We Are Wild, We Are Like Young Volcanoes

Today was filled with lots of art-based activities with my good friends Cassandra and Becki.

We began by visiting the "Light Show" at Waterloo's Hayward Gallery. It comprised of lots of different styles of light installations, and how light can affect both ourselves and our environments. A lot of the pieces were quite mesmerising- especially the piece by Olafur Eliasson which was a darkened room filled with fountains which were illuminated by strobe lighting. The effect was really disorientating yet magical as the water seemed to freeze in mid air.

I also really liked the opening piece to the exhibition by Leo Villareal which used LED's to create the effect of sparkles, rainfall, snowdrops and different shapes.

My favorite piece called 'Chromosaturation' by Carlos Cruz-Diez was 3 rooms each lit by different light- one blue, one red and one green. It was interesting how your perception of colour changed as you left one room and walked into another and your eyes adjusted to the change. You could also see the spectrum of colour along the corridor linking the rooms which was beautiful, and also where the colours merged to create white. (Plus we all looked like blue/red/green Marsians!)

After a quick stop for some amazing pizza at the Gourmet Pizza Kitchen courtesy of vouchercloud we then headed over to Somerset House for the annual 'Pick Me Up' exhibition where our friend Becki was exhibiting with her collective Hero of Switzerland.

I've been to Pick Me Up just once before and trust me when I say it is mind blowing. The eclectic mix of quirky, individual graphic art (which you can purchase!) is just too good to miss!! This is the Hero of Switzerland stand-

I've always loved Becki's work so it was really nice to see it hanging front and centre at the show- this was my favourite piece that she did- a mermaid on a mirror :)

And here is the gorgeous lady herself!

Cassie and I booked in to get our nails drawn on by some of the exhibitors, I got paired with Katie Scott who's work I had been admiring as soon as I got in! She does a lot of intricate medical illustration style prints so I was excited to see what she would do on my nails! The result was a dotty bohemian style which I think she quite enjoyed doing as a change to the other things people had been asking for! But I love them and she even added little rhinestones into the equation :)

One of my favourite collectives I came across there were called "Coffee Club Collective" and they had adopted one of my favourite themes for their stand: The Circus!

All of the work they exhibited was sensational- each artist had their own style which all complimented each other. One of the collective members, Katie Bennett, was sitting in their circus themed "Sketch-o-matic" booth as we were strolling through and she drew me my own magical unicorn! I was thrilled and I shall be putting him up in my room shortly.

Speaking of unicorns I was pretty surprised to see my pal Mr Rubbertoes work at the show, he's recently adopted unicorns as a theme throughout his work so I picked up one of his little magnets to add to my ever growing unicorn collection!

The Pick Me Up exhibition runs until April 28th at Somerset House, London and is a mere £8 to get into!

The Light Show at the Hayward gallery is £11 for an adult ticket and has been extended until the 6th of May! You can view more of my photos from the Light Show (sneaky sneaky!) over on my Instagram account- follow me @sallymonster

Keep sketching,