I'm a bit lost as to what to do for the visual/design component of my dissertation. This is a battery hen from a factory farm which I have given a human head. I was thinking about how the themes in Aristophanes' Birds and Orwell's Animal Farm are somewhat similar. I thought I could take these literary/allegorical examples of anthropomorphism and put them in a modern context, with modern factory farm animals as characters. You can't really set Birds or Animal Farm in a modern commercial farm, but I guess that would sort of be the point, that we value animals as symbols and enjoy them when we want them around, but when we don't, it's out of sight, out of mind. And the plots in both Animal Farm & Birds: Both are about (but then not really about) animals gaining agency and power despite humans. So it could be that the very ridiculous juxtaposition of such a story within a modern setting could be quite confronting. I don't know. That is just one idea. However my dissertaion also talks about awareness, and these sorts of references would not perhaps have the effect of making people very aware of anything. Although the point may come across anyway if the subject matter is largely factory farming, with a few subtle references to tie it into my main point about the animal-human relationship. There is also the issue of creating something which comes across as too cliche, too preachy, 'too animal rights', when my message is really not about politics so much as ideas about animals. That is a fine line to walk. I found some really interesting essays about such issues here: Antennae Magazine I used this as a reference in my written work but I've been going over it again now as I try to think of WHAT TO DO (??!?!?!) for the visual component. I need to decide quite soon, as the deadline is fast approaching and I don't have a lot of time or access to resources to work on it. This is really stressing me out!!

anthropomorphisms

by Tim Rollins & K.O.S.

just sticking this here

so i don't forget.

by Marlene Dumas

city farm

Today I visited Stepney City Farm to see about volunteering. It's such a colourful, friendly place to spend a summer afternoon. The animals were lovely of course!

I think I will be getting a lot of insight into the sustainable farming/locally sourced movement, which is relavant to my dissertation topic. For one, I learned a bit about beekeeping today. I didn't think it was possible to get this close to a bee's nest without any sort of protection. These are wild bees that were found at Stepney Green park. The volunteer who explained the beekeeping to me was a linguist. They are keeping them here at the farm without using any invasive beekeeping techniques, because that messes up the bee's communication about where to find pollen. I got to get up close and see them dancing, carrying pollen pouches, and also some young bees just hatching. One thing I didn't know was that they actually clean or groom each other. How sweet. The hive was really beautiful, perfectly shaped little compartments.

The Bee Sanctuary is appropriately nestled within these crumbling church walls.

Apparently the very cold, wet weather earlier this summer has had a pretty disastrous effect on the bee population. (I love that there is such a thing as the 'National Bee Unit').

These last three pictures make me laugh. I wonder what Derridawould think about this animal gaze. They look really inquisitive, don't they?

I took a lot more pictures, and will definitely post more on the farm as I go- I'm going to have my volunteering induction next Sunday, bright and early at 9am!

BANKSY ATTACKS LOCAL POUND SHOP

Walking home from Turnpike Lane Station, on the side of a pound shop, is Banksy's comment on... Jubilee Celebration Consumerism? I would laugh if he actually went into the shop, bought the bunting, only to nail it on the side of the building. The shops on this road were really devastated by the riots, I wonder if that's why he chose to come out here?

source.

Illustration Show

Mark your calendars, folks!

These are things I am 'into' recently.

folk art is nice!
from the art found out blog:

And Galliformes are also nice:

inkytips updates

i now have my portfolio on cargo collective!
Alana Kerr Illustration

I edited the CSS of the layout a little bit; in the process I tried out Google Web Fonts for the first time. It's easy to use, free, and a lot of fun.
Google Web Fonts

Grimm's fairy tales cover

i think i am not done. wallpaper in the background, instead of solid red? will that look too busy?

In 'One Flew Over.." Research...

Celilo Falls

Heartbreaking, the real story that inspired Kesey to write Bromden's.

i need to stop researching and actually draw this now...

grimm's fairy tales work-in-progress

the one with the bear has an ink smudge. i wanted to die when that happened. but then i remembered that Photoshop exists. what did Aubrey Beardsley do when his ink smudged?

the idea is that these will be framed pictures hanging on a wallpapered wall, which will be the cover for the book. the frames for the brothers will have their names on them, since the brief requires the cover to say 'by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.' so there will be lettering involved.

this is for the Penguin & Puffin book cover competition. I am also doing the other brief for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and it's one of my favourite books. Ironically, that is making it very frustrating for me. I don't know how many different versions I've come up with, how many times I've scrapped one idea to try another and realise it looks like crap. I now have a vague idea of what I think I will end up doing, something that will represent the many layers of the story. I know it's probably not a good idea to cram too much into a book cover. but when the text is precious to you, it's hard not to want to! it's such a good book, that can be read in so many different ways...so my tutor says i seem to be taking a different 'intellectual' approach. i found that flattering. cool word, intellectual. but it's been kinda painful trying to get it right. i think i mentioned earlier that the Lucian Freud archive exhibition was inspiring. keeping motivated is important. the past week I've just put it on the back burner, though, and have just been fooling around with these Grimm drawings, which is just fun because I'm not emotionally invested in making it PERFECT.

I need to realise that i'm never going to think it's perfect. I just need to do the best I can. that's all you can do, that's what you can be proud of.


the deadline for these book covers is 19th April. a couple weeks left. i work way too slowly. seriously. i like detail. but mostly i just tend to stop and think and look at what i'm doing a lot. the coffee/tea/cigarette/toilet breaks ever hour don't help either. if only i could be a disembodied mind with only extendable arms to draw with.

right. okay.

pick me up

this was certainly worth the ticket price. there were a couple illustrations i was really enthralled with. there were also the usual really 'trendy'-looking things.

i loved these polish-design-inspired screenprint posters by Zeloot:

And Riikka Sormunen's personal illustrations of lounging girls:



So, my dissertation topic is Anthropomorphism. it's not hard to find that in illustration today. there was a lot of it there. i'm definitely going to be posting more on THAT in the future.

now i have to finish drawing this fox with nine tails.

lucian freud's drawings & archive exhibition

I went to these exhibitions today, both held at different sites of a gallery called Blain|Southern (that line between the name is, apparently, essential) near Oxford Circus.

It's funny, walking around that area, looking at the very very expensive garments in the windows dressed with such good taste, the men rushing by in grey suits, the impeccably ornamented woman, and you're wearing cut-off denim shorts you got on ebay for 0.99p.

but that's far from the point of this post.

first i saw the drawings, in the little gallery next to Berkley Square, where you have to ring the bell to get in. I was afraid I'd come to the wrong address and cursed google maps...but then i noticed the tiny plaque above the door bell.

the very first drawing you see was done by a very young Lucian.



...it's followed by ink line drawings of boys and very detailed town & landscapes that i really liked.

particularly interesting to see his progression, and how he still retained this sensibility for high detail and revealing portraiture throughout.

I then walked to the Dering St. site, where the archives were. Looking at his illustrations and book covers was enlightening, as well as learning about his influences (early in life, Van Gogh and Aubrey Beardsley...just like me!).

Some of his stippled and cross-hatched ink drawings reminded me of the book cover illustrations I am working on now. I also admired his use of lettering...I was already thinking of doing it but made a mental note that I really should try that out instead of boring typography in InDesign.

It was the best exhibition I've been to in a while, especially because it was almost creepily relevant to thoughts I've been thinking about illustration and things I've been experimenting with.

Hopefully tomorrow or the next day I can post some work-in-progress things. I'm planning on going to another gallery tomorrow since I'll be in South London and then I'm going with some friends and fellow classmates to the Graphic Arts fair on Wednesday at Somerset House. Keeping busy this Spring Break...

what kind of blog is this?

this is my work-in-progress illustration and inspiration blog. it's not where i post lovely, finished masterpieces or anything. here is where i will record my frustrations and triumphs (i hope there will be triumphs) and also intriguing things which other creators have made.

and isn't it wonderful when you've been scratching pencils on paper and wasting ink, hate everything that comes out, then you draw something, and there it is, something you actually like? the creative process is so weird. i mean, it's always portrayed as this mysterious almost magical thing when an artist creates a masterpiece. and so what hope does a girl like myself have to create something people want to look at?

it's also scary, going into illustration. at least i think so. i worry a lot about the future. i will not graduate into a secure cubicle job, that's for sure (to be fair, not many people do these days). to make a living from illustrating now, you have to be really good. REALLY GOOD. you have to have an identity and a voice, be recognisable. some would say you have to have a 'style'.

i know i have something to say but i don't know exactly what it is, and i'm not sure how to say it.

so here i document these minuscule explorations...