Interdisciplinary

We were set this blog post to do quite a while ago now and its taken me until yesterday to get my thoughts together about what I wanted to say, I've found it really hard to think about something that really influences me. Before I starting doing illustration as a degree, I would always say that art was my hobby and my passion, while other people are in bands and are really good at running I've never been interested or good at any of those things, not that I haven't tried, its just that I'd never enjoyed doing anything quite like I enjoy making pictures. And that was always fine, until we were set a project in A level or a task like this where we had to talk about something we enjoyed doing and all I could say was "art?". I initially thought I could do something with my love of films, or books, but then thought that was too broad, so eventually I started to look into what kind of things I consume, and whether there was any common link between the books I was reading or the blogs I followed. And I realised that one thing that really drives and interests me is strong women.

My parents divorced when I was 10 and since then I've lived most of the time with my mum, and although its not always been easy and we've not always completely got on, now I'm older I am able to see how hard she worked to keep a roof over our heads, keep us fed and well looked after and most of all happy, even if it meant she had to make sacrifices. She raised and cared for me and my brother, even on a single income and working full time, and still managed to go back to study phycology at the open university. She has made and kept some of the most wonderful friends, and even though its been really hard she has set the best example both in terms of career and personal life for me and my brother to follow. When she had surgery at the start of 2016 I was able to be around to look after her while she recovered and it was during this time together that I was finally able to see all the positive things she has done for us, and the effect they've had on our lives. Leaving home after this was exciting but also made me really miss my mum and her positive influence on my life, I went from spending every day with her to seeing her maybe once every 3 months. However whilst I worked in Leeds on my year out I found a job at a shop in town which employed mostly women where I found a little surrogate family of strong women. Now I live in halls I've since made friends with a whole house of strong women. All of them inspire me in a similar way to my mum, they each have things that have held them back in life but hearing how they've over come this and become stronger has made me feel like I could do that too.

Me and my mum, nan, great nan and auntie

In a similar way to this I can definitely say that I seek to consume books, TV, pod casts and music that are either made by or that focus around strong women, not only is it a home comfort to me, but it makes me feel incredibly hopeful to see how many independent and successful women there are in the public eye and creating amazing things now. Although all of these different things have effected me in various different ways, I think the over-arching influence they've had on my practise in particular is that they've made me see that women's issues are still prevalent today, and that means we still need to discuss them. These woman have used their platforms and some have even created their own, brand new platforms just dedicated to talking about this issue. And that's great but it only takes one glance at some of the awful things in the news or in magazines to see that we still need more of this. One phrase that comes to mind is that "If you can't see it, you can't be it", growing up I was never told I could be a film maker or a pilot, in PE we were actively banned from doing any contact sports, whilst the boys played rugby we did exercise tapes indoors. When I wasn't getting the grade I thought I deserved in art at A level, my teacher told me it was because me and my friends were too pre occupied with having boyfriends and doing other "girly things". I was never told I could be a lot of things, and I often wonder if I had been told, whether I'd be doing something different now. But that's the beauty of having so many female creators now, young girls will be able to see women being successful and know that that is a possibility for them too. So I do want to be a successful illustrator for myself and because its what I'm passionate about, but I also want to use it to show that there still are so many issues out there that effect us, and to make those visible and accessible to more people, and hopefully if a young girl saw what I was doing now, she'd know it was possible for her to do it too.


(Some) of the things I consume around strong women:

Abstract: The Art Of Design- Christoph Niemann

Last night I watched Christoph Niemanns episode of the art of design series on Netflix and I've literally not felt so inspired in so long. The series follows all kinds of creators talking to them about their practise and what they find difficult, or fun etc, and I find it so interesting now that Illustration has become my life too, and I do it and practise it and think about it all day to see what other people that do the same thing think about it. 

Theres this great analogy Christoph uses in the episode when he's talking about the fact that when he first started at art school his teacher used to hate the more hyper-realistic stuff he'd done and favour the more abstract and quick ideas with more life to them. He talks about how confusing this was to him initially but then goes on to say that he can now understand that this was because the quicker illustrations were more about the idea behind them and not showing off with the actual craft which is a good thing. Anyway he talks about how he deals with abstractness in his own practise now, where he imagines this kind of 'Abstract-o-meter'. So when he's trying to communicate the idea of something to and audience there the most realistic representation of it that he could show, that would likely repulse people and would just look too realistic and boring, then theres the too abstract version which is just the bare bones of the thing which wouldn't be immediate or interesting for people to look at and they might not 'get it'. But then somewhere in the middle theres this happy medium, where everything is simplified enough that it doesn't look to fussy, but theres still aesthetic details that make it pleasing to the eye. I'm a person that struggles with abstraction and tends to make everything way more complicated than it has to be, but this little idea made it way easier to understand in my head that this is something that even the best people don't just simply 'do', and maybe when I'm designing in the future, I need to draw something once then see which details I could consider removing and still tell the story effectively. 








He also talks about the fact that when he was 11 years old he taught himself to juggle, which was a good skill to have and he enjoyed doing it but the one element of it that upset him was that there was always one ball in the air at any given time. He compares this to life and his practice in the way that sometimes with his job there is things that are way out of his control that he needs to just get around otherwise he won't make deadline. He also actually goes on to make the point that although its scary not always having complete control, its also necessary because whilst you're not planning this really magical thing can happen and it can totally change the outcome from what you'd usually create. I really like this notion and any reminder I can get to just stop planning and worrying and just let my hands make things is good. I need to actively think this more and I think one thing that will help me in this is by pushing myself to try new things that are out of my comfort zone like working with new materials and processes just to take some of the control out of my hands and see where it takes me.





 


Through the whole episode he is talking about how he's wrestling with this design for the New Yorker cover where it got to show a kind of augmented reality and it should also have some 3D aspect to it, so you hover your phone over the image and it shows you something else. He's really upfront about how he's never done anything like this before and he finds it really challenging to have his work looked at from every angle like that, but he's aware that the audience is always changing so to keep it fresh and to stay employed he must always be evolving his practise. Although I think sometimes its really scary as an illustrator to hear things like this, its also so necessary, because I have to admit I'm a creature of habit, and if I'm not forced to change the way I'm doing things I won't, but I can see that it is something that's going to effect me in my future and an aspect of my career that I'll have to consider. That's why I think at this stage of my education I think its very important that I try to push the boat out as much as I can and not get stuck in any one way of doing things, because not only will that stop being interesting very quickly, it'll make it even more daunting when I then try and change and evolve my practice in years to come to suit the evolving illustration community.











I think it deals with the things that we all think about but don't always verbalise, at the risk of complaining or sounding un-grateful? I know if I talk about how I'm feeling out loud then in my mind, what I'm worrying about becomes more of a problem to me than it ever was before, because now its out there in the universe and I'm not the only one who knows about it. But this episode made me realise that I'm not the only illustrator having these thoughts and whats more, they won't automatically go away when I graduate and go on to get jobs etc. These are things that realistically I'll be dealing with through my whole career and I shouldn't shy away from feeling those things, instead I should confront them and the effect they're having on my work, its kind of my job to think deeply about the way I feel when I make certain things because that can impact on the success or failure of it in a way. On a happier, less deep note I want to end by talking about this quote that really resinated with me from the episode:



AHHHHH this just sums it up really doesn't it? I'm beginning to realise more that in a way theres kind of two sides to illustration practise, in that theres a side of me that is the editor that picks and chooses which best bits of work will be given to the public in commissions and then theres the artist side. The one which will always keep developing new ways of doing things and making and crafting, this side is working more for myself and thinking what makes me happy and what I enjoy doing, but thats not to say that these two sides aren't linked. The careless artist side will be trying her best to make new things in my private sketchbooks that then if they turn out well will be fed into the editor side and put out for other people to see and enjoy, they'll become part of my portfolio. Doesn't mean I can carry on experimenting and changing when I've graduated and go into the real world, just means that maybe deadlines aren't the places to try new things last minute, but its my job to make sure that I carry on playing and experimenting for myself and my practise.

OUT OF ORDER

Today me and Imogen went down to Colours May Vary to see the exhibition of the third years work that was being shown. I didn't realise but the theme of the exhibition was to create something in response to the exhibition title 'Out Of Order', which now really explains a lot of the work that was in there, although it was all beautiful enough to look at without an explanation. I really like the exhibition space that colours may vary has to offer anyway, and that really doesn't change depending on whats in it, as I think the space is really light and cheerful even on a rainy day like today and art is easier to focus on in an environment like that (for me anyway).

The exhibition was only really on three walls, but each piece was framed in identical white, square frames, with the name of the illustrator and and the piece underneath them. This was quite different to what you'd see in perhaps a fine art gallery or modern art, where theres no consistency to any of it, and things are just displayed as-is. I think for someone like myself who lives for organisation and is really thrown off when theres not a clear system to what I'm looking at, exhibitions like this one really please me. You start off knowing who these pieces are all by and why they're here, what they were made in response to etc and that makes the experience all the more pleasurable because you can take all those things into account when appreciating the great art that you're seeing rather that having to spend most of your time decoding what each individual piece means and why it is where it is. 

The other thing that I think made this exhibition quite so special for me was because I guess we are kind of bias, being illustration students. We already had the privilege of knowing that these were all student illustrations, and we are illustrators, so the way the images were composed, and the media were all massively interesting to us because that what we do as well. I think if the exhibition had been structured in the same format but maybe been showing photography or something I would have been able to follow it and appreciate the images, but as this was something that really interests me and is a part of my life too I had the privilege of being able to be absorbed in the making and the process and the composition of the pictures. I could also look at them and see what could relate between their practise and mine, for instance I think the main difference between my current work and their more developed work is their knowledge and experience in putting together an image in the most effective way, in terms of composition and selecting the appropriate media and colours. I know mostly this is something that I will learn in time but it was nice to look at the wide variety of ways it possible to construct a picture and still have it be successful. 

All in all I think this was a very positive gallery experience, I found it very pleasing to be able to focus on everything for such extended periods of time and it was inspiring to be around such brilliant art. In future, although I know its important to consume all different types of art and images, and I will continue to go to other exhibitions of things like fine art and photography, I will make an effort to seek out more illustration specific exhibitions like this one. I think they could really help me if I'm feeling a bit mentally blocked.

I WANT TO MAKE ART THIS GOOD

This was most definitely my favourite image I saw whilst at the exhibition. HOW are people so good at making you feel things in a picture?! I love that its only two colours and I couldn't even guess what materials this was done in but its so effective, it says everything it needs to say without over-embellishing which is something I definitely have still yet to master. Its one of those images where you get a real sense of the situation and the feeling of the image just by looking at it, it almost feels like I'm there and I can smell what those characters can smell and hear their conversation, and really I don't know what makes that so effective, maybe its the moody colours and the viewpoint you have in the image? Its made me remind myself that images don't have to be massively complex to be beautiful.