test
10 Oct 2009Arts and Crafts
14 Sep 2009Over the weekend, while recovering from the hectic week before, I spent a bit of time with my sketch book, something I hadn’t done in ages. I’m a bit rusty but it was nice to spend some time doing something creative that didn’t involve a computer screen. Of course, after a while doing art the old school way I remembered one of my favourite websites, artpad.art.com where you can not only make your own digital masterpieces but you can play back the efforts to see the whole production in progress.
I made my first artpad piece in about four years and for a doodle it came out pretty well:
Doodle from Art.com's artPad
Check out the work in progress (i.e. watch me draw it) here.
Might try to get some of the drawings from my sketchbook up later this week or when I get back from Greece as well.
I Heart Spoonfed
13 Sep 2009Whew. What a week. I would have updated earlier except that I’ve been pretty much in recovery mode all weekend after everything from the last seven days. I managed to squeeze in a bit of a post after the Canary Wharf Film Festival but here’s a quick look at some of the highlights of last week:
Monday: The Canary Wharf Film Festival Golden Canary Awards Show
Tuesday: London Bloggers Meetup, sponsored by eBay (I got a goodie bag with all sorts of eBay merch)
Wednesday: Colby (and NESCAC) alum reunion
Thursday: Twestival and I HEART SPOONFED
Friday: Sleep
I Heart Spoonfed was a ridiculous success (if I do say so myself) and I had such an amazing time. The turn out was great and I think everyone had a good time. I may have bailed before the end of the party (I made it until about 1:30am before finally calling it a night – although I heard I missed a food fight after I left) but couldn’t have been happier with the whole thing.
Myself and my coworker Alice at I Heart Spoonfed
I’m going to try to fit in a few more updates this week but I leave for Greece on Saturday so Twitter will have to take over then – and I’m going to have quite a bit to do before I leave – my to-do list has already eclipsed the time I have to complete it and I will be well ready for the vacation when it finally arrives. Less than a week to beaches and sun!
Canary Wharf Film Festival
7 Sep 2009Tonight I got to go to the super swanky Canary Wharf Film Festival Golden Canary Awards! Here’s a quite look at the event:
JW Waterhouse at the Royal Academy of Art
5 Sep 2009Last night marked one of the more fantastically cultural evenings I’ve had in London in quite a while with a visit to the Royal Academy of Art to see the JW Waterhouse exhibition that’s been on show for the last few weeks. JW Waterhouse was a modern Pre-Raphaelite painter who worked from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he bypassed the preference for more modern art styles (such as those coming into fashion with artists like Manet and Picasso) and continued to paint in the Pre-Raphaelite style throughout his life. To cut through the art jargon, this means that everything he painted was pretty. Modern art, of which I am quite a big fan, usually has its detractors but Waterhouse’s stunning works, based on mythology and filled with colour and feeling could draw very little dislike from even the most hard hearted art critic.
I, and my partner in art appreciation for the evening, the lovely Alicia from another London tech startup around the corner from Spoonfed, clearly were not the only ones with art on the mind for a Friday night. We arrived after work to find a long and winding queue. After almost an hour of waiting – a task made painless by the comfortable late-summer night weather and the glorious Royal Academy courtyard around us – we finally were able to enter the exhibit.
Because I wasn’t going to do a review for Spoonfed but for fun on my own time, I won’t be critiquing the art (also because I’m highly unqualified to do so) but I’ve found online reproductions of some of my favourites which I’ve included below:
I was also quite excited to see in some of the sketch books of JW Waterhouse on display a familiar face – familiar because it had served as a study for me in a high school art class. Clearly I had spent enough time trying to recreate Waterhouse’s pencil work that it stuck with me even though I had never known it was Waterhouse’s study at the time.
All in all it was an amazing evening and exhibit and I’m so glad Alicia suggested we go. While I may not make enough time to experience the fantastic art available to me in London, I always enjoy it when I do.
Meaghan Fitzgerald is a marketer and entrepreneur building and growing consumer and gaming products and experiences. A Silicon Valley native, she started her first company, DormWise, in 2006 which she later sold in 2009. Meaghan spent 7 years in London in early stage consumer startups, two years at Xbox as a product marketer for Minecraft, and is currently the head of product marketing for VR experiences at Facebook and Oculus. Meaghan writes here about business, technology, gaming, and marketing. She has been named a top