Love loves to love love…

Quote ~ February 6, 2016July 6, 2016 ~ Sharona ~ Leave a comment

In advance of what is billed as the most romantic day of the year, everyone is aaaaaaall about the love…

So my blog post title may be a little deceptive (ha!) but who doesn’t love (wink, wink) to feel clever by quoting Joyce once in a while! If you are a little sick of sappy season ahead of Feb 14th, I cannot recommend highly enough the exhibition still running at IMMA at the moment: “What We Call Love – From Surrealism to Now” for a very different, visual take on the whole feeling, idea and concept. Move fast though – it’s finishing up tomorrow Sunday February 7th!

According to the accompanying book published by IMMA – What We Call Love – the collection has drawn from Surrealism’s idea of love as “amour fou” (mad love) and new concepts of love from the sixties onwards.

I visited recently (having meant to take a look for several months now) and really enjoyed the range of viewpoints and art forms. Photographs, paintings, sculptures, exhibits, films, documentaries – they are all included. The exhibition features work from greats like Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Damien Hurst, Yoko Ono – to name just a few – as well as many other artists that wouldn’t be as well-known. You don’t just have to take my word for it though – Aidan Dunne of the Irish Times recommends it too 🙂

I took a few photos while I was there (IMMA always makes me want to take more photographs…) so I have included a few here for those of you that may not make it along before it ends. Let me know what you think! 🙂

'Couple With Their Head Full of Clouds' (1936) Salvador Dali — ‘Couple With Their Head Full of Clouds’ (1936) Salvador Dali
I love this one. The colours, the gilt framing, the slight incline of heads towards one another.

'High Moon' (1991) by Rebecca Horn — ‘High Moon’ (1991) by Rebecca Horn This was the piece that initially intrigued me most before coming to this exhibit. Obviously incredibly visual, it was also a very different take on the subject of love…..!

1969 Yoko Ono and John Lennon.
Another one of my favourites from this exhibition. The first photo is ‘Bed In For Peace’ by Ivor Sharpe, and the second photo is from their wedding day in Gibraltar.

Central Nervous System (2013) by Wolfgang Tillmans

From 'Hot 100s' by Jeremy Shaw — From ‘Hot 100s’ by Jeremy Shaw

'Passion Bed' (1993) by Dorothy Cross — ‘Passion Bed’ (1993) by Dorothy Cross

A still from Seamus Nolan's film, screening at IMMA as part of "F**k IMMA" — A still from Seamus Nolan’s film, screening at IMMA as part of “F**k IMMA”

And also, if you have already been – let me know what you think!

Tickets are still available, and priced from €5-8. Students go free.

All the best,

Great New Ideas

March 7, 2013March 7, 2013 ~ Sharona ~ Leave a comment

Great new ideas flowing this evening…

I’d like to thank.. the PortHouse, the wine they served, and… the wine.

How is it that the creative side of the brain seems to work that much better with alcohol? Why is that? It’s just giving everyone an excuse to drink in the hopes of being more.. em… artistic… yes, that’s what we’ll say.

Anyhow, ideas flowing this evening.

Every now and then, we all *try* to have that conversation of what are we doing, where are we headed to, etc., etc.

This evening, the wine spurred this on a little more than usual.

So plans are afoot!

The blog has been resurrected.

Eventually. So perhaps yes, the word resurrection is perfectly apt!

Watch. this. space! *

*I promise this time around, blogs will actually follow….

Keep Calm, (Wo)Man Cooking…

July 6, 2012July 6, 2012 ~ Sharona ~ Leave a comment

So I’ve never claimed to be a domestic goddess.

I’m no Nigella.

Thankfully, my husband doesn’t have a sweet tooth, so baking is never something I have really ever had to master.

Problem being, that I am partial to a dessert or two.

So recently I decided to try it out again; my last foray into baking and dessert-making being back in school with some butterfly cakes – anyone remember those?

Anyhow, I decided to start off slowly, and made a relatively inoffensive cheesecake.

It looked a little lumpy, and a little broken around the edges, but surprisingly (to me, and everyone else that tried) it tasted actually pretty good!

So it spurred me on to try a slightly more challenging recipe – chocolate fudge brownies.

Hardly rocket science by any means, but to a rusty baker like myself, you have to walk before you can jog right?

Anyhow, tried to keep it as simple as possible for myself – as I realised that I had no scales and no square baking tin to be found….

So butter and cocoa melting in one pan, I whisked eggs and sugar up.

When both were ready, I folded them in together, and sifted in some flour – and when I say sift, I mean I dumped in slowly, whilst frantically mixing. (Note to self, sieve would be easier next time.) There was no exactness to my method, as all measurements were pretty much guestimated…