Wildlife

BY  SUSIE WILD   ⋅  JUNE 22, 2010  ⋅   POST A COMMENT FILED UNDER    ARTS ,  CARDIFF ,  DRAWING ,  FILM ,  PAINTING ,  PHOTOGRAPHY ,  PRINTMAKING ,  WELSH ARTIST OF THE YEAR The winners of the Welsh Artist of the Year Awards were announced on Sunday. Elfyn Lewis beat 400 other artists to scoop the £2000 top prize and title of Welsh Artist of the Year 2010 for his abstract acrylic painting Pwll Crochan. The other stars of the show are: Runner up and Sculpture:  Emily Jenkins, Cardiff Drawing:  Richard Monahan, Swansea Photography:  Llinos Lanini, Mold (see above) Printmaking:  Tom Piper, Cardiff New media:  Gemma Copp, Swansea Student:  Phil Lambert, Cardiff Applied arts:  Ashraf Hanna, Haverfordwest Highly commended:  Jacqueline Alkema, Cardiff The Welsh Artist of the Year exhibition runs until 6 August at St David’s Hall Cardiff.

About The Bright Young Things Blog Contact Shop Strike a Pose Ha! Look! This is the BYT’s editor, Lucy. Don’t be scared. She was  striking a pose for the Passport Photos with Soul project run by Man About Town  Tom Beardshaw  on Sunday. The Bright Young Things were at the  Cardiff Identity Festival  at Cardiff Arts Institute to perform our words, pose for photos and catch up on each other’s worlds for the first time since Hay. We have considered getting a cardboard cut out for Wil, perhaps one of his modelling shots, to square our triangle. We kicked off events on a checkerboard stage. Tyler, myself and James read from our FORTHCOMING TITLES (I still love saying that) for 15 minutes each and then asked each other quick fire questions. I found out that Tyler wants to be Spiderman. I’m arachnophobic but can appreciate how fun it would be to climb buildings like that. What I can’t appreciate is the man who breeds spiders who I met at an art opening on Friday. He has over 5000 of them.

Jane Aspinall (Second Prize) Poetry Means Prizes. At least for some… and it is definitely prizes time for Welsh National Literature Development Agency and Society for Authors  Academi  this month. This time it is the turn of their  2010 Cardiff International Poetry Competition . The winning poets and their respective poems were announced by  Poetry Wales editor  and competition judge  Zoë Skoulding  and National Poet of Wales  Gillian Clarke at a posh lunch at St. David’s Hotel & Spa in Cardiff Bay yesterday. The 2010 competition was judged by Zoë Skoulding and  Jackie Kay , with  Tiffany Atkinson  as filter judge. Here’s who they chose as the best-best-best: First Prize  – £5,000! – was awarded to Giles Goodland from West London for his poem  The Bees  which the judges described as ‘not so much a poem about bees as a poem that does something bee-like, cross-pollinating words to make a landscape that sings in an unexpectedly fertile language.’ Giles, who works in Oxford as a lexi

JUNE 2010:  Hay Diddle Diddle Happy Bunny Quick note today to say I have a blog about the last of my antics at Hay Festival now live and kicking over on  Mslexia :  Visual Poetry & Fringe Benefits I have also been booked for storytelling at this year’s  Glastonbury  — Yes! — and to perform poetry with the lovely  Patrick Jones  at  Green Man Festival . Susie is a happy bunny  Filed under:  Uncategorized  by susie 

BY  SUSIE WILD   ⋅  JUNE 9, 2010  ⋅   POST A COMMENT FILED UNDER    HAY FESTIVAL ,  HAY-ON-WYE ,  HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN Cate Le Bon How The Light Gets In : The Philosophy And Music Festival at Hay Festival Hay-On-Wye Wed 28 May-Sun 6 June ***** Where the main festival site of The Guardian Hay Festival is all white marquees, asparagus sellers and summer wedding attire, the institute of art and ideas presents a much more vibrant affair with philosophy lectures and music workshops, delicious cakes, and beautiful bar staff adorned with feathers and face-painted flourishes. An altogether more delightfully inviting place to chill out, or let your hair down and have many a dance. Expanding into the globe field, this year the festival offered a tea tent and cocktail bar, an talk yurt and an open mic/ acoustic stage. In between taking advantage of their wifi in the mornings and traipsing back to base camp late at night I idled many an hour away in the field watching ukele players, poets, gigg

Pascale Petit (by Kitty Sullivan) I am home sweet home after 10 days at Hay, exhausted, tanned and a lot more cultured. What a time! Following on from  my first long weekend  I got up relatively early on Wednesday and went along to the Ritzy Stage on the main festival site to see Seren poet  Pascale Petit  read from her poetry collection  What The Water Gave Me  interpreting the life and work of Frida Kahlo, a favourite painter of mine. The poems are insightful and emotionally charged. Later Pascale talks about using Frida as a mask, a way to talk of the difficult times in her own life without writing confessional poetry, or drawing the spotlight to close to herself. The technique is very effective. Afterwards I spent Wednesday preparing for the Hay Poetry Jamboree, working through my reading list, and catching up with friends to see comedy ( Ross Noble ) and music (The fabulous  Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club , one of my long-standing albums to write to, and quite brilliant liv