Realist

São Paulo-based painter Harumi-Hironaka has some fantastic work. I stumbled across her work when trying to find an artist for a painting I had saved for a very long time on my phone.  Harumi has some really dark, erotic and interesting work. The majority of her work I've seen is portraits of women but as you can see they are all gorgeous.  You can find her on Instagram @harumi_hironaka or her website  where you can buy prints.   

I've been spending a considerable amount of time on my laptop and doing an awful lot of work in general. As a force of habit, I always listening to music when I have a heavy workload, I'm not sure why but I think it helps to maintain my focus for a longer period.  Since January has started I have religiously been listening to my Discover Weekly Playlist - basically, I'll have a nice playlist put together at the end of the month for whoever is interested.  One of the songs I discovered that I have been obsessively listening to is 'Dang!' by Mac Miller featuring Anderson Paak. Mac Miller is someone who I like but haven't invested much time into. Anderson Paak has also recently grabbed my attention with his song 'Come Down' and I have been listening to his album a lot recently. 

If you don't know Garbage, you need to sort that out immediately.  I was pretty much raised on Garbage when I was younger and Shirley was a real role model for me. When the alternative female icons were people like Britney Spears it was so amazing so see some sassy, grungey and smart presenting something really edgy.  Shirley still remains iconic. Shirley is an artist who really promotes a strong feminist agenda, but unlike every other female artist like Taylor Swift she does so by promoting actual theory and arguments rather than bold statements about sexism. Recently sharing Rebecca Solnit's book Men Explain Things To Me on Instagram. She's really maintained her role model identity in my eyes.  Here's an all time 90s classic by Garbage. 

I had been sick the last few days and have been reading The Female Eunuch the last few weeks so I decided to spend my sick days off work binge watching feminist documentaries.  I started off with 'She's Beautiful When She's Angry,' which began by looking at the origins of the feminist movement. Here I have included the trailer to give a taste.  What I always find fascinating about watching documentaries and reading books from earlier feminist movements is the changes I can almost instantly consider. This documentary begins by conveying how second wave feminism came into existence in an extremely inspirational way, as something which started off small but grew followers, attention and more support. Equally, the documentary explored the opposition feminism faced from the media, politicians and even other females who wanted to remain housewives. She's Beautiful When She's Angry moves at a wonderful pace and explores every single issue in depth a...

Brew Lab was top of my list of places to check out in Edinburgh. From what I had read about online and from anyone to talk to it was 'THE' coffee shop in Edinburgh. Also they served HasBean so I was more than a little intrigued. We arrived here after a messy self-guided tour of Edinburgh University, amazed by the beautiful campus but exhausted and thirsty for some coffee. With a beautiful decor and a fantastic selection of coffee and accessories I knew they would live up the reputation I had been hearing about. The place was really bustling when we arrived, with a varied crowd from business men, students to families. I was extremely impressed with the décor and how well the unfinished urban walls worked so well with the rustic stools and vintage couches. It was an interesting mixture to say the least but maintained a consistent flow and a trademark design.  As I mentioned when I arrived we were both exhausted and I was being more indecisive ...

I have been OBSESSIVELY listening to this artist recently. The song 'Storm Bloom' would be my favorite but I couldn't find a great quality version. Instead I've featured 'Almost Living' by HTML Flowers. 

Everyone seems to be on the feminist train at the moment. However seeing a comibination of feminist values and movements combined with perhaps the ultimate 90's jam was something I never dreamed of.  #WhatIReallyReallyWant