artists know best

Sunny Days in Sitges

September 6, 2017 by Suedonym Leave a Comment

Not only did I spend a few days in Barcelona, but I also went to the beach town Sitges. I have to say, it is wildly recommended. It’s this adorable little beach town that is easy to find, with a little bit of a google search. I had already been to Barcelona once in the past, knowing a little bit about it I wanted to discover someplace new, cool, and close enough that it would feel like a day trip.

Sitges is beautiful. You can sense that it is old and has a lot of history, but at the same time it is very fun. Modern in the sense of its free spirit and openness to the Gay community. So free, they even have a nude beach catered to the LGBTQ crowd and a lot of bars and nightclubs that are geared in that direction, however not necessarily exclusive to it. I recall even seeing a drag queen hosting a lunch and entertaining the crowd at some point, I did love the purple hair, but missed out on a photo, my bad.

Lastly the place was beautiful. Amazing beach with an incredible view. I stood at the top of these steps and was blown away. Being a beach girl myself, I could not help but feel right at home. However, the Mediterranean sea is very different from the Atlantic ocean, which I am used to.

View of Sitges

Artists Know Best: Frank’s Fashion Statement’s Statement

August 9, 2017 by Suedonym Leave a Comment

Image via Getty

Anyone that knows me, knows I adore Frank Ocean. He won me over ever since his little mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra back in 2011. The boy is bad and I simply adore his creativity. Ever since he’s come out, literally and figuratively on the scene he has been nothing but authentic. Authenticity is key as an artist and I think Mr. Ocean embodies this. Recently he wore a shirt that caught a lot of attention. I love t-shirts, I mean I should since I design my own (more about them later in future posts). Back to Frank, his shirt read “Why be racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic when you could just be quiet?” Such a direct message that gets the point across and touched a lot of people.

The words were originally a tweet made by 18 year old Brandon Male back in 2015. Yet he’s not the one who made the iconic tweet into a shirt, it was 18 year old Kayla Robinson. Concerning the whole issue with her taking his tweet and making money off of it should be left for another day. What’s important is the message. Male’s tweet was retweeted 30,000 times since he wrote it, wow! Final word: One of the few politically charged shirts that actually makes the reader feel something more than lame.

Artists Know Best: London’s Brick Lane is for Artists

May 18, 2017 by Suedonym Leave a Comment

I recently spent the week in London with my mom and extended family. It was such a good time, because as many times as I have gone to the popular English city, I don’t know much about it. Having my family there with me, and as they too were newbies, gave me the perfect excuse to take up some tours. After some heavy “googling”, I stumbled upon Unseen Tours and it sparked my interest because of its premise. The award winning company uses guides who are homeless or were formerly homeless to show folks around. For me, that is such a beautiful idea. They are paid tours, but 60% of the proceeds go directly to the guides. Knowing all of this definitely made me feel good about participating in the tour. Not only this, but I was sure we would get a peek into another side of London, from someone who knows the streets intimately. The route I chose was the Brick Lane excursion, which lead us to Pete as our guide. He told tales of Jack the Ripper and how much the now gentrified area started out in a drastically different form.

Pete liked me an my peoples so much, he even told us about these abandoned train tracks called Nomadic Community Gardens. The transformed abandoned area places raised beds of garden allotments amongst a village of tents, vans and dens of upcycled wood and canvas houses. I could sense the creative energy steaming from all areas of the park as it is packed with graffiti, sculptures made of tires, a repurposed shacko in an opera house, and other dope pieces of art. The place is magical. It reminded me a bit of if Sanford and Son’s junkyard landed somewhere in the land of Oz. To think, we would have never found this place without good old Pete.

Our guide the awesome Pete (Image via TripAdvisor)

The magical Nomadic Community Gardens

Unseen Tours Contact Information

Website – www.unseen tours.co.uk

Instagram – @unseentours

Twitter – @unseentours

Artists Know Best: Meet 7 Year Old Giana

April 6, 2017 by Suedonym Leave a Comment

via Instagram

So I found out about this little girl and immediately thought, parenting goals! I know that if/when I have a child, I would want to encourage her to be open creatively. Just allow them to be who they are, no holds barred. 7 year old Giana was given such a gift by her parents. This talented little one was encouraged by her parents at an early age to try different mediums, and drawing was the winner. Using old issues of her mother’s Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, Giana used the high fashion images to recreate ads as art. Her work was so intriguing it even piqued the interest of MÊME kidswear, where she launched her first collaborative line of apparel. Now that’s a pretty impressive resume for a 7 year old. She’s a fan of KAWS and proclaims her desire to be a professional artist, but a scientist would work just as well for her. Her pieces shown below are for sale and you can find them here!

Website – www.hey-young-world.com

IG – @g.von.g

Kate Moss for Supreme mashup

Chanel Braces

A$AP for Dior mashup

Artists Know Best: The Satirical Brand

March 24, 2017 by Suedonym Leave a Comment

Image via AnotherMag.com

Polly Brown, is an artist who knows best. The talented young artist is pointing some paint brushes, or sharpies rather at consumerism. As a writer myself for a book based all around limited edition items, I too find myself wondering what exactly makes people need these things. Why is Palace or Supreme so highly desired. What if everyone started to get crafty and just went DIY with it? Well, Brown is doing just that with her trusted Sharpie and Tipp-Ex pens to show the ludicrous nature of it all. Very tongue-in-cheek, ironic tone and if anything, it’s a conversation starter. Final Word: Peep the images and reflect.

Image via AnotherMag.com