Foundation One Gallery, an art space in Atlanta, Georgia, is hosting a show and auction in aid of the Swift Cantrell Skatepark fund.

The online auction is open now until 7th December and the show opens with a reception on 8th December. The exhibits are 53 painted boards by well known US artists including Mike Giant, Alex Pardee, Shepard Fairey, Dalek, Faile, Paul Frank and Tim Biskup. You can preview the artwork HERE.

UK artist Lee Basford sent me a copy of a little book he had produced for a recent show of his in Japan. It's entitled 'Breathing Out/Breathing In' and is a top quality little item showcasing his fine work. He asked me to send him an 'X' for one of the pages in the book - he asked 30 people to contribute and ended up with 166 'X's. Mine is one of the red ones. To find out more and to see better pictures from the book check out his website/blog: www.meisai.ne.nu

I've been busy making silly Christmas cards for people. I think it's much nicer to make your own cards/presents/wrapping paper etc wherever possible, although I'm struggling to get it all done. Here are some of my efforts using cut out paper, felt and wobbly eyes:

Artist Kev Grey has a new exhibition entitled 'Rockin Bones' opening next week at The Old Shoreditch in London, and it's his first solo show in the capital. The opening reception is on the 20th of December at 7pm.

Every year a place near me called Spetchley Park Gardens in Worcester, holds an annual Illuminated Trail. The park and gardens date back to the 17th Century and there's a big posh Georgian mansion in the grounds which include a lake and various walled gardens and lots of big old trees. They put on an illuminated trail a few weeks before Christmas which involves lighting up trees and plants and having a trek through the gardens in the cold and dark. Click more info to see the rest of my pics.

Usugrow is a super talented artist from Tokyo. I've been a fan of his work for a while and his text is particularly impressive - how he fuses a japanese script style with english. We purchased this - his recent board graphic for Real Skateboards. It's a limited edition of 500. It's a great way of collecting affordable artwork by artists that would usually be outside your price range. In the new year I'll post up the full extent of our board collection as there's a coupla beauties in there.

Well I've been busy making things and wrapping presents and buying food. Despite trying to have the least horridly commercial Christmas possible we still ended up getting sucked into the craziness. I did find time to make some vegan mince pies and have made preparations for a vegan trifle for boxing day, which I'm mildly excited about. Merry christmas...

So.. it's all over for another year, phew. I had a nice one though. We had a delicious veggie roast up with a fake meat 'celebration roast' consisting of fake turkey and veggie sausages wrapped in veggie 'rashers'. Not so keen on those, but the fake turkey was very nice. Last year we had curry. Why is it food always looks gross in photos?

This was my christmas masterpiece: a vegan trifle. I haven't had a trifle for years due to the gelatin in the jelly, the milk in the custard and the cream. But just substitute for vegan jelly and soy products and voila! Click more info to see photos of its creation!