Liana writes...

Life has changed drastically since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to hours of free time stuck inside and the majority of jobs becoming remote, we're spending more time sitting in front of our screens than ever. The days where we'd spend our weekends strolling through galleries have now ended and in turn, a new digital art space has been established.  The artworld is notoriously difficult to break into; it's always been about who you know, rather than what you know. But this new wave of cyber art has provided an alternative way to showcase your work, whilst making big bucks for it. Websites like ' Nifty Gateway' exhibit thousands of works, each with several editions, and they're all selling out for a few thousand each. According to Nifty Gateway, these works aren't to be referred to as digital artworks, but instead as 'digital collectibles', 'nifties' or 'NFTs'. They are digital items that are stored on the 'blockchain...

This past week, the combination of Sarah Everard’s tragic death and the release of figures detailing the extreme levels of sexual harassment and assault, strikes up an urgently needed conversation about the traumatic experiences UK young women are dealing with. The figures showed that 97% have been sexually harassed at some point in their lives. Yet when I read that, my immediate thought was ‘surely it must be higher?’ From being catcalled on the street, to being raped, every girl I know has a story.  For many years, I've just accepted it as 'part of being a woman'. It starts with a twisted sexual awakening at around the age of 12, when a group of builders whistles at you whilst you're walking past. You turn around, hoping to see an adult woman behind you because surely it's someone else that they were catcalling? But no, you realise that despite being dressed in your long, pleated school skirt with a backpack practically the size of your small pubescent body, i...

SUMMARY   The story follows a stalker, Marco de Lauretis. He begins a journey of obsession with a woman (Maria Bernard). We don't know her name but watch her life unfold from Marco's perspective. One night, Marco notices another car (other than his), parked outside Maria's house. Every time Marco returns to watch Maria, the car is there still. Another man is watching her. Marco's journey of stalking Maria results in him finding out secrets about her past, and the woman he fell in love with from afar, turns out to be very different up close.  Location: New York City CHARACTERS UP CLOSE Marco de Lauretis Marco de Lauretis is insecure, feels rejected, and extremely introverted. He grew up in a small town in Mississipi and tended to keep a low profile. He went through high school with very few friends, partly due to his inability to socialize and his highly insecure nature. The couple of friends that he did have, were wallflowers, and friends purely out of convenience. This...

After scrolling endlessly through Pinterest and Instagram, I've taken the leap into picking up my own camera and giving it a shot. One of my favourite photographers is Kate Holstein. She takes stunning photographs of landscapes and portraits (also dabbling in interiors but I reckon that's commercial work). Visit her website here - https://www.kateholstein.com/  Her photographs have a calm, tranquil feel about them. They're bright, almost overexposed, with the occasional pop of blue or a sandy orange. She tends to take photos from afar, with only one, or a couple of people in it, focusing mostly on the environment around them. Their tiny figures almost seem like they're drowning in a stunningly beautiful environment, yet this somehow creates a calm atmosphere.  Whilst I, unfortunately, don't live in St.Barts like Kate, I do have playa de las Canteras at my doorstep. Armed with my camera and Sigma 35mm lens, I headed to the beach at golden hour, in an attempt to recre...

 Every day, after returning from University, I sit down and eat my lunch in front of YouTube. Time and time again, I get recommended videos analysing female characters, whether it be in film, literature, or art.  There is the cliché of male writers, creating female characters which tend to follow this description: "The cold air made my hair stand up from the roots, the way my nipples stand erect, every follicle on my arms and legs becoming a tiny clitoris"  (I have no clue which book this is but this is one of the many examples I found on google) First thoughts are undoubtedly, 'what the actual fuck', and of course, this is an extreme case. However, the majority of female characters who are composed by men, have their sexual behaviour central to their description. There is a descriptive concentration on looks perceived by the heterosexual male eye. There is often no description of her character unless it relates to the man's sexual desires. (This has immediately g...

Disclaimer: this post has been written whilst stoned so I can't promise quality  It's without a shadow of a doubt that over the past couple of years I've been desperately trying to conjure up a creative side of me. A side and strength of imagination that has been suppressed for many years and as I moved on into adulthood, was quashed time and time again. I have never questioned that I was a creative soul. From a young age I stood out (without sounding like a stuck-up twat), I was considered significantly further ahead in terms of my technical artistic ability than the other girls in school and in my creative writing endeavours, I never did worse than 100% in the GCSE creative writing tests. I'm not good at anything else. I was never gifted with any talents in Math or Science, or even languages, a degree I'm pursuing now. I can't sing a single note or really have an appreciation of music. I was good at sports but was never truly passionate about it. But I could a...

 For years, all I've dreamed of is travel. Exploring the avenues and alleyways of old Kyoto, to diving with sharks off the coast of Hawaii. These are experiences that I've always craved desperately. Yet here I am, theoretically living the dream of surfing every day under the hot African sun and immersing myself in a culture so different to my own. This past year leading up to me arriving in Gran Canaria, I've been spending hours lying in my bed at night, dreaming of finally becoming the person I want to be so badly. Tan, strong body, a good surfer and fluent in Spanish. It's finally come true, I've made it here. But I'm not happy.  Before I dive into the ins and outs of my overly dramatic miserable existence, I need to take things back a step to Barcelona 2018. There, I had my first experience of "living the dream". A place far away from home, where everything is new and scorching hot sun for months on end. When I wasn't working during the week, I ...