East London Part 6

I haven't had time to be out and about with my camera for a while but today I had absolutely no plans and wanted to try and get some photos from my constantly changing east London. I love this area, it has community, great communications, lot's of galleries, cafe's, bars, cinemas, great international restaurants, night clubs, markets, quirky design shops, lido's and great parks - everything you need. The area is getting trendier and trendier per second and I think most have heard about "hipster Shoreditch" by now but I am not bothered about hipsters - I am more worried about foreign investors and bankers who basically are the only ones who can afford buying apartments and houses in London these days, if they continue pushing up the prices and buying everything, how arty will London be then when all artists and people on a lower income are forced to leave? I am not sure how long this area will look like this, where families from Bangladesh use to have restaurants Starbucks and other big commercial brands are popping up instead and buildings are transforming every week and I wonder how long I can afford to stay, but for now I am here and feel very spoiled and lucky to live in such a vibrant area. It definitely inspires me. And when it all has turned into a West London shopping mall I will have my photos to remind me of how inspiring and cool east London once used to be before the rich took over ;)







PS See those underground carriages on the roof in the last photo? They have been converted into artist studios, quite a nice idea I think. The first photo is from Victoria Park and the rest from Shoreditch.

Moscow's Underground Part 2

Here are some more images from the very impressive underground in Moscow. But enough about that, is it possible to talk about Russia and not mention politics and society? 

People have been criticising the fact that the 2014 Winter Olympic games were arranged in Russia, a nation criticised for being corrupt, undemocratic and shuffling any opposition under the carpet while also being extremely homofobic. I am not arguing with that but I think we crossed that border when the Olympic games were arranged in Hitler's Germany or not so long a go in China? I was hoping that it would be a good thing as the world's eyes suddenly were focused on Russia and there was an opportunity for something to happen, but did the Olympic games change anything? Not that I am aware of. Some westerners making jokey films about homophobic Russia or getting dressed in rainbow colours were all very nice but changed nothing as far as I know, you still risk loosing your job, your home, your family and your children and to be abused and beaten up if it comes out that you are homosexual in Russia, and unfortunately it is not just happening in Russia but also in other parts of the world and it is makes me unbelievably sad and angry.

I was therefor very happy when I bumped into these two lovely ladies while exploring Moscow's underground stations and it feels very silly to take a photo and write about it, "Look, gay people on a train in Moscow!", but considering what these women are putting on stake for showing their love in public, I just had to. The train carriage was almost empty but the few people that were there did not seem to be bothered at all by this homosexual couple holding hands and we asked if it was okay if we took a picture of them just to show the world that yes, not every gay person who show in public is being attacked and also to show that love is a beautiful thing and should be celebrated and not just that, because I want to give these ladies a eulogy for being brave and standing up for themselves, respect to you, and also because I want to believe and hope that there might be hope even for an old dinosaur like Russia who confuse homosexuality with mental illness and pedophilia...

And while I am at it I also have to give a eulogy to another bunch of very cool women, standing on the front-line trying to make a change with the power of music while risking to loose it all; Pussy Riot.

That's it. I need coffee.

Moscow Part 2

I can't seem to stop posting images from my trip to Moscow and St Petersburg, I most have taken hundreds of images! Here's a little collection from my Instagram page. The cat in the picture is Hek and I love his knitted green jumper with two humping deers, brilliant! Me looking serious in a Russian hat by a desk was at a very random party at the museum of everything from Soviet Union, have you ever been at party in a museum before? And for the opening of our exhibition I had a special offer on my Animal Kingdom Bear T-shirt and to make it a bit more fun I put it on my man Ted, a giant bat that I doodled late at night. Thanks to everyone who came to the opening night, I had a great time and it was lovely to meet you all!

Zoology museum, Moscow Part 2

Here are some more images from my visit at the amazing Zoology museum in Moscow. Moscow felt very polluted, before I went there I used to think that London is polluted but now London feels like a fresh walk in the Alps! My friends said that they have some amazing sunsets in Moscow, pink and purple and all kinds of colours but its not very amazing as those colours come from pollution… I had a really good time though and got addicted to Russian strawberry and mint toothpaste and Nikolaj's pie's - they have three pie cafe's in Moscow, very good ;)

Time for tea.

Zoology museum, Moscow Part 1

Wow, from Children's room monster vinyls to sinister looking images from my last museum visits…

During my trip to Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia I also went to the Zoology museum in Moscow and once again I was blown away, they had three different sections - the alcohol section with various species in jars; shelf after shelf with various snakes, lizards and fish stored in glass jars - the skeleton section with everything from fish, to elk, mammoth and giraffe skeletons - and then the last and third one with all the stuffed mammals and birds. The collection is very impressive and I wish I could show you more but it was dark in the museum and very hard to get good crisp photos without a tripod but if you have the chance to ever visit then please do, the place is amazing.

The museums bird collection is enormous and I wish I had photos to prove my point but for now these will have to do. The museum also had a very large collection of insects and flies, some so small that you could hardly see them.





PS. Try and find the walking sticks!



PS. Thanks for the comments, its nice to get some feedback now and then and to know that there's someone out there dropping by and taking their time to read this blog, thanks! ;)

Санкт-Петербург - St Petersburg

I am a designer and a illustrator but I never sketch when I travel or go to museums, my camera is my companion and I love taking pictures so while my illustrator friends are drawing, I am clicking away and here are some more photos from my trip to Russia.

At 1 o'clock on Tuesday night we jumped on the night train to St Petersburg and I was excited and felt like a kid again, if you ask me there is something magical about trains, and the older they are the better - I love the wound, the atmosphere, everything. We had traditional black tea with lemon and then we tried to sleep but it must have been about +25 on the train so it was bloody hard. The corridor was packed with sleeping men but to my surprise, no one snored.




About 9 in the morning we were there and stepped out of the station, walked a few steps and passed the square where the Russian revolution started! Amazing.



St Petersburg is Russia's second biggest city and has a remarkable history that I could go on about for ever but this is not a history page so I will keep it short - the city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great 1703 and yes, it was here that the Russian revolution started.



The central parts of the city is filled with impressive buildings that look like palaces and castles and some of them actually were palaces belonging to various tsar's - this one is the most famous, the Winter Palace, which belonged to the last tsar before it was plundered and burned as the revolution started. Today its a heritage museum;







The city itself feels more bohemian and opened then Moscow and I had some really amazing food and had a great time - even though I was very disappointed when we tried to enter the Zoological Museum  but that they for some weird reason were closed on this day.




I tried some traditional Russian food when I was in St Petersburg, this was called (help me MinaMilk, I can't remember?), normally its filled with juicy meet in some kind of sauce but I am a vegetarian and had the veggie option, delicious.

PS. Notice how street lights in Russia often are attached with wires and hang between buildings, at places where they have trams its cable mayhem.

If I would have been a foreign tourist in Sankt Petersburg I would have missed 80% of it, my friends took me into back alleys and up stairs into buildings that looked like private homes but then, voila, suddenly there were an art center with hidden designer shops and rooftop restaurants with amazing food, cool bars where you could get a haircut while enjoying your drink and some really amazing restaurants with no signs on the street. So I was lucky to have my two brilliant guides who showed me a great city, thank you ladies!

Moscow's Underground Part 1

I have wanted to explore the beautiful underground stations in Moscow for years and years and now finally I had the chance and was over excited and dragged my poor friends around in the underground very late at night trying to see as much as possible, and you can see why, this is Dobryninska station on the circle line, just one of many stations that resemble a palace more then a underground station. The platforms are much wider then in London and Stockholm and the ceilings are very high, lot's of marble and on some stations like this one there is old USSR propaganda art.