My step-grandpa sent me his old Zeiss Ikon camera, complete with all the manual settings I never properly learnt to use and a screw-on case and cover that smells so leathery and sturdy.

I'm still getting the hang of setting aperture and manual focusing, and I almost wrecked the whole film by trying to take it out without reading the manual first... I ended up sitting on the bathroom floor at 4am -- trying for a makeshift darkroom -- taking the film out without rewinding it, and stashing it in a few envelopes, because I didn't use the rewind release button. Always something to learn. 

But anyway, these are the images that survived. 

And it's such a cool thing. Not knowing if you've actually captured that image right. Knowing that there's a finite shot, that you can't just shoot ten of the same thing and hope one is right (which is my default move with digital cameras). Having to quietly, steadily, think about what you're doing. It's really reminded me to concentrate, go steady, appreciate the practice of art. To be patient sometimes, and to -- at other times -- just go ahead hope for a lucky light-leak. 

California Dreaming print available here (limited edition of 10).

Spell and the Gypsy Collective California Dreaming lookbook.

Bright turquoise the colour of the walls in that house you want to live in – by the beach, with the half-collapsed bamboo fence; the surfboards on the front lawn, the fluttering prayer flags, the tequila-sunrise frangipani tree. 

Pale pink like your first love’s blush, like fairy-floss at dusk, like the first summer sunburn, like the last late winter rose.

Crisp white like sun-starched bed sheets, like smiles, like hot cement, like ice cubes clinking; like the underbelly of an osprey, the foam on messy breakers, the sharp white clouds against a high summer sky. 

And blue the colour that’s in everything; the sky, the sea, the songs; the sweetly laughing eyes.

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I love when Spell and the Gypsy Collective release a new lookbook (see the whole thing here, and shop it here), because it’s always full of the most beautiful moods and muses. It’s the best time to get out the sketchbook and draw away, absent-mindedly considering what I might do this summer….

Print available here. 

Hey, if you're in LA, you should get down to Costa Mesa right now. Immediately.

This little piece of mine (only slightly different colours...) is hanging in Element's end-of-year art show/party/all things lovely and fun. More details here.

Little experiments and Reno.

I've been working on so many projects that are -- at the moment -- being kept under wraps. I'm really stoked with how some of them have come out, and I can't wait to send them out into the world... but I do, actually, have to wait to send them out into the world. 

So for now, it's little hints and warm-ups, cast-offs and seconds, and the little pieces I make whenever I get a sliver of free time.