Carmelite Prize: final entry, + notes on place

• I am pleased with the pacing of the book, that it rolls in waves of big and small. 
• But am aware that the *additional panels* are not a consistent enough presence in the book to run as smoothly as it could 
• The text... I hadn't noticed that all text must be in BLACK, hence adding a *fog* behind some text to make it readable. I'm not so happy with the type all in all, but I am of the understanding that it could be something that could be collaborated on with a designer.

• I'm pleased that the work placed second in the Carmelite Prize!
• Whilst very happy to come second, I wonder if I was hindered by being perhaps, not a very commercial pick. But I think my style is adapted here to be sellable, but I am going to ask the publishers about this in my folio review. You've got to be sensible about... the wild...
• I received a lot of compliments on the textures, and the characters and the variety I pulled from the generic chicken. The most favoured spread was the dancing chickens in the squares. Maybe they just didn't pick up on my earlier qualms, but the thing that was pointed out was that it was quite unique, which I hadn't expected!

George Monbiot, Feral

Again, considering our relationship to the land, I have been reading Monbiot's Feral. Some of it is irrelevant to me (and some quite, self-indulgent perhaps...) but a few themes stuck out. I hadn't written about them before, but reflecting on it, it feels more obvious now.

Mostly the idea of rewilding: not preserving nature but letting it take its own course. This would be aided by humans, giving it the best conditions it would need to do this. This relationship with the environment would be to mostly absent. Maybe we are too keen to interfere, or in feeling that we own it, take too much of a hold. For want of a better analogy, like a pushy parent. 

There was also a concept that I had forgotten the name of, but was about how our baseline understanding of the environment keeps changing. We believe that the landscape of our childhoods (or even prior)  must be the natural untouched one, but its history goes much further than this. For example, I had no idea that moorland is completely unnatural. So this relationship is nostalgia, but also confusion.

Finally, a quote from J.G. Ballard mentioned in the book. "The suburbs dream of violence". Again, an idea I'd had a while back, thinking about engaging with the country as pure ideology, or ambition with no *real* intention. Planned adventure, organised discovery. I'm not sure how to express this in a way that doesn't sound snobbier than I'm thinking it, or proposing that I am any different. 

FMP

Time is passing and, as followed by my earlier notes, I think it makes sense to spend less time on ideas and more actual making. This isn't to necessarily dull down the project, but to not try and do the whole thing when there's only four weeks left.

The overall / before rough concept:

• A reflection of our relationship with the British landscape and what may lead people within it to eccentric and/or hermetic lifestyles.

Now, as an introduction to this project, I am proposing to create a series of images based on, perhaps, a more shallow observation of who interacts with the landscape with a less of a "why".  That isn't to say that the images would be unthoughtful.

The application -> ?

• series of paintings, or drawings
• (it's a body of visual research)

• an accompanying text?

• exhibition proposal?
• proposed/ made publication?
• to be made into a series of prints?

I'm sure more could be made/ thought of it, but I don't want to apply unnecessarily when this is a project largely done for my own personal gain. Less considering, more doing (right now).

Some imagery I've made so far (prior to these notes), with a focus on image making, and the study of natural surroundings.

I don't feel that I have been slacking, but I am in a position where little work has been done in response to the "FMP". Rather, I did other big projects and as the FMP is a personal project, I let it go to the side.

I don't see this project as something that will be completed any time soon and I don't want it to be. I see the time I have from now until the module end as a time to begin it, with some sort of intermediate "piece" that would serve to fit module ideals. This could be extended before the graduate show, and would be taken on even further in the future.

This isn't just an excuse for someone with not much time left, but as has been discussed in the studio- this is an opportunity to make something, a beginning, that will sustain us beyond graduation and stop us.... sinking uninspired into the post-grad cesspool. Ideally I WOULD have had a lot of work done by now, but I don't.

Carmelite: final paintings continued

This is my favourite of the spreads I have done. It's not particularly revolutionary in composition, but I am pleased with the movement within the chickens, and their personalities. I've been worried that I won't be able to make them expressive, or have a wide range of different looking chickens, but I really pushed these, and am glad I did so. 

This spread came about when I made a similar version, the "right" way round, but I'm sure I've drawn that composition so many times before. An off-hand comment on just "turning my work upside down" made me literally do that, and I am pleased. It's fun.

I had been struggling with the character of Freddy- how to make him fun, wild and full of expression when in real life a chick is... quite a basic form. This was a problem I had with the hens, but moreso with the simplicity of a chick. Even more than usual, I ignored any rules of *real* reference. Hopefully to good effect.

This is the final of my four completed spreads. It is the one I'm least sure of but has received the most positive attention. Again I'm pleased to have created such variety and expression, but do think that it is technically less admirable than the others... it's less sharp.  Due to technical issues I had to make this painting smaller than scale unlike the others, which I think lead to this. 

brief in a day, Stratford Literary Festival

For a laugh (and also because I didn't realise the deadline was so close) I made an entry for the Stratford Literary Festival's competition to design their anthology book cover in a day.

The brief was fairly open, the theme just being "Sharing Stories". Considering the audience, I just wanted to make something simple (nothing too arty or wild). Later on it was brought to my attention that if I had added colour (digitally) to enhance the painting it would make it a little easier to read as an image. I'm also not keen on the texture of the paper still being visible but not consistent within the entire image, and am ashamed to yet again just do what is kind of a rip off of classic Penguin. I need a new, clean simple format that is my own. Regardless, I think the image is sensibly sweet. Some have described it as a little too weird or creepy eyes, but I did want an element of my usual visuals in there.

Still, I like the image in its basic sense, and might re-work it for something, or touch up this design so I can slide it into my portfolio.

This work did not place.

promotional print

This print needed to cater to a lot of different people, whilst also being decorative enough to potentially hung on a studio wall (ah). I also intended to sell it too, so that was also directive to making something gentle, aesthetically.

I took two things quite tied into my practice:

(Tigers, and wild figured dancers)

To make an image that was cute, but not so silly it wouldn't be too wild to imagine in an editorial  or publishing context. The fantasy of it bodes well for children's illustration too. The text directly lends itself to my 1000 Tigers project of my dissertation. There is hope that a bizarre enough saying would intrigue the viewer to look into my other work, and see the correlation with this project.