Catching up. Vintage Home Show, The Whitworth, Manchester Science Festival.
Hello there, this year feels like it’s been running away with me, so much so, that I came across a whole collection of images from trips I had made and not even got around to sharing them with you. Apologies if they’re a little ‘been and gone’ but better late than never eh !
Let’s start with the vintage fair set in Victoria Baths, Manchester, at the back end of October. Apparently the Vintage Home Show is on three times a year now in Manchester alone, they also set up in Leeds and the Midlands. How popular it’s become and well worth checking out if you like your retro.
I loved this middle record cover for Tchaikovsky below.
All in all I was very reserved at the fair and even though I saw a couple of interesting pieces, I resisted buying anything I didn’t really need. Can you believe there was ever a board game called Libido ? Only in the sixties lol
Always interesting to see what other folk have found to display and sell.
And speaking of findings.. I looked into the artist who did the record sleeve above and tracked them down to a lady called Miriam Schottland. Initially I just found her name and the fact that she was a New York artist of book and record covers. Here’s some of her illustrations.
Her work is particularly attributed to classical records in the mid sixties.
Then I came across this photo of her standing by a James Bond Porche and my interest was again peaked.
This led me to the website for the American Society of Avaition Artists and this rather interesting blurb from 2013 …
“Most of us drive automobiles and feel we are good drivers…but are we? This will be an experience not to be missed! Miriam Schottland is a New York commercial artist and civilian Air Force Art combat veteran who moved to Washington 20 years ago. She bought a Porche 911 as her first automobile, and joined the Porche Club to learn how to drive. Within a year she was teaching diplomats and military personnel counter-terrorism driving tactics, off-road, ice driving skills and accident avoidance. Miriam is the Chief Driving Instructor for the Washington DC metropolitan Audi, Cadillac, Corvette, Porche and Volvo Driving Clubs.”
Wow you go Miriam !!! Isn’t it amazing what you can discover once you start. I still love this sleeve too.
Ok side stepping done, I also went off to the Whitworth Art Gallery for a look around.
Lovely shaped leaves everywhere in the grounds. Some rather strange figures running about inside too.
There was a glittering display of work by Raqib Shaw. Not really my thing, but amazingly intricate work with stuck on sequins and diamantes. Very lavish and rather over the top.
It was like glistening snow everywhere.
My favourite exhibition today was a section of South Asian Modernists from between 1953-63.
This exhibition is on until April 15th next year.
There’s always some great discoveries at the Whitworth, still one of my favourite spaces of all time.
Finally today, is a quick visit to the Manchester Science Festival which was on around the same time.
A great opportunity to see inside the University of Salford building and even though the fair is focused mostly for children, it’s encouraging adults to engage their kids too. This is the view from the back of the building looking onto the Imperial War Museum and Salford Quays.
There was plenty of interactive games and activities, as well as a whole area showing retro and vintage computers like the Spectrum ZX, Commodore 64 and Amiga with games like Mario Brothers, PacMan and Lemmings ! A techie’s dream world lol
Other areas had focused events on animal welfare, fitness, fake news, green and environmental concerns and an interesting section for me asking people to draw their pain/fears and trying to understand what colour people perceive their pain to be. Obviously a lot of red seemed to be popular.
Finally a great section where there was a whole room converted into an underwater kingdom with sharks swimming on the walls. My first opportunity to try out a head console and visualise what it’s like to be under the sea, interacting with fish and divers. A great first for me and very popular with children and adults alike.
I hope you enjoyed sharing my trips today. Last of this years catch up travels later this week.
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That was brill,Craig! Miriam’s work reminds me a bit of Daphne Padden’s – except it’s a lot looser and not as precise as Daphne’s divine collages. Looks like Miriam slapped a lot of acrylic paint on to black backgrounds, and then randomly scraped it back – I love the effect of slap dash spontaneity.
I do remember my parents having lots of record sleeves in her 60’s style – ah, for the days when the record cover was as exciting as the contents! Modern technology has killed this art form – I blame CDs for this!
I think I love Miriam’s Paris Musette cover best of all – all blue, black, and with those groovy, dancing silhouettes.
My dream career is one day to design book covers – so your research is a joy for me to discover!
Thanks Deidre, so pleased my blog is keeping you inspired. Appreciate your thoughts, as ever.