My last remaining guinea pig died in her sleep last night, gone to the giant carrot field in the sky. She was four and a half, which is a pretty good innings for a guinea pig. I think I'll do a painting of her and her family when all the drama of my deadlines is over. I've had ten guineas throughout my life: Winnie, Scruffy, Pepsi, Storm, Thunder, Lightning, Sprite, Tizer, Stella and Tango. As you may have already guessed, I am a bit of an animal lover. Here are a couple of pictures.

 
   

Basics:
Name:	Kellie Hogben
Date of Birth:	2nd October.
Birthplace:	Margate, Kent. Bleurgh!
Current Location:	Canterbury, Kent.
Eye Color:	Green, with blue round the edge and a brown centre.
Hair Color:	Brunette.
Height:	5' 4 ish.
Heritage:	English.
Piercings:	Both ears, twice. I might get more.
Tattoos:	None; it's near impossible for a girl to pull them off.
Favourite:
Band/Singer:	Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Song:	Scar Tissue perhaps, or Bohemian Rhapsody!
Movie:	O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Disney Movie:	The Little Mermaid or The Lion King.
TV show:	Neighbours.
Color:	Red or green, but never together!
Food:	Chinese.
Pizza topping:	Anything except olives, anchovies or egg.
Ice-Cream Flavor:	Stacciatella.
Drink (alcoholic):	Gin and tonic.
Soda:	Lemonade.
Store:	H&M.
Clothing Brand:	H&M?
Shoe Brand:	Office.
Season:	Autumn.
Month:	October.
Holiday/Festival:	Summer.
Flower:	I like orchids.
Make-Up Item:	Mascara is vital.
Board game:	Treasures and Trapdoors
This or That
Sunny or rainy:	Sunny.
Chocolate or vanilla:	Chocolate. Vanilla is too sweet.
Fruit or veggie:	Fruit every time.
Night or day:	Night.
Sour or sweet:	Sour!
Love or money:	Love.
Phone or in person:	In person.
Looks or personality:	Definitely a bit of both.
Coffee or tea:	Coffee! Tea is foul.
Hot or cold:	Hot.
Your:
Goal for this year:	Sell a painting!
Most missed memory:	Not having a care in the world.
Best physical feature:	Most people (guys) would probably say my bum!
First thought waking up:	I have so much to get done today... *hits snooze button*
Hypothetical personality disorder:	Schizophrenic, without a doubt!
Preferred type of plastic surgery:	I loathe plastic surgery, but if I had to... Nose job.
Sesame street alter ego:	Elmo - the little annoying one.
Fairytale alter ego:	Alice in Wonderland
Most stupid remark:	'It's got a fanny brush with grippy bits on the side so you can hold on!'
Worst crime:	Drunk and disorderly!
Greatest ambition:	To make a living from my art.
Greatest fear:	Clowns.
Darkest secret:	If I announce it on MySpace it's hardly a secret, hence undermining the question...
Favorite subject:	Fine Art. Painting.
Strangest received gift:	Pringles.
Worst habit:	Being disorganised.
Do You:
Smoke:	No.
Drink:	Yes.
Curse:	Abso-fucking-lutely.
Shower daily:	Yes, when possible.
Like thunderstorms:	I love snuggling up inside to watch them.
Dance in the rain:	Never had the opportunity actually...
Sing:	Yes.
Play an instrument:	Flute, guitar, keyboard, piano, recorder.
Get along with your parents:	Yes.
Wish on stars:	I saw a shooting star once and I wished on that. It came true!
Believe in fate:	No.
Believe in love at first sight:	Not at all, you need to get to know someone.
Can You:
Drive:	Yes.
Sew:	Within reason.
Cook:	I do an awesome flapjack. I'm a sauce-out-of-a-jar kinda girl though.
Speak another language:	French and German, and I can swear in Swedish.
Dance:	Not at all.
Sing:	Yes.
Touch your nose with your tongue:	Yes!
Whistle:	Yes.
Curl your tongue:	Yes. It's genetic don't you know?
Have You Ever:
Been Drunk:	Yes.
Been Stoned/High:	Yes.
Eaten Sushi:	Yes.
Been in Love:	Yes.
Skipped school:	Yes.
Made prank calls:	Yes.
Sent someone a love letter:	Yes.
Stolen something:	No.
Cried yourself to sleep:	Yes.
Other Questions:
What annoys you most in a person?	Knuckle cracking or eating loudly.
Are you right or left handed?	Right!
What is your bedtime?	Always later than it should be.
Name three things you can't live without:	Art, music, people.
What is the color of your room?	Magnolia. *yawn*
Do you have any siblings?	One sister.
Do you have any pets?	A guinea pig called Tango and some fish.
Would you kill someone you hate for a million dollars?	No.
What is you middle name?	Amanda
What are you nicknames?	Boggie, Kel-C, Bogbin, Captain Bogwash, Smellie, Kels.
Are you for or against gay marriage?	For!
What are your thoughts on abortion?	It's okay if it's early enough.
Do you have a crush on anyone?	My boyfriend?
Are you afraid of the dark?	I like to know what's going on around me.
How do you want to die?	Ironically!
What is the largest amount of popsicles that you have eaten on one day?	I have no idea.
Would you take a bullet for the one you love?	I'd like to think so.
What is the last law you’ve broken?	Speeding.
In a Member of the Opposite Sex:
Hair color:	Anything but ginger!
Eye color:	Blue or brown.
Height	Taller than me so he can put his arm around my shoulder and I can rest my head on his.
Weight	Not skinny, but not muscle- or fat-bound either.
Most important physical feature:	Eyes or smile.
Biggest turn-off	A hairy back!
Take this survey or other MySpace Surveys at PimpSurveys.com

I am currently doing a case study on the Folkestone Triennial for my art degree. If any of you reading this live in or near Folkestone, or anywhere in Kent for that matter, I would be forever endebted to you if you can answer these few short questions, whether you're interested in art or not. Everyones answers are as valid as each other - that's the point of a questionnaire! Okay, here goes:
1. Do you live in Folkestone or the surrounding area?
Yes/ No - please state where you live
2. Have you heard of the Folkestone Triennial?
Yes/ No
3. Did you purposefully go and view the exhibits during the Triennial?
Yes, all/ Yes, some/ No, not intentionally/ Not at all
4. How many of the 22 artists that took part can you name?
WITHOUT GOOGLING THEM
5. Did you notice an increase in the number of visitors to the town throughout the duration of the Triennial?
Yes, considerably/ Yes, slightly/ No/ Don't know
6. Do you believe that the intention of the Triennial, to help regenerate Folkestone, was achieved, or will be achieved with future events?
Yes, it has helped/ Yes, it will with future events/ No, not at all/ Don't know
7. Are you aware of anyone, yourself included, who has benefited from the scheme? For example, an artist who has gained a studio, or a business that gained custom.
No/ Yes - Please give details
If you have any other thoughts about the event, do feel free to share them!
To everyone who responds, a very big THANK YOU!

I get it. eBay is an auction site. People bid against each other and whoever bids the most wins. It's like a super fun game, a competition, and, yes, I have to admit I do get a bit of a kick out of winning an auction. But there's just one things that pisses me off. Some people have no idea how to get a bargain. And that would be fine, if it didn't affect anyone else, but it does, oh my how it does. You get these idiots who will bid every time someone places a higher one. Why don't they just chill out for a second. I am a lurker. I lurk on the peripheries of an auction until the final seconds, when I will swoop in with my winning bid. Nice and simple, if a little risky at times. Why do people start bidding right away? Why do they keep having their little bidding wars, boosting the price up to an unreasonable scale for the rest of us?
 
I lost a glove the other week. A leather one. From Accessorize. £18 I paid for them and I bloody lost one when I was running for a train. To my delight I saw that the exact pair were listed on eBay with a 99p starting price! That was five days ago and the auction comes to a close in about twenty-five minutes. Already the price has gone up to £8, thanks to the actions of Bidder 2 and Bidder 3. Why don't they stop until the auction's nearly done? They're going to be sitting staring at the screen until then anyway, so why not be patient? Those incoherent bastards are probably incapable of thinking such sense through.
 
This of course, is why eBay makes so much of a profit though, thanks to these illogical fools. No doubt I will be thanking them when I come to put up some items for sale, but for now, they are my enemies. I will crush them, I will thwart them, and they will regret doing battle with me. Not as much as I will regret doing battle with them. That price just keeps going up!

So, yeah... Had the brief given to us for this semester's project. It's called 'From Location to Site'. By this it basically means that I have to find a/some location(s) which I can use to inspire some artwork, and through the process of creating this artwork the 'location' will be transformed into somewhere specific, a 'site'. Or that's how I've interpretted it anyway.
 

I had heard about this project before Christmas, and had originally intended continuing with my teacup paintings. Having spoken to a tutor about it, I was planning on trying to get some of my teacups exhibited in a coffee shop/cafe/crockery-selling shop, thus making the work 'site specific'. However, the possibility of this happening was cut down when one of my potential 'sites', Whittakers, shut down, and I didn't want to pin all my hopes on one of these places accepting my work, because if they didn't, I'd be screwed (metaphorically speaking, lol). So, once we'd had the formal introduction, I was back to square one. I'll save the teacuppery for our 'Ateliers' unit in the summer, when we can basically do whatever the hell we like! Huzzah!
 

We were given a lecture last week about site specific artwork, focusing mainly on earthworks/land art by artists such as Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer. The photographs that we were shown were frequently in black and white, which exacerbated the drama of the works, but left me wanting more. I wanted to see the colours, see it more 'realistically', if that's the word I'm looking for. And I really wanted to see the colour of the earth, the dirt. One of the photos we were shown in colour was of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty. The grand scale of the pieve is impressive but I was more interested in the way it had been formed, out of mud, rocks and grass. In this colour photo you could see the sediment in the lake being caught within the form and collecting towards the centre of the spiral. It was the dirt which fascinated me. Dirt! And that's when it struck me, as I studied that dirt suspended in the water of the lake; pigments!
 
 

While I was doing my foundation course at UCA (then known as UCCA) we, the group that specialised in Fine Art, were introduced to the idea of making your own paints, from pigments/dirt we collected on a field trip to some local woodland. I didn't participate, choosing to take my work in an alternate direction, but the idea suddenly returned to me, almost exactly two years later.
My plan started out pretty basically: I can collect dirt from different locations, and use the dirt, once properly processed, to make paintings of the locations from where the pigments originated. I could visit different places myself, and ask friends, who are off all over the country at different universities, to bring me back dirt from their localities. However, since I started researching the pigment-extracting, paint-making process, I have developed my ideas. 
 

Firstly, while thinking about the earth pigments, ochre, sienna, umber, I remembered that of course I could alter the colours, darkening them, by baking them in the oven (Not to self: Must ask housemates' permission). Hence; burnt umber.
 

Secondly, having googled something along the lines of 'make your own paint pigments' I came across a forum discussing the use of rust and other metal oxides to make fabric dye. I think perhaps this is something I can make use of when making oil paints. On my desk I now have three jars of salt water, each containing a different selection of metallic objects. Fingers crossed they won't take the couple of months to rust as described in the forum.
 

I don't think I'll be able to use any organic pigments, say vegetable matter, as these apparently break down very quickly. However, during a discussion with a housemate we stumbled across the possibilty of using curry powder, or other dried herbs and spices. After all, that is the exact process that pigments must go through. I will experiment. Perhaps I could paint a kebab shop?
 

If anyone reading this has any experience with such matters, please, your input/advice/tips/know-how will be gratefully recieved!

So I got 69 for my essay 'Is painting really dead?'... One mark away from a first! Somewhat frustrating seeing as I lost one mark just because I didn't use 1.5 line spacing! The feedback pissed me off a bit though. We had to meet certain criteria, one of which was 'a critical and accurate engagement with a chosen aspect of contemporary art.' The comment about this aspect of my essay is as follows:
 

'The essay demonstrates a strong critical and accurate engagement with a somewhat neglected area of contemporary practice (Stuckists)'
 

Now, this puzzled me. I wrote a fair bit about the Stuckists, as well as writing about other, very much contemporary artists, such as Mark Wallinger. So I didn't 'neglect' contemporary issues at all. Some people did their essays on Duchamp and he's been dead for ages! So I am presuming that my tutor was simply not happy with my inclusion of the Stuckists. Why? I haven't the foggiest. I'm pissed off about it though. I shall have to 'have words' with him.
 

I got 2:2s for both my practical units, one of which was only one mark off a 2:1 (bloody typical) but the average mark winds up as a 2:1 so I guess I'm happy for now. Especially since that was my first assessment here in Canterbury.
 

I didn't learn anything at Middlesex, what with only writing about 500 in the whole year and never being graded beyond a 'pass' or a 'fail', so I guess I was always going to be at a slight disadvantage. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make excuses, but if I've NEVER been told that there's a recommending spacing of lines in an essay, how was I supposed to be able to do that? Well, at least I'll know for next time. These three marks add up to about 9 marks towards my final degree so it's not too big a deal at the moment.
 

In other news, since I haven't posted in a while:
 

I have a bitching cough/cold/throat infection/earache/Black Death... Not sure exactly but it's making me fel like crap. So excuse me if I'm a bit cranky, lol.
 

My latest peev is people selling an item of clothing on the internet, Ebay or whatever, and describing it as 'vintage' because it's a few years old, and to excuse it from being a bit tatty. That is not vintage! That's second hand crap!!
 

Rant over. Enjoy your day, folks!