Mabley Green Meadow

At the same time as pushing for the Fitzrovia meadow from a couple of posts ago, I started pushing to do another one somewhere a bit closer to home. So close in fact, that I've been staring at the area in question from my kitchen window for months thinking 'someone should really do something with that space'.

Essentially, it's a pretty big but generally neglected piece of grass between a row of houses and a motorway overpass. Nobody really uses it (apart from dog walkers who stand at the edges and usually and totally co-incidentally checking their watches/bend down to tie their shoes/looking elsewhere at the EXACT same moment their dog is doing it's nasty business). Then job done, they leave.

So it's not an area that's loved or cared for. But on a recent set of plans for the neighbourhood in general, it was designated as a 'community garden'. Nobody really knew what that meant, least of all the Council. So I leapt into action and proposed it become a wildflower meadow. And after much wrangling and hand-wringing, it's happening! Which is where most of my time and energy has been going in the last couple of months. And while it's been much more work than I thought, it's been great and I've met some lovely people.

I could have posted about the process endlessly here, because there's been a lot to make and do for it. But as it's a community project and there, doens't or shouldn't really belong to me, I've become a media mogul and made a whole new blog for it.

www.mableymeadow.blogspot.com

Take a look and let me know what you think - of it you live in Homerton or Hackney Wick, come get involved in one of our volunteering or fun days!

In the mean time, here's one of the many iterations of funding proposals we put together to get the money together to make it happen.

Fitzrovia Meadow

OK, OK. I know it's been aaaaaages since I've put anything up on here. But I have a good reason: I've been busy. Really busy. It's been great! For some reason, rather than tiring me out, it's been making me pile more onto my plate instead. Here's what absorbed quite a bit of my time a couple of months back. It was an idea to turn the big (now derelict) lot on Mortimer St in Central London into a field of wildflowers. It's really possible to do. Though only if the developer says yes. But after much harassing and sleuthing to find the right people to talk to, they said no. Well, they didn't really - they just stopped replying. Then sold the land to another company, who's going to build a car park. All I can say is it'd better be a totally kick ass car park. Grrrrr.

Anyway, here's the proposal we made to get their attention. It had to be pretty comprehensive (hence the length). And I really wanted it to look good, so I got super into making the little photoshop illustrations at the bottom of the pages. So there are lots of little details in there - though you might not see them at blog-friendly sizes. Muchos gracias to Simon (my Art Director) for doing the design for me. I can be a pretty demanding (read: pedantic) creative director but he was very patient. Bless him.

Bridget Riley vs my shoes

A few weeks back I was helping my friend, the amazing Audrey Roger screenprint up some A0-sized posters. I think geometry must be contagious because afterwards, I couldn't stop wondering what it'd be like to spruce up our office at home with a new floor. 275m of masking tape and two cans of floor paint later, this was born. A bit of an indulgence of my love of most things black and white. And of all things Jim Lamby. Though now I've finished, I've started seeing black and white zig-zags everywhere. Like the Alex Turvey installation in the window at at dare digital, and this pop-up store in LA. It's on the floor there too but you can't see it in the pics. Koyanasquatsi in action.