Travel Portfolio
Lacoste/France Travel Portfolio
Summer 2018, I spent a semester in Lacoste, an endearing little cobbled town in the south of France, perched on a hillside, which wound into the steep valley below. Perched at its peak sat the Château de Lacoste, the former home of Marquis de Sade, writer, philosopher, and whom coined the term, "Sadist,"; the castle cast a shadow which loomed over this unassuming town. Like a family secret, or a picture frame that covers a crack in the wall. The neighbouring towns all bore their own unique magnificence, a deep and sensuous flavour only time and history could simmer into its land and its people. Lacoste was a perfect blend of beauty and melancholy, and left me in a sobering state of wonder and introspection.
Hong Kong Sketchbook
Only after drawing Hong Kong did I begin to appreciate the nuance and vibrancy of the city; a place I had lived in for the majority of my life. Since I had always known the city, I had inevitably taken it for granted. It forced me to look at it from a different perspective, through the dark, dripping alleyways, the silhouette of grime and dust on neon light soaked streets and in the lines on the faces of those who were part of this network and which the network was part of them. An amazing and deeply dystopic metropolis where its stories are etched into the weathered walls of stumpy old buildings boxed in beside one another; the earthy rust and weathered colours on lopsided stalls selling, smaller earthy and weathered trinkets. I developed a new sense of gratitude for the momentary wonder that was Hong Kong, a place that shall never be again.