Portfolio thoughts

I've been having some difficulty getting to terms with my course recently (and I suppose this whole year to some extent.) I've always battled with the concept of trying to work out 'what I want to do', since my foundation shook up my life. So in this regard I do regret not seeking a degree which would take me more directly into a field that would be more focused. But at the same time the beauty of my course is you can really do anything you want. So I do admit to being swept up by the bigger picture (3rd year is approaching!) and not spending as much time as I might have done just having fun with it all. Which I vow to do with this next project

Rant over, here's a picture!

This image has inspired me to write these thoughts all down (thoughts that have been stressing me out all week). I really like the menu layout of this guy's website, I could have a similar one (plus a section for writing.) I believe this person did a degree that I would liked to have done, as it values the conceptual and multi-disciplinary side to design - which is me (as I have identified a little two late.) Despite this, I believe I can fill all these categories with high quality, conceptual, developed design work. Which I really need to get on top of, hopefully next week. 

As long as I'm constantly making good stuff - I agree this second year has been good for sampling - but I just have not suceeded in high quality final pieces. Which, ultimately, I need for a portfolio, to demonstrate what I have learnt (a lot of which through mistakes.) 

I feel confident if I go back and reaccess these projects - editing, remaking and re-photographing elements, then they will be suitable for my (currently underconstruction) online portfolio. 

A Sunday in Edinburgh

Wondering through the nice bit of town to get to Stockbridge Market, still slightly dreaming. Warming up in an oak floored with a brunch of toasted banana bread and a flat white. Wondering through the Sunday market, with farmers, butchers and bakers selling their wares. Taking a scenic walk along the waters of leith, getting a little lost as the mud scuffs build up on my shoes. 

Wondering through Modern art galleries in the early afternoon to escape the rain, losing my gaze in constructivist and surrealist masterpieces. Finally winding down with a pint in pub and losing track of time on Rose Street

And finally a lovely BYOB dinner with my best Edinburgh-living lass!

Loud Poets - Spoken word night

"People don't have beginnings and ends"

We are not stories. We are narrators.

When the Party Poppers come out...

In the same way live music and live comedy just can't be compared to packaged stuff, live spoken work is an amazing thing to experience. There is an electric energy to the air, which explodes and flickers, changing with the velocitiy of the words being spoken.

Loud poets (who were celebrating their birthday this night) are apparently one of the best of their kind around (from someone I met in the crowd.) I wouldn't be surprised, each speaker was really good, with a range of ages and styles. Some were crazy, some hilarious, some dramatic. What they all shared was the ability to capture the audience and make them think. 

As opposed to a book or a film, the beauty of spoken word is that it can get straight to the point. Fact or fiction. Story or song. This medium celebrates the beauty of language, spoken and performed. Atmospheres are created through emotion, movement and music. It's seriously entertaining, though in quite a hard-hitting way, leaving an impression even with quite minimal engagement. Relax, listen and think. 

I definitely want to visit more, and I was recommended Spoken in London, and I've seen some pop up around Nottingham briefly, so I'll keep look out. I'd love to try it, but even if I don't manage that the thought of incorporating elements into video work is exciting. All I know for sure is that this is an art and a craft (and form of design?) that I'm a big fan of. 

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery

'History'

I was originally drawn to go to this gallery because of it's heavily advertised and rather disappointingly small exhibition considering changing attitudes to female body shape within art and design. I feel this could have been further pushed, however It was a collaborative show with the arts collage here so there is merit to be had there.

Lace jackets demonstrating changing size of women 

Still, silver linings. I very much benefitted from visiting the 'Ponte City' exhibit, an installation presenting two artists study into a socially and structurally troubled high-rise housing complex in Johannesburg.

Here are some notes I made touring (for personal recollection) 

Ponte city - recording location one place

Repeated views

Many windows

Many lift encounters

The beauty in repetition - studying people

Presentation thought - long table of books like zines - images words. One big box with picture of skyrise. Layers of paper like the layers of floors

'Visual essays'

Use of photography as powerful medium

I really enjoyed the spatial presence of this exhibit, bits of photographs and collage were strewn across the room. It wasn't like each item was separate, they all merged into one, meaning their presence was greater. The one tying elegant example of coherent structure came in the form of the series of visual essays (each an A5 booklet, placed  in sequence out on a long white table). I feel the presence of these well formatted items enhanced the fine art surrounding it, and vice versa. It all brought the focus back to the fact that this is an important social study, whether conducted by sociologist  or artist. 

Also lunch was very satisfying, and the neo-gothic building is a beautiful thing (as most Edinburgh buildings seem to be!). 

A Literary (themed) Review

Through a series of impulse decisions and happy accidents (few lines to draw between), I have been exposed to a lot of interesting examples of 'book' based art. I use the term book loosely - more thinking printed on paper. I also feel terminology like this may suggest graphic design - but I'm also referring to the medium of the written word and of language as an art form. 

I attended a lecture by Ami Clarke, who sees herself as a facilitator and a self confessed fanatic of all things published (she pointed out her favourite examples of kinds of paper). Graphic style zines are a form of communication, and also a curation. They are very attractive objects - though I found it interesting to think about what Clarke does. She sees the potential in the immediate appeal and also the content, and she uses her skill to communicate this through to the consumer (via Hackney Downs railway station.) 

During the lecture Clarke showed us a range of other works, her own and of contemporaries. I loved her knowledge and her passion, and everything she showed fuelled my interest in words with image.

So, to Edinburgh, very much a literary city. I step off the train to find an 'Artists Book Fair' at the FruitMarket Gallery. I was a bit confused initially, but I realised that it was a celebration of written work, graphic print, paper craft and related illustration. 

Image and text will always go hand in hand in my work, a story or symbolism to give the image a deeper meaning. This is what interests me in cartography (see previous post), so I absolutely fell in love with the 'Write around Town' map series by Shaun Levin.

Image, text, map, instructions, illustration. I think it's a really fun and practical idea. At £3 each they're a good gift, and make a profit, demonstrating how print is a no-brainer (once you've got a good design.)

After this, I went via the library (great drawing venues - providing they don't mind you using pens and scissors) and spotted upon some beautifully illustrated travel writing books. That is essentially what my sketchbook is - providing I can recount my experiences more in prose than poem.

(View from a Library window)

 

Though I don't intend on writing instruction manuals, there's a good idea in here. The 'Draw around town' series? Maybe not. Though I definitely intend on using these maps - and really thinking about how I write. That's one thing I can do to push me out of the highly saturated graphic design market - I make art. I just know how to communicate it too. 

Mapping the City - Exhibition Review

Mapping the city - alternative cartographic representations by artists of their cities. - Somerst House

Barcelona, 2013, Sixe Paredes

I knew I had to see this exhibition as my drawing often gets described as looking 'map like'. It's the relationship with a location, reliance on symbols and scale that interests me. Also the idea of mapping something 'unmappable'.

Alessandria by day, 2014, 108

The exhibition, featuring 50 different artists, showed a wide variety of interpretations. Some spoke to me, others didn't. The similarities struck with street art and graffetti was most likely the cause of this, it's easy to deem something garish. However it's this youthful edge and approach which re-ignited my interest in cartography, just from even seeing the poster for the show.

Interburden, 2014, Boris Tellegen

The few pictured here were some of my favourites (also circled the name Chu, Buenos Aires Caos and Shantell Martin's bicycle accidents series - for personal future reference.) I feel there is a simplicity to their abstraction. No use of words, obvious landmarks or even architecture. Yet each hold much information and are beautiful things to look at.

Beautiful and Interesting. The perfect nothing. 

Stratford Upon Avon - in composition and colour

Candy Colour

Shameless Sunlight

Winter Walks