Today the spaces we have been allocated for the degree show have been announced on the noticeboard. I haven't succeeded in securing the space I ideally wanted, and have spent some time today trying to figure out how I can set up my installation in a room that will require a lot more work…. hmph!
I've collected my sketchbook so I can carry on with my comic book work, and I've been trying to figure out the best option for my webcast, and it's all very slow, and not only that, I had to go to the local gallery to go and watch some performance art by some colleagues, which was all very interesting, but I'd rather hide away and get on with work. I'm avoiding University tomorrow for this reason, that every time I go there, there is some distraction, however I'll have to go out in the afternoon to avoid the disturbances of the gas man.
I went to see my son play in the school band this evening. I rather enjoyed it actually, made a nice change, as I generally don't have a social life anymore….!
I've been keeping a blog on other sites since last semester, which is why I've been able to copy the best bits across on here. There's a lot I obviously haven't included, including a trip to New York to visit the studio of the artist Luca Buvoli, so I hope this new blog makes sense…
I've spent the past couple of days creating a book cover design for a competition on the Stuart site; I was surprised at the low quality of entries on there, and decided to make my own Tracey Emin / Superstudio / Richard Linklater version for this book about a women only book club.
Obviously this counts as Illustration work. If I posted all of my Illustration work on here it would be confusing….
This is the working front cover for the comic book.
An opportunity has arisen for a potential exhibition as a separate body of work, so I've been busy making a proposal for the interest of Magne Furuholmen and Paul Stolper gallery.
I have also submitted some Illustration work for D&AD.
Several pages for the comic book have been created, but are in the process of being adjusted to fit an evolving storyboard. I will upload images when they've been converted to jpegs, but because they're still in the process of editing, they remain as photoshop files which I'm working on. It means that I can't really upload any images of the work in progress. Also, the last tutorial I had has made everything feel completely futile for me right now. I'm on my Easter break. I'm getting work ready for Art Practice And Professional Context submission – more faffing about instead of doing actual work. I got more useful advice speaking to an illustration tutor about the way the comic book will look; currently it looks a lot like a graphic novel. I wouldn't mind, but it needs to look like a comic, so I need to source some appropriate paper to print onto.
I have conducted a mini curatorial project to see how my final show will work. It's not easy considering that I have a lot of work to do for my comic book and I'm still not getting enough time to spend actually making it…
Half my time is spent doing Illustration work, which is continuing the doll aspect of my practice, but it means that if I have to do these curatorial projects then I'm not making the comic, and the comic is the main part of the work. The comic book will become an artist's book of sorts.
In order to accommodate the comic within the installation, I made a frame to display it on, as I'm hoping to print copies for people to take away. I made a mock-up of the two pages I had created at that stage, to form a very rudimentary version.
The glass frame was one I found. I have yet to build a larger scale frame, but health and safety concerns probably mean it won't be a glass one in any case.
I've also been making a proposal for the space for my degree show.
The space I have in mind needs to have internet connection, as I'm planning to have a live webcast of the creation of the show.
Yesterday I dreamed myself alive again….. typical.
Many images are being appropriated to re-create a comic book narrative in this way. Recent images of the band members of A-ha are made to look as if part of the original comic book imagery within the video.
