I live just up the hill from the Visual Arts building, but imagine if you had to go home from school at that time and you lived really far away!
I am trying to get some sewing done but I am just sitting here on the computer, going on cool websites and pretending that I am rich!
I have to go, my Sculpture class starts in 4 hours...

Twin Dresses

So I made two of these gorgeous dresses and they are going up in the shop tonight!
My secret wish is that someone will buy them for a set of twins. That would be amazing.
They are ideal for 6-7 year old, but will have enough room for the bean-shoot stage (when the child grows up and not out!) so they could be worn until the hem gets too short.








I'll be making some grown-up dresses and skirts over the weekend, so they'll probably be up next week.
I'll be putting a button on here for etsy, but until then the shops name is rubymay, Like me!

a bientot!

J.C Higgins

Last week, I bought a bike from this guy in Rosemont, which is a sort of industrial suburb out of the plateau. It is so gorgeous and surprisingly great to ride. You'd think it would be a little bit jaded, but really the only thing wrong is that there is a slow leak in the front tyre, which I only have to regulate every couple of rides.

I picked it up from this big old Montreal double-storied house, with a winding staircase coming down onto the footpath and little Quebecois children playing outside in the street.
I rode it home along the highway, there are bike tracks running parallel to most main streets here. It's so great to be able to get places super fast, because although I love the metro, it is rather expensive and I have to wait a while to get my concession card. So until then I will zoom everywhere!








This is a picture of the chest that I got for free yesterday. Cori and I went to the plateau to pick up some furniture and then caught a cab home, with all of these drawers sticking out of the boot!
I have set it up quite nicely. It's good to have somewhere to put all of my books (I've made friends with the man from the second-hand bookstore).
And that lamp is the one I was talking about earlier. I have two of them, they are absolutely stunning.





I have been making little dresses out of paper as well. The green one is la robe de bouillon and the brown one is a weird truffle wrapper that I found in the hallway.

Bread Bakin'

So I have been making my own bread ever since I arrived in Montreal, because I decided that if I had to spend ridiculous amounts of money on something it would not be bread. I also decided that I wanted to eat bread that tasted like I spent ridiculous amounts of money on it.




This is Dark Rye Bread German style, because I am actually VERY German.

Ingredients
3 cups whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup cocoa
10 g active yeast
2 tbsp caraway seeds
1 big pinch salt
1/3 cup molasses or honey (mostly the floral kinds are the nicest)
4 tbsp of olive oil or butter
3 cups rye flour
2 cups tepid water

Method
1.) Prepare yeast according to instructions.
2.) Combine whole-wheat flour, salt, cocoa and caraway seeds.
3.) Heat molasses, olive oil and both cups of water in a small saucepan until warmish.
4.) Add to dry mixture and stir rapidly for about 3 minutes, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl for any residual flour.
5.) Beat again, this time for as long as your arms can stand it (3-5 minutes).
6.) By hand stir in rye flour a bit at a time (as much as it takes to make an elastic dough. The mixture should still be warm.
7.) Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and springy.
8.) Cover and let rise in a warm damp environment for 20 minutes.
9.) Punch down risen dough and divide in half.
10.) shape into two oval loaves or alternately one loaf and six little rye buns and place onto greased and floured baking trays.
11.) Brush with soy milk or a bit of egg or some oil or some cow's milk- whatever you have around.
12.) Slash the tops (not too violently).
13.) Cover and let them rise in a warm place until they are double size (about an hour).
14.) Bake in a moderate to hot oven for 25-30 minutes depending on the oven.
15.) They should be nice and browned on top and when tapped should produce a hollow sound.
16.) Eat several thick slices with butter before anyone comes home.
17.) Pretend that you only made one loaf and keep the extra one under your bed for midnight snacking. No-one need be any the wiser.
18.) Tell your kids that it is chocolate bread (because actually it is) and say they can have chocolate bread with rain juice (water) if they are really good. They will totally never trust you again afterwards and may need psychological intervention down the track, it'll be funny.

Bon Apetit!

You know what else I made? Curtains.
They go with my whole cream coloured pompon theme. So now I have hobnail glass lamps with pompons around the rims AND matching curtains!
I was going to make some dresses from them, but the fabric looked so nice jammed up in the window when I didn't have anything to hang there to keep spying eyes away, that I decided I would take it as an investment and write it off in my tax.



They match the books I stole from my parent's house.

Thank-you.
I'll be here all week.

xxx

It's Early...

I woke up this morning at 6:00 so that I could go to a student protest rally, and when I got there the street was cold and empty! Okay, so I only walked about two minutes away from my house, but it's the principal, really. Also I got all fired up to do some protesting-type shouting (my voice can get really loud, really) and then I had to walk back home, and quietly read. I am reading "Le Grande Meaulnes" by Alain-Fournier, it's amazing and so magnificent!

In Montreal, there are lots of strange sort of dollar-shops, which are usually in really crumbly buildings that have birds perched on rooftops. This one is down Rue Guy, which is in between my house and my school. Isn't it marvelous?



The other day, my other Australian housemate, Cori and I went to La Salle, which is sort of an outer suburb in the sud-ouest.
It was a weird place, lots of old churches and doughnut shops. There were also these crazy big spiders that were sort of bulbous and shiny. I took some pictures, but none at close range unfortunately.


















Today I am going to school to do all of the boring paperwork and stuff that needs to be done before Labour Day, which is on Monday. Tonight I think I am going to the opening of a Depanneur, which is like a Milk Bar in Mile End. There's gonna be a vegan barbecue!

Also i found a weird rice pudding shop that only sells rice pudding in strange flavours. I'm not even sure that it exists! Yesterday I had a little bit of passionfruit pudding, but maybe it was all a dream.

Running Away- Step 5

I have been exploring this amazing city ever since then. I love it here, it's a wonderful place with no rules. There are cracks in the footpath and flowers growing on the side of the road and a big Mountain in the middle of the city.
I went to the Plateau and walked around, looking at the beautiful streets with staircases running in colourful vortexes dwon onto the path.
Cute boys on bicycles, with loaves of bread in their arms. Gorgeous girls wearing floral dresses and leather boots speaking Quebecois quickly to each other.
Cornflower blue trains that run on rubber wheels and Metro stations with zany seventies tiling.
I love this place.